May 26, 2010

“Puttin’ On The Ritz: Proms Remembered” was the theme at the LaPorte County Historical Museum with the decades of the 1930’s through the 1990’s represented.

As you enter the museum, you see three gowns from the 1950’s.

Our niece, Tina, donated the Red Prom Dress she wore to her Prom in 1988. Char’s Sister in law, Jeanette, made Tina’s dress.

Taking a break during our museum tour. Left to right: Char’s cousin, Norma, Jeanette, Norma’s husband Dick and Char.

We had an enjoyable lunch and afternoon visiting the museum with family.

May 21, 2010

Char, my brother Bob, my Uncle Russell and I went to the Monon Connection Museum today. This is a wonderful place for railroad enthusiasts to visit. This private collection contains thousands of items and many are from the mid to late 1800s.

These three lanterns from the 1800s still have the original dirt on them from when they were found.

Here Uncle Russell, Char and Bob are looking at some of the over 300 lanterns on display. This room also exhibits fine china and silver from dining cars, padlocks, brass bells and whistles, safes and much more that were used on various rail lines.

Almost every inch of this 8,000 square foot museum was filled with memorabilia.

Here our tour guide, David Ward, explains some of the items in this enclosed case.

We ate lunch in the Whistle Stop Restaurant adjacent to the museum, there are four model trains traveling on suspended tracks from the ceiling.

Between rain showers, we went through this restored caboose on the grounds surrounding the museum.

Uncle Russell checking the view from the observation area in the top of the caboose.

This heating system kept the caboose warm in the coldest weather.

If you have the opportunity to travel through Northern Indiana plan a stop at this fantastic museum. You won’t be disappointed. It is 1½ miles north of Monon, Indiana on Hwy 421.

May 18, 2010

Some days are just lucky for me. This was one of those days. I was allowed to tag along with my brother Bob and nephew Rick while they did a little work at their church. A couple of weeks ago, a group of men including Bob and Rick removed an old sidewalk at the church. They put four large pieces into the dumpster at the church to be hauled away. The dumpster company told them the pieces were too large and needed to be broken into smaller pieces before they would take them.

First the pieces needed to be removed from the dumpster. Rick, the youngest and most able, jumped into the dumpster and fastened a chain around them one at a time.

Bob, the equipment operator in the family, used his tractor to lift them out.

Rick is attaching a chain around the remaining piece in the dumpster. Another church member, Tim, used an electric jackhammer to break the large sections into smaller pieces. Now comes the lucky part, I got to cut the wires in the concrete to separate the smaller pieces. I didn’t get to climb into the dumpster or handle the heavy jackhammer.  Wasn't I lucky.

The entire job only lasted about two hours and I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time so I could help. At my age, it is a great feeling to be wanted when there is work to be done.

May 15, 2010

Today I want to say something to the most wonderful woman in the world and my beautiful companion in life.

Happy Birthday Charlotte

Char has worked hard to recapture what she lost from the stroke she experienced about a year and a half ago. She no longer has any difficulty walking. The daily use of a Nintendo Wii Console and Wii Fit Board has improved her coordination skills. Her ability to read is progressing slowly. Some thoughts are still a little difficult for her to express but are getting easier as her vocabulary increases. As she continues to improve we are looking forward to many more years of travel across this great country.

This afternoon we went with Bill and Jeanette to family-owned Urschel Laboratories, Inc. in nearby Valparaiso, Indiana for an open house celebrating 100 years of making precision food cutting equipment. We took a self-guided 3,760-foot tour through the plant to see the many innovative design and technologies used to build the slicers, dicers, shredders and other equipment used commercially around the world. We watched a demonstration of a machine that cuts 20,000 crinkle cut french fries in a minute. We were told if we eat crinkle cut french fries anywhere they were cut by an Urschel DiversaCut Slicer. It was a great learning experience for us. We congratulate Urschel Laboratories, Inc. for a growing and successful business.

Thank you Bill and Jeanette for taking us to Strongbow Inn for an outstanding dinner to celebrate Char’s birthday.

April 14, 2010

Today was an outstanding day. We had the honor of a visit from high school classmate, Dolores (Wozniak) Milzarek and her husband, Don. We enjoyed the afternoon catching up on each other’s lives and families.

Don has been retired for a little more than two years. Dolores will be retiring in the next couple of months. They are trying to figure out where they want to spend their retirement years. I don’t think they have made a final decision yet. We also have been trying to figure out where we want to settle down after our travels. No decision for us either but our daughter’s basement is high on the list. Just kidding Jill.

It was fun to hear about the places that Dolores and Don have seen. We agree with them that Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park are high on everyone’s list of favorite places. The salt mines in Krakow, Poland sounded interesting but because we no longer enjoy air travel it would be difficult for us to get there in our motor home. Don shared a wonderful story from years ago about snow snakes. Although intriguing, I don’t think Char or I will ever see them either. Hopefully each of us will have several more years of fun filled travels before truly retiring.

Thank you Don and Dee.

May 9, 2010

In addition to being Mother’s Day, today is Bill’s birthday. Bill as many of you know is Char’s brother. His wife Jeanette hosted a wonderful surprise party at their home for him. Seventy-nine friends and relatives joined the celebration to honor Bill on his day. I think Bill was a little surprised and very happy to see everyone.

May 4, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB.  My brother is celebrating his xxth birthday today. The number is not important. What is important is he is here and able to celebrate another birthday. Again, we congratulate you on your jaunt to 68.

While drinking our coffee this morning, we watched this magnificent sunrise. We are at a campground in Shipshewana, Indiana. Later in the morning we roamed through some of the many shops in town. After a delicious lunch at the Blue Gate Restaurant, we drove through the countryside enjoying the sights and sounds of rural Indiana.

It was great to watch a young farmer exhibit his driving skills as he handled a six-horse team pulling a disc in a cornfield.

We found lots more to do and see in the area so we will put Shipshewana on our list of places to stay again.

May 1, 2010

Yesterday, we drove to a campground about 15 miles west of Columbus in Central Indiana. We experienced another night of rainstorms. There was lots of wind, lightning and some heavy rain between 3:30 AM and 5:00 AM. It is rather difficult to sleep in a motor home during storms like this so we got up and had some coffee until it was over. As usual, I followed the storm track on the computer. We didn’t have any damage in our area. The forecast is for more of the same tonight.

Today we went to the Morel Mushroom Festival at Brown County State Park. With over 15,000 acres this should be a great place to find mushrooms.

One of the Rangers at the Nature Center told us that this hasn’t been a good year so far for mushrooms. They were selling wild morel mushrooms but they were from Michigan. The price was $20.00 for a half-pound and $40.00 for a full pound. There were about twenty people in line to purchase mushrooms. We decided not to buy any.

It was a nice climb from the car to the North Lookout.

This is the view from the lower level.

The building was only two stories tall so the height didn't bother me and I was able to go to the top.

This is one of the shelters in the Park.

The rain stopped for a few hours but it was very wet so we didn't walk any of the trails.  This is a beautiful State Park and we had a wonderful time.

April 29, 2010

We spend the afternoon and evening with Curt and Judy Roper. We had a nice buffet lunch and then visited some of Berea’s many craft and art shops.

This was one of our favorite places. Here we watched Janet Northern of Mt. Vernon, KY making baskets. Her unique baskets were made with drift wood, honeysuckle and hickory bark.

Another favorite was the woodworking shop of Warren May. He explained the art of dulcimer construction and demonstrated by playing and singing. We learned a dulcimer made of walnut has a different tone than one made of cherry or other woods. Curt liked the sound of the walnut dulcimer while Judy, Char and I liked the cherry dulcimer’s tone better.

After strawberry shortcake at our motor home, we returned to the depot for a jam session by local musicians. There were fourteen participating musicians and a few non-playing singers tonight. They get together every Thursday evening from 7:00 – 9:30 P.M. yearlong and play outside when the weather permits. This definitely will be on our list of things to do again in Berea on future visits.