Bloomington

Saturday, July 30 - It's late, and I'm tired, but we're going to the Brickyard tomorrow, and I know I'll have lots of new material, so I want to get this one posted tonight (and it's now 11:00 p.m.).   Correction to earlier blog about the blue buses -- they don't transport people in them, they use them like wagons to transport the melons.  They have removed the seats and windows, and the buses go faster than they can pull the wagons.  Joe straightened me out on these facts (he got behind in his blog editing.)

Joe M. had a couple of appointments this morning, so after Cathy fixed us a delicious bacon/egg casserole for breakfast, she and I drove over to the Farmer's Market.  It is noteworthy that we drove (it's only a couple of blocks) because I got a parking ticket there.  Although we parked directly in front of the sign "Pay to Park," neither of us saw it, so she and I are going to split the $20 fine.  Welcome to Bloomington!  Me and Collins now have common experiences with parking tickets!

Anyhow, the Farmer's Market was a happening event.  There were 5 or 6 rows of vendors, and they really were farmer's produce.  A lot of Amish were merchants at this Market.

We bought a few things, including a bag of freshly popped kettle corn for tomorrow's race.  Cathy didn't remember if they sold it at the track.  Brenda and I always have to have kettle corn at NASCAR in Phoenix. 

We stopped by a local butcher shop because Joe M. is grilling steaks tonight, dropped them off at the house, and then headed out to Monroe Lake, which is where we would have camped if we couldn't get our rig in here.  This is a beautiful reservoir with 152 miles of shoreline.  It is 19 miles long and 2 miles wide at the widest point, with several boat ramps, multiple marinas and a very nice resort.  We even saw some people fishing -- should have been us!

We stopped at the Scenic View restaurant for lunch, and we did enjoy a scenic view.  Joe and I posed for the front side of the statute -- a tender moment.

Here's the senior version of this statute -- in living color!

We drove around more of the lake, and down to the spillway and dam.

 This is Salt Creek coming out of the spillway.

Joe M. is busy with his camera too (and he has a much better camera than I do, plus he's much better at it than I am).

The lake was very busy, with lots of boats and swimmers.  We saw a string of boats all tied together partying and enjoying this beautiful summer day.

Joe thought it was time for me to stick my toe in the water again -- it had been a while, and he told Joe M. my toe was famous because it had been in the Arctic Ocean.  So we drove down to the beach, and Cathy and I got our feet wet.  But the water was bathtub warm, so not very refreshing.

Finally, we headed over to the Fourwinds Resort and Marina, and had a drink.  This is a very nice resort, with a wonderful view from the deck, and a good-sized swimming pool.  Maybe not quite on par with some of the big lodges we saw last year at the national parks, but a nice surprise in this area, which is off the beaten path.

Our final stop was this little business we had passed earlier that had outside on display huge fiberglass animals, as well as some cement yard ornaments.  I really wanted the bear, and Joe's personal favorite was the hippo with the pink mouth.  But the fish was also really nice, and there was an elephant bench that was quite unique.  And the horses and wagon was quite nice.  But I need to figure out how to get that bear in the RV.

We got back to the house about 6:30, hot and tired.  I came out to the RV and did yesterday's blog, then Joe and I watched the Nationwide race.  Cathy had run out to Kohl's to get a pair of shorts to wear tomorrow, and Joe M. started making the peach pie.  We had a great steak dinner (at 10:00 p.m., a half-hour earlier than last night, so we're doing better), but the pie was too hot for tonight, so we can look forward to that when we get back from Indianapolis tomorrow.  We are leaving at 6:30 a.m. (Yikes!), so it sounds like it will be another long day.  We just hope it is not too hot (yes, Arizona, I know its hotter there). 

On the Road Again

Friday, July 29 - Before we could leave this morning, we had a couple of errands.  Lucille wanted peaches, so I drove down to the peach farm before Joe even got out of bed.  But Indiana peaches are certainly a thing of beauty!  (Now it's Saturday evening and we haven't even eaten one yet, but Joe Myers MAY make a peach pie, so we are holding out for that.)

On the way to get the peaches, I passed several fields of watermelon pickers. Indiana is very busy right now, and is very green and pretty -- looking good!

And this (along with cantaloupes) is a very familiar sight on the road, as the melons roll off the wagons on the way back to the packing sheds.  (Made me wish I had a fork with me)

Back at the ranch, I happened to be outside when one of the watermelon semis went down the road -- this goes on 24/7 right now, and I bet there are 50 trucks a day on this road.  Lucille likes to watch them go by -- I'm sure it reminds her of days gone by, although there was never the volume of truck traffic back then.

Next, I got Joe up and we ran to town to get his morning soda, and to stop at Brad's again for some watermelons and cantaloupes for the road (we took one each to Cathy and Joe).  So, when we got back, Lucille had decided to defrost the refrigerator on the back porch (?), so Joe got out the hairdryer to move that process along.  We finished that up, and "decamped," and got on the road about 10:45.  It was 83 degrees, but heading toward 95.

We headed to French Lick to meet up with Cathy and Joe at the casino, down a very windy, but scenic highway.

We got to French Lick at 12:05 (5 minutes late, but Joe and Cathy were another 10 minutes later, so that was ok) -- 72 miles for us.

Just before we got to French Lick, we came past the West Baden Springs Hotel, which has been renovated in the last few years and is really beautiful.  I'll get back to this.  The Belterra Casino & Resort has also had an uplift, and so I got to spend a couple hours (and a couple dollars) there -- in fact, Joe, Joe and Cathy left me there alone while they went to lunch!  This resort even had a croquet course (and Joe really wanted to play it, so we may have to come back here).

When they all returned from lunch, Joe M. toured us through this resort.  He grew up in this area, and has been here on business (and he and Cathy even stayed here), so he was very knowledgeable.  Then we drove around town to locate the house that Larry Bird built for his mother with his first NBA paycheck.  We didn't find it on this round, but did find it later.

Next up was a tour of the West Baden Resort.  The towns of West Baden and French Lick sort of run together.  We could smell the hot springs here (called Pluto Water), and this resort has a giant atrium that is absolutely beautiful.  We had a drink here, and relaxed for a while.  One another one of these chaise lounge chairs were an older couple who had fallen asleep.  I actually wondered if they were statutes, or live people, so Joe M. went over with his camera.  He is going to e-mail me the photo, so I'll try to post it tomorrow.

 The dome ceiling. 

 Beautiful fireplace.  This is sculpted, not just a painting.

 We toured these grounds as well (it was pretty hot by now), then made a few more passes through town trying to find Larry Bird's house.  Finally, we were successful (it was actually on the first road we tried earlier, we just didn't go far enough.)

 Basketball court

 Relatively modest house, but this was probably in the early 80's, so quite a splash in this little town.

This property is for sale, so here's the info for anyone interested.

Back to the casino to get the RV, then we stopped for fuel (it was 21 cents cheaper here than 5 miles down the road).  We stopped again at Spring Mill State Park to dump our tanks, since we have been at Lucille's for 8 days.  This is a really nice park, one I would like to come back to.  While Joe was dumping the tanks, a tractor/wagon went by with a bunch of kids on a hayride.  Now that certainly brought back good memories for me!

We still had some miles to go, so on we went.  We did see a deer just before dark, but it was after 9:00 by the time we got to Cathy and Joe's, and we still had to park.  Joe mentioned that this was probably the tightest place he's parked, but, there was never any doubt that he could get it in there.  And he did it just before a little thunderstorm passed through.

(He did have to readjust it the next day because we were pushing against this roof.)

We went into Cathy and Joe's for a little while, but we had not had dinner yet, so we ate White Castle hamburgers at 10:30 p.m.  A long day, 130 miles.

Thursday at Lucille's

Thursday, July 28 - Today's assignment was to get the flag for the new mailbox figured out, which Joe accomplished.  Lucille had missed her hair date earlier in the week, so Joe took her in today for a haircut, and a trip to the bank.  I stayed home and started getting the RV ready to head out tomorrow - laundry, vacuuming, cleaned out the frig -- that kind of thrilling stuff.  Judy brought Winston out to meet us. 

Mike called and needed some muscle (boy, is he calling the wrong place for that) to help unload a wall unit, so Joe and I went down there for a few minutes.  When we got back from that, Fred had arrived, (thankfully, he had recovered from his choking spell of yesterday) and we all visited for a while, but Judy had to leave for a computer class she was starting, and Joe convinced his mother to back down to the Thursday evening card game at the parish hall (she had been boycotting the card games since she fell down there).

  Joe, Fred and I went in for our last Bobe's Pizza (yum!), and did some more crop-surveying.  But we did catch an awesome sunset over the bean field.

We got back to the house just after 9:00 p.m.  Judy came back out after her class, and when Lucille returned from her card game, we started our own.  A 10:00 p.m. start means you don't quit until 1:00 a.m., we found out, and Lucille was still going strong when we called it a night.  I know I'll have a hard time getting Joe out of bed in the morning so we can get on the road, and Lucille has another errand for us -- she wants us to run down and get her some fresh peaches (they told her at the card game that the peaches were wonderful).    We're supposed to meet Cathy and Joe at the casino in French Lick at noon, but I'm thinking we might be running just a bit late.

More Days, More Chores

Tuesday-Wednesday, July 26-27.  Tuesday afternoon, Joe returned from town with the mailbox tube and got it mounted, and I'm happy to report that both the mail and the newspaper are being delivered on the front porch every morning.

We have one piece of unfinished business on this mission, though.  When we bought the mailbox, we failed to notice that it did not include a flag (who knew even to check that out), so we still need to devise something to work as a flag.  We have a couple of different options going, so I'm sure Joe will get that taken care of today.

Tuesday evening we had dinner and cards again with Fred and Judy.  Another late night.  We really need to teach our Arizona friends how to play 5-handed euchre.  It's a lot of fun (we just need 3 friends). 

Wednesday morning, Lucille had the housekeeper coming, so Joe and I ran into for McDonalds for breakfast (and his soda), and back to Lowes for today's mission, which was to change out the wall plug behind the microwave because it keeps coming loose (which means the clock needs to be reset all the time).  This old house does not have any of the 3-hole wall sockets, so Joe bought one of those and replaced that socket -- he only got shocked once.  Another Mission Accomplished.  I stayed around until he got done in case I needed to call 911, but once he was safe, I took off for Princeton to visit my family cemetery, since my mother's birthday is next week.  Besides, I thought I could use a few hours of quiet.

I finally got a picture of the buses they have converted to field transportation here, to haul the workers back and forth from the packing sheds to the fields.  I've seen white ones, and a few that are still the yellow school bus color, but these happened to be blue.  You can see there's no air conditioning.

I passed one produce place on the highway where I counted 17 wagon loads of watermelons sitting there, and I think there were 7 semi trucks waiting to load.  They do things on a larger scale here than they did when Willie and Lucille farmed.  I drove around through some of the little towns I hung out in 50 years ago, then made a drive down to Decker Chapel to see it green with crops (mostly corn and beans) since I had last seen it extremely flooded.  I was on roads down there that I hadn't been on in several years, and in the back of my mind I kept thinking how I would tell Joe how to find me if I had some kind of car trouble, but fortunately I made it back safely.

My other accomplishment this week was getting the Butler Family Tree printed in larger type (thank you, Jim) and put into a notebook with dividers so Lucille can look through it as she tries to remember dates of when family members were born, married, or died -- a popular topic in this house.   This is an ongoing project, so if any of you in the Butler Family Tree have updates, please send them to my e-mail address, and I will add them (joewilma05@msn.com).  I can also e-mail you a copy of the latest version if you want, just send me your e-mail address. 

Lucille has a little sign on the back door telling people to come on in, so she doesn't have to come to the door.  Since her visitors often stop by and come in, just to find her napping, so they leave, I told her I was going to add "and wake me up" to the sign.

I fixed ham and beans for dinner (a family favorite) last night but Fred had a choking spell and they ended up going back home so we didn't get our card game.  Which meant that I got to watch "So You Think You Can Dance," which Bridgette got us (me) addicted to when we were in Florida. 

So now  it's Thursday morning.  We are meeting Cathy and Joe on Friday at noon at the casino (yeah) in French Lick, Indiana (I'm going to look for Larry Bird around town too), so today is our last day to accomplish anything.  Joe and Fred have ordered 10 lbs. of tomatoes from a neighbor (high school classmate), so they need to make that short trip this morning, and I don't know if Lucille has anything else on her mind that needs fixed, so we'll see what the day brings.   I need to do some housekeeping chores in our own little home-on-wheels, and get our laundry caught up, so I'm sure it will be a full day.  And since I'm the chief cook and bottle washer here, I have requested Bobe's Pizza for our last meal here -- part of the Vincennes tradition.