Back in time. . .

Yesterday Gary, Jo, Terry and I left and headed to Baton Rouge. First stop was the waterfront near LSU Stadium, then Cabela's which is just plain fun for all of us. Gary is a charter fishing captain for Lewis and Harp and we use a lot of camping/rv/food items from the store. Terry found himself a new hat and I found some great sandals on sale. SCORE!

Then we were off in search of antebellum mansions to tour and dinner to eat. We found food first and that was at B & C Seafood Market and Cajun Restaurant in Vacherie. What an interesting place. The owners are definitely Cajun, reflected in their speech. One had to listen closely to understand them as it's a lot different from the typical southern drawl. The owner is an alligator hunter and he had several stuffed specimens and photo albums you could peruse. Around the walls in the building were old pictures of various landmarks in the area as well as other points of interest. This is a very interesting part of Louisiana, along the "Old River Road" where antebellum mansions were plentiful due to the Mississippi River being the main means of moving their crops to places worldwide. Most of the plantations we saw yesterday grew/grow sugar cane, while others further north produced more cotton. We had a lively waitress who provided us with great service and our food was very good. After dinner, we browsed through the market which provided all kinds of seafood, turtle and alligator.

The first look at the storied past along the River Road was actually a Jesuit retreat, Manresa House of Retreats instead of an antebellum home. It was quite impressive, however, and we stopped to take a few pictures. We passed several plantations which we will visit another time. There just isn't enough time in one day to see very many. We passed Poche and Laura plantations. We passed numerous other historic houses in various states of disrepair. It is just impossible to maintain all these beautiful old homes and that is sad, but a reality. The historic societies do their best to preserve those that best represent the life and culture of the time. I would think that Louisiana probably has the most antebellum homes, many along River Road and others up north near and around St. Francisville. All within a few hours of each other, so if you want a great look into life back in time, try visiting some of these.

We settled on visiting Oak Alley. What a grand place. It is the quintessential of antebellum homes, built between 1837-1839, and has been restored to its splendor of years past. It actually was lived in and fairly well maintained for all but about 12 years of its history and is now open for tours and bookings and weddings, etc. The furnishings while not original to the families are all period pieces and it looks like someone lives there now. The docents describe the home and the families that lived there while dressed in period costumes. The grounds are well maintained and since this was a working farm, there were a dozen slave cabins to house those people who worked the land. They are in the process of rebuilding those cabins and two are done, but they were not open to visitation. We enjoyed the tour and especially looking down the "oak alley," the live oak trees planted nearly 300 years ago which frame the lane from the Mississippi River to the front door. The view is magnificent, but with the levee at the river's edge, it is impossible to see the river from the home. You can see the tops of some ships passing by, but the river view is gone. That is not totally a bad thing, however, because without it, the home would be in danger of damage from floods.

On our way back to Zachary, we passed by Nottaway Plantation (1859) and as we drove around it, we saw a wedding in progress! What a lovely place for a wedding. Jo and I decided it is on our list for the next time we come to visit! We also passed by a large cemetery. Cemeteries are very different down here than what we see up north.

It was a great day with great cousins and fun activities. Today we are leaving and will be heading to Texas with a mandatory pitstop at Kinder and the Coushatta Casino. Woot!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Relaxing again!

Sitting on the back of cousin Gary and Jo's lot is about as laid back and relaxing as it can get. If I could just back to sleeping in and not waking up at 3:30, I'd be all set. But I'm sure with time, I will learn to sleep longer.

Yesterday we went to Baton Rouge to run some errands. There is a new Whole Foods store and we stopped there. It's a very nice store. We had spotted it a couple nights before when we were in town with Gary and Jo. Jo has embarked on a business of selling  advertising specialties and she was setting up a booth at an educational conference at the Crowne Plaza. So we went with her to help carry in all her products and booth props. With the four of us it went rather quickly and then we went out for ice cream. SCORE!

We have been hearing coyotes nightly here. It's a bit spooky because we are waaaaaay out in the country. At night, the yard between the house and the motorhome seems pretty wide and it's pitch black, so it is indeed frightful. We don't make the run to the motorhome when we hear the howling. . . we wait till they quiet down. The other night we heard them first in the field on one side of Phaeton Place and then a little later on the OTHER side. They sure do kick up a fuss. Gary says they are just scaring up some rabbits. LOL

Yesterday we ventured out a second time to see if we could find Wally Gator. In the field to the west of the house are three small farm ponds. Several years ago, Gary found there to be an alligator inhabiting the one pond. Imagine that. He nicknamed him Wally Gator and started feeding him with stuff only gators would eat. Wally has grown since the last time we saw him a couple years ago. He now looks to be about 6 feet long. What is so comical is that Gary drives the golf cart out to the ponds and calls Wally to him. We first checked the far pond, but he wasn't there this time. He actually travels between the three ponds and we found him in the larger pond yesterday. We drive up and then Gary gets out, goes to the pond edge and calls him. That gator was over on the far side and when he sees Gary, he starts straight for him, moving so fast he creates a wake. LOL Terry and I were strangers to him, and while Gary says he usually will come up out of the water to be fed, he wouldn't venture out today. But he stayed right at the edge of the pond in the water while Gary fed him. Once the food was gone, he slowly sank back down into the water and kept a safe distance away. It's hard to believe this little orphan can find enough food to eat in these three little ponds, but with Gary's supplements, he seems to be doing well.

Today we are going to Baton Rouge and may take in an antebellum mansion. There are several around here. We are leaving Sunday and heading over to Kinder to the casino for a night before going to Houston and IKEA!

Till next time. . .

Dale

WE'RE FREE!!!!

Terry here!

Phaeton Place, with all requested repairs made, left Red Bay yesterday at 8:00 AM.  Yep, 15 days in the Tiffin Service Area Campground, just a little too long for my liking. Enough of that, the trapped feeling could return.  At 4:30 yesterday afternoon, we parked out by Cousin Gary's shed, about 8 miles northeast of Zachary LA.  We'll be here until Sunday AM, then we'll continue our trek toward The Rio Grande Valley, The trip will include a stop at Houston's IKEA store, for some stuff for the Texas room on our lot.

Great to be traveling again, or just not in Red Bay.
Terry

Held up in Red Bay. . .

We left Florida some time ago. We had breakfast with Brandon and Megan and we took off and headed north. We played leap frog with the kids as they were headed up to Tallahassee for the FSU game. They left later than we did and we stopped for fuel. After we got back on the road, they passed us. Hah!

Phaeton Place had a few items that needed attention so we quickly made our way over here to Red Bay. When we arrived, there were no campsites available anywhere and we boondocked on the property out of the way of all the traffic. There were several of us over there, but we only had to spend one night there. The next day we were able to move to a campsite.

Since we arrived a day before our appointment, we went to see Terry's Uncle Bob. He is the last survivor of 18 brothers and sisters. Ma and Pa Pace were each married before. I think Pa Pace had 8 children and Ma Pace had 5. They were both widowed and then married each other and had 5 more children. Uncle Bob is the last one of his generation. He is doing well and it was great to see him. He had a bit of a scare, but he is doing well. He has some memory problems, but he was glad we were able to stop in to see him.

We had an appointment for our service work, but for the first time ever, we had to wait a day to get in for our appointment. I was a bit disappointed that even though I had submitted a request for the window we need, it had not been ordered and it would be a couple days before it was ready. We had a couple minor items done, but discovered that they were going to have to replace our wet bay again (second time) and also needed the main slide floor replaced. We had not planned either of these items, but we wanted them done. The slide has given us trouble since it was new, so hopefully that will be fixed. The big problem was that everything had to be emptied from the cupboards in that slide. We had replaced the couch with a credenza and my custom file cabinet, so that all had to be emptied and actually removed. We got that all done last weekend, THEN they told us they were doing the wet bay FIRST! Oh joy! But we managed. I was really tired of moving boxes just to get to the bathroom though. LOL Both of those jobs are now complete and we are waiting yet for the window and some touch up paint from where they kept pulling the inspection panel for the wet bay.

So Monday it will be two weeks since we got here. Not real happy about that, but am happy Tiffin is replacing defective, expensive items at their cost, so I won't complain. The service center has been super busy with 20-30 rigs arriving daily and no place to put them. This week, however, they seem to be catching up a bit and we had more people pull out today. Hopefully we will get finished early in the week and we will be out of here and rolling toward Texas. Not a moment too soon, either, because our beautiful fall weather has turned cold on us and we are having to run heat now. Mom and Dad arrived in Texas last week, so we are glad they are there safe and sound.

Today we took a break and went to Florence, Alabama, so I could get some prescription refills. We took a look at some RV lots on Wheeler Lake, but they weren't anything we were interested in. They were at the end of a development and we saw a sign in a yard saying, "NO Motorhomes, RV's not welcome." Nice friendly place, don't you think?

On the way back to Red Bay, we passed a sign on the highway for Bell Mont Mansion. Hey, we are always up for some spooky old haunt, so we drove down the road. We drove all around the area and couldn't find it, so got back out on the road only to see a sign, just a couple hundred feet from where we turned onto the road. Hah! We drove back down the lane and there was an OPEN sign in the window. We walked to the front and the door opened! A very nice tour guide welcomed us and talked to us about the house and the history of the families who lived there. The house is in the possession of the Alabama Historical Commission. It was built between 1828 to 1832 by a Scottish doctor named Mitchell and is Alabama’s finest expression of Jefferson Palladian architecture. It is brick, and is U-shaped with a courtyard in the middle and was one of state’s first great plantation houses. We had a very nice tour and I would recommend taking the tour if you are in the area. It has not been restored. It had fallen into disrepair for years and was heavily vandalized. Once acquired by the Commission, they set about repairing the structure which they have completed. Now they are starting on cosmetic work like wallpapers, carpets, etc. A very interesting and informative stop.

We are back in Red Bay now and will spend tomorrow relaxing. I found this little guy at the hardware store. He is solar powered and pretty bright once the sun goes down. LOL

Till next time. . .

Dale

A bit unusual . . .

While in Melbourne this past week, we've been treated to several things you don't see every day. I probably look crazy to the residents here running outside with my camera. No matter.

The park here, Camelot, is going through a transition. It is a nicely kept 40-year old park, half park models and half RV's. The park models are separated from the RV section by a fence, but it doesn't go all the way back through the park and as a resident or renter here, you have access to the entire park. Last year when we were here, they were breaking ground for a swimming pool. It has taken a year  because of all the permits and licenses, etc., but it looks like they are nearly finished. The owner told us that they hope to fill it by the end of the month. It looks like the work may be finished, but the surface may have to dry/cure. Too late for us this year, but it is a lovely pool which is up front, so you have a view of the Indian River. They are also adding more RV sites. As the park models are pulled out due to age or perhaps the owners have passed on, they are restoring them to RV sites. They are putting in nice, long, large concrete drives with pads. They said that is what is in demand right now and so they are trying to accommodate that.

As I was going back through my pictures, I found another that I took up on Amelia Island. This is a morning shot with clouds moving in. I just really thought it was a beautiful shot.

We were sitting in the motorhome one afternoon and we heard the drone of an aircraft overhead. As it got louder, we wondered if it was a military plane of some type. I peeked out my window up into the gondola of the Good Year blimp. Hah! We rushed outside to get a better look and to snap a picture. Not sure where it was coming from, but it was headed south.

We've been spending a lot of time at Brandon and Megan's this week. Megan is working long hours so we don't see much of her. We do get to spend time with Brandon every day and we are getting our granddog fix. Jax is a great dog and he loves attention. We enjoy being around him. He's become rather fixated on catching the little skenks, aka lizards, that run around the pool deck. He is quite the hunter.

We took a drive this morning down to Sebastian, then we came north on A1A. We've done this many times, but we really love the ocean and it was really windy today. The waves were really pounding and although you cannot really tell in this photo, you certainly would not want to be out there. The waves just looked so strong. There were small craft advisories today so the little boats did not venture out. . . not even on the river.

While we were running errands today up by the mall, I saw a really large plane in the air. Terry remarked that he didn't understand why it was so low and slow because he was certain it was too big to fly into the Melbourne Airport, although it appeared to be on the flight path. Later we asked Brandon about it. He said, "Oh, you must have seen the Doomsday plane." It's a large plane that can be used by the President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc., in the effect of a nuclear attack, etc. It keeps those people safe and ready to act in the event of war. I read where it was put into service after the 9/11 attacks. Anyway, I asked Brandon if he had seen it. He said, "Yes, it was parked right outside my office." LOL His office is at Patrick AFB and although it looked like the giant behemoth was landing in Melbourne, it was actually landing at Patrick. That is where they work on the electronics on the plane. I thought that was pretty neat to see one. I think there are actually four and I don't think they are based here, but this one must have flown in for some maintenance.

Shortly after that, we saw four red and white planes which Terry identified as Canadian Snowbirds. They are acrobatic planes much like the Blue Angels but these appear to be smaller planes. I got a picture of those as well, but it's very difficult to see them in the picture.

Tomorrow we leave and head to Red Bay, Alabama, for some coach work. Hopefully we will be done there in short order and we can head to the Rio Grande Valley.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Fort Clinch and St. Augustine

Savannah was a great time for us. We enjoyed visiting and seeing sites we hadn't seen before. It's likely we will return some day.

We moved on Wednesday and traveled down to Fernandino Beach on Amelia Island, Florida. Interestingly, we met a woman from Florida in the New Lisbon Family Camp in Indiana, who told us about Fort Clinch State Park. She said that the park sits at the entrance to a river where the nuclear submarines enter to go to the base. I had never heard of such a thing, so we decided to come and see for ourselves.

It is true, although we didn't see any subs. They do come into the river and right by the campground. The only problem is that there are two campgrounds. One is the beach camp and the other is the river camp. The subs cannot be seen from the oceanside camp unless you walk out on the dunes walkway and onto the beach. And since 9/11, they do not announce or advertise when a sub is coming in.

We did go visit the fort which is in remarkably good condition. Many of the buildings at Fort Clinch are still standing. Construction on the fort began in 1847 as a masonry fort. The fort was built at the mouth of the St. Mary's River to protect the natural deep-water port of Fernandina. Although it was never fully completed, it still served as a military post during the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War II. It was quite impressive and the admission fee was only $2.


We've been walking every day as usual, but yesterday we walked on the beach waiting for the sunrise. We weren't disappointed either. We see quite a lot of wildlife, including dozens of horseshoe crabs. Unfortunately they are all dead. I don't know if they died of natural causes or if a storm washed them up. They are all sizes, but quite a few are the size of a dinner plate. We have had a lot of rain since we have been here, but we are still able to get out at times. On one of our trips out, we saw this tortoise in the road. I got out and helped another visitor move him over off the road. He didn't like that much and hissed at us. LOL This morning we walked out on the half-mile long fishing pier. It seemed to go on forever. We talked to one of the fishermen out at the end. He was very nice and answered all our questions about fishing on the pier.

The beach campground here is very nice. It is a single loop with 21 sites, all back-ins. Only 30 Amp service is available and water, but they have an extremely nice bathhouse. You do have to walk to the beach, but it is a newly constructed pier. The other camp is also very nice, but it would be very difficult to maneuver Phaeton Place around the trees to back into a site. It is totally forested, so no satellite systems would work either. We liked the beach area, but if you are in a smaller rig, the river camp would be good.

We broke camp after our morning walk and came south to St. Augustine. We wanted to do some shopping at the factory shops. Sites are getting pretty pricey the further down we come in Florida.  Tomorrow we plan to be in Melbourne to see Brandon and Megan. We've seen Brandon a couple times since their wedding a year ago, but we've only seen Megan once and we are ready for a visit!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Heading south . . .

We left Tab and Deanna's on Saturday. We had a great time visiting with them and eating out. We will not see them again until next spring when we start our three-month trip to Alaska! What fun that will be!

Leaving St. Paris, Ohio, we traveled on to Heiskell, Tennessee, to camp in the Escapees park there. We know what to expect from Escapees parks and we have been to Raccoon Valley before, so we weren't disappointed. But it sure seems that there could be a lot of improvements made. I know they recently spent a lot of money upgrading this park, but it is hard to see where the money went. The electric was very good and the boxes look new, so that was nice. They need to do a lot of work on the sites themselves, adding gravel and leveling the pads. In addition, there was a Jayco Class C a couple sites down that was in such bad condition. The overhead bunk area was duct taped around the entire curved part and the lower bunk area was sagging. On the other side the entire outer wall area was duct taped from the window forward and down. And it too was sagging and had to be leaking during any rain. I don't think the overhead box would stay together going down the road. It all looked incredibly soft and mushy. I could imagine chunks dislodging and flying off. It certainly was not road worthy. I know some parks would not allow an RV in such bad condition to enter.

We are now parked in Hardeeville, South Carolina, at a no-frills park. It accepts Passport America, so the camping is $21 a night for 50A, full hook-up. The sites are spacious and while the roads are gravel, there is ample room to maneuver.

Yesterday afternoon after setting up camp, we drove into Savannah, Georgia, just 15 miles away and took a bus tour of the city. Dave was our narrator and he did a good job and was knowledgeable when questions were asked. When the tour was over, we drove out to Tybee Island to do some sightseeing on the island. We ate at the Crabshack (not to be confused with Joe's) and had a delicious meal. Mine was seafood and Terry had BBQ. We chose to eat outside and while we were eating we noticed little fiddler crabs. There came up over the edge of the deck from the marsh area and would skittle across the deck. If you looked at them, the would rush away and hide. Hah! I really didn't care for them because they really just look like a big spider, but they are kind of comical. There are several cats that hang out at the restaurant and they would chase them. After awhile, they would creep back up over the deck boards. What an interesting little animal they are.

We returned today to the Visitor's Center which is housed in the old railroad repair facility. It has a roundhouse still operating today, but as a museum. Many of the buildings are in disrepair and some are gone, long since torn down. But now there is an effort to preserve what is left. There was a machine shop, where tools and train parts were fashioned and forged. There were many support businesses so that when steam locomotives and railroad cars were in need of repair, they could be brought here, taken into the roundhouse and any repair that was needed could be done right here. Many of the support businesses grew in order to serve the workers and their families. There are some cars restored for you to see and others being worked on. We also toured the Savannah History Museum which had a nice display on Juliette Gordon Low, who was the founder of Girl Scouts in the US. When we were here years ago with the kids, we toured her birthplace home because Jocelyn was in Girl Scouts at the time.

Later we parked close to Bay Street and walked over to River Street. River Street is down on the level of the harbor itself. Many of the buildings there were built during the heyday of cotton and were businesses and warehouses associated with trade. The buildings are two story with the bottom level on the river and the top level is the level of Bay Street behind the row of building. There are ramps to drive up to the upper level, along with stairs in various places. There is an alleyway of sorts behind the buildings known as "Factor's Walk." Factors is the name applied to what we would call (cotton) brokers today. It is interesting architecture and has been left much as it was back the those days.

We visited a lot of the shops along River Street and had lunch at Dockside. It was okay, but not as good as the Crabshack last night. It did give us a nice dry spot to sit while it poured rain outside. We did a lot of walking today, not even utilizing the second day bus passes we had bought, but we try to walk whenever we can. We were both tired when we got back and it started to rain again, so it was nice to be here inside. I did manage to get a picture of the double rainbow though!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Time to move on. . .

We are leaving the New Lisbon Family Campground tomorrow morning. We had moved here from the state park because here we have full hookups, so we can run all the water we want and do laundry, etc.

We have completed all our blood tests and doctor appointments, etc. It's good to have that behind us and a green light to take off once again. We have kept our doctors here in central Indiana because they have been our doctors for years and it's as easy to be here twice a year as anywhere else.

The camp here has had several transient campers coming in every evening. Tonight is the most we have seen. . . I think about six others besides us. There are a lot of seasonal campers here, but the overnighters have their own area and all the sites are long pull throughs. We have full hookups, 30 Amp and it is is easy in and out.

But it is now time to move on. When we started this venture ten days ago, the weather had just turned cool, then cold, now wet and rainy. It actually warmed up today and we were able to shed our jackets for the latter part of the day. We have just finished our evening walk. It was good we got finished when we did because now it is pouring down rain again.

Tomorrow we leave and head a few miles east to spend time with friends Tab and Deanna. They are the friends with whom we are going to Alaska next summer, so we will have another planning meeting. It's great fun. When we leave there, we are headed to Florida to check in on our son Brandon and wife Megan. We are anxious to see them.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Fall appointments. . .

We arrived at Glowood Camp south of Lapel on Tuesday afternoon. Terry had two cardiology appointments on Wednesday in Indianapolis. Fortunately they were uneventful and went very well. Nothing has really changed with his heart, and that is good, so he is good to go for another six months.

We left there Thursday morning and stopped at the Hoosier Downs Casino in Anderson for a brief respite. I had fun playing, but didn't win anything. Terry, on the other hand, had a hot machine and played for quite some time. He won about $100. We were there a little over an hour and when his machine went cold we left. We had lunch in the motorhome in the parking lot, then drove US36 over to Summit Lake State Park north of New Castle. We are here for three nights and are supposed to have the Parkview Picnic tomorrow afternoon. Former colleagues who worked at Parkview Junior High try to meet every year about this time and visit over a pot-luck dinner. It is always great fun and I have to say we have never had bad weather. Until this year. Tonight we are having heavy thunderstorms and considerable lightning. The camp was pretty empty today except for our rig and Dave and Mark's, but tonight the weekenders came in droves. Lots of trailers in the 28' range. Nice looking units, but varying degrees of skill on the part of the drivers. It is dark and pouring down rain and many had trouble parking their rigs in the weather. It looks like the camp is pretty full now. I wonder if they will all stay the weekend or if they will be pulling out tomorrow. It is supposed to be colder tomorrow, only a high of 60, but a smaller chance of rain. It might make for a miserable picnic, but we will just have to wait and see and hope the predicted winds don't materialize.

I did have a treat today. Mark left for work this morning and Dave had to take a friend to the doctor in Indianapolis. Dave let me keep Baxter for the morning. Baxter is a 4 year old black Scottish Terrier who is all spunk. We went for three walks and played in the motorhome. What fun. He even slept some, but as you can see, it is still hard to get a good picture of a black Scottie. Dave was going to take Dylan, his older dog, with him, but decided to leave him here because he was so sleepy. So I did go check on him a couple times. I let him out once; but the second time, he woke up but didn't want to move, so I left him inside. I enjoyed taking care of the dogs.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Elvis has left the building. . .

OR. . . we have left the area! We spent the last couple days closing up the storage condo and checking out last minute things for the apartments, paid the fall taxes (OUCH!) and said goodbye to our managers and Terry's uncle. We headed south and at Claypool, pulled off the road at my sister's woods. She came out to get me and I went back to Mom and Dad's to say goodbye.

We continued on and at Wabash stopped at a grocery store to get a few things. We were trying to decide what to have for supper. We don't eat out much and our camp for the night is out in the country, so we were trying to think of what to have. When our refrigerator went out, I was able to save all the meat, but some had thawed too much to refreeze, so I finished thawing it, cooked it and froze it back. Among the meat was a couple pounds of ground beef and a pound of ground venison. I mixed those two and made up three meatloaves. I partially cooked them, then cooled and froze them. Talk about a perfect meal after getting off the road for the day. It was already to finish thawing and cooking and we each had a baked potato to go with it. It was perfect!

Tomorrow we see both of Terry's cardiologists and then on Thursday morning we head toward New Castle for our yearly round of physicals, etc. Always glad to get that behind us.

Once that is over, we head to Camp PullTab for some more Alaska trip planning before heading to Florida to see Brandon and Megan.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Time Out!

We took time out yesterday to gather with some family we hadn't seen in years. My cousins, Becky and Bob and their spouses along with my sister, brother-in-law and my parents all came to the house for a cookout. We had a great time. The last time we all saw each other was 11 years ago when Bob and Becky's Mom passed away. We all decided we needed to do this every year. Everyone lives close enough to do that and we are looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Bob and Kathy are leaving this morning for Natchez, Mississippi, via the Natchez Trace. Have a great trip. I'm sure you will enjoy the Trace and the sights along the way. Travel safely!

Becky brought albums of pictures. Her mom had kept family pictures from generations ago and has most of them marked with who was in them. I need to remember to do that when I go through old pix. We spent quite of bit of time going through those old photographs. She also brought several albums from our Aunt June who recently passed away. My sister took all of them home with her and is going to scan them in and send me copies. We decided since we both planned to do that, it made more sense for just one of us to do it and share. Since we are leaving here next week for our journey to points south, we decided it made more sense for her to do that.

Till next time. . .


Dale

The Interesting and the Unusual . . .

Yesterday we were in Shipshewana. Phaeton Place is there at the National RV Refrigeration service center getting a new cooling unit. If any of you RV'ers run into a problem with your RV refrigerator cooling unit, you might want to check them out. Just talking with Leon, the owner, will get you an education. He is very well versed on the gas absorption refrigerators and what is known as the "Amish cooling unit." He actually does not use that one but has his own design which he warranties for three years. One guy who was there getting a new (used) refrigerator had been told by a Norcold service center that his refer was toast and he needed to buy an entirely new refer. He pulled out the old one, destroying it in the process. Leon said it was fixable. . . he said they all are. He sold them a used one with a new cooling unit and installed it. Ours should be done later today. He pulls the fridge, changes out the cooling unit and reinstalls it. Complete testing, etc., for $950. AND, Good Same ESP works with him. He actually is a Norcold service center as well. He said our boiler ruptured, and ammonia was spilled out (you could see it) and the "high temp switch" which was added on one of the recalls, shut the system down. There was the potential for fire. On our way back to the condo, we saw an Amish field of large hay rolls. Terry wondered outloud how they get the huge hay rolls without the big tractors, etc. Hahahah. A little way down the road and this picture explains that! Here a horse team is pulling one of those hay rollers!

We have a beautiful rose bush on the east side of the house. Terry's mom had planted it years ago. I cut it down every year because it always looks so bad, but it has really bloomed well this year. The flowers are beautiful and they are so vividly red in color!

We recently were at Factory RV Surplus on the curve on Indiana 19 and found this fellow greeting everyone who came in. You don't see too many of them, so this was a treat.



 

A couple days later, Terry found this guy when he went to tend to the water hose. Walking sticks are even rarer!

MinnieMee is now in storage. We put her in last week and plan to leave her there until we return here in the spring and get ready for our Alaska trip. We got one final shot of her and Phaeton Place together over at the campground. We are getting things here at the apartments finalized and are about ready to hit the road. That will come on Tuesday and we are anxious to get back on the road!

Saturday, Mom and Dad, my sister and husband and two of my cousins, Bob and Becky (on my Dad's side) and their spouses are coming over for a cookout. We haven't all seen each other in about 10 years. Whoo hoo!

Till next time. . .

Dale

More Family Time!

Last week Jocelyn, Tom, Ronan, Aenea and Whiskey arrived for a week of family time. It was great to see them and even though they were here for almost a week, it seemed too short. They spent some time down at Mom and Dad's and visited with Aunt Nita as well. Ronan and cousin Kellie got in some one-on-one time and Ronan was glad for the attention! My parents got to see the great grandones which is always a thrill. We continue to be amazed at Aenea. . . starting life at 28 weeks and 2 lbs. 12 oz. but perfectly healthy now and a joy to be around. She is a very happy baby and loves everyone and any attention anyone wants to give her. And Whiskey, the poodle rescue, is a sweetie. He loves everyone as well and got to meet some of Neal's friends from the neighborhood.

We spent an afternoon up in Niles visiting Terry's Aunt Francis. We try to get up to see her a couple times a summer. Uncle Bill died a couple years ago and she is by herself now. She enjoyed seeing the baby and Ronan as well as Jocelyn and Tom. She doesn't see them often anymore since everyone lives so far away.

Tom and Ronan engaged in some goofy play while we were there. They spent some time outside talking with the horses in the field next door. Meanwhile, Aenea is content to lay and be entertained!

Till next time. . .

Dale