Fort Smith, AR and Rock Island, OK

Well, it's been a busy 2 weeks since my last post! The doctors released Mom from the rehab hospital to go to Assisted Living on Thursday, September 25, so we spent the first week we were here running from our Rock Island pad to the hospital in Fort Smith--plus checking out all the assisted living places and trying to convince her to move into one. She insisted that she wanted to go home for a few days first, so we agreed to stay with her over the weekend and get furniture, clothes, etc. to the new place and she could move on Monday.

All went well (except for some major head-butting over a few things that she didn't agree with us about!) and she's now settled in her new place and seems to be (reluctlantly) accepting it.

We still have her dog but she has a VERY small grassy area outside her apartment so as soon as Roger and his brother Rick can get a fence built, Rusty will be going to live with her again. YAY! Hoping it works out because we decided long ago that a dog simply doesn't fit into our lifestyle anymore--we enjoy our freedom to come and go and stay away as long as we want without worrying about a pet. Here's Rusty on our driveway:

During the few hours we've had at the pad we got the gazebo replaced that had been damaged by the past winter's snow and a falling tree. We also laid a stone and brick patio over the previous pea gravel as a floor to the gazebo. It looks better now, but I don't think we'll be putting any stone masons out of business!
If any of you were following the Travels of Joe Penguin and Marty Moose, they've now ended their trip at the home of our grandsons, Matthew:
and Timothy:
We're planning a getaway to Branson, MO, for a few days next weekend so maybe we'll find something interesting to post about there. In the meantime, our travels will be limited to just going back and forth to town so don't expect any updates until then.