Another Monday (5/4/15)

It's been a rough week.  Andrew and I both came down with some kind of stomach flu and were sick most of the week.  I had been thinking I wouldn't do a daily blog since we aren't traveling -- I don't need it to be a diary of our day -- so I thought maybe I would just do highlights now and then.  But there weren't many highlights last week.  After another (mis)diagnosis of an ear infection at urgent care, John got Andrew in to a new pediatrician on Friday (he couldn't get in to see his regular pediatrician, so now they have changed), they diagnosed him with the stomach flu.  He had a fever of 104 when he got in so the doctor took him serious.  He had vomited that morning.  Mine worked the opposite -- I had low fever and diarrhea.  But I think finally by Sunday we had both kicked it.

So Sunday we got to go out in their new pontoon boat.  That was a fun day.  We started getting ready to go about 8:00, it was a beautiful day, and the boat was wonderful, very roomy.

I think Joe and I had only been on one pontoon boat before, and we were really impressed with how roomy theirs is, how easy it is to move around, and how much more maneuverable it is.  When we are stopped, Shooter has plenty of room to play with his toys (lawn mower, water table, etc.).

 And of course he has to help Captain Dad drive every once in a while.

We went out to Davis Island and lauched into Tampa Bay where we fished for a little while (John caught a mackerel), but then headed up Hillsborough River, past the harbor where the big ships and cruise ships come in, to a water park right across the river from the beautiful University of Tampa (UT) campus where Professor Bridgette spends her work day.

University of Tampa Campus

Shooter loves the splash park here, and they have a dock where you can tie up your boat and walk right over.  There was some kind of event going on, but we just stayed by the splash park, where he was a regular fashion model in his fish suit.

We loaded back into the boat and sat there and ate our lunch before heading on upriver.

Eventually, we turned around and headed back to some mangrove trees at water's edge, which looked like possible fishing hideouts.  We didn't have our lines in the water very long before Joe hooked the first fish -- a catfish!  All the way from Arizona to Florida to catch catfish!!!!

Then I hooked one.  Andrew had been napping but all that excitement woke him up, and he was equally excited to see the fish coming in.  He even touched it (unlike his Arizona "girly-girly" cousin Kaylee who is always reluctant to touch the fish).

Then Joe caught another one.  Shooter liked playing with the shrimp (bait), and he would put them in his water table, but then he would throw them over the side -- chumming for his Grandpa, I think.  Joe finally hooked a different breed, a white croaker, and he put it in the water table, but when it jumped a little, it scared Shooter, so it went back in the water too.

Bridgette played with a needlefish for a while but didn't get it in the boat, and I hooked a large blue crab, but again, didn't get it in the boat (which was fine with me!).  We finally had to quit and head back to the boat ramp, but enroute we had an interesting encounter.  A huge tanker ship was coming into the port, and the Coast Guard  was stopping all boaters to allow a 500 yard safety zone around the tanker, which essentially closed the boating channel until it got turned into the port.  It probably took 30-45 minutes for it to move out of the channel.

We finally got the boat loaded, made the 30-minute drive back home, stopping off at a car wash to hose off the truck and boat, and unloaded everything.  We were all exhausted, so John and I ran out to pick up dinner.  Their neighbors walked over for a visit, so we got acquainted with them, but finally got to bed shortly after 9:00.  Exhausted.

Sunday was a nice end to a week that wasn't very.  Nice, that is.  With Joe trying to baby his foot, and me and Shooter being sick, we all just got through the days.  Joe and I certainly haven't set the world on fire here, but so far they are putting up with us.  Maybe we can earn our keep this week.  Joe is working on that faucet this morning, so maybe he can get that finished today. 

Next Sunday we are all heading over to the East Coast for a 5-day camping trip at Long Point Park near Melbourne Beach.  We will all be staying in the RV and taking the boat.  Should be fun, although John said last night there is some "tropical weather" maybe heading that way.  Great.  I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Our First Day Taking Care of Andrew (4-27-05)

Andrew stayed home with Grandpa and me today, so he ruled our day.  I got my laundry caught back up, and finished unloading stuff from the motorhome.  John is just thrilled with all the treasures I have loaded him down with -- his high school collection of baseball/basketball cards, his baseball bats from 3rd grade, etc.  And of course, he is excited about the saw and books Collins sent him.  Not so much the rest of the stuff.  But I told him I had been storing it for almost 30 years so it is now his turn.  I even found some of his Dukes of Hazzard matchbox cars for him to pass on to his son.

 

I tried to get Andrew down for a nap in the morning, but couldn't get him into a sound sleep.  So eventually, we went to Plan B.

We played inside and out, and all was going well until Grandpa decided to try to dig out their outside faucet to see where to tap into it to bring water to the back yard.  Unfortunately, he broke a water pipe and had water flooding the side yard before he figured out where to shut it off.  John got home just as we got it shut off, so we made a trip to Lowe's to cap it overnight.  Bridgette made her famous tacos for dinner, and when we finally had water again, we got our dishes cleaned up, baths taken, and another day in the books.

Road trip to Bass Pro (4-26-2015)

It seemed strange to not have an extra blanket on the bed last night, and digging out the shorts this morning, but a welcome change from that cold, Indiana weather.  The weather forecast was "windy, change of storms," so boating in their new pontoon boat was out.  Andrew played with the dogs as he got friendlier with us.

So after breakfast at Bob Evans, John drove us all over to Orlando to the Bass Pro shop.  Joe is trying to take it easy on his foot, but he managed to walk most of the store, checking out the depth finders with John, and fishing poles with Bridgette.  And Andrew had to look at EVERYTHING!  John bought boat bumpers and Bridgette got her fishing pole to catch the sheepheads fish that are her research project at University of Tampa.

Of course we had to check out the pontoon boats here, so Andrew got to practice his driving skills a little.

It rained while we were in the store, but was down to a sprinkle when we walked next door to Fuddruckers for lunch.  It was in a little strip mall, so we shopped it just a little before heading home.  

Andrew slept most of the way home, which was good because we hit a traffic jam and had to get off the freeway.   Of course, they still had their weekend chores to take care of, so John and I went to Costco and the grocery store while Grandpa Joe read to Andrew and Bridgette did her 9,000 things to do.  Andrew really enjoyed watching videos on Grandpa's Notebook.  Everyone was tired and they had work tomorrow, so we got to bed at a decent time.

Arriving at the Doctors Froeschke in Brandon, FL (4-25-2015)

Our night on the Cracker Barrel parking lot was quiet and uneventful, and we woke up early to start our last day of travel.  After breakfast and fueling ($2.259), we were on the road by 8:30.  It rained most of the night but quit during breakfast, the continued to rain off and on most of the day until we got a ways into Florida.  When it finally cleared off, it was a balmy 86 degrees, and we changed out of our jeans into shorts at one of our potty stops at the Florida rest areas.  I will have to say Florida does the rest area very nicely, they are about every 40 miles or so, and are easy on and off.  By the late afternoon, we were hitting every one of them. 

We stopped for a break at the Tifton, Georgia exit and walked around Adcock Pecan shop, which we had seen billboards for miles advertising it.  Pecans were very pricey there, but they had a nice shop.  $17.06 for 24 ounces. 

 

We walked around there for a little while, fueled ($2.329) and I walked across the parking lot to Little Caesars Pizza for a to-go pizza.  Then it was back on the road. We crossed the Florida state line at 2:20, pedal to the metal.  Joe suggested I drive at some point, but I didn't take him up on it -- traffic had gotten a little heavier, there was wind, some rain off and on.  And I was tired too, so he toughed it out.   

We arrived at John and Bridgette's about 6:10 p.m., very happy to be there!  Joe honked our big air horn and they came running out.  Joe drove 518 miles today, from about 10 hours in the drivers seat!  We moved vehicles around, unhooked our car, and Joe backed the RV into their driveway.  We will let it set here for the next month, and we began moving into a bedroom in the house.  We went out to grab some supper since we missed it by an hour at their house, then settled in for the night.  Andrew started warming up to us, but wasn't ready to let go of his mommy just yet.

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!!