Pre-party workday and the Party (4/19/14-4/20/14)

Saturday.  Today was "get ready to party" day, which means cleaning out and starting to prepare the party treats.  Cathy gave Lucille her shower this morning (as the day evolved, Cathy was sorry she didn't jump in and get her shower when Lucille got out), then Cathy, Joe, Jim and I all went to town for breakfast, while Dixie stayed home and fixed Lucille her breakfast.  But when we got back, Dixie was underway with laundry and making punch, I started up the vacuum, then Dixie moved on to dusting, and Cathy resumed her window-washing chores (yesterday, she did the front door and the living room, but she still had the back porch to do).  Unfortunately, she fell off the step ladder and dislocated her thumb.  She spent most of the afternoon at the emergency room, getting x-rays, getting it put back in position, then picking up prescriptions.  What someone won't do to get out of washing windows!  Fortunately, she had them all done except one.   Joe took his mother to her beauty shop appointment and picked up the cake.  Never a dull moment.

Speaking of the walking wounded,  Dixie took a tumble out in the yard on Thursday (those mole hills get her every time), then she fell right beside me and Lucille on Friday morning in the kitchen.  Fortunately, she only suffered a scrape on the cheek that time, and nothing apparent from the day before, so we think she is ok.  But there seems to be a theme in that strain of the bloodline.

I'm still keeping an eye on the lilac bush.  It's greening up nicely, so if a storm doesn't come along and blow all the blooms off when it does bloom, I might get to see some lilacs in the next week or so.

Joe and I attended the Decker Chapel Alumni in the evening (for the first time).  This was the first time Joe and I had been inside the Decker Chapel Community Center, and I was very pleased with how nice it was.   I had some pictures I wanted to donate, and I got to see some people I had not seen since grade school.  The highlight of the evening for me (and my bestie Barbara Seitzinger Holscher) was visiting with Mike Horrall, who had left us and moved away at the end of our Freshman year (he was the heart throb of most of the girls in our class [4 out of 6, I think], including both of us).  Barbara and I had not seen him since 1962, although we have had many, many conversations about him over the years, and we were both thrilled that he showed up.  We had lots of laughs, but I'm not sure he will ever be the same.

Sunday was Easter, and the day of the birthday party.  Lucille was awake early and yelling up the stairs for us to get out of bed.  We all made it to church (not to Sunrise Service, but we did have a good family turnout for the 10:00 service), then the granddaughters (Jaclyn, Cathy, and Rachelle) put on a delicious Easter lunch.  We got set up for the party, and spent the rest of the day in birthday celebration mode (more chocolates and more flowers).  We didn't have as good a turnout for the party as we had planned for, and I'm sure that the Easter holiday had a big impact on that.  But still, several people stopped by, most of the family were in attendance, and she had a lovely day.

The kids had an Easter egg hunt, played a little baseball, and got creative with the sidewalk chalk.

The weather couldn't have been nicer, and it was a great day to just enjoy being together.

We missed our immediate family a lot, though, but we did get new pictures of our Florida baby.  Sure hate that we have missed so much of his first year.  We got new pictures, though, and I never know if I'm successful with posting them, but here goes.  I can't seem to make it any smaller, so I'll just go with it.

Here's another one.  It looks like Florida had a pretty nice day too.

Friday (April 18)

Friday.  Today was the nicest day we have had here in Indiana.  It got up into the 70s and the wind was probably about 10 mph.  Dixie and I went to town shopping for, hopefully, the last of the birthday party essentials.  It took several hours and 3 stops, but we finally got done.  When we got home, the rest of the crew were all sitting outside enjoying the sunshine.  They had even put the swing back up on the back patio. 

This beautiful, blooming tree in the front yard is one that David planted several years ago.  We see a lot of these trees around the countryside right now, and have been wondering what they were, not realizing it was the same as we have right here. 

 

A neighbor, Norm Snider, stopped by to wish Lucille a happy birthday.  It had been lots of years since anyone had talked to him, so that was a surprise.  Joe did maintenance on the back screen door again.  All that wore Lucille out, so she got a nap in. 

(This is what being  98 does to you)

Then Rachelle stopped by in her new wheels, on her way to a Pampered Chef party.  Quite a nice ride!

  I had cooked a roast yesterday so we had Philly Cheese Steaks for dinner.  Fred and Judy joined us, then Judy, Dixie and Jim went to Good Friday services at church.  We were still sitting outside when they returned.  Eventually it cooled off enough to send us inside.  Judy, Cathy and Dixie played Mexican Train with Mallory and Clayton until Lucille decided it was time for everyone to go home so she could go to bed.

Thursday (April 17)

Thursday.  Dixie and the boys went to town this morning, so it was my turn to do some chores and stay home with Mom. Dixie needed some adjustment on her glasses, and it was grocery-shopping time again, to get ready for the party on Sunday.  Of course, with Joe driving, they had to make a side-trip back across the river to look at those watermelon plants again, and then there was another road with Joe's name on it, so it was mid-afternoon before they got back home.

Don Wagoner stopped by with his mowing equipment to get the lawn ready for the Sunday party, and he came in and visited when he finished his work.  He knows a lot of history about the area and the people, so Lucille really enjoyed talking and listening to him.

Cathy arrived about 5:00, with her dog, Bird.
 
 She brought Grandma an Easter Bunny.  Grandma thought Bird might like the bunny well enough to eat it, so she introduced them in the hope that the Bunny will stay safe.
 

 

After our dinner of Dixie's beef vegetable soup, we played 6-handed euchre for a while.  We finally wore Lucille out, and she gave up her seat at the table to Judy, who stopped by after church.   

We had to switch sleeping arrangements around upstairs, but we all had a place to lay our heads for the night.

 

Tuesday-Wednesday (4/15-4/160

Tuesday.  I guess spring has come and gone.  We all survived a very cold night.  I don't think we had any frost, but the wind sure kept the house cold.  I finally turned my "warmer" all the way up to try to find a warm spot in bed.  I think it was 34 this morning, but a very cold wind.  When I came downstairs, Lucille was already up and dressed.  Joe, Jim and I went into Denny's for breakfast, and Dixie stayed home and did chores. 

The birthday cards keep coming in, today's mail brought 9.  She did get another "letter" from the Indiana House of Representatives acknowledging her 98th birthday.  Billie stopped by in the afternoon and brought her a box of candy from Charlies, but otherwise it was a pretty quiet day.

An amazing sight after dinner tonight, Joe got up and started washing dishes.  This is something that just doesn't happen!  Jim dried, but he does that all the time.  Joe must have thought he needed to take on more duties in the care-taking role, but it's good for me.  ( I think we had leftovers, so it was a "light" dish night, but still.)

Tonight I was included in the group, mostly from church, going over to Mt. Carmel to the play put on by the Church Basement Ladies, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our Basement."  I rode over with Barbara, after a drive through the cemetery where my family is buried at Princeton.  The play was quite funny, and very enjoyable.  Even more entertaining was getting Judy back to Vincennes.  She had driven down from Lawrenceville (getting lost 3 times trying to find the college where the play was performed).  Barbara offered to have her follow us back to Vincennes on the way home, so we dropped her off at her car.  But somehow while we were turning around in the parking lot behind her car, she thought we got in front of her, so she hurriedly took off, following a car in front of her, while we were behind her supposed to be leading.  It was confusion for a while, and we almost ended up in Albion, Illinois, but she finally answered the cell phone, we got her stopped and turned around, and we finally all got headed in the right direction.  Something else Barbara and I will laugh about for years to come.
  

Wednesday.  The Birth Day brought our much-needed sunshine, and even though it remains cold, the sunshine does help.  Joe and I went to a funeral this morning, the sister of  from high school friend, Ed Williams.  Following the funeral, and lunch in town, we drove across the river to see some watermelon plants that had been set out under plastic.  We were told that they will survive down to 29 degrees, and it looked like they had survived.

Another "happening" event in Vincennes is the destruction of the old Executive Inn, located just as you come into town from the north.  "During the 1980's and 1990's this hotel was amazing. The restaurant had some of the best food in town. Lots of entertainers would come to town to do shows in the convention center."  I remember this as a very popular place back in the day, but it has been an eyesore for some time so it's good that it's coming down.

More birthday cards arrived in today's mail, and Lucille received a pretty bouquet of flowers from Judy Kay.

We went into town for the birthday dinner at a new restaurant, Gilbert's.  Fred and Judy met us there, and we had a very nice meal (although they did not provide a cake for the birthday girl).  But Fred gave her a 2-lb. box of turtles from Charlies, so we were not without a sweet.

Just after we got home, Mike and Rachelle and the kids stopped by to share their birthday wishes, and she got several phone calls throughout the day and evening from family, so the event was well celebrated.

Monday (April 14)

Monday.  Another rainy day, although the sun was shining when we got out of bed. Today was not a good day for Lucille.  Her back ache returned, and she was out of sorts all day long.  She had a doctor's appointment about noon, and they took an x-ray, so we should find out in the next day or two whether there is anything "structurally" wrong.  But in the meantime, the doctor gave her for a muscle relaxer, and we are hoping tonight and tomorrow are more comfortable for her.  We had lunch at "Dot's" in town, and Joe found the largest tenderloin yet.  It was very good, probably the best he's had so far, but the coating was a little hard.  But he thoroughly enjoyed it.
I copied this picture from my Facebook posting since I took it with my phone, so it may not show up.

I had a few errands this morning, but I got back in time to switch cars so they had the transport chair (wheelchair) with them. I stopped by Barbara Holscher's, then Fred & Judy's.   It poured down rain just as they got Lucille out of the car at the doctor's office.  Jim and I stayed home from the doctor's appointment, but we met them at Dot's for lunch.  Then Dixie and I did a little shopping for Sunday's birthday party, and got the cake ordered.

Lucille got 6 more birthday cards in the mail today, along with an Easter card from her newest great grandson, Andrew Thomas, in Florida.  He even sent a couple of colored "eggs" for her.


It was a pretty quiet evening.  I gave Dixie a lesson in "hand & foot" card game, but the boys chose not to join us, so that didn't last too long.  Finally, we all sought out our chilly beds. Jim always goes up first and turns on each of our bed lights (in hopes that we won't turn on the hall light when we come to bed).  So tonight, he also turned on our bed warmers, even though his bed doesn't even have one.

Reunion, Alumni (4/11-4/13)

Friday.  I finally ventured into town today on my own.  Geez, these Vincennes streets are narrow!  I drove around a little, had lunch, got my hair done for Joe's 50th class reunion tonight.  So much has changed here since we grew up that it never feels like the same town, especially downtown Main Street.

The reunion was a lot of fun.  It was held at the Harmony, and we had a delicious catered meal.  17 of his class showed up (2 left before the picture-taking) along with one of their class sponsors.  One of the absent members sent a quiz that generated a lot of memories and discussions.  Amazingly enough, Joe's name came up several times in those old-time stories. 

 

The only thing they forgot to provide was nametags, and I had to ask someone who several people were.  A lot of changes in 50 years!!!

Saturday.  Today it was Lucille's turn to go to the beauty shop, for tonight's alumni.  So Dixie was in charge of her mother, while Joe, Jim and I all went to town for breakfast, then took a scenic drive back through the country and some of the surrounding small towns.  We did come upon one interesting sight -- a small herd of Dutch Belted Cattle.

I took some pictures with my phone, but since I still don't know how to post them, I'll see if this photo from the internet will post.  Joe and I have seen this breed a couple times in our travels (the first time on our way to Alaska), but they always make me to a double-take.

The Alumni was good, Lucille was the sole representative of the 80th class reunion, and Joe's class was honored for their 50th.  They didn't have as good a turnout tonight as they did at the reunion, but Ed and Nancy Williams came and they had not made it the night before.  Lucille won a prize for the oldest graduate (an annual win for her), and we won for having traveled the furthest.

Sunday.  We did all make it to church this morning, Lucille's first since we got her back home.  She had missed last Sunday due to a backache, and she was complaining of that again, but we cajoled her into attending today.  It was a good thing, because they sang Happy Birthday to her, and the pastor presented her with a beautiful quilt put together by the ladies of the church.  We went to town for Sunday dinner, then all came home and relaxed.  Mike, Rachelle, Mallory and her cousin Kaitlin stopped by for a little while, then most of us took naps when they left.

It was warm out, but very windy again, and pretty cloudy. Rachelle decided she was going to fix dinner for all of us, so when Mike left with Doug Driscoll to go to Evansville, Rachelle went to town for groceries.  They all showed up a couple hours later with the smoker grill.  While the guys grilled the pork chops, Rachelle and Doug's wife, Kristy, got busy with dinner preparations:  grilled asparagas, candied carrots, potato puffs, rolls, and then to top it all off, Bananas Foster (which Clayton helped make, and Mallory helped serve).  It was quite a feed.  Rachelle put her Pampered Chef talents to good work.

Thursday, April 10

We finally all settled down for the night after the company left Wednesday night.  Dixie spent some time making up beds upstairs, and when I went to bed, I found out she had put an electric "warmer" on my bed.  I didn't know that, but the bed was warm and I could feel electric cords under me that I hadn't felt before.  Dixie stopped in the bedroom door and asked me if I was warm, then told me what she had added to my bed.

I had made a new cake recipe during the day, but the frosting was labor intensive so I didn't have it ready when we had all the company.  Dixie tried it out before she went to bed, but I moved it off the table before I went to bed so Lucille wouldn't see it in the middle of the night and decide she needed to try it (that glass cake cover is really heavy).  When I came down this morning, it was back in the middle of the table.  When she got up, either during the night or very early this morning, she decided she needed to try it and had moved the whole cake plate back to the table -- and that thing was heavy.  And the cake wasn't even that great!

Thursday.  We had another electric problem this morning (probably from early morning excursion with the cake).  Anyhow, the kitchen light wouldn't come on.  So Joe is back on the ladder, fixing things again.  Don't know what the problem was but he bypassed the chain and got light back in the kitchen.

Lucille got 5 more birthday cards in the mail today.  She will continue to look at them every day as more come in.  It gives her great pleasure to hear who they are from and to look at the pretty pictures on the cards.

I told Dixie I was handing Lucille back over to her and I was no longer in charge.  I must have felt some relief from her arrival because I slept until almost 10:00 this morning, something I never do.  

Today's next big event was a trip to town to get Lucille's nails done.  First, Joe was going to take her.  Then Jim decided to ride along.  In the discussion of the color of nail polish, Dixie decided she better go to. None of these things just "happen," it takes a great deal of discussion.  So I finally got some peace and quiet -- I stayed home by myself.

But they all noisly returned, and Dixie made her meatloaf for dinner.  Rachelle and the kids stopped by and brought chicken pot pie and carrot cake muffins for tomorrow.  After they left, we played a couple games of 5-handed euchre.  Lucille can see these new cards well enough to play.  She didn't win but she certainly enjoyed playing.

It got up in the high 70s here today, but it was very windy.  I checked the weather back home and it was 96.  We are supposed to have a few more warm days here before the next cold spell.

Dixie just found out it was "siblings day" today, so she posed with her brother for a picture to memorialize the day.  Fred didn't show up today so he missed out.

Wednesday, April 9

Wednesday.  Dixie is coming today, so we have to get the house ready (which I thought was above and beyond!).  Lucille laid in bed until 10:00 and still complained of her back, but I told her that sometimes lying in bed for that many hours can also make you have a backache.  I fixed breakfast and then gave her a bath.  Meanwhile, I gave Joe his assignments -- picking up a bag of potatoes on his morning soda run, taking out the trash (his mother thought he should have taken that out about 10:00 last night), and vacuuming.  But he ran into Fred at the gas station/soda shop, and Fred followed him out, so that delayed Joe getting started on his chores.  He did get the trash taken out and burned. 

Strange as it is, I really like the smell of that trash pit burning.  One of our favorite family stories was about Eric's first trip here (Cody was 1).  He was sent to burn the trash with only one match.  He never felt so much pressure in his life as he did when he knew he had to get that fire started with that one and only match.  We have laughed about the story many times over the years.

 I made hair appointments for us for this weekend -- we have Joe's reunion on Friday, and then we are all going to the Alumni on Saturday, so Lucille and I are going to the beauty shop, and Dixie too if she so chooses.

There is a card shower for Lucille's 98th birthday next Wednesday, and cards are beginning to trickle in.  Today she received 6 in the mail.  Even though they have to be read to her, she really enjoys looking at the cards and hearing who they are from.

Apparently we have already been here too long.  Fred just told us a bird had built a nest on the ladder on the back of our motorhome.        


Dixie and Jim arrived about 6:00 p.m., with 34 whitecastle hamburgers from Terre Haute.  And we ate everyone of them (there were 7 of us, Fred left but came back out).  Rachelle stopped by with the kids, then Tommy and his family showed up.  We hadn't gotten to see them yet so we had a good visit.  Trent and William immediately went outside with Clayton to run around the house, so we didn't get pictures of them.  Mallory donated her purple bow to Grandma, so I tried to get that in the picture.We had a housefull (14 I think), but this big, old house handles crowds pretty well.      

Tuesday, April 8

Tuesday.  Woke up to SUNSHINE this morning.  Yeah.  But it was another chilly night under the sheets. And the sunshine didn't last very long.  It peeped through off and on throughout the day, but the clouds mostly took over, and I think we had a few sprinkles.  Lucille is still complaining about her back, but the pain has apparently moved a little lower.  She spent most of the day in bed on the heating pad until mid-afternoon, then she decided maybe someone would stop by, so she got up, dressed and made ready for company. No one showed up, but we did take her to town for Bobe's pizza, and Joe took a scenic drive through the country on the way home.  That really wound her up, and she talked non-stop for the duration, telling him who used to live there, where he should turn, to watch out for that ditch or turn, etc.  Meanwhile, his cousin Mike called (he had called twice earlier and had to hang up to answer another call), so Joe had Mike in one ear and Lucille in the other.  He was about nuts by the time he got us home.

The big news of the week is that someone has bought the Essex plant just behind Lucille's property.  An India-based plastic recycling plant is apparently going to open it back up.  Lucille hopes it doesn't stink, and that the trucks don't go by her house.  The picture below is taken from her carport -- there's just a field between her property and the old Essex building.  I actually worked there as a secretary the year before Joe and I got married.

Sue Oexmann stopped in Bobe's to pick up dinner so we got to chat with her for a few minutes.  Lucille was afraid someone might see her out, and wonder why she had skipped church on Sunday.  I think she had a guilty conscience.

While we were gone, Jaclyn and Adalyn did stop by, with a package of cookies.  We were sorry to have missed them. I have brand new color crayons just waiting for Adalyn so I hope she comes back within the next few days.  Lucille did try the cookies before she went to bed and apparently they won her approval because she went back for more.

The trees are starting to bud, and some flowers are poking through the ground.  But more exciting, the lilac bush by the carport is budding, and I should be here this year to see it bloom!!!  Now I just have to hope no strong winds come by and blow off all the pretty blooms.

Monday, April 7

Monday.  Lucille still has the back pain.  After breakfast Lucille decided to go back to bed, so we fixed her up with the heating pad again. That seemed to give her some relief, and she spent most of the day in bed until she heard company talking.  Our friend, Barbara Seitzinger Holscher came out for a visit, which is always a pleasure.  After supper, Rachelle stopped by with Clayton and Mallory.  But Lucille was ready to go to bed when it was time.

This weather is really crummy.  It was cold, windy and rainy all day.  Joe made his daily trip to town for his diet soda and tenderloin -- he seems to think he needs to test all the tenderloins in town to find the best one.  I have a correction to the last post -- I guess it was Adam that recommended the Marathon Station.  Now Rachelle says the Snowda is the best so I think that is next on his agenda.

Rachelle is now a Pampered Chef sales rep, in addition to her job at school and running the two kids to baseball practice, dance and tumbling, etc.  She dropped off a catalog for us to drool over.

We tried to watch the NASCAR race but the TV reception here is so poor that we saw little of it.  Joe stayed up to watch the NCAA championship game, but I went on to bed. It was close to midnight when the game ended, but since Joe is still operating on Arizona time, that fit right into his schedule.

Decker Roadhouse Day 4 (4-6-2014)

Sunday.  Wasn't sure if I was going to keep the blog going while we are here, but I thought maybe I could write something every few days.  We have been getting settled in here, and people have been stopping by to see Lucille.  But since she hurt her back yesterday, she decided not to go to church this morning, so I'm sure there will be a lot of people at church disappointed that she didn't come.

The weather finally improved.  Although Friday was gray all day, I don't think it rained here.  Saturday was sunny and cool so that was a great improvement.  But the surrounding community has been under flood warnings since Thursday when both north and south of us got heavy rains.  In yesterday's paper was this quote:  "Out of [Indiana's] 92 counties, Knox County [Vincennes] is the only county that has rivers on three sides, the east, west and south, so as the water moves downstream it's coming right into Knox County."  Sunday was chilly, not much sunshine, and the house stayed cold all day. 

We had a quiet day, Lucille spent most of it sitting in the chair on a heating pad (which she intermittently turned off, up, down).  Joe installed some additional handrails in the bathroom.  Judy stopped by after church, then she and Fred came out for dinner after she worked at Penneys.  And then we played dominoes (Mexican train) until almost midnight.  Didn't hear any back complaints until the very end, so maybe it was good to get her mind off the back pain.

Decker Roadhouse - Days 1-3 (4/3/2014-4/5/2014)

Thursday.  We all survived the night even though we were visited by Indiana thunderstorms.  In fact, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to thunder and lightning.  I think Lucille had a good night's sleep, and she was up futzing around in the kitchen when I came downstairs.  We got a bath in this morning, had breakfast, then had a nice visit from Billie and Marcie.  We can see that she is very happy to be around her family again.  We've gotten her mostly unpacked, and I washed a couple loads of clothes.  And I have a pot of ham and beans cooking.  So things are getting back to normal.

It's been rainy all day, intermittent storms but nothing severe.  But she has complained that it is very dark, and without any sunshine, the house is pretty dark.  She wants to make a trip upstairs today to see the new window at the end of the hallway.  We haven't tackled that yet, but it's probably on today's agenda. 

Rachelle stopped by with Clayton and Mallory for a visit.  Lucille is so happy to see her family, and they are all good about stopping by.

Friday.  Joe continues to do some maintenance around the house, replacing light fixtures and bulbs, fixing leaks in the basement, etc.   Joe has been making a daily trip to Lowe's.   Fred and Judy also came by for a while, and had some of our leftover ham and beans with us.  Judy had been down at church getting ready for the big LWML rally tomorrow.

Saturday.  When I came downstairs this morning, Lucille was getting back in bed.  She had been up to the bathroom and had bent over to pick up a hearing aid that had somehow fallen under her bed.  She must have tweaked her back in that process because it started hurting and she decided to get back in bed.  She got back up, and we got her shower in, but she complained of a backache all day.  Judy stopped by on her way home from the church rally, then Mike stopped by for a visit.  After supper, Adam and Jaclyn brought Judy Kay up to see her, so the family continues to rally around.  I went with Joe today on his trip to Lowe's and we picked up a few groceries at Walmart, then stopped for tenderloins at the Cash & Dash.  But Mike told Joe there is a better tenderloin spot just up the street, so he has that on his agenda for Monday.

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 7 (4-2-2014) Henderson, KY to Vincennes, IN

Wednesday.  We did not get an early start this morning.  Joe had decided we should do McDonald's for breakfast, and since our gray tank was full after I took a shower, I didn't argue with him.  But he wasn't moving early enough to get de-camped and to McDonald's before the 10:30 cut-off for breakfast, so we loaded up in the car and drove a mile to the closest Mickey Ds.  Then we came back, got everything put away to travel, and pulled up to the dump station.  By then it was 11:50, and we still had to fuel, but we were finally headed into Indiana.  We fueled in Evansville for $3.669 (the highest we have had to pay), but saw gas 20 miles down the road in Ft. Branch (Hucks) for $3.519.  Joe complained, but what are you going to do.  I always tell him there will be plenty of opportunities to buy gas again.

John called from Florida and told us a strange horse had shown up at his place, standing right by his car.  So he was dealing with that today, trying to figure out how to locate its owner.

We decided to drive on past Essex Road because that railroad crossing is pretty rough.  Just as we were passing Essex Road, however, Mike Froeschke called.  He said he had just passed us going the opposite way, he blinked his lights, honked, and rolled his window down and waved.  But we didn't see him.  But Joe said if he had seen all that, he would have thought something was probably falling off the RV, so maybe it was just as well.

We pulled in about 2:30.  It was raining, of course.  Fred said he knew I was close because I always bring the rain with me.  We only drove 59 miles today, but they were probably the most important miles.  And then we were back to the big old farmhouse.

Lucille was very happy to be home.  She went from room to room downstairs, checking everything out, checking her house plants, then she went out on the front porch and got the mail.  The house looked good, and there didn't seem to be any new problems in her absence.  Fred came out shortly thereafter, and I made a pot of chili (first time it had been cold enough for chili since we left Arizona).  He visited with his mother for quite a while, then Rachelle stopped by (broken collar bone and all) with Clayton and Mallory.  After everyone left (by then it was 7:30), Joe suggested we head into town for a Bobe's Pizza, always a highlight of being home.  Lucille wasn't too keen on making the trip until I promised her we could drive down 7th Street to see where the fire was on Monday night.  She looked the town over, but it was dark so we have to go back tomorrow so she can check on her town.

It was fun having her home and letting her futz around in her own territory, although I did remind her that I was still in charge of her.  We are all hoping to get a good night's sleep.

This concludes Lucille's Road Trip, at least the first chapter. This trip was 1765 miles, and we stayed in a different state every night.  We bought 230.87 gallons of fuel, and spent $791.73.  We figure we averaged somewhere around 7.5 mph, which considering the two days of strong winds we fought, that's probably not too bad.  I thought she would be more than done with traveling in the RV, but she's pretty interested in Florida, seeing Shooter as well as John and Bridgette, and seeing that new horse that adopted them today.  So who knows what lies ahead.

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 6 (4/1/2014) Mountain View, MO to Henderson, KY

Tuesday.  This will be our last night on the road, and we are probably no more than 70 miles from Lucille's house.  She really couldn't understand why we wouldn't go on in tonight, but we always like to spend the last night nearby so we can dump our tanks before we get to her house. 

We had a pretty good night again last night, although I had trouble getting back to sleep in the middle of the night.  We got on the road about 10:00 a.m., and when we passed the gas station we filled up at last night (when we missed the turn-off to the campground) we saw the price was 10 cents higher than yesterday.  We were curious about where Lucille would choose to sit today, since she was Goldilocks yesterday, trying out three different seats.  But she chose the co-pilot seat again, which surprised me.

We crossed the Mississippi River, then the Ohio River immediately afterwards about 2:15.  We didn't spend much time in Illinois.  We had never crossed here  at Cairo before and were quite surprised when the second river showed up.  I had put the camera down when Joe gave me a heads up that a second bridge was coming.

 We hit some rain about 20 miles from our campground destination in Henderson, KY.  At least we got the windows washed, which sorely needed washing.  We came through Paducah, KY for the first time, which seemed to take forever. As we neared the Kentucky/Indiana line, we started seeing coal mines and conveyor belts transporting the coal across  the highway. 

 We finally got to the Audubon State Park in Henderson about 5:45, and it was raining pretty good then, but it didn't last long.  So we loaded up, and headed for -- wait for it -- WHITE CASTLE.  It had cooled off by then, and I think it is supposed to be in the 50s tonight, with rain and thunderstorms forecast for the next 2-3 days.  Yes, we are back in Indiana.  In tornado season!  Joe drove 306 miles, but at least he wasn't fighting the wind. 

We should have Lucille home by noon tomorrow.  She was pretty wound up when we stopped tonight -- she couldn't believe we were going to stay all night in a "park," and she couldn't believe we were "camping in the rain."  She thought maybe she should call Fred to just come get her.  Of course, during these last 6 days she has from time to time mentioned trying to just get a bus to take her home, and yesterday she seemed to think she needed rescued (I think she thought we had abducted her and were never going to take her home).  But now that she's close to home, she's asking about when we have to head back, and that we should pick a different route.  So maybe she has enjoyed this trip more than we thought????