Leaving Vincennes (4/24/2015)

Our morning started off with Joe's doctor's appointment, and we had great news.  The foot is healing -- not fully healed but far enough along that the doctor removed the cast and just put him in an ankle brace.  He was going to put him in a boot but decided he would probably do ok in just the ankle brace.  So we stored the knee walker in the back of the car, and 2 1/2 hours later, we were good to go.

We got out of the doctor's office about 11:00, made a stop for sodas, then got back to the house and finalized our unplugging and hooking up.  Fred stopped by to say goodbye, and Don Wagoner was mowing when we pulled out, but we were on the road just about 12:00 noon.  We drove back to the Pilot at Haubstadt to dump our tanks (fortunately, we got through our time at Lucille's without having to find a campground dump), fueled ($2.269 with our 3 cents discount), and headed on into Evansville for lunch at -- White Castle, of course.

We crossed the Indiana/Kentucky state line about 2:00 (1:00 Ky time), and just kept moving.  We hit the Tennessee state line about an hour later, and Nashville just before 3:00 (or 4:00, depending which time zone Nashville is in).  We had been warned about construction back-ups in Nashville and debated about taking the bypass, but Joe decided just to risk it and drove straight through on I-24.  Of course, as soon as we passed the exit for the bypass, we hit the stopped traffic.  It gook us about 45 minutes to get through, not too bad, especially at 4:00 on a Friday, and it gave me time to take some photos.  Even though we had toured Nashville a couple years ago and I had some of these pictures already, I took just a few.

The AT&T Building, aka the Batman Building, on the left.

The Tennessee Titans Football Stadium

 The Cumberland River, which cuts right through the City of Nashville.

I also caught this monster truck on this flatbed semi trailer.  Behind the truck are gigantic tires -- I don't know if they mount them on that pickup or not, but I'm guessing they might.  That should be a sight to see!

Being stuck in traffic affords better photo opportunities than normal.

Once we cleared Nashville and left the construction zones behind, we got back up to speed.  We crossed into Georgia about 7:45 (somewhere we switched back to Eastern Time Zone), and Joe kept driving until just before dark.  We pulled off for the night in Calhoun, Georgia, on a Cracker Barrel parking lot.  We ate dinner in the restaurant and got permission to stay camp overnight there.

The weather was nice today, overcast but in the 70s, with just a little wind.  It sprinkled just as it started getting dark, but not enough to even turn on the wipers.  We do have bugs on the windshield, though.  I don't know if we can skip that little job in the morning or not, but I'm thinking Joe should not be on a ladder, so that leaves me.

Joe drove 384 miles today, which was really good considering we didn't get on the road until noon.  We only fueled once, but will have to do that first thing in the morning.  We are both delighted that he has two working feet again, and are eagerly looking forward to getting to John and Bridgette's -- hopefully tomorrow -- to see our GRANDSON!    

Last few days in Vincennes (April 23)

The days are going fast here, as the birthday celebration week winds down.  Jim, Dixie, Joe and I had breakfast together on Monday at Dot's.  The weather has turned cold again, just as I thought I would put away the jeans and sweatshirts.   Joe and I drove Cathy and Joy into town to pick up their rental car in the afternoon, and then they made shrimp scampi for dinner.  Jaclyn and Jayden came out, and Mike stopped by with his family.  And we had our last night of euchre. While we were playing cards, Lucille finally got up her nerve to try out Joe's knee walker -- she had been eying it ever since we got here, trying to figure out how to make it work.  She got on it, but she didn't go anywhere!

Tuesday, Cathy and Joy left about 7:20 for Indianapolis airport.  Joe came down with a cold last night so we had to cancel our plans to meet Ed and Nancy Williams in Terre Haute for lunch.  Joe began taking cold medicine and tried to stay away from everyone so he didn't pass it on.  I finally made it to Oaktown to put some flowers on my sister's grave.  It was another chilly, windy day.

I had an interesting experience at Taco Bell.  A guy stopped by my table as he was leaving and asked me if I liked animals.  Without trying to engage in conversation, I just said yes.  He asked if I had ever seen a dog wearing sunglasses, and invited me to stop by his 'silver van' with my camera to see his dog.  Well, that started my alarm bells ringing, so I dallied a little before going out.  When I got ready to leave, I saw that he was parked one vacant space over from my car, he was in the passenger seat, and sure enough, his dog had sunglasses on.  I hurriedly unlocked my car and got in, but I did snap a picture when I was safely locked in my own car.  Then I carefully vacated that parking lot, keeping an eye out for any silver vans to make sure he didn't follow me.

I have been gathering old photos from all over Lucille's house to put into a "Family Album" scrapbook, and most of them I am taking into Walmart to copy.  Some of the ones I had today were professional, and even though they were 50-60 years old, Walmart wouldn't let me copy them.  Jaclyn gave me several of Tom so I was able to copy most of them, and the other ones I took a picture of, then printed them at Walgreen's.  I have to figure out how to get copies of some of those old professional photos because I don't want to put the originals in the scrapbook.

Dixie began packing up for their trip home tomorrow, so Judy brought out Kentucky Fried Chicken and we had our final night of visiting.  Tom and Carmen stopped by with cookies (I kept telling Lucille that Carmen brought them for me, but Lucille wasn't having any of that.)  Mike and Rachelle also stopped by with their kids, so it was another busy night.  Rachelle is doctoring her leg from her accident last Friday when she took a wrong step off the school bus (field trip) and torn some of the tendons in the calf of her leg.  Just what we need here, one more crippled!

Wednesday was a busy morning.  Lucille was awake early (which we all expected), yelling upstairs at Dixie to get up.  I fixed breakfast while Dixie finished packing, then we got them loaded up and on their way.  Lucille received approximately 75 birthday cards here, and we are pretty sure there are more still coming, and more awaiting her arrival in Ft. Wayne.  She enjoys looking at them and having the names read to her.

They left about 11:30, but Lucille knows she will be back in June.  Once they were gone, I started gathering up our stuff so we could close the house down.  I got our laundry caught back up, and Judy came out and vacuumed and dusted.  Joe and I drove into town for a quick lunch at Knights of Columbus -- we shared another tenderloin!

We had plans to go to Mt. Carmel tonight to The Church Basement Ladies play in "The Last Potluck Supper" with Barbara and several people from church.  Judy came back out and Barbara picked us up at 6:45, but it was a late night since Mt. Carmel is an hour behind us.  Barbara took us the scenic route, across the old Cannonball bridge.  The wind blew strongly all day long.  I keep trying to burn the trash but so far the wind has prevented that. 

 The play was entertaining, and we got home about 11:30, way past my bedtime.

On Thusday, when I got up, the wind had finally stopped so at 7:30 in the morning, I was at the trashpit starting my fire.  Joe and I met Barbara for breakfast, then fueled our car and came back out to the house.  Judy came by again and we finished closing down the house, then Joe and I got a little rest.  And the wind is storng again, rocking and rolling our RV. 

Tonight we had our last Bobe's pizza, with some of our classmates -- Barbara and Maurice, Mike and Donna Carter, Denny and Barbara Ellerman, Nancee and John Truelove.  Barbara surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of lilacs.

 

We had a fun evening, lots of memories and laughter.  And tomorrow, hopefully, we will be on our way to Florida by noon.  We've had a great time here, seen lots of family and friends, and got that 99th birthday celebrated, as well as my 50th class reunion.  It's been a busy 2 1/2 weeks!

Sunday (April 19)

I woke up to raindrops this morning, but no storm, thank goodness!  Paul, Becky and Natalie headed out early (7:20 a.m.) to meet Paul's high school friend Kirk in Louisville for breakfast, then drive on back to their home in Charlotte, NC.  Brenda also headed out, back to Ft. Wayne. The rest of us went to church, dodging raindrops.  After church, we came back to the house, but then we had a wedding shower of Emily Bloebaum and Jake Horrall  at the church parish hall, including lunch, at 1:00 so the ladies headed back down there, and Joe and Jim went to Princeton for lunch. 

The shower was lovely, the decorations, the luncheon, everything.  And they got a ton of wonderful gifts.  The rain was intermittent all day long.  We got back to the house, and we all got some rest.  Rachelle had volunteered to bring dinner, which was delicious, so we didn't even have to cook.  We concluded the night with a few card games (Fred, Judy, Cathy, Dixie, Joe and myself) then we all headed to bed.   I think we are finally done with the birthday celebration.  And with the 50th year class reunion.  We have a few loose ends to tie up this week, including Joe's doctor appointment on Friday, then we hope to head to Florida to see John, Bridgette and Andrew!  And I'm ready!

Decker Chapel Alumni (April 18)

As soon as Joe and I got up Saturday, we headed to town for fuel (gas went up again, we paid $2.349), then to Princeton to McDonalds, then Walmart.  The house was still locked so we didn't even go in before we left.  I didn't find the exact same picture frame, or a piece of glass, but I did find one I liked so we got that job over with in short order. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I "recreated" one here -- just not the same frame.  The picture is of the Decker Chapel emblem from my sister's 1962 class jacket.


We got back to the house just as Mom was finishing breakfast, and Joe and Cathy came out to the RV to help me finish putting my auction picture together.  The Croxtons decided on a family picture, so we all adjourned to the front porch for picture taking.

And of course, we had to take a group picture.  Lori, Sonia and Ara left right after we concluded the picture-taking (about 12:15), and Jan and D.C. left a couple hours later.

We heated up the leftover coney sauce for some lunch for some of us, the others headed into town for tenderloins (guess who came up with that idea!).  The Alumni president had suggested that someone from our class say a few words at the meeting, and since I couldn't talk Barbara into it, I had to go work on a short speech.  Then it was time to get ready and head back to Decker Chapel.

We did manage to take a group picture of our classmates here, with the exception of Sandy Deckard who left before the dinner.  But we had 4 others from the 1965 class, Anne Robinson, Barbara Seitzinger, Mike Horrall and myself.

 Barbara is always trying to get close to Mike Horrall (last year she cut me out of the picture we took of the three of us), so I tried to push her out of our little group picture.  In front of the "50" is a memorial candle she brought in honor of Donnie Woodward, who never actually attended Decker Chapel but moved into a house right past the school the summer we consolidated with Decker.

Although Joe didn't ever attend Decker Chapel, there were 3 of his classmates there who had, Mike Carter, Ken Snider and Danny McCrary.  Barbara and Anne joined old boyfriend Danny for a picture.

We had a good time visiting with people we don't see very often, some we hadn't seen for more than 50 years.  Joe Myers did a retrofit of the word "Chapel" on our Decker Aces sign from last week's reunion, so we used it as a table decoration.  And my auction piece went for $100!!

 

Birthday Party Day - April 17, 2015

I started off my day by checking the lilacs, and I have my first picking!  Placed right next to my computer, life is good.

I was up early and got 2 loads of laundry started before the house began awakening, except Jim, who is an early bird like me. Paul was up and gone even before I got up, on his way to Indianapolis to pick up his wife and daughter. Joe, Cathy, Jim and Joy headed to town for breakfast, but I had a mission of my own this morning, I wanted to get down to Princeton to visit my families' graves, and I am meeting Barbara at the Decker Chapel Community Center to help decorate for tomorrow night's Decker Chapel Alumni.

Maple Hill Cemetery is not being kept up very well, the roads through the cemetery are full of potholes, and it doesn't look like they have mowed here yet this spring, although we have had a lot of rain and it just might not be dry enough.  I never have any gardening tools with me, so I just add my little bouquets to the headstones.  My first stop was my mother's grave, followed by my father's.

I also made stops at my grandparents' graves, an aunt, a great uncle, and my sister that was born dead. 

From there I headed to Decker Chapel and spent a couple hours visiting and decorating, putting tablecloths on tables, etc. The Alumni president had received photos from some of the alumni and I came up with the idea of putting them into a scrapbook-sized 3-ring binder.  I happened to have one in the car with me, but I decided to run into town to see if I could find a red one.  Also, I had come up with an idea for an auction donation, so I needed some supplies for that.  After a stop at JoAnn's Fabrics, and Walmart of course, I got back to the house just as the birthday party got underway.

 I didn't try to count the attendees, but we had a house/carport full, with lots of children running around.  We had Bobe's pizza and salad, then Lucille blew out the candles and we cut the birthday cake.

 

She had to blow out the candles several times for pictures, so it was good that we only had two candles instead of 99.

It was a lively evening, lots of family and extended family around.  She got several gifts, including boxes of chocolates that she wasn't inclined to share.  But she loves entertaining her family and friends, so it was a good party.

 I went out to the RV to work on the the scrapbook for the Alumni photos as well as my auction donation -- a picture of the Decker Chapel emblem from my sister's 1962 class jacket.  I framed it and it really turned out looking very realistic (I forgot to take a picture of the finished product).  But during that process, I managed to drop the glass in the picture frame, so I couldn't finish it.  The red background in this photo is the actual scrapbook album I used for the Alumni pictures.  I had expert help from Joe Myers.  It's a real perk to have talented family around, as wel as computer geeks. 

 
I know I bought the last one of these picture frames in Walmart, and Vincennes does not have many options for shopping.  Joe suggested we drive back to Princeton in the morning to see if we could get another picture frame like the one I bought today.  So I wasn't able to get my project finished, and another trip is on tomorrow's agenda.

I invited Carmen out to see our RV, even though I had left everything in a mess from all my creative processes.  Eventually, Tom joined us, then Mike, and then William, so we ended up with a camper full of people.  It was a late night, but a good birthday!

Birthday and Terre Haute (April 16, 2015)

Today is finally the big day.  Lucille turns 99 today, and Cathy celebrated with 99 roses for her, to add to the bouquet from Collins and Marilyn.  Lori also added a dozen yellow roses, so the house is looking GOOD!

So while birthday events were underway, Joe and I took off for a day in Terre Haute, visiting friends from our past.  Our first visit was with Audrey Williams, who had just been to the doctor and wasn't feeling 100%. Her heart had gotten out of rhythm and she had gotten medication on Monday for that, and today she got a shot for her kidney function.  It is tough getting older!

Audrey had her spring/Easter decorations out, and we spent some time looking at recent pictures of her grandkids -- she has 12.

We stopped for lunch, then drove over to Brazil to see Diane Braden, who had just had a mastectomy two weeks ago.  In addition, Diane was suffering from an upper respiratory infection, and her cough from that just exhausts her.  It was fun catching up with her, but we tried not to wear her out. 

We had one more visit to make, but we took to time to drive by the house that we had built -- we always like to check on it.

Our next stop was my college roommate, Linda Chaido and her husband Tom.  Thankfully, both of them were healthy and spry.  We had a great visit with them, and I had some pictures of Linda from our college days to give her.

I meant to take a photo of the wall picture behind us -- it's an artistic rendition of photos spelling out their last name -- very creative.  But I forgot.

When we left there, we drove right past beautiful Deming Park, so we decided to drive through there.  Tiffany had a white duck when she was little, and when we got ready to move to the house we built (pictured above), we released Yakky Doodle in Deming Park.  Well, I think Yakky had a good life, and was busy -- we think we found her grandchildren.

Tom and Linda had talked about all the improvements in downtown Terre Haute, so Joe decided to drive down Wabash Avenue and look it over.  It is refreshing to see a downtown being revitalized, with new businesses (mostly small, specialty shops), and lots of restaurants with sidewalk tables.  Linda remarked that college kids today are different than we were -- they have money to spend.  

Our last Terre Haute stop was, of course, the White Castle Hamburger place.  Joe's been wanting White Castles ever since we left home, and Joy and Lori had actually stopped last night and picked up a bag, so Joe had gotten a taste (he didn't tell me how many he ate, but it was more than one -- I didn't eat any).  So we had dinner here -- made Joe one happy camper.

We missed out on dinner at Lucille's though, Jaclyn made coney sauce and Dixie bought 40 hotdogs/buns -- which were all gone by the time we got home.  And there were brownies, to go along with the 2 cakes from the day before.  When we arrived, everyone was sitting outside enjoying the weather, and the kids were playing baseball.  Then Lucille got a happy birthday phone call from her sister Nellie, in Florida.

Another euchre night, which keeps us up until midnight at least, although Lucille goes to bed before we stop playing -- she seems to sleep through our noise.

Although the birthday was today, we are having the party tomorrow, to allow more family to arrive for the big occasion.  So another day of partying is in store.