Day trip

Monday, May 2 - Just in case you're wondering, it's still raining.  Lucille has been wanting to take a drive back to her roots, around Monroe City, so today is the day for that.  Mike decided to take the day off to go with us (he was our tour guide, so we were lucky he came along), and Fred also joined us, so the old Explorer was full.  Mike knows all the backroads in this area so he took us past coal mines, old churches (Lucille had attended every one of them as a kid), old cemeteries and places where she thought they might have lived.  The coal mines have distorted the landscape so it is sometimes hard to figure out if we are on the right road, but we thought we found most of the places (the houses have long since been torn down).  We stopped at a gas station/deli hang-out in Monroe City, and Mike asked a few questions, and we spent several hours exploring these roads.  Monroe is close to the White River (flooded), so sometimes our roads ended abruptly.

We don't see think kind of country in Arizona, and this would have really been a pretty drive had the weather been better. 

 After hours of wondering these roads, we stopped at Wendy's in Vincennes for lunch, then headed back down to Decker Chapel to show Lucille the damage from the downed power lines, and the flooded fields.  There is an old toll bridge that crosses into St. Francisville, Illinois, and Joe, of course, took us across it.

From this point on, Lucille was not happy with Joe.  She did not want to see the flooding this close!  This is the Wabash River, and it is way above flood stage.  All the bottom farmland around here is flooded, and the road to this bridge is only inches from flooding.

We next drove past the area where we had been last week, where they were repairing the downed power lines.  A lot of progress had been made, even with the adverse weather and all the mud.  They were using bulldozers to drag the service trucks around in the fields.  There were several new (wooden) poles up, but most of them did not have electric lines attached yet.

It has rained almost every day since this damage was done, and these fields are a mess.  I can't begin to imagine when the farmers will be able to get in them this spring.  Joe talked to someone at the barber shop and he said they had 16 inches of rain in April.  It looked to me like it was 11 inches, and they had about 3 inches before we got here, so we must have experienced around 8 inches during our visit.  One 24-hour period shows 2.42 inches, and there were two other times that it showed over an inch, but it seemed to me that it was an inch a day, with sporadic downpours of multiple inches on the weekends!

We continued our drive back to Decker Chapel.  One road we had been on two weeks ago, where we drove over the levee, now is completely under water all the way to the levee, and someone has parked a boat at the bottom of the levee, probably the people who live just down this road.

We drove back to the one place I used to live.  When we stopped here 2 weeks ago, there was a old shed housing an old tractor (I didn't take a picture, which I regret).  Here is what is left of the shed.

The tornado that took down the power lines also destroyed this shed.  I had tried to talk Collins into taking one of the old pieces of lumber, and obviously, he should have, since there is nothing left.

We then stopped by Claypool again, to show Lucille (she would gladly have missed this stop).  Here is my picture from 2 weeks ago, followed by what it looks like now -- flooded.

Although Claypool pond is high here, it is still within its banks.  This ditch in the forefront also is within its banks, and the road to the pond is out of the water.

..

In this picture, taken from the levee the same as the ones above, it is now all underwater.

When this flooded when I lived here in 5th and 6th grades, my dad would tow us out to the levee in a rowboat so we could catch the bus.

We continued on down the road to the "neck," and quickly came to the end of our road.  We had driven this road all the way around just 2 weeks ago, with Collins and Marilyn, but when we topped the last hill, we hit the flood water and had to turn around.

On our way back, we got behind my school bus buddy, Mike Carter, right along the Claypool levee and talked to him for a few minutes.  The Decker Chapel road is closed due to flooding, so we had to back the way we had come (6th Street Road).  Mike said he was able to take all his kids home this afternoon, but he wasn't sure he would be able to get to them tomorrow morning.  And it is still raining.

We finally headed back to town to drop Fred off, then dropped nephew Mike off at his house.  I had soaked a pot of beans for dinner, so Mike's family joined us, along with Fred and Judy, for ham and beans, and sauerkraut (this is the third time we've had sauerkraut since we've been here -- a family favorite, much to my son-in-law's horror).  Mike and Rachelle took the kids home about 8:30, but Mike showed back up at 11:00 p.m. to join the card game, which we were about to end.  Mike said he hadn't planned on stopping but saw the lights on, so he didn't want to miss the opportunity for the nightly card game.  So it was another late night (1:00 a.m.) before we got to bed.  And it's still raining.

Sunday

May 1 - Well, the rain returned during the night.  I'm to the point that I'm just mad about it -- I'm tired of being scared of the storms, tired of cold, damp days, and tired of all the flooding in the area.  I've been ready to leave for a couple of days now, but we really don't know which direction to head out of here.  I think the rain has finally hit Texas, so we might be in it no matter which way we go.  The town of Cairo, Illinois, is in danger of being flooded and there is talk of blowing the levee down there.  That is where we crossed into Illinois, so we know where that is.  Also, there was a tornado at Carmi, Illinois, the last place we stayed before we arrived here, so danger lurks at every corner.  It rained about all night, sometimes heavy, and continued to rain off and on all day.  We went to church (the sixth time since we've been here!), and I stayed for the mother-daughter banquet with Lucille, along with Judy, Rachelle and Mallory, and Jaclyn and Adalyn.  The Froeschkes were well represented!  Lucille won a potted flower for being the oldest there, then they drew her name (but she only got one flower).   When we got home from that, I took a nap!  The best solution for these rainy days, since it finally was not storming.  (Lucille takes a nap almost every day, but it was a treat for me.) Joe went to town with Mike and his boys for lunch, since we had cleaned out the leftovers last night (poor planning on our part, I guess). 

We intended to quit playing cards by 11:00 tonight, but Mike stopped by about 10:00 and joined the card game, so we had another late night.  Mike is going on second shift tomorrow, so he does not have to get up early, and he enjoys spending time with his uncles.  You've never played cards until you've played with this crew!  

We beginning to discuss leaving Indiana (yeah).  Joe said probably Tuesday or Wednesday, so we need to start getting ready to hit the road again.  I've carried a lot of things into the house, so it will be a scavenger hunt to find everything and get restocked for the road.  The tornado warning radio has finally been mostly silent, with just an occasional outburst about flooding.  I will not miss that radio!

Saturday

April 30 - Saturday.  Well I won't be sorry to see the end of April in Indiana.  This is really the first nice day we have had in two weeks, and the rain is supposed to be back tomorrow.  This morning we drove to Washington to meet my niece Stacey, and great niece Holly and her little one for lunch.  We had only met Jayden once before, when we was about 3 weeks old, so it was fun to get to watch him keep himself (and Stacey) busy.  We went to Stacey's house after lunch and had a really good visit and got to catch up on Airman John's news in Alaska.  Then Stacey decided it was time to clean out John's room, so she is sending me home with a Hollister wardrobe for Cody, and a small television for my kitchen. 

We got back out to the house and had our nightly card game, until 2:00 a.m. Lucille brought out all the leftovers from the last two weeks, so we had a feast for dinner.  We have got to spend a lot of time with Fred and Judy this year but it sure makes for some short days when you stay up so late (especially with church in the morning).  But Lucille can outlast all the rest of us at the card table. 

Guitar Fest at Vincennes University

 Friday, April 29 - Thursday night Judy and I attended a Guitar Fest at the Red Skeleton Performing Arts Center on the campus of Vincennes University.  Red Skeleton, acclaimed as one of America's greatest clowns, is undoubtedly Vincennes' most famous home town star, and this center was built to honor him.  His widower has donated a lot of his memoirs, clothing, photos, etc., to this center, and it is a beautiful building, built within a block of his birthplace.  My sister-in-law's sister performs with the St. John's Folk Group, and they were special guests at this Guitar Fest, which featured music students and faculty as well.

Friday I had lunch with two of my high school classmates, Brenda (Lane) Nowaski and Faye (Hacker) Hess.  We had a great visit (and a pretty good lunch) and it as fun to catch up with both of them and relive some of our high school memories.  Of course, much of our talk centered around our kids and grandkids, and retirement (which I highly recommended).

Friday night we met up with some of the other classmates for dinner.  Five couples met at a local restaurant and we had a great time laughing about old times and catching up on our lives.  We closed the restaurant so we finally headed our separate ways.  We finally had a break in the weather, and Friday had a hint of spring in the air.

Another Rainy Night in Indiana

April 27-28 - Indiana is not putting on its best face for our visit this year.  It continues to rain and storm, pretty much every day and night.  Enough already!

 On Tuesday, we drove to Princeton to the cemetery where most of my family is buried, and put some flowers on the graves.  We stopped at a KFC for lunch, and a ceiling tile fell onto a customer at the counter.  Obviously, the flat roofs are not handling all this rain either.  We quickly finished eating and got out of there, just in case the whole ceiling collapsed.

 
The tornado warning radio continues to go off every day, but now it includes flood warnings for the surrounding counties.  Fortunately, Lucille does not live in any flood zone, so we don't have to worry about that.  But they have put the flood gates up in Vincennes (which sits right on the Wabash River, for those non-Indiana readers).  We drove in to Kimmel Park, which is right in town, and saw the flood gates, put in place where there is a break in the levee for a driveway or entrance to the river.   They have more to put up, and the newspaper every day has something about the flooding and rain. 

In this last picture, you can see where the levee comes right up to the concrete wall.    The situation is really serious back here, and it's hard to imagine when the farmers will ever be able to get out in their fields.  We are supposed to have some sunshine tomorrow, but there is more rain in the forecast.  But we have much to be thankful for, since we didn't get hit like Georgia and Alabama.  Yet.  My niece Dana called me from Chattanooga and told me they are under tornado warnings there.  I talked to her later and they were without power, but they were safe.

We used to use the boat ramp here to ski on this river, back in the day.  The river at Mt. Carmel, where we crossed into Indiana, is at 31 foot, and flood stage is 19 feet, so obviously there is water, water everywhere.  We have not driven back down to where the rivers meet because we assume some of those roads are under water now.   This is the other side of the flood gates, at Kimmel Park.  I think they have camping here, so I'm glad we didn't plan on using this as our campground. 

Yesterday we drove to Terre Haute to visit two of our friends there.  Audrey, who helped me raise my kids (she was my babysitter for both kids for those early years) has recently moved from her big old two-story plus basement house into an apartment, so we got to see her new digs.  She is very comfortable in her new place, and seems to be adjusting well.  Then we drove to Brazil to visit my ex co-worker Diane, and had a good visit with her.  She actually had lilacs blooming in her yard, but it was pouring down rain when we left so I did not pick any -- much to my regret.  We met one of Audrey's grandsons, and got to see Diane's daughter, Amy, and Amy's her sons, so that was fun.  We drove back in the rain, and then the wind hammered us all night long.  I never imagined myself back here living in a trailer, and that is basically what we are doing now, since we are sleeping out in the RV.  Every night I think maybe we should move inside, but we would have to brave the storm in order to do that (and I'm not sure I could talk Joe into running out in the rain in his jammies, and I won't go without him), and so I just don't have any good choices.  I would be pushing Joe to leave here if I could figure out where to go, safely. Cathy told me today that Branson, Missouri, is flooded.   Alaska is sounding like better every day.

While we were in Terre Haute, we drove past the junior high that Tiffany attended (Woodrow Wilson Junior High School).  It is really a beautiful building and they have maintained it well.

We also drove past the house we had built back there, in 1976.  It too has been well-maintained, which was nice to see.  Some of the trees we planted there are huge now, but the old oak tree is the front yard is still standing proud.

Joe got his white castle hamburgers while we were in Terre Haute.  If they would have had this in Terre Haute when we lived here, Joe might not have ever moved.  Just kidding.  After two weeks of this weather, there is no way I would ever consider moving back here.  Just in case anyone is wondering.

Joe continues to have a "to-do" list from his mother, and he got a few more things taken care of today.  But the list never seems to get shorter.  She's getting a lot of sand in her water system, so that has been a big concern here.  Joe has changed the filter a couple of times, and until the well driller comes up with a solution, it appears that they will have to be changed about every week or so.

Easter Sunday

April 24-25 - Since the Good Friday post, it has continued to rain every day.  Cathy and Joe drove down Saturday afternoon, and we made  a drive just before dark back down to the Decker Chapel area to show them the power lines that were down. 

There were also several irrigation lines that had been turned completely over, or on their side.

There were service trucks lighting up the landscape down there, the fields are flooded, and it continued to rain.

We topped the levee at one place and the river was right at the base.  Fortunately, there was room to turn around, because there was some kind of pump station right there on the creek, and that creek was running full into the river.

It rained all night Saturday, all day Easter Sunday, and all night Sunday night.  The lid to the trash barrel on the carport blew away Saturday night, and it still hasn't shown up.  We all looked for it, but I told them I thought it was probably in Kansas, along with Toto.

We didn't make sunrise service (which was just as well, since the sun failed to show itself all day), but we did attend the 10:00 service.  We've been to church 4 times this week including last Sunday.  Lucille was up in time for the early service, but none of the rest of us were.  However, a family from church had car trouble and pulled in here about 6:15 to borrow her car to get to church in time for the early service.

We had a big Easter ham dinner, I think 20 people were here.  You don't do meals on a small scale here.  I'm having a little difficulty converting my meal planning from 2 to 20, but it all worked out (except that I forgot to make the gravy).  Lucille loves to have family around, and the little ones were able to play outside part of the time, when it was only sprinkling.  We finished the day with 5-handed euchre with Fred and Judy, so a good time was had by all.

Joe wants to take his mother on a drive, either down through the Decker side to let her see all the places she lived, or on the Decker Chapel side to see where the two rivers come together, although those roads may be flooded now.  The river was raising 6 inches per hour yesterday, and since it rained all night again, I would guess that it's continuing at least at that rate, if not faster.

Today is Kaylee's 10th birthday, so we are very sorry not to be home to share that with her.  Being 10 is a pretty big deal.

In the meantime, I am working on my exit route from here to go try to find the sun.  I was thinking we would head toward St. Louis and Branson, on our way back to Texas, but St. Louis had tornadoes this weekend, so I'm not safe there either.   I've learned that in retirement, weather has taken on a new level of importance, and it's either too hot, too rainy, too windy, or too cold.  I'm thinking Hawaii is sounding pretty good.

Good Friday in Vincennes

Friday, April 22 -- Today's thunderstorm, including hail, has just passed, but now Grandma's Tornado Warning Radio is going off, for the county just south of us.  This is "Severe Thunderstorm Watch Number 178," so you can see why I no longer live back here. 

Yesterday, we stopped by the Verizon store and educated ourselves on aircards and mobile hot spot cards, and today, we cancelled our home phone service and went completely mobile.  So I am now on the blog at Grandma's, on my own hotspot card.  Anyone that has our home phone number in their contact list should remove it -- it's no longer active (480-380-8877).

 While in town, we stopped at the Tractor Supply Store to look for a wheel for Grandma's little red wagon.  They have some things for sale here that we don't usually see in Arizona -- baby chicks, ducks and bunnies (remember it's Easter Week).

We had lunch across the street at Hardee's, and a pair of geese waltzed across the parking lot.

Last night we went to church service, then had an early night -- no card playing and no thunderstorms.  Fred stopped by and ate dinner with us (chili), and a high school friend stopped by while we were in town, but otherwise, it was a quiet day.  Today, we spent a couple hours at the Verizon store, and I even have a new cell phone, with a texting keyboard, so we are becoming more modern all the time.  We did take a little drive today to see where some of the power lines were down, and then got back just in time for today's storm.  I think there are storms forecast for the next 4 days, so we will probably have more excitement before we leave here.

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.