Day 7 in vincennes

8-6-2021 - friday

Today was awesome.  but first, I have a couple notes about previous posts.  

first--the rooster is GONE.  Clayton took it on a road trip to a friends house, and I hope he lives there happily ever after. I bid him goodbye and good riddance.  

second--the huge tanker truck we met up with on our little escapade in the boonies -- when I copied and pasted that photo into facebook, somehow I managed to make it my new screen saver on my computer.  Not On Purpose.  but I get a good laugh now every time I open my computer, and it jumps out at me.  so it's all good.

Now back to today.  today's agenda item was watson pond -- ken snider had promised to take me on my next trip home because I had never heard of it, and we had scheduled that for today.  Joe got up late, and we ran into town -- we both thought a donut sounded good.  well, the donut shop was out of donuts and closed.  we went to the amish store -- they no longer sell donuts.  by now it's 10:45, so he said, let's just go get a real breakfast, so we went to dot's.  they stop serving breakfast at 10:30. we ended up back at the little restaurant on Bunker Hill (back across town--took 5 minutes), so we ate breakfast about 10:30.  turned out to be a good thing, though, because our next meal wasn't until about 6:30.  but that's another story.

anyhow, as we went through town on second street, we saw where they were setting up for this weekend's Watermelon Festival.  I understand it's not a big deal these days, like it was when we were kids and vincennes was the watermelon capital of the world (at least, according to vincennes).

we messed around in town for a while, then it was time to head to Ken's.  He had an interesting, raised  tomato garden, planted in a cattle feeder.  and a lovely house, our first visit here.

and here's where the day became awesome.  Ken said, "we can go to watson Pond by road, or by air."    W H O A !!!  So he took us up in his plane and flew us all over decker township, as well as neighboring communities.  what a thrill!  

getting in wasn't the easiest thing I ever did.

Instrument panel

Pilot Ken

 I-pad showing all airports in the area.  the yellow circle is where we are.

Joe and Gwen in backseat.

Me and Ken in the front.
      

and we are up!!!

decker chapel church and community center.  

wonderful view of the countryside -- not much civilization down here any more.  Ken said there is really only one farm way down in the Neck now -- the witsman's.

wabash river on the right, watson pond to the left of it.  the last house I lived in down here was probably no more than 3-4 miles from it, but I had never heard of it and never been to it.  the airplane wing cuts off the end of the pond, but it does not connect to the river.

I love this picture-this is the Neck -- where the wabash river and the white river come together.  I wish I could get the airplane wing out of the middle of the picture, but you can see the difference in the color or the rivers, white river is always muddier.  then it becomes the wabash, and joins the Ohio river in evansville.

this is claypool pond.  the farm at the very top is Mike carter's (just right of the middle).  the houses on the left are on the hill where I used to live.

Here's a great view of the winding white river.  that farm in this picture is Mike Carter's place.

Here's the cropped version of Mike's place.

tommy froeschke's place

the old cannonball bridge over the wabash river (it looks better from the air than from the car when you are crossing it)

Ken said, "take off is optional, landing is mandatory."  and we have landed!  the 4 of us pulled the plane up to the hangar to get to the gas pump.

Ken re-fueling.  No, we did not go back up.

He has a classic aircraft gas pump.

what a great time we had!  One I never expected, in my wildest dreams.  And one we will remember forever.  we were in the air almost 90 minutes, flying about 150 mph, about 2000 feet above the ground (2500 feet above sea level, Ken said).

after he got the plane put away, and we looked at his toy hauler and some of this other "toys", we went in and visited with Ken and Gwen for a while, then headed back to the rv because we still had another engagement tonight -- dinner with Mike and Donna, and Barbara and Maurice, right across the rivers where they come together, at that Twin Rivers Restaurant.  (No time for lunch today).  so we were home for about 15 minutes, then headed out again.  dinner was great fun, lots of laughs, which is always the case with this group.

everyone ordered dessert except barbara and Mike.  donna told Mike she got the strawberry pie for them to share, but Mike assured her that he only wanted one bite.  However, here he is on Bite No. 4!

such a fun night.  It was almost 10:00 when we got home, but what a great day.