Terre Haute (Sun., Mon., Tues.)

Sunday was a pretty uneventful day, so we all got to rest a bit.  We went to church, then to town for lunch at Old Tyme.  In the afternoon, Joe took his mother back down to the parish hall to a graduation party, and we had our evening card game.

Monday was my Terre Haute day, and I got a pretty early start.  I left the house about 8:00, but the farmers are out in full force and I got behind a tractor pulling some kind of contraption right down the middle of the road.  I split off from it and went through the drive-through at McDonalds for a breakfast sandwich, but I caught back up with this guy just as I got off the 41 bypass.  Lucky for me, he went straight there where I took the exit to Terre Haute.

As I drove up Hwy 41 to Terre Haute and took Poplar Street across town, I saw some familiar buildings and many new ones.  One big surprise was a new Baesler's Grocery Store at 25th and Poplar.  When we first got married, Joe stocked IGA stores and Baeslers IGA was on his route -- at that time it was just a small store on 25th Street, but it was my closest grocery store so that's where I did most of my shopping.  Now it's a new, big store, and it has everything, and I was told that it is the only grocery store in town where you can buy Boars Head meats.

 My first stop was a visit with my college roommate, Linda Chiado, whom I hadn't seen for about 40 years.  We had a great time reminiscing, and she remembered things I had totally forgotten, such as our renting a bicycle built for 2 to ride around Terre Haute, and our attempt to rent a car to drive home (unfortunately, we didn't have a credit card in those days so we were unsuccessful in that endeavor).  She even had some pictures from our college days that I was not aware of.  These are circa 1967, during my Indiana State days.

Linda lives in a pretty brick house on the east side of town, and we made a quick drive past our old house when we went to lunch.  Linda and her husband have done extensive international travel, and since our retirement we've done a fair share of RVing in the U.S., so we had lots of travel stories to share.

From Linda's, I stopped by and visited with Audrey Williams, the "second mother" of my children and my babysitter for about 9-10 years.  We always enjoy catching up with each other and updating the news of our children.  Audrey bakes wedding and birthday cakes and I had brought her two bottles of clear vanilla from Mexico, which she was glad to get it because she said she had just run out of vanilla.   Audrey had crocheted a beautiful baby quilt for John and Bridgette, so we have another gift to deliver to Florida.   Audrey is anticipating double knee replacement surgery in June so we will be praying for her speedy recovery.

I drove over to Brazil for my last visit, which was with my old co-worker friend from our IMC days, Diane Braden.  As I left Linda's and turned onto what is now Hwy 40 bypass I guess, I saw my first live Indiana deer.

When I called Diane to tell her I was on my way, she said she was her grandson's "meals on wheels" and had to run over to the high school with some food for him because he had a baseball game after school, but she was home when I got there.  We shared old memories and laughed a lot.  It's always a pleasure to spend time with her.

With a threat of thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in the area, I headed back to Terre Haute for a White Castle hamburger stop, and then on to Vincennes.  Poor Joe hasn't yet had his White Castles -- in fact he seriously considered accompanying me today to Terre Haute just for the White Castles.    I made it home safely, it didn't even rain on me, and arrived at the house to more company -- Lori and Jim had driven down from Ft. Wayne.  Judy had cooked dinner tonight (stir-fry) but they had dinner over and the dishes all washed when I arrived (so I didn't have to circle the block for a while).  Everyone was tired so I don't think we played cards that night.

 When I walked in the house, Lori said, "Aunt Wilma, grab your camera, I'm going to make your blog."  So I did, and she took me outside.  To this empty crate.

The story is that Lori spotted a turtle crossing the road here at Lucille's, and Dixie told her to go rescue it for me.  However, the turtle, affectionately now named Houdini, escaped this "jail" and was no where to be seen.  But, Lori says it was this big.

We had thunderstorms during the night but nothing too alarming, and I believe Lucille's weather alarm has been unplugged (thank goodness!!!).

Tuesday I had lunch plans with Barbara and Sandy Ivers, another lifelong friend from my childhood days that we had seen briefly last week.  We took up space for a couple hours at "P Fections" and had a great time. Growing up, I spent a lot of time at Sandy's, both as a visitor and as a babysitter.  I rode to many basketball games with her family (she was a cheerleader my senior year when she was a freshman year, and she even remembered (which I had forgotten) that her parents allowed her to go to Junior Prom with her future husband, John Ivers, only if she rode to the prom with me, and then her mom picked her up (this was also during her freshman year).  My how time flies!

From there, Barbara dragged me into a Urologist's office (she said she made us an appointment), and once inside I learned that Sandy's sister, Jackie, worked at the front desk there, so we had a nice visit with her (and they didn't do any examinations on me).  After a drive through the cemetery to say hello to Barbara's parents and the many friends that she takes care of the graves of, we went back out to the house and Barbara came in to visit for a while and share her sunny nature with our family again.  Barbara now is a "front door" friend and no longer comes in the back door -- not sure if this is a step up or a step down, but she seems to think it worthy of note.

Lori cooked a delicious lasagne dinner for the 8 of us tonight, then Mike called and asked what was for dinner and did we have enough, so we stretched the meal out to take care of 13.  I've had that experience before -- I started breakfast last year for 5 and ended up with 19. We just never know how many we are feeding, but sometimes we end us with lots of leftovers.  Mike, Rachelle and the kids visited for a while but they still have 2 days of school left so they headed home and we started our nightly card game.  I picked up a package of coasters the other day with the suits of a deck of cards to help all of us remember what trump is.  Lucille is not overly willing to glance over at the coaster to see what suit is on top (she doesn't ever want us to think she might make a mistake) but we all tend to forget what trump is so it seems to be helping.  Since we lost all three games to Joe, Dixie and Judy, I'm thinking it might be helping the competition more than the other team (Lucille, Fred, and me).  But tomorrow night's another night, so maybe we will even the score.  We are scheduled to go back to Monroe City to Clayton and Mallory's baseball game on Wednesday evening, but the weather report is not very promising.  However, Bobe's Pizza is on the agenda for Wednesday, Lori's last night before she heads back to Ft. Wayne, so we will be going to town then.

For those wondering about last weekend's huge power ball lottery, Zephyrhills is just north of Tampa, Florida, and John and Bridgette live just east of Tampa in Seffner.  But he tells us they did NOT purchase their lottery ticket in Zephyrhills.  We will be heading that way next week (to arrive probably 3 weeks later) so we will see if he is holding out on us.

Clayton & Mallory's BB Game (Saturday)

Today was a pretty busy day.  Joe Myers drove down from Bloomington to pick up Cathy and Rachael -- Rachael was catching a flight back to Portland this afternoon.  Ashley stopped by with her boyfriend to drop of graduation announcements, but she didn't want to leave him (Chris) under Joe's influence too long, so it was a short visit.  Then we all went into town to partake of the semin-annual Wabash Valley Ribfest, offering ribs, brats, pulled pork and barbecued chicken.  They had closed off a block  and set up in the street, so we had lunch there.

There happened to be a garage sale along here so I bought some more books.  Joe keeps saying the supply of books we are traveling with ise probably going to fall out of the cabinets and crush us. 

Next, we drove over to Monroe City for today's Little League game featuring Clayton and Mallory, with Mike manning the pitching machine (the other coaches had to work today).  Clayton is the catcher and Mallory plays outfield.

Mike was the head coach today, and he suffered right along with Clayton.  From their positions, it appears "like father like son." 

Clayton got a couple of hits, made it to second base on the first one, and got the only RBI of the game on his second hit.  Mallory only got to bat once and she fouled off several balls but never got a hit.  Unfortunately, they lost 12-1.

Mallory is the smallest kid on the team, and Clayton isn't much bigger, but they both put forth a valiant effort. Lucille had made the fairly long walk from the parking lot over to the bleachers, but when the game was over, Joe went and got the car and came back the "authorized person only" road to pick her up so she didn't have to walk all the way back to the car.  He didn't bring his hat with him but no one threw him out so I guess that was ok.

From there, we headed over toward Petersburg in search of fresh strawberries.  We never found any, but did take a drive through the very pretty Pride's Creek Park.  We intended to cut back through Hazelton but didn't get out of Petersburg on the right highway (although we did find ice cream cones at McDonalds on this highway) so we ended up all the way down to Oakland City, then came back through Francisco and Princeton.  We drove through Decker and saw Judy Kay outside so we stopped and visited with her for a while.  But the gnats drove us back to the car and we finally made it home.  We heated up some leftovers and are calling it an early night. 

Kitchen Chairs (Friday)

Today's mission was to get two of Lucille's kitchen chairs repaired.  She has been nagging at Joe all week about these chairs and he told her he could not repair them.  I asked Barbara for a recommendation and she suggested the Senior Citizens Center here in Vincennes, which happens to have a very nice workshop.  Her husband had taken a rocking chair of hers in there for repair and they were very happy with the results.  So we loaded up the 2 chairs, and Barbara met us at the Center (she had already talked to the guy who runs the workshop).  We expect to have them back by the end of next week.  There are 6 chairs in the set (which are surely over 50 years old) and at least two more probably could use a little work -- tightening at the very least, so we will probably be bringing some more work to the Center. 

Joe left me with Barbara at the Center and he took his crew (Rachael and Cathy) on a scenic trip across the old Cannonball Bridge into Illinois, then on to Mt. Carmel.  Meanwhile, Barbara decided we would look up some old friends.  I got to visit Dee Parker, mother of one of my best friends from my growing-up days and whom I often babysat for, and her sister and the mother of one of my sister's classmates, Helen Carson.  Three of Dee's daughters came by while we were at her house, and Helen's daughter was there when we stopped in there, so it was a very good day.  We also stopped by another classmate, Toni Schultz Holmes, who we happened to see in her front yard.  Barbara was smoking a pork loin to take to her daughter's tomorrow for a grandchild's 8th-grade graduation party, so when she took it off the smoker, she fixed us a pork sandwich -- delicious. 

We headed back out to the country and she dropped me off after a quick visit with Lucille and the rest.  Judy had brought out a huge pork roast yesterday which we had cooked all day in two crockpots, so we had wonderful pulled pork sandwiches for dinner.  And then we played cards.  About 9:30, Mike's family stopped by on their way home from their Little League game (Clayton got a triple), but we did manage to get to bed about midnight.

Monroe City High School (Thursday)

Today I got to spend most of the day with my bestie Barbara Seitzinger Holscher.  I told Barbara one time that I have known her longer than any other person still alive.  (Actually, I told her she was the oldest person I knew, but that wasn't what I meant -- although she is quick to remind me, and tell other people, that is what I said!).  It was a little rainy here but Barbara said it poured in town as she was heading out.  Our agenda today was the Monroe City High School, which has been converted into a museum of that school as well as some of the surrounding feeder schools that eventually became South Knox.  I had brought with me from Arizona my high school class jacket from Decker and a framed photo of my sister's (Lana Joy Meuser Sullivan Clark) high school senior trip from Decker Chapel to donate to the museum.  Barbara had never been over here so we spent a great couple of hours looking through mementos from our past.

We looked in the gym first, which has been nicely renovated.  They have banners hanging from all the surrounding schools, so I got a picture of Barbara standing beneath our Decker Chapel banner.

I really like that they have done something with this old school.  All of us old Decker Chapel/Decker students wish we still had our old schools to visit.  They have made several of the classrooms at this Monroe City school into different areas of interest.  The best one is the Holiday Room, where they have individual tables of decorations for Christmas, Easter, Valentine's and Halloween (everything in here was donated and is for sale). 

Among other things, they also have a children's thrift store, an adult thrift store, a lending library, and a Country Store.

It thundered and lightninged (is that a word) while we were in the school, but we missed the worst of it by being inside this huge old building.  We finally headed back to town for lunch, then we stopped by to visit Max and Kay Steckler, my dad's employer when we lived at Decker Chapel.  We didn't see Max, and Kay was not having a very good day (we found her in a nursing home, but they have both been living in an assisted living facility where we stopped first.  She had been transferred over to the nursing home for rehab), so we didn't stay very long.  We stopped by Barbara's house for a while, then she took me back out to the country.  We still have many things on our agenda to do together, so I'm hoping this was just the first of several days I get to spend with her.

We had spaghetti for dinner and, of course we finished the night playing cards, staying up way too late. 

Vincennes/Pizza (Wednesday)

Wednesday morning we were visited in the RV by Cathy and Lucille.  Joe had just gotten out of bed, but we quickly made the bed and he gave his mother the grand tour.  Joe took his entourage (Rachael and Cathy) to town for breakfast/brunch/lunch (depending on what time it is), then they took a scenic drive through the St. Peter's area.  Dixie had bought some mulch so she played in the flower garden for a few hours.

Rachelle sent a text suggesting we go to pizza for dinner, so it was a Bobe's Pizza night.  I think there were 4 cars making that trip, in our car was Joe and I, Lucille and Dixie.  When we left Bobe's, Joe decided to drive down Main Street, then check out the river (Lucille was growling at him the whole time about driving INTO the river).  We could see that the river was back in its banks in most areas.  We had to skirt around Vincennes University, then we drove back down to the river at Kimmel Park, where the boat ramp is that we used to use.  Again, the river was back down, but in the low areas here it was still spilling over.

As we drove past VU, Joe suddenly stopped and backed up -- he said he had just seen the biggest watermelon he had ever seen in his life!

This is the one they drop on New Year's Eve.  According to Wikipedia, "General opinion, combined with nitrogen rich soils have led to southwestern Indiana to truly become the melon capitol of the world. Knox County, Indiana in particular has what is widely believed to be the best tasting watermelon, cantaloupe, and honey-dew melon in the world today. Though this honor is bestowed for taste, rather than volume of production."  When we were kids, we celebrated every summer with a watermelon festival and parade down Main Street in Vincennes.

We finished the night with another card game.  Bedtime, for some reason, has become about 2:00 a.m. here.  Now with the time difference, that's only 11:00 p.m. in Arizona, but I'm not sure this is working very good for us.  Because the time to rise and shine, for Joe, is sometime after 10:00 a.m.

Baseball Game (Tuesday)

We had a beautiful day here today, close to 90, a little breezy in the morning but windier in the afternoon.  Joe took Rachael and Cathy to town for breakfast and a grocery store stop.  Dixie made brownies and cooked up some chicken, and I made a big batch of chicken/rice burritos.  You never know who is going to stop by, so it's good to fix a lot.  Jaclyn called with information on Jayden's baseball game, so we decided to spend the night at the ball park.  Even Grandma went.  And we had our own cheering section in the stands.

This is the 5-8 year olds.  Jayden is No. 10.  He had a good night.  He got a hit his first time at bat, and got on first base.  His second at-bat, he got a hit but got thrown out at first, but he got an RBI out of that one.

Here's Mom, anxiously watching.

I don't think Adalyn was quite as much into it as her mom, especially after she found a hoppy toad in the sand.

They got behind 4-1, but a late rally in the 5th and 6th innings gave them a win, 8-6.  It was pretty windy here, but those little hard-shelled gnats were out in full force so we all spent some time batting.

We didn't eat dinner before the game, so we hurried home and put together our chicken burritos.  Adam and Jaclyn stopped by with the kids, and we enjoyed a nice visit with them.  Jayden found a baby bird on the ground that both he and Adalyn were fascinated by, and they played with Cathy's dog.  Dixie asked Adalyn if they called her "Adie" at school.  Adalyn responded, "no, they call me "bossy."  Obviously, she's got the Froeschke gene!

The card game didn't start until 10:30.  Both Lucille and I sat out this one, since they had 6 without us.  She headed upstairs to bed, and I went out to the RV to bed.  These late nights are hard on us old folks.

Vincennes (Monday)

At church yesterday, Sheryl invited me to join their regular Monday lunch with some of my  former Decker classmates, so I got to see a couple of them, and we shared a few laughs.  Meanwhile, Joe, along with Judy, took his mother to the doctor for her appointment.  I probably had a better time than he did.  Fred came out and joined Judy, and more family arrived in the afternoon -- Rachel, Cathy and Dixie.  I made a batch of coney sauce and potato salad, so food was available as people drifted in.  Even Mike and his family stopped by after the kids' baseball game, and we fed Mike too. 

Having some furnace issues today, so we had her propane filled but that didn't help, so we had to call a furnace repair man out.  Unfortunately, he didn't have the right parts with him.  Fortunately, it isn't too cold so the house didn't get too cold.  We are hoping he shows up today with parts, but we do have warmer weather in the forecast (along with the chance of thunderstorms, of course).  

With this many people,the evening entertainment was the euchre card game (6-handed this time).  A lot of laughs there too -- in fact, we had Fred in tears a couple of times.  A lot of confusion always goes on during these card games, along with a lot of conversation. This went on until about 11:00 p.m., then Fred and Judy went home, everyone inside went to find a bed, and we retired to the luxury of our RV. 

Back Home in Indiana (Sunday)

We spent a quiet evening Friday night with Lucille, and on Saturday Joe installed an outside electric box so we could hook up the RV to electricity.   Fred and Judy came by for a while.  Of course, Joe had to make a trip to town for parts, but Mike stopped by with Clayton after Clayton's baseball game Saturday morning and gave him a hand, along with Fred.  Rachelle dropped Mallory off (Mallory brought me my girl scout cookies), then Jaclyn dropped Jayden off so we got to see some of the kids.  Of course, another trip to town was necessary before Joe could finish his project, but he did get it finished so we now have the RV hooked up to Lucille's electricity without running off of extension cords like we've done in the past.

We decided Bobe's Pizza was for dinner, so Lucille, Fred, Joe and I went into town to eat, then we played cards for a while after we got back to the house.  Judy had to go to work so she missed out on all this, and we settled for 4-handed euchre.  During the course of the evening, Mike, Rachelle, Clayton, Mallory, Jayden, and Jaclyn all stopped back by. The twins have basketball games this weekend so we haven't got to see Tom and Carmen and their family yet.

Sunday morning we filled the pew at church.  It was good that Mike and Jaclyn both brought their families because the only little kids that went up for the children's sermon were their 4.  We saw some familiar faces at church, then headed to town for Sunday dinner at Ponderosa.  After we all ate too much, Judy went to church, and Joe, Lucille and I all came home and took naps.  But Lucille didn't rest long, and was back to her favorite pastime of playing solitaire when I came back in from the RV.

There was a Canadian goose (only one) in the field behind the house when I stepped out of the RV this morning, and as we turned into the driveway last night, Joe had to miss a turtle, so wildlife still abounds.  Sunny but cool here, only in the 50s and pretty breezy.  It doesn't get dark here until after 9:00 p.m., so that's taking a bit of getting used to.  A chance of frost tonight, and many farmers already have their cantaloupe plants out in the field so that would not be a good thing.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

We had a slow start this morning but finally got on the road about 11:15.  There were lilacs blooming in the campground, so I helped myself to a bouquet for the road.

 

We headed out on I-64 until we picked US 50, which took us right into Vincennes.  It was a nice day for a drive, a little overcast, until we neared the Indiana border, then we got into some showers.  As usual, Indiana was going to welcome us with clouds and rain.

Although the rivers in this part of the country have receded somewhat, the ground is absolutely saturated and they do not need another drop of rain right now.  We passed many fields with standing water, and many creeks still out of their banks. 

Lots of these fields have irrigation pivots in these flooded fields -- they sure won't need to use them for a while.

We are almost there!

We crossed the Red Skelton Bridge (our home-town most famous person), then the Wabash River.  It was running full, and the bottom ground next to it was still flooded.  Then we were in Indiana.  At 3:00 p.m. 

 We took the bypass around town, but it must have taken 5 minutes to get onto Decker Road -- I guess we hit "rush hour" traffic!  Then we got railroaded about 2 miles from the house.  All things Indiana.  We got there about 3:15, and found Lucille inside -- we think she was sleeping but she denies that.  It's good to be "home" and it's good to see Lucille.  And she's looking good!