To Lexington, Kentucky

 6-24-2021 - Thursday

Sadly, we left our Ft. Wayne family and headed down the road this morning.  The good thing is that we are now getting closer to the Florida grandkids.  We didn't have sewer at our campsite, so after we got dumped, we were on the road by 8:50.  It was 64 degrees this morning, but got to 86 by end of day (in Kentucky).  We followed Dixie's directions and got out of town without incident, and headed across the country.  

We fueled in Ft. Wayne, right after we left this morning, for $3.159.  Joe had noticed all the stations in Ft. Wayne seemed to have the same price.  In Ohio, we saw gas for $2.899, then $2.889.  It ticked him off -- he was ready to dump that tank and buy it again!  Then in the next town, North Star, gas was $2.859.  I said, "I'm not going to tell you gas here is $2.85."  He said, "I saw it, but I wasn't going to tell you either."

We passed Grand Lake in Celina, Ohio, a huge, beautiful lake right at the edge of town, and right next to the highway.  Joe thinks he remembers a bad tornado destroying part of Celina some years ago.  

We crossed the Ohio state line at 9:40, and found Hwy 127 before Dayton which kept us off the interstate until just before Cincinnati, so we enjoyed seeing the farm ground.  The farmers are in the fields now, and on the roads in front of us.  The corn and wheat are getting a little taller as we head south.  But no lilacs any more.  Sadly.

Not all of these little towns have the hanging baskets, but some do.  One town had big pots of flowers on the main street through town. 

 Another, Rockford, had a ice cream store with a roof full of flowers.

As we are cruising along, Joe points out a big rooster statue on his side of the road.  I tried to get a picture, but just got a picture of him instead.

I told him he needed to give me more warning so I could grab the camera.  He immediately yelled, "car on post, car on post."  I got that picture!  (It helped that it was on my side of the road.)

We passed another huge building back off the highway a little.  I thought maybe it was a Morman temple because I could see a gold cross on top, but the sign said it was a Senior Living Center.  Very nice looking.

Things were going well, we were making good time, then we come to this!

It took us west about 5 miles, through some little town, Anastoria, or something like that.  Joe mumbled, "We weren't supposed to go to Anastoria today.  It wasn't on the schedule."  The detour brought us down state road 49 to Hamilton, then we cut over to I-75.  That turned out to be a wonderful thing, because look what Joe found, right on the highway.

Joe had said he thought he would like to take a break before tackling Cincinnati, so we had been looking for a restaurant, but he hit the jackpot, cause that's what he really wanted.  And it turned out to be a good thing, because Cincinnati was a problem.  We got along fine until we got to the last 5 miles before the bridge over the Ohio River, and then traffic came to a halt.  It took us over an hour to go those 5 miles.  It took a long time to even to get to the split of I-75 and I-71, but even that didn't improve our two lanes.

  And there was almost a wreck in the I-71 lanes.  It was moving a lot better than ours and cars and trucks were flying through there, then all of a sudden it slowed down too, and one car had to slam on the brakes.  He must have been going 60+ and traffic was a complete stop.  He burned some rubber and managed not to swerve into our lanes but it was a close call.  

We finally got close to the river.  I kept looking for the baseball stadium, and thought I found it, but it turned out to be TQL Stadium, a soccer-specific stadium opened May 16, 2021, with a seating capacity of 26,000.  We couldn't see it very well but it looked pretty impressive.

 I finally got a partial shot of what I think is Great American Ball Park, where the Cincinnati Reds play.  We used to come over to Riverfront Stadium to watch them when we lived in Terre Haute -- they were "our" team (Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, etc.).  I'm not sure if this is the right place (can't see the red seats), but it was at the exit to the stadium.  And I had plenty of time for pictures along here, just didn't have a good view.

I even got a shot of downtown Cincinnati.

We finally got to the river, and the source of the traffic problem.  They are sandblasting and painting the bridge, have it completely covered, and the four lanes of traffic reduced to two.  So now it's like a tunnel.

I got just a glimpse of the river before we entered the covered bridge.

Finally, finally we crossed into Kentucky at 1:55.  It's only about 40 miles from Hamilton (White Castle) to the state line, and it took us 1 hour and 25 minutes.  The back up in the lanes going the other way, going into Cincinnati, was about 6 miles, possibly more.  But we were moving good now.

By this time, Joe thought Lexington sounded like a good place to stop for the night, about 80 miles more.  There is little camping that I found in that area, a horse park with bad reviews (unlevel, muddy if it rains), and a state park I called and found they will be closed until August due to flooding from March.  So we ended up at a Cabela's again, our new best friend on this trip.

One potential problem here, when we turned off the interstate and onto the road to the campground, we came upon this sign.  Joe said, "And they think they have TRAFFIC problems."  

That could be worse than a thunderstorm!  There's a lot of construction in this area, so we will see if we get disturbed tonight.  We pulled into a long parking spot in the designated area, and took a nap.  When we got up, there was a 5th wheel angle-parked right in front of our RV, and a guy with a hose over at an irrigation box right beside us.  Joe kept trying to figure out what he was doing -- finally decided he was filling up his water tank on the 5th wheel -- stealing water?  We had read there used to be a dump station at this Cabela's, but they no longer had it, so Joe finally decided we must be parked right beside that.  By then, the guy is finished and putting his hose away.  Joe finally went out and asked if there was a dump station here, and he said yes, so apparently he had been here before.  Joe thought we should move over a space in case anyone else came in for water, so that's what we did.  Then we left to get some dinner.  Well, that was another experience.  On the way to dinner, I saw this statue -- remember, Kentucky is a "horse" state.   Catalina could have posed for this picture.

I had picked Cracker Barrel (one of my favorites), and it was just back at the intersection we had exited on.  We got there, the patio was pretty full of people in rocking chairs, and there was this sign.

Of course Joe, old "authorized personnel only" disregarder, just heads on in.  But there was a 45-60 minute wait because they were limiting the seating, more than social distancing it looked to us.  Nevertheless, we left there, googled more options, and chose Frish's Big Boy (we had good experience in Michigan at Big Boy, and he liked their salad bar).  So back up on the interstate, down one mile, and exiting again.  We found it, went in, no salad bar (there were only 2 cars in the parking lot, besides the drive-through).  We asked about the salad bar, and the waitress said they were never going to have it again.  I asked if Kentucky wasn't fully vaccinated, and she said no, there were only about 200,000 people vaccinated.  I googled it later, and statistics show 49% for Kentucky.  Anyhow, we drove around the parking lot to a Mexican restaurant, Chuys, and finally had dinner.  And believe me, we wore our masks in.  But this was a good choice, because they had this picture in the lobby.

While we were eating dinner, I checked Brandon, Florida's weather for next week.  I have to question the wisdom of this destination, but that's where our babies are.  Bridgette keeps telling us that it rains every day.  Looks like she was telling the truth.

When we got back to the RV, Joe decided to get the bugs off the windshield.  I had mentioned that those bugs were affecting the quality of my pictures.  (I didn't tell him I just learned that I could "spot remove" some of them, but there were still too many to do that.)  He came in all sweaty, but he got the job done. 

It was a full day, even though we stopped about 3:40.  Bridgette kept checking to see if we were there yet.  We drove 263 miles today, but some of them were really slow.  That was enough for us.

Last Day In Ft. Wayne

 6-23-2021 - Wednesday

We thought we would take it easy this morning and give the Croxtons a break.  Jim had an appointment at 9:30, and we thought Dixie would like a morning to sleep in.  But then Dixie texted us that Xavier, their great grandson, was coming over for breakfast -- actually, to go to breakfast with us, because Dixie does not cook.  So I got Joe up (at 10:00) and we headed over to their house.  On the way out of the campground, I noticed the name of the dog park I wrote about in yesterday's blog is "Camp Canine."  

We briefly visited with our camping neighbors before we left the campground, and they told us about a very nice campground right at the bridge on Lake Huron, right before you cross the bridge into the Upper Peninsula.  She said at night they have a community bonfire, and you can see the lights on the bridge.  I think it is Camp Cook (dispersed campsite) at Mackinac City.  I wanted to make a note of it somewhere in case we get a chance to go there, but I can't find it on RV Parky.   I will have to check further into that.  It certainly sounded interesting.

We got over to Dixie's about 10:30, Xavier came in just a few minutes later, and then Jim got back from his appointment.  We hadn't seen Xavier for a few years, probably 4-5.  He didn't stop growing!  He will be a Junior at the University of St. Francis in Ft. Wayne this fall, and plays on their baseball team.

Dixie modeling my sunglasses.  See how much taller she looks with Xavier sitting down.

Dixie rode in the Jeep with Joe to breakfast, and Xavier drove me and Jim in their car.  There is no dieting going on this week.  Breakfast was good and plentiful!  After breakfast, Joe drove me over to get a hair cut.  We are still looking for Joe an elephant, but I did find him another mastadon.

From there, we went back to Costco to get more strawberries, since Dixie has half an angelfood cake left.  On the way back to their house, on their street, I had seen a house with blue pots and red flowers in them that really looked pretty, so we stopped to get a picture.  And just a little further down the street is a mailbox post with purple vining flowers.  We don't grow these things in Arizona.

I cropped this more to show up the blue better.  It is really very attractive.

So back at the house, we decided to start our game of Mexican Train early, then break halfway through and go to dinner at Coney Island.  This little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in downtown Ft. Wayne is an icon here.  We have been here several times over the years, as has most of our Vincennes family.  We got lucky and found parking in back, and the last table inside.  This place has been in business since 1914, the year Joe's dad was born!  They also are known for their real coke bottles.

When we left here, we drove through Foster Park, another Ft. Wayne icon.  It is a beautiful park, has lots of flowers, a golf course, baseball fields and walking paths.  Lots of trees.  Next to it are beautiful homes, some are probably considered estates, so we checked them out too.  Once back at the house, Joe took Jim a ride in the Jeep, and Joe got to see a bit of the countryside here.  Then we resumed our game, took a break for cake and strawberries, and finished at 10:30 instead of 11:30.   Joe was trying hard to beat me, but I won the game again tonight.  Time to leave town before the tide turns.   We've had a lot of laughs these few days, shared a lot of memories.

We really enjoyed our time here, saw a few family members including the new one, Bryson, Dixie and Jim's great-great grandson.  Jim is suffering from short-term memory loss, so that was sad to see, but otherwise things seem pretty good for them.  They still love their new home, and Dixie is getting to do her gardening again.  We said our goodbyes and hope to see them in Arizona this winter.

So it's time to move on tomorrow, time to head to Florida to see our grandbabies there.  Andrew turned 8 today so we missed his birthday, but we should be there early next week.  We didn't get to see him at all as a 7 year old, nor Catalina as a 4 year old, so we are really eager to spend some quality time with them.  We lucked out with the weather here, had cool, cloudy days, but tomorrow it is supposed to heat up, and starting Friday, they have thunderstorms predicted every day for the next week.  Definitely time for ME to get out of here!  Florida, here we come -- no hurricanes, please.

Another Day with Croxtons

 6-22-2021 - Tuesday

The only pictures I took today were around our campground, Johnny Appleseed Campground.  This is a nice campground, and we have a very convenient site, right across the street from the laundry/showers.

Behind the laundry/shower building is the St. Joseph River.  From our dining room table, I can see the weir under the bridge.  Ft. Wayne has 3 rivers:  St. Joseph, St. Mary, and the Maumee.  The city of Ft. Wayne is currently all torn up with construction because they are building some kind of pipeline under the city to handle flooding.  This is a long-term project.

Beside the river, and the shower house is a dog park, with several benches shaped like dog bones.  It seems to stay pretty busy.

Dixie and Jim met us here at the campground this morning, and we went to breakfast from here (the Lunch Box).  We got there at 11:00, and today's lunch/dinner special was chicken and (homemade)  noodles, so we decided we would come back for dinner.  Joe took over the driving then, so he got to drive their new Honda CRV that they got in November.  He kept trying to figure out how to get "navigation" up on the screen, but was not successful, so Dixie called Paul (who has one similar and helped them purchase this one), and we found out you have to have your smart phone on to get that screen.  That was a surprise.

We then went to Costco, and over to their house.  We bought strawberries at Costco and Dixie made an angelfood cake, so that was our Mexican train treat tonight.  After we drove back to the Lunch Box for dinner, we picked up the Jeep at the RV, and Dixie led us through town to show us the best way to leave here on Thursday.  Then we went back to their house for another scintillating  game of Mexican Train (Jim just wanted to go to bed).  But I won, so that was exciting.  Dixie won last night, so I was out for revenge.  She is the scorekeeper, so I suspect some hank- panky there.

The temperature was great, I think it finally made 70 degrees about 4:00.  Joe and I grabbed long sleeve shirts for the return trip home, again just about midnight.  Wednesday's high is forecast at 75 with chance of drizzle, but it warms up to 84 on Thursday, and thunderstorms starting Friday for the next 7 days, so time to leave!

A Day with the Croxtons

 6-21-2021 - Monday

After last night's thunderstorm, which did some damage around the city but not at the campground or at Dixie and Jim's house, the weather was much more tolerable. It was cloudy all day, with the temperature and humidity dropping.  I think it stayed in the 70s all day,

We had a late breakfast with Cathy and Joe before they headed back to Bloomington.  Jim says he didn't know when he married Dixie that breakfast on their honeymoon would be the last breakfast he ever ate with her.  They just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary last week, so that's a lot of single breakfasts!  But she got up and went with us this morning, so that makes the second time, according to Jim.

They had their backyard landscaped a couple weeks ago, and Dixie has lots of flowers blooming in the front yard too, so she's back in her element.  We loved the split rail fence, what a great idea.

I took two loads of laundry over, so I got that done,  Joe had accidentally deleted his contacts in his cell phone last week, so we made a trip to the Verizon store to get that fixed.  (That's not the first time he has done that.)  Then Angie brought her 8-month-old grandson, Bryson, over to meet us.

What a cutie!  And such a happy baby.  He's just about ready to take off walking.  Dixie warmed up fricassee for dinner, then after Angie and the baby left, we played Mexican Train, all 13 hands!

Dixie had DQ ice cream cupcakes left over from last week's anniversary celebrations, so we had a little treat with our dominoes.  Jim was ready to quit about round 7, but he hung on until the end (and he lost).  It was fun, we hadn't played that in a long, long time, and I am pretty sure the last time we played it, Lucille was sitting right there with us.

It was 11:30 when we finished, so we were out driving Ft. Wayne streets just about midnight.  Luckily, we are only about 6 miles to the campground, so it didn't take long, and we managed not to get lost.  

Arriving Ft. Wayne, Indiana

 6-20-2021 - Sunday (Father's Day)

We had a short drive today.  We got on the road just after 9:00, crossed the Indiana state line at 10:40, and arrived in Ft. Wayne at 11:30.  Joe dumped our tanks at the dump station, and and we were set up by 12:00, then headed over to meet Dixie, Jim, Rick, Lori, Lori's exchange student house guest Ani, and Cathy.  Joe Myers had to leave yesterday when Bloomington got hit by a storm.  He went home to assess the damage -- they had water in the basement and limbs down outside, but no major damage that he saw.  He drove back up this afternoon, which surprised us all.  Unfortunately, we missed Paul and Becky, they left at 7:00 this morning to head back to North Carolina.

Ever since we saw the camel in South Dakota, Joe has been looking for an elephant.  We saw a rusty one the other day.  Today, I found him a pretty one in Ft. Wayne.  I googled it to make sure Ft. Wayne was where I saw it, and unfortunately, I learned that it a mastodon, not an elephant.  Oh well.

   We had a nice lunch with everyone, then went over to Dixie and Jim's house for the afternoon.  They had to go to a graduation party, so Joe and I got a little nap in before they got back.  That's when Joe showed up from Bloomington.  Eventually, we went out to dinner, then headed back to the RV.

We only drove 147 miles today.  It was very hot and humid when we got here, but eventually it clouded up and we had a little thunderstorm.  Of course, we got caught in the rain getting into the restaurant, but it cooled things off, and the temperature is supposed to stay in the 70s until we leave on Thursday.  

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers.  You certainly deserve a day of recognition.  Ft. Wayne is looking good, lots of green, flowers blooming, big trees.  It's good to be back.

Last Night in Michigan

 6-19-2021 - Saturday

It rained during the night, and most of the day, which kept the temperature down.  We had breakfast with the Ivers, and spent the day with them and their puppies.  They breed toy poodles, and had a litter of 4 adorable puppies, about 6 weeks old.  One of them is very sick, but the other three are just curly bundles of joy.  The little black one blends into the blanket so you can't hardly see him.

I played with them for a long time, they were fun. 

 They had 5 adult dogs there too (I think one was visiting), and a friend came over with a female to breed, so it was a dog day!  Joe said it was the first time he had ever attended a dog breeding.

After the breeding event was over, we left to go to Camping World.  Jan and DC are thinking about buying a motor home, so Joe spent a few hours educating them on that subject.  We looked at 3 on the lot, but they intend to try to see a lot more before they make a decision.  The salesmen drove us all over to the first one on his golf cart (Jan had to sit on DC's lap).  Joe was pointing out some of the attributes of the motorhome, and the salesman said, "hey, I love it, you brought your own salesman."  He let Joe continue "selling," and he backed off until someone had a question.  He did say he would split the commission with Joe.  We spent a few hours there, till they closed the place.  

 Then we stopped for dinner, and went back to their house and the puppies for a while.  Jan had bought a peanut butter pie this morning at the breakfast restaurant, and she wanted us to try that.  Finally we said our goodbyes to Jan and DC, and to the puppies, and headed back to the RV.

It was a fun visit with people we don't get to see very often.  When they get their new RV, maybe they will come to Arizona to visit us!

Tomorrow we are headed to Indiana, on our way to Florida.  We are moving right along!  Oh, I forgot to mention, we have run out of lilacs.  Looks like that season is over for me.

Driving to Grand Rapids, MI

 6/18/2021 - Friday

Well, I was right, we are both sore today after our day of rockhounding, and we didn't sleep well last night (too tired, I think).  But we de-camped this morning and headed south, where I know it's going to be warmer.  Ugh.  We got on the road about 9:30 after we dumped our tanks, leaving behind beautiful Lake Michigan.  This area has lots of orchards, mainly cherry trees, but other kinds of trees as well.  Strawberries aren't quite in yet, but fresh asparagus is at all the fruit markets that are open.  Joe kept trying to find some local strawberries, but the only ones we found at grocery or convenience stores were shipped in from somewhere else.

We also saw a couple fields of hops.  We only know what these are because Collins enlightened us a few years ago on our trip to Canada.

About 8 miles south of our campground we came upon a sign that said "45th Parallel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole."  So now we know that.

Our campground here was only about 33 miles from Traverse City, so that was our first stop - to fuel, and get breakfast.  There was a McDonald's next door to the gas station, so I walked over there to get breakfast sandwiches.  But the doors were locked and the only thing open was the drive-through.  There was a sign on the door saying they couldn't get enough help for full staff.  We see "help wanted" signs everywhere we go, not just at fast food places.  

Traverse City is known as the cherry capital of the world.  We didn't know that, but their airport is named Cherry Capital Airport, so I looked it up.  Sure enough, that is their claim to fame.  July is cherry season, so again, we were too early.

Anyhow we drove on, and finally found a restaurant down the road.  Traffic was a lot heavier than we have been dealing with, towns were getting bigger, and it got hot.  We couldn't find a campground with any available sites, so we stayed on the parking lot at Gun Lake Casino, just south of Dorr where Joe's cousin, Jan and Don Ivers live. They have construction going on at the casino, so we parked way away from the building, in the front.  We checked inside with the security guard and told him where we had parked, and of course, we had to move -- to the back, where they had places marked for trucks and RVs.  So it was almost 3:00 by the time we got settled there.  Jan and Don picked us up for dinner at the casino and we spent a little time donating our $$ there.  No big winners in our group, but dinner was fun.

We drove 200 miles today.  We are staying here two nights, then heading to Ft. Wayne.  

Our Day of Rockhounding

 6-17-2021 - Thursday

Another chilly morning, 58.  I had to turn the furnace on just for a few minutes to get rid of the chill.  After it warmed up 10 degrees outside, I spent a little time out there, taking some pictures, finishing my coffee.  There is a playground and huge play area right in front of our spot.  We have enjoyed watching and hearing the kids playing every night, and I had a visit from our little chipmunk friend. 

We went out for breakfast at this fancy little spot just at the end of our campground drive.  The food was good, well presented.  Fancy dishes.  And they put ice in my glass of milk.  We laughed because they are so stingy with ice in this part of the country, and they wasted it in my milk.  But it kept it cold.  I had mooncakes with cherry sauce and real maple syrup.  In  the middle of the "mooncake" are some blueberries and one raspberry, with a little green foliage.  Joe had his standard sausage and eggs, with roasted potatoes and homemade toast.

From there, we came back to the RV and loaded up for a day on that beach we found yesterday.  It's only about 7 miles from our campground, pretty secluded, but there were other people there too (we thought it was going to be our own private beach).  The turn-off from the highway is Rex Beach Road, then straight on this dirt road to Antrim Creek National Area.  I am posting this information just in case we ever come back here again.  

The beach was great, a little cool when we first got there, especially if the sun was hidden by clouds, but it warmed up very comfortably.  There were just a couple other families there, but then a group of college kids showed up with tape measures, checking some kind of thistle plant to see how many there were because they were dying out.

It was a while before we found any petoskey stones, but we finally did have some success.  We ended up with a small bag full, and a bucket full of "pretty rocks."  And we were there all afternoon, from about 11:30 until after 5:00.  We had our chairs, so we could take breaks whenever our backs would no longer bend.  But it was a good time.

Joe thought he might grill hamburgers for dinner tonight, but by the time we left the beach, we were both too tired to contemplate cooking and cleaning up, so we went into Charlevoix for pizza.  And we sat outside right across from their marina, right on downtown main street (Bridge Street), watching the traffic go by, just like real tourists.

We passed the "world's largest cherry pie" the other day, so today we got a picture.  But there's only one piece left!  I don't know how they can claim "world's largest" when there is only one piece.

When we got back to Eastport, we decided to turn and drive into the little town, since what was on the highway was about one block long.  We found out there is a huge lake right here, just across the highway from Lake Michigan.  That was a surprise.  I think it is Torch Lake.  

It was 8:00 by the time we got back to the RV.  We were both tired, but it was a very good day.  Tomorrow we move south, we hope the weather stays nice but we know we are probably on borrowed time in that area.