June 20, 2009

Three great things have happened for us in the last few days.

We had another opportunity to watch Abby play softball this afternoon and it was a terrific game. Abby played great and as Karl says the final score is not important (they won 13-1, they are 3-0 now). Abby pitched a fantastic inning again, completed some outstanding plays at shortstop and exhibited her great hitting skills.

Abby pitching.

Abby hitting.

Abby scoring.

Next, we received a call from my brother, Bob with good news. His daughter, Julie, is adopting a 3-day old baby boy. His name is Samuel Robert Schmidt. He weighed 8 pounds and 8 ounces at birth. We are very happy for Julie and Samuel and look forward to seeing them in July.

Lastly, we had the opportunity to meet professional baseball player, Ron Clark and his wife, Cathy. Their motor home is across the road from us in the campground. Ron played Major League Baseball from 1966 till 1975 and then was a coach for the Chicago White Sox, the Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians. He also managed Minor League Baseball Teams for the Philadelphia Phillies, the Toronto Bluejays and the Chicago Cubs. Ron has dedicated his entire life to baseball. He is truly an outstanding representative of the sport. This was the first time we’ve ever had the pleasure of shaking hands with a major league player. I would wait another 60 years if we were to meet someone as amiable as Ron. For all you MLB fans here is a link where you can see Ron’s career stats: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clarkro02.shtml

Ron with Char and I this morning.

Thanks Ron and Cathy for being such wonderful camping neighbors.

June 15, 2009

If you want to see a sample of a fun weekend, click on this link http://aboutabbyf.blogspot.com/ and look at the June 13, 2009 entry to see what we did on Saturday. We never get tired of this kind of entertainment.

June 12, 2009

Once a teacher - always a teacher is the best way to describe Jill. Like Mother - like Daughter is a good way to describe Abby. They are both working with Char to improve her reading ability. Jill has determined that Char can read but due to her stroke has a limited vocabulary. So they are working on this as well as reading. Jill and Char are working together during the day and Abby helps at night when she stays with us in the motor home.

Char is concentrating on her lesson. Abby is taking a break and working on one of her many craft projects.

You can tell by her smile, Char is enjoying this.

Char is extremely determined to learn and will not stop until she once again can read as well as she could before her stroke. It will take time and she is making good progress.

June 9, 2009

We are getting to spend some time with our Granddaughter, Abby now. She spent the night with us on Sunday and will again tonight. She is helping Grandma learn to do word search puzzles again. She is also helping Grandma learn to read better. We have seen some great things happen since we got here. I didn't realize that Char could count without help. Abby and Grandma played a game called Sorry and Char counted the spaces she was to move as directed by the card drawn. She did it by herself without any help from anyone. It's great to watch her do things she was unable to do after her stroke. Char's Doctor was right when he said that children have a special power and are able to influence rehabilitation in a positive way.

Tonight we celebrated our Daughter, Jill's Birthday with dinner at Mama Roma's Italian Restaurant. She reached another milestone today with her ##th birthday. Happy Birthday Jill.

Here is a picture of a man working on our motor home this morning. What do you thin he is doing?

I'm sure Richard and Vera figured it out quickly. They had the same thing done to one of their motor homes. He is repairing our windshield. We had gotten a small rock chip somewhere in Kansas. He drove out to our campsite in Chatfield State Park and repaired it in about twenty minutes. If you look closely you can still see the spot but now it is safe to drive without the fear of it becoming larger.

June 6, 2009

This is our fourth day in Goodland, Kansas. This is one of our favorite places. We love the KOA campground and the people that own it. They have added breakfast and dinner for their guests. Both meals are reasonably priced and delicious. For dinner the first night we had Polish style stuffed cabbage with a tomato sauce and mashed potatoes. Last night we had spaghetti with meatballs, broccoli and a dinner roll. Wow! This lady is a fantastic cook. For breakfast we tried biscuits and gravy one day and unlimited pancakes the next two days.

We also spent some time with our friend Fred and his family. They took us out to their farm and showed us some of the improvements they've done in the past year. Later we went to the local Chinese restaurant with them. It is one of their favorites and we can see why. The selection was great and the service was outstanding. Of course, everything is better when you are with good friends.

Goodland has a wonderful ice cream shop called The Vault. We were here last when it first opened and were impressed with the character of the shop. I wrote about it then and it is only getting better. This visit we had delightful strawberry milkshakes.

Tomorrow we leave for Colorado to see Jill, Karl and Abby.

June 2, 2009

We are in Dodge City, Kansas to learn about the infamous Boot Hill Cemetery. The hill is still in the original location but most of the graves have been moved due to the growth of Dodge City. The Boot Hill Museum is located at the base of the cemetery and you can still walk through and read the names and stories on the markers of the remaining graves. The cemetery was only used for about six years and was for drifters, troublemakers and other less fortunate souls with no family in the area. There is a lot to see and do so we spend the entire day at the museum, which included a fantastic Chuckwagon Dinner at the Occident Saloon.

Front Street at the Boot Hill Museum.

The Long Branch Saloon.

We also took a ride around town in an original two-horse power stagecoach. It was a lot of fun and the ride was a lot smoother than we expected. The inside of the coach was small and I wondered about how people managed to make long journeys in such a confined space. Our ride was on paved streets and not across the rough prairie where they traveled. Perhaps we are slightly spoiled by traveling in a 36-foot motor home with air bag suspension and comfortable individual captains chairs.

Here you can see how small the coach was on the inside.

As you can see, this was a regular sized stagecoach.

After the stagecoach, we took a trolley tour of the town, the nearby feedlots and Fort Dodge. We learned a lot but the most surprising was the feedlots. We have seen feedlots before but not this large. One feedlot is home for 45,000 cattle. It was cattle in pens for a far as you could see.

This picture was taken in the rain and is a little fuzzy.

After the trolley tour, we sat in the trolley for about a half hour waiting for the rain to stop. When it slowed down the driver dropped us off at the Boot Hill Museum entrance. We went back through to look at the many things we missed on our earlier visit. There are approximately 20,000 artifacts on display. We learned later there are almost twice that many still in a warehouse waiting to go on display.

The rain continued the rest of the afternoon. While enjoying our visit, we heard the town sirens warning of a tornado. The museum staff went through the complex sending everyone to the basement storage area. We didn’t make it to the basement before the all-clear signal was given. About ten minutes later we heard the sirens again. This time everyone, including the staff, went to the basement. It was a little crowded but we felt safe and made new friends. After about 15 minutes, we learned there wasn’t a tornado and everyone left the basement. Someone in a town office had mistakenly pushed the siren button by mistake. Twice. I felt good that we saw first hand the concern and plans of the museum staff when facing imminent danger from a tornado. A plus from this experience was that we did get to see an area that is not generally open to the public.

This is one of the two rooms used as a shelter.

I felt good that we saw first hand the concern and plans of the museum staff when facing imminent danger from a tornado. A plus from this experience was we did get to see an area that is not generally open to the public.

May 31, 2009

We are in Wichita, Kansas and today we went to the Old Cowtown Museum, a collection of buildings with business as it was in the 1800's. This weekend they featured, The Blue & The Gray: Brother Against Brother, a Civil War Battle Reenactment. There was also entertainment from the Great Plains Dulcimer Alliance, Generation Bluegrass, the Dixie Lee Saloon Girls and various merchants demonstrating how they make their wares.

Here you can see a group of Union Soldiers resting in town under a large shade tree.

This is the Union encampment at the edge of town.

This is a trapper in front of his cabin.

We watched a fourth generation broom maker using equipment purchased in 1879 by his Great, Great Grandfather. His Grandson is in the background and perhaps someday will take over the business.

We enjoyed the music of Generation Bluegrass.

We had a fun day strolling through the streets and shops of this old town.