Rendevous (Sunday)

I heard my picture of Kaylee's 6th graduation did not post, so I'll try that again. I don't know how to enlarge it since it was sent from a smart phone, but I think it should show up this time.

 

Saturday night was a short night but we had plans today too, so we had to get on the move.  Joe M., Cathy, Joe and I skipped church and headed into town for breakfast and then off to the Spirit of Vincennes Rendevousb (37th Annual). As usual, we encountered more farm equipment taking up more than their half of the road.

The Rendevous is a weekend celebrating Vincennes' historical part in the Revolutionary War on the banks of the Wabash River, right next to the George Rogers Clark Memorial (the romantic site of Joe's and my engagement).
 

The Rendevous is quite an event for historic Vincennes, Indiana's oldest city.  We also have Grouseland here, the home of President William Henry Harrison, the first Indiana Territory Governor and 9th President of the United States.     Vincennes has not done a very good job of "exploiting" or advertising its place in history, but the Rendevous is pretty well done.  According to the literature:

       "At 10 a.m., Thurs., Feb. 25, 1779, British Lt. Gov. Henry Hamilton surrendered his garrison of 80 soldiers after a siege which lasted less than two days. The victor, Lt. Col. Clark, had led an army of 170 Americans and French-Canadians across the flooded area of present-day southern Illinois in a march to Vincennes.
The Spirit of Vincennes Rendezvous is designed to bring back to life the sights, sounds, and smells of late 18^th century and early 19^th century Vincennes"

We had never been to this, and we really enjoyed it.  We walked through the encampment where many of the participants camp for the weekend, then we made our way over to where they were shooting off a cannon, and watched the first of the Battles.

In addition to the participants of the battles, lots of people were dressed in period costumes, including kids, and we saw a few "Indians" in full paint.

We encountered some soldiers on the way to the first battle of the day, and we had been hearing the cannon shots already.

 We passed a lady cooking flapjacks over the fire, and a couple guys making breakfast frajitas (I asked how they were different from breakfast burritos, and they said they couldn't spell burritos).

We passed this green/red flag and thought maybe it was French or something, but we were told it was George Rogers Clark's flag.

We walked over to check out the cannon.  There were oxen over here, and we later saw kids riding in oxen-drawn carts.  

It had started to sprinkle as we prepared to watch the first battle.  Joe M. is taking a picture of me in my neon green raincoat (they dubbed me "Colonial Wilma" but he hasn't sent me the picture yet").  I called them "We of the Umbrella" (as in We the People).

And then the battle began.  There was a lot of smoke from the muzzle loaders and rifles, and casualties on both sides, but our side won.

Next we wandered through the aisles and checked out some of the booths.  All items for sale were "period items," but they were interesting.  I bought some scissors, and a coffee mug for my collection.

Another friend from my school days, Anne Robinson Saxe, hooked up with me for a while.  She and her husband were coming back from graduation activities in Georgia, on their way to their home in Madison, Indiana.  We had not seen each other probably since high school, so we enjoyed our time together.  This year's trip to Vincennes has really been a walk down memory lane for me because I have gotten to see so many people from my childhood.

We enjoyed some of the wide variety of food served (ham & beans, corn on the cob, pie from St. Peters Lutheran Church, strawberry shortcake, pork sandwich), then went back over for the second and final battle.  They had a cannon demonstration before the battle started.

The outcome of the second battle was the same as the first, although we were told that we (the Congressional Army) is not always the victor.  Again, there were lots of smoke, the enemies' cannon would not fire and they tried to negotiate a surrender, but that didn't work out.

There was a real cutie right down the bleachers from us -- we thought he would be a fine "Little Shooter."

We finally headed out but we had spent the bulk of the day here.  We had to stop at the grocery on the way home so Joe M. could get the ingredients for a rhubarb/strawberry pie he wanted to make, and Cathy picked up the makings of lunch meat sandwiches for dinner.  Fred and Judy came out and we did get in 3 hands of cards, but we were all pretty tired.  We are just having too much fun -- we need a day of rest.

Graduation Parties (Sat.)

Today was a busy day.  First of all, it's Cathy's birthday.  It was a very full day but we eventually got around to celebrating the birthday. I found her the perfect t-shirt at my great little antique/flea market store in Princeton that I discovered the other day, which btw is called "Finders Keepers."  In case you can't read it, it is a "Red Solo Cup, I fill you up, let's have a party" t-shirt -- I thought it was spot on for Cathy.

This is graduation season and we had two to celebrate today.  Our nephew Bobby Sullivan (who lives here in Emison) had a son (Braydon) graduating from North Knox Friday night, and our nephew Tom Froeschke had a daughter (Ashley) graduating from South Knox today.  We missed the Friday night graduation, but Joe went to Ashley's graduation along with Lucille, Jim, Dixie, Joe M. and Cathy.  At the same time, I headed into town for a picnic to celebrate Braydon's graduation with my nieces and nephew, and their families.

Braydon got a scholastic diploma and plans to go to VU this fall.

It was great to see Bobby and his family again -- it had been a few years since we had been together.  And his sisters enjoyed spending some time with all of them too.

Holly and her son Jayden, along with her new husband, Brad Dane, were here, and Amber was here with Julian and Emma and a couple of her friends.  Michael and Dana had brought all three grandkids with them from Chatanooga for the picnic (Jayden lives in Vincennes and Julian and Emma live in Arizona), and his mother, who lives in Vincennes, joined us.  Bobby and Jennifer had their granddaughter, Gracelyn, with them since the mother (Tasha) was at work, and their younger daughter, Haley were also here. 

Stacy's husband, Bob, did not join us because he had gone to Evansville to buy a new Harley.  We hoped he would stop by to show it off, but I guess he had to take it to the "chrome" shop so maybe he didn't bring it home.

The kids (and adults) spent a little time on the playground together.

After we had out chicken, potato salad, bean salad, baked beans, chips, brownies and graduation cake, we headed out to the next party, which was down at Decker Chapel -- Ashley's graduation party.  On the way, we came upon this tractor pulling 4 nitrogen fertilizer tanks -- thankfully it did not pull out in front of us.

Everyone had already begun eating at Tommy's when we arrived, so we visited a little while, then the big volley ball game began.

Joe watched for a while, then decided he needed to participate.  Fortunately, Ashley's boyfriend is an EMT and he was there, so I didn't worry too much.

Joe gave it up before he got hurt, although he may not be able to get out of bed in the morning.  Next on the agenda, in honor of Cathy's birthday, was chicken dinner at Ireland, Indiana -- a little town about an hour away that Joe and I had never been to before.  We took a scenic drive through rural Indiana, and had a nice meal at The Chicken Place.

By now it's getting on toward 9:00 p.m., but the town of Jasper is just a few miles on down the road, and Joe and I don't think we have ever been here before either, so we did a little scenic drive through town.  Cathy said this is probably one of Indiana's prettiest towns, and it was very well kept.  We never saw any residential areas that were not well kept, lawns mowed, houses painted, etc.  The courthouse alone was pretty grand, and a Catholic Church on down the street was also exceptional.  The third picture is a historic grist mill right on the Patoka River here (it was closed). 

We finally headed home, it was just getting dark and Joe spotted a deer right beside the road (I missed it).  We had left a vehicle at Tommy's so we had to detour back to his house to pick that up.  By the time we got home it was about 11:00, just about 12 hours since we left this morning.  But the day wasn't over yet.  Jim, Dixie and Lucille got back about an hour before we did.  Jim and Lucille had gone on up to bed, but Dixie had birthday cake with candles all ready for Cathy, so we then had some angel food cake with fresh strawberries, and Joe M. and Cathy had a glass of wine. 

It was a fun day but we were all pretty tired.  The bed felt pretty good!

Shopping/Class Get Together (Fri.)

A cold front came through here last night and I woke up to a brisk 46 degrees on Friday.  This was my day to run errands.  I hadn't really had a day to do this since we've been here, and my list was growing.  Joe had a short list himself (haircut and search for fresh strawberries).  I wanted to get my car washed since I had Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana bugs on it, but car washes are not a booming industry in Vincennes.  I found one, took me 3 attempts to enter it the right way, and then there were seven cars in front of me (it was just a drive through, no vacuuming), so I opted out of that line and headed out to Lowes.  After Lowes, I stopped in Bobe's Pizza for a quick lunch, got in line at the car wash again, this time on the first try, but again there were 7 cars in front of me so as soon as I cleared the buildings and had a clear route to the alley, I bailed again.  I had some photos to print at Walmart, and a few groceries to pick up, so I got that done and headed back out.

I found Dixie at her favorite therapy, mulching the flower beds.  She said she gets more enjoyment out of seeing the plants coming up and growing than she does in their blooming phase -- I guess you just can't take the farm girl out of the country, no matter how many years she's been gone.

Lucille was inside at the sink, I think this is her favorite past-time, next to playing cards. 

And Jim was just chilling.

Fred came out to retrieve his missing phone.  Judy was at work so he was on his own.  We had dinner plans with some of our ex-classmates (I was going to say "old" but thought better of it), and the house crew was going in to KFC.

We had a very nice dinner at Braytons -- I think there were 12 of us, so we had a lot of laughs and updates on everyone's families.  Unfortunately, one of my favorite couples, Mike and Donna Carter, was unable to join us because he's in the hospital, so that was sad.  But he's hoping to get out in the next day or so, and we pray for his recovery (he was diagnosed with A-fib, which seems to be hitting several of our friends).

When we left the house, I had Joe stop and I ran back inside to get my camera.  But then I forgot to take a single picture while we were there with our classmates.  My bad.  I really hate that, but I'm as forgetful as the rest of the crew here so I'll have to wait until next time.

Meanwhile, exciting news from Ft. Wayne.  Angie and Tim's boy, Xavier, won his age division in the Hit/Pitch/Run competition and has advanced to the MLB regional pitch Hit/Run competition.  He is one of only 4 Finalists that scored to qualify to advance and will play on the Chicago White Sox field on June 8. 

Congrats and good luck to Xavier.

Farming (Thursday)

Thursday morning, Lori left about 9:00 a.m., armed with her leftovers -- 1/2 tenderloin sandwich, 2 pieces of Bobe's Pizza, and a bottle of water. After Lori left, Lucille took us out for breakfast at Dennys, then we made a quick stop at Rural King for some rope. The next "fix it" project in the house is replastering a section in the front room right under the window, which we have found someone to do. But a bookcase sits right next to this window (one Joe actually built in high school, that has to be wired to the wall), so it had to be moved out. It is now roped to the piano, but the rope they found in the basement was too musty-smelling to live with, so Joe was on the search for new rope. Which he found, and now the bookcase is roped to the piano with clean, new rope that doesn't smell like the basement.


I made Judy a batch of fudge (which she is addicted to), but Lucille really didn't think this was the right time of year to make fudge. Fred came out for a while, and accidentally left his phone, so Jim got to be his secretary for a day until he figured out where it was and came back to retrieve it. Southern Indiana is growing -- this is the beginning of the farming season and crops are coming up. We pass a watermelon field on our way into town, and Lucille likes to see if the plants are standing up. They plant them in 3-row bands through strips of plastic -- the process has changed a lot since her day in the fields. Now they order most of their plants whereas they started them from seeds in hothouses when she and Willy farmed.
  Another crop grown right along this road is potatoes, and those fields are in full bloom right now. A lot of the melon farms have switched to grain, at least partially, because it is so difficult to get adequate labor. So wheat and corn are also abundant. I don't know if the corn will be "knee high by the 4th of July" which is the old saying around here because they have had such a cool, rainy spring
. You have to be prepared to give up the road at any minute -- you never know what you will meet. This guy was coming down the middle of the road right at me, but he did move over a little (sometimes they don't and I have to take the grass)
.
 I came across Watermelon Road and found a field of cantaloupes that Lucille has been trying to keep her eye on. They are also blooming.


 
 I tried to take a nap out in the RV in the afternoon, but there was a lot of activity outside that kept waking me up. Dixie had sent Jim and Joe to town for more mulch, and there must have been a great debate about unloading it, right outside my bedroom in the RV. Then Don came to mow the grass and it sounded like a train coming between the RV and the house. Then another big conversation took place outside. And during all this, Joe had come inside the RV and brought in the front slide so Don could mow, and then Judy came in and dropped off a gift for John and Bridgette. I finally just gave up and came inside, not sure I felt very rested. Dixie cooked a pot of ham and beans today so we were well fed. Jaclyn stopped by with her kids in the evening, and brought Ice Cream Balls from Lics (delicious), and Adam joined them when he got back from his day in Indianapolis, so we all had a nice visit with the Ray family.