Vincennes

Thursday, April 21 - This blog will try to catch up from Monday morning's blog.  Sunday, families started leaving, and by Tuesday afternoon, all that was left at home was Joe, Lucille and me.  We haven't been on our own here for several years, so we will see if we can keep Lucille in line. 

Natalie and Hannah are both very athletic, and they entertained us with a gymnastic routine Monday afternoon.  Hannah is a diver (formerly a gymnast), and Natalie still does gymnastics.  Here's Natalie perched on the sink watching the nightly entertainment (euchre game).

Paul left on Monday, taking his air card with him, so we no longer had an internet connection.  It was great getting to see him again, and he generously spent some of his time consulting with me on computer and blog stuff.


Monday for lunch we got to have our first breaded pork tenderloin -- one of the treats we look forward to when we come home (yes, it is served with mustard, dill pickles and onion).

After lunch, we took Collins and Marilyn on a drive through our past.  First we drove through Joe's history (Decker), with Joe narrating the tour of different houses and "old home places," including a drive past Decker High School (where we met).  Then we crossed the highway and drove through my old stomping grounds, Decker Chapel, otherwise known as the "neck," or the "boondocks," where the Wabash and White Rivers meet.  We stopped by the farm of my old school bus buddy, Mike Carter, who happened to be outside, and visited with him a few minutes, then we went on to Claypool, an old fishing spot that used to have rental cabins, boat rental (row boats) and a bait shop when I lived here, which was when I was in the 5th and 6th grades, and it's one of my fondest memories of growing up, including having to be taken out to the levy in a boat by my dad when the river was flooded, which in turn flooded Claypool.  It's now a Wildlife Habitat, posted for no trespassing, and so we didn't go past the signs this year (unlike other years when we have ignored those signs, knowing they didn't apply to "me").  This is my image of "peace and quiet."

We continued past the six different places I had lived (only one house still stands), then drove the river road all the way around, which must be about 30 miles.
The trees in the middle of this picture is where one of my houses was (they have since torn that house down, and there is a new house across the road).  This picture was taken from Claypool Pond, and after we moved to this house, I used to walk over to Claypool after school quite often.

 We found some interesting spots along the river, including something that looked like a place barges might have tied up, but none of us ever remembered anything about barges this far up on the Wabash River, and the trees growing in the middle of this space must have been more than 40 years old.  We did see some wildlife -- a turtle in a flooded ditch, and 6 whitetail deer running across a field.   Lucille and Fred did not go on this ride with us, but they both have expressed interest in this trip -- they had never seen where the rivers met, so we will probably take this drive again in the next few days. 

Dixie and Jim took Hannah and Natalie with them when they left on Tuesday, to meet up with Becky's mother in Michigan on Wednesday.  Cathy took Joy and Rachel to the airport to catch their Tuesday afternoon flight.

Collins and Joe finished installing the new storm door on Sunday.  Here's the finished project.

Marilyn and Collins replaced a curtain rod on Monday morning also, but I didn't get a picture of that project.  They said their goodbyes Tuesday morning and headed to New Castle, to see their granddaughter and meet her fiancee for the first time.  Our campground is losing half of its occupants.

I walked out to burn the trash before dark and came upon a turtle, so my wildlife quest continues. Joe tried to pick it up, but it showed how quickly it could snap at him, so he dropped it.  We don't think it was a snapping turtle, but it sure didn't like the attention he was giving it.

Tuesday night, Indiana did its normal spring event -- tornado warnings, which is one of my two greatest fears (the other one being the dentist). Storms started early in the evening a little farther north (Terre Haute area), but we got our turn around 11:00 p.m.  The electricity went off 2-3 times, but only for maybe a half-hour total.  We had really strong winds, sometimes sounding like a train (which they say is what a tornado sounds like).  But we are only maybe 1/4 mile from the railroad track, and you are not supposed to be near the windows, so I was never sure if we were having a tornado or a train was going by (every thunderstorm back here is a potential tornado in my mind).  We survived, with only minor damage (three plastic lawn chairs blew into the yard, all three breaking, and a couple of tree limbs down), but there was a lot more damage about 1 mile south of us, and 18 power line poles went down in the swath that cut through here.  I never have heard that it was a confirmed tornado, but I think it must have been.  We stayed in the house until the storm passed, about midnight, then went outside to survey any damage.  A neighbor stopped by to check on Lucille, and then Mike drove up to check on us.  It was after 1:00 a.m. when we finally went out to the RV and got to bed. Carmi, Illinois, where we stayed our last night on the road, had a tornado touch down so this was a pretty severe storm.

Wednesday was a much better day, but it was cooler with a high of only 50.  Thunderstorms are forecast for the next 4 days, so we are going to have to be on the alert again.  I told the family that we are going to start celebrating Lucille's birthday in September instead of April, hoping for better weather!

This morning, we heard from our friends Jeff and Brenda that his mother passed away during the night, and we send our deepest sympathies out to them.  We count our blessings daily that Lucille is in pretty good health at age 95, and this family knows how fortunate we are to still have her in our lives.  We hope we have many more years to enjoy her presence!

Now I'm off to town to the library to see if I can get this posted.  It will probably be another few days before I have the opportunity to post again.

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.

From Missouri to Illinois

Thursday, April 14 - After our 241-mile day yesterday, we are definitely getting closer to Indiana. Joe cleaned off the windshield again, We fueled this morning and were on the road about 9:10, after our Walmart night, which was ok.

After about 20 minutes of driving, Joe screamed as the first bug hit his side of the windsheild (about gave me a heart attack).  (He probably was getting me back from the laptop falling out of the cabinet above his head yesterday while he was driving and hitting him on the arm.  )

This was our animal day -- not wildlife much, but domesticated animals.  Within the first half-hour, we saw llamas, horses, burros, sheep, cattle, another turkey, and a little turtle crossing the road.  Our road was "straight, but lumpy," in Joe's words, but it soon became more crooked.  I saw several lilac bushes in bloom today, so I'm thinking Lucille's should be blooming for me when we arrive tomorrow.  I haven't asked her, but I'm hoping.  We passed a school named "Couch School," and I remarked that I didn't know you had to go to school to learn how to sit on the couch all day.  But I saw on the map there is a town nearby named Couch.  Then the second suicidal tu rtle crossed the road.  These turtles were only about 2 inches round, and this one pulled his head in as we passed.  I don't think that's going to be sufficient to keep him safe.  We drove through the Mark Twain National Forest and some other national forests, and saw a field of bighorn sheep, an unexpected sighting.  Later on today, we saw a field of Belgium (or some kind of draft) horses, squirrels, geese, and a roadrunner (I didn't know they had these in Missouri).  We really enjoy traveling these backroads,especially when we own the road -- not another vehicle in sight for miles.

We saw a paddle on the other lane, and Joe looked ahead and saw a pick-up with a kayak in the back.  He said, "now, there goes a man who is going to be up the creek without a paddle."  We finally caught up with him at a stop sign about 5 miles down the road, so Joe kept honking until he rolled his window down, and Joe told him his bad news.  He didn't even question it, he made a u-turn at the light and went back.  We hope it hadn't been run over by the time he got back there.

We crossed the mighty Mississippi River about noon.


There was a lot of flood water in these bottomlands, although the river looked like it was within its banks.

They were working on the bridges on the Illinois side of the river, and they had us down to one very skinny lane.  I was glad I wasn't driving!

(See the bugs on the windshield)
We stopped for lunch at a wide spot in the road, where an old gas station had closed.  We had passed a Menonite church a ways back, and across the road from our lunch stop was a caution sign to watch for horses and buggies.  We only saw the sign, just like all those deer crossing signs when we never see any deer.


We ended our day at Burrell City Park campground in Carmi, Illinois, about 60 miles from Lucille's.  We need to go in with empty tanks so we opted to spend one more night on the road (hoping Collins and Marilyn will have Lucille's to-do list taken care of by the time we arrive tomorrow).  Joe has accused Collins of taking the premier parking spot at Lucille's, so we'll have to deal with that issue when we arrive.   This is another really pretty campground, very quiet, lots of room, and greening up for spring.  We got out the lawn chairs and enjoyed the peace for a few minutes.

The dogwood trees are in bloom in this part of the country, as well as the redbud (I think they are called).  This park had some beautiful dogwood trees.

Then Joe decided we should try to wash the bugs off the front of the RV, so back to work we went.  Unfortunately, Joe sprayed his lawn chair with the hose when he was washing the window, so that was the end of our nice resting spot.  We did move to the picnic table though, so all was not lost.  Anyway, he ended his day about the way it began -- trying to clean the windshield.

I probably won't write much on the blog for the next couple of weeks.  We won't be traveling, and unless we can convince Lucille to put in wifi, I have to go to town to either McDonalds or the library, so I'll just have to see how it goes.  We have the birthday party on Saturday, so that will surely need reported on.

Lake Catherine to Missouri

Tuesday/Wednesday, April 12-13 - We drove out by the Tyler Fittings plant this morning.  It is huge, probably stretches more than 1/2 mile.  Eric said the main headquarters has moved to Alabama, but this is still certainly a sizable operation.

By the time we got on the road, it was 10:45.  We took 271 from Tyler to Mt. Pleasant, then decided to take the interstate (I-30) into Texarkana, since there were not any direct routes.  The last "indirect" route we took, from Giddings to Tyler, we relied on Lucille, and we took lots of backroads, most of them were not even on my map.  It was a nice drive, and we got to see some of Texas' backcountry, but we opted this time for the "direct" route.  But the semis certainly own the interstates -- there is very little traffic that is not a semi.   We crossed the Arkansas state line about 1:15, having spent 13 days in Texas!  It was windy every day, and our gas mileage suffered -- we averaged 6.5 mph on our last 3 tanks of gas. We were ready to leave that state, especially since we will be returning next month.  We drove 256 miles today, and lucked out to find the very nicest campground ever!

We were out of the wind today, and were able to drive without the air conditioner on, so our gas mileage improved.  We ended up at Lake Catherine State Campground, which was a few miles out of the way, but it was time to get off the road.  This campground was absolutely beautiful, and our campsite was to die for.  It was really a patio, right on the water, with a little dock right down from us.


I thought if we were going to have a day of rest, this would be the place. 


The water was laying nicely, and we would see an occasional boat go past.  There was some kind of power plant right across the lake from us.

We had full hookups here, and good tv reception, but when I asked the camp host about wifi, he didn't know what it was, so I assumed we did not have that.  However, that camp host is now my BFF -- when I raved about how nice the campground was (I told him I was going to build a house on my campsite and move here), he told me I should fill out a Comment Sheet.  The next thing I knew, he was back with a Comment Sheet for me, and told me that "Little Rock needs to hear these things, about how important this campground is."  So I filled it out for him, and all was well.  But he also told me that it gets over 100 degrees here in the summer, so Alaska may still win out on my relocation.

I got up early this morning and caught the morning mist on the lake.

Joe finally joined me outside and we enjoyed our coffee looking at the water.  A mean-spirited squirrel kept dropping things on Joe.  We saw turtles, fish jumping, squirrels, ducks, geese, and lots of different kinds of birds. But I'm still looking for my first sighting of a live deer on this trip.

Joe washed the windshield again this morning, and declared this a "No More Bugs" Day. 

But at the end of the day, the windshield was full again.  Looks like he gets to get that ladder down again tomorrow.

They have one rental tent (furnished with a stove, lantern, table, grill, cots and other camping equipment) and one rental yurt here. I'm not sure if the yurt is furnished or now, I assume it is. We saw these yurts for the first time on our trip last summer, in Idaho I think.

Reluctantly, we broke camp and headed out.  Here's what our camp site looked like when it was empty.

In my spare time, I seem to always be looking for something.  You would think I would know where every single thing is in the confined space of this RV, but I am constantly looking in drawers and cabinets for something -- usually successfully, after a while.  But I cannot find our tubes of ointments and medications that I was sure I packed a clear plastic bag, and I have searched high and low for them, all the time wondering if that little plastic bag is still sitting on the bathroom sink at home.  It's enough to drive a person over the edge!

Anyhow, we drove through Hot Springs, which was quite pretty.  There were some huge old buildings, and it appeared to be a really clean city.  If we make it back through here (and we might, because of that awesome campground), it would be fun to explore the town, and to drive out to the Hot Springs National Park.  We took Scenic Route 9 northeast through Arkansas, so we again got to see some backcountry. I finally saw my first deer, outside Paron, about 11:35 this morning.  She was standing in a real clear creek -- didn't get a picture, but it was a pretty sight!   We missed our turn once, coming out of Clinton, and ended up on a really squiggley road when we cut back over to Highway 9.  This one really slowed us down, but we spotted 2 wild turkeys so that was exciting.  We drove through Quachita National Forest, then along the edge of the Ozark National Forest.  Our road took us up and down the mountain twice, and we came out at Mountain View (I guess that should have been a clue). 

We drove through one town where Lucille was popular -- I think there was a Lucille's corner, in addition to this business on that corner.

There are not many campgrounds in this area, and probably fewer as we get closer to Vincennes.  We made it out of Arkansas today, barely, and are spending the night in Thayer.  There are no campgrounds around, so we are on the Walmart parking lot -- my how far we have fallen, from last night's beautiful setting to Walmart.  But free camping works too, so I guess it's ok.

So tonight we have no hookups (although it is cooling off nicely), no wifi, no TV.  So Joe is sitting here watching the Walmart customers come out of the store, keeping track of what they are buying.  He said he is taking a survey, and I believe he thinks he might be able to sell this vital information to the manager here.

We should be out of Missouri before noon tomorrow, crossing Illinois and into Indiana.  Not sure if we will arrive in Vincennes tomorrow or Friday morning -- we'll have to see how the day goes.