Arriving in Vincennes

April 15-17 - As we drove through these rural communities, Joe started talking a poll on men vs. women driving the riding lawn mowers.  He thought there were more women than men, and now he is inspired to go home and plant some grass just so I can mow it.

We drove into Carmi, Illinois for dinner tonight.  As we came back into the campground, we saw 4 white-tail deer just inside our campground entrance.  It rained during the night, and Joe had to get his chicken suit out to hook us up to get on the road, while raindrops fell on our clean windshield.  He called Collins and asked if he was Flood Control, and would he please control the flood.  (Collins and Marilyn arrived at Lucille's on Thursday). 








We got on the road about 9:15, with 67 miles to go to Lucille's house.  We crossed the White River, which was out of its banks, and the lowlands were flooded as well, not unusual for Indiana this time of year.

We got home about 11:00 a.m., and Collins was busy working on Lucille's screen door, which had gotten damaged last week in the wind.  Joe had intended that Collins have all the chores here done before we arrived, and he considered driving on past and maybe circling for a while, but instead he pulled into the driveway.

Shortly after our arrival, the rest of the family started showing up.  Lori pulled up, then Jim showed up with Joy and Rachel whom he had picked up at the Indianapolis airport.  Cathy got here around then too, I can't remember the order of the arrivals.  Angie and Tim, with Alivia, Xavier and Sonia, came in, Fred and Judy came out, and Mike stopped by with Mallory, on the way home from pre-school.  The house continued to fill, then everyone spilled out to our motorhome.  Lucille had fallen asleep in her chair, and when she woke up, she called Fred (who was in the motorhome with us) to see where everyone was, so we all moved back into the house.  We enjoyed Bobe's pizza for dinner -- a treat we all look forward to when we come home.

I told Paul I needed some consulting time with him, so Saturday morning he and I went out to the motorhome for a private lesson on blogging and posting pictures, etc., working on some of the problems I have encountered.

 But we didn't have any privacy for long -- we got up to 14 people in the motorhome at one point.

Here's Fred, trying to solve world problems.

And Paul, sharing a seat with daughter Hannah.

Then David stopped by with a couple friends.  He thought maybe he would take our motorhome to the Indy 500 next month, but Joe told him we had to leave Indiana before then.










Dixie put the kids in charge of decorating, and we started getting ready for the big 95th birthday party.  I think Angie has already posted some pictures on Facebook, but here's some we took.

Here's Natalie, Lucille, Alivie, and Hannah, with Sonia the short one in front.















Of course, there's birthday cake!

Here's the first generation of children, with Tommy filling in for his dad.












Then the spouses got included.

Here's Jaclyn's youngest, Adalyn, enchanted by a balloon.

And lots of people, scattered throughout.  (We were glad to have our own bed in the motorhome.)  Probably somewhere between 60-75 people came through, and it was "limited" to immediate family, which included lots of cousins, nieces and nephews.

Marilyn Stuckey was a surprise visitor from Virginia, and Jan from Michigan.  It was great for us to get to see all of these relatives whom we haven't seen in years and years, and it was truly special for Lucille to have so much love showered on her by her extended family.  She is definitely the head of this family.