Category Archives: Our travels

Glorious Summer

We are smack dab in the middle of Summer.  The 4th of July is over.  We missed the local fireworks display, but the night of the 4th I was sitting in our livingroom when a huge, bright, beautiful firework burst seemingly right outside our window. Suddenly, there were several fireworks bursting in the air. Now these weren’t your every day do at home fireworks. These were the big ones displayed to the public. I went outside and saw that our neighbors were having their own fireworks display.  One after another the beautiful fireworks burst in the air.  We were having our own private fireworks show!   It was wonderful.  It was a gift.

David is taking the whole month of July off and we have been doing a little traveling, a little grandchildren spoiling and a whole lot of swimming. I can’t remember when I have swam this much in a long time. It’s been really hot so I enjoy the pool more because the water isn’t as cold.

Our grandsons have been enjoying the pool also. We had two of them over the weekend and we did a lot of swimming.  One day we were in the pool for four hours.

It seems like we have always had our back porch and we’ve used it a lot.  We’ve already had two cookouts and everyone ate on the porch and no bugs!

This is the view from the porch. David installed another swing. Now we have four swings on our property.  And they are all used!

Molly likes swinging with anyone who sits down on the swing.  She thinks she owns that seat and when I am sitting with her, she growls at anyone else who wants to sit with me.

He wants a dog so badly. I tell him in a few years when he’s grown he can have any dog he wants.  Right now he lives in the city with no fenced in yard and the dog would be left alone a lot which would not be good for the dog.

This is another grandboy and of course, Molly must sit with him. Notice she takes up the middle. And if dogs could smile….

The bees are busy pollinating the flowers.  We have a lot of bumble bees and butterflies on the flowers.  And Hummingbirds are good pollinators also.

Flowers are blooming all over.  Some I know the names and some I don’t. This is Bee Balm or Monarda.  The ones in front are Cone Flowers or Echinachea.   I probably misspelled that last one.

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I planted these Cone flowers years ago and they have multiplied. That’s the kind of flowers I like.

We have dozens of Day Lilies in various colors.  There is a place called New Creation Lilies south of us where we have bought several of our lilies.

Every year I am amazed at all the flowers that come up in what was a very barren back yard.

We took a short trip to Nashville, Tennessee for our 51st wedding anniversary. We both wanted to visit the Pickers’ store, Antique Archeology.  It was smaller and more commercial with several of their finds from the show in the store. David and I each bought a ball cap.  The store is located in an old car factory and there are several nice stores throughout it.

This is their sign.

And this is the side of the building.  I did purchased one thing. A towel with a picture of the United States on it.

This is the original floors.  Deep gouges in them, but they have character and I’m glad they saved them.

Nashville has a lot going on. We almost ate in a honky tonk until I read the menu and nothing sounded good to me so we went on.  Remember the show this is from?

And this?

 

We drove around looking at all the sights.  Downtown was busy and the Country Music Hall of Fame is there.

This was the giant guitar out in front of it.

There are a lot of old warehouses made into little stores.

You could really shop until you dropped if you are so inclined. I’m not a shopper.

We would like to go back and see a show or two.

And to think it all started with hymn books.

No, we were not in New York.

We followed back roads.

Through small town America. There are really a lot of small towns across our country and each one is different.

Driving through one town we saw this sign and we were hungry, so we stopped.

But don’t park here. Mammy’s neighbor does not take kindly to people using their parking lot and Mammy’s was busy.

We got there mid afternoon and we had not eaten all day so we were hungry. Our meals were delicious and we wanted to try their pie, but the group in front of us bought all the pies up, so there were none and they closed at 3:00 on Sundays, so we just made it in because another couple came in after us and they told them they were closing.  Now we want to go back for the pie!

We’ve been here before. Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home.  A one room cabin.

To think a whole family lived in these small quarters and one day one of them would be president of the United States.

Abraham swam in a small creek behind the cabin and evidently almost drowned in it.

He was saved by a neighbor boy.  History could have been different if he hadn’t been saved.

We saw these beautiful trees everywhere.

This past week we took some of our grandboys to a candy factory outlet store.  We’ve been there before and candy is really cheap and so good.

The boys were like, well, kids in a candy story. We told them they could get what they wanted and I have never seen anyone shop so fast.

These are pictures of happy boys with their bags of candy.

Well, he doesn’t look too happy, but he really is.

I controlled myself and only got one box of candy.  It was hard, though.

We celebrated our fifty-first wedding anniversary and our daughter and son-in-law got us balloons and flowers which I though was nice.

I hope we can celebrate several more.

Hope you are having a glorious Summer where you live, but stay cool.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Trip Home

We left Florida, sad to leave family, but ready to get home.  Traveling up the east coast of Florida, we finally saw the sea.  In Orlando, it’s all about Disney and the traffic is horrible.  Driving up the coast was a little less crowded and we drove through small towns and over several bridges.

The sky was so blue.

Past NASA.  It was further away from where we were staying than I thought.  One year, when our children were small, we took my mother and daddy here and did the tour.  It was so interesting.   Back in the sixties, space travel was new and exciting and whenever there was a launch, we would gather in the gymnasium at school and watch it on tv.  I remember I held a boy’s hand for the first time when Alan Shepard took off in space!    He, the boy, not Alan, was sitting beside me and grabbed my hand and I let him hold it.   I thought I was in love.

I love the ocean.

Over marshes and rivers.

Mailbox posts. Some looked like dolphins and some manatees.

Just wanted to show you my arm after being in the hospital.  One young man had a hard time finding my veins.  Stuck me a few times.

More bridges.  Until finally we reached a place where we could get to the beach.  I could not leave Florida without at least sticking my feet in the ocean.  This land lubber needed that.

And there it was.  Very few people on the beach that day. A couple of fishermen and a woman with her little boy.  The water was cold, but that little boy played in it like it was as warm as bath water.

The waves were rolling in.

Just a picture to prove we were really there. It all seems like a dream of sorts.   So much happened in just a few days.   I just wish I had felt better.

Someone built a tiny castle in the sand and embellished it with sea shells.

But we had to continue on.

Down streets under trees dripping with Spanish moss. That’s what says the south to me.  I love Spanish moss.

Past a merry-go-round in one town.

Until we saw this sign. Don’t believe it, folks.  Bags of oranges were way more than a dollar, but we bought a bag and the oranges are nothing like we get in the grocery stores in Indiana. They are so much better.  Juicy and sweet.  The men running this particular stand were salesmen.  They were constantly showing people things and offering samples.    There were the usual tourist gifts. Coconut heads, alligator heads(I wondered if they were real) and t-shirts.

The first night we stopped here to eat.  The food was so good, but I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I could barely eat what they brought me.   I think my appetite was still not back, but everything I ate was good.

Just thought this house was unusual.  I like houses of all sorts. There are many wonderful antebellum houses in the south.

Does this not make you think of Scarlette O’Hara and Gone With the Wind?   I can see her now, running off this porch holding up her full skirts.

Some of the houses were not so grand, but interesting just the same.

Wild flowers planted beside the highway.  They went for miles.  Wonder if they got their seed from Wildseed Farm in Texas?

Almost like a Monet painting.

Out of the sunshine state and back into Autumn once again.

The trees were beautiful.

One town had a Confederate burial ground.

So many died in that terrible war.

Sadly this was how things were back in the day.   This was in Madison, Georgia.  It truly was a beautiful town.  General Sherman, in his march through the south, evidently didn’t hit this town because all the antebellum houses were intact.

Some of the towns had places like this in the center of town.

One honored the Cherokee Indians.

We even saw Mulberry Street, but there were no parades.

If you were a child growing up in the fifties, you probably saw this movie on the Walt Disney Show one evening.   It’s about Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear and Brer Fox.  A long time ago, a little boy say at the knee of former slaves and listened to the stories they would tell.   One day these stories were written down for all to read and then Walt Disney loved them so much, he made a movie about them.

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I bought a book.  There were books written in the dialect of the former slaves and how they told the stories, but it was hard to understand, so I bought one I could read.   This is not the original author.

This is Pat who worked for the museum. She was a font of information about the author and all things Uncle Remus.   Such a sweet lady.

Brer Bear and his missus on the doors of the bathrooms!

We enjoyed our trip, but were glad to be home in our own bed.

 

 

And it was time to put up the Christmas tree and get ready for another holiday.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving and a restful weekend.  Bye.

There Was Fun

My last two posts were pretty sad, but today I will write about our vacation to Florida and Walt Disney World where we did have some good times before I got ill.

David and I took three boys to Legoland, which has nothing to do with Disney I learned.   I always thought Legoland was in Disney, but it’s a whole other park.  I took no pictures, but it was a fun day.  It was hard to believe the things made out of Legos.  The city of San Francisco was amazing.   Whole cars made of Legos. And of course there were rides, which I did not go on. David took the boys on the roller coasters.

The first day at Disney we were taken to an African restaurant.   We ordered this wonderful bread with all kinds of dipping sauces.

It was so nice to be with family. That is what I was looking forward to the most.  Just being all together.

 

 

Trying different food one has never tried before.

Outside there was a woman dressed in African garb playing on a drum.  Very listlessly, it seemed to me, but how long can one beat on a drum and not get tired?  Anyway, we were looking through the shop in the restaurant(there are shops everywhere in Disney) and we missed our son-in-law.  David came in and said he was playing the drum outside.  We went outside and to our amazement, there he sat playing the drum.

He’s been in a band and can really play.  I could have listened for a long time.  He could get a job here playing the drum.

We went for a ride on the monorail to the Polynesian village.

Gorgeous flowers everywhere in Disney.

Inside the hotel.  Of course there was a shop.

We had some serious shoppers with us. I am not a shopper anymore. I use to love to shop, but I don’t need or want much any longer, so I don’t enjoy just looking.   There are secret Mickey Mouses hidden all over the park.  There was a secret Mickey embedded in the floor here. The boys were having fun looking for them all.

The next day at the park is when it all went downhill for me. I was not feeling at all well and I literally drug myself through Animal Kingdom.  David and I walked through the zoo area and I  had to keep sitting down. You know the rest of the story.  I wish there were a do over for Walt Disney World, but I’m not even sure I want to ever go to Florida gain!

Our son is a Disneyholic.  He bought an annual pass for himself, his girlfriend and her son.  They have already been to Disney World several times.   He’s like a kid in a candy store.  And this is something he bought while on our trip.

Yes, he is the Grinch.  Not really.  And another thing he bought.

A Santa hat that lights up.

We stayed in a very nice house while in Florida in a gated community.

It had a swimming pool and hot tub which the boys used a lot.  After a full day at Disney, they were still energetic and swam until bedtime.   I was wishing I had all that energy.

When the week was over we packed up and started for home.  There must be a word for a feeling that you thought something would never end, but you were sad when it ended.  I was sad to leave despite it all because after all, I got to spend some time with family and that is what it’s all about.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knee Deep in Summer

Holy moly.   July 4th has already come and past and we are knee deep in Summer and it is speeding toward Autumn.     I don’t even feel like we celebrated the fourth even though we had a picnic and pool party and we saw fireworks from our back porch for a week.  One evening the fireworks were every bit as good as our city puts on every year and we didn’t have to listen to the awful music they play during their fireworks.   Someone had a lot of fireworks because they were exploding for days before the fourth and days afterward. Belle and Molly did not like it much.  I was pretty much over fireworks by the fourth, too.

I did manage to make some patriotic looking sugar cookies. My grandkids love these.

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It was a spur of the moment thing which is pretty much how I roll anymore.

David and I celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary on the 7th.  Fifty years!  How can that be?  We have gone through a lot together in those fifty years.   Joys, sorrows, tragedies, accidents, blessings and more.  I wouldn’t want to live it all over again, but it’s been a very interesting fifty years.  We have had a lot of fun too and gotten to travel a lot and since we both love to travel, it’s been great.    I think about starting all over again and I think, “Nope, don’t want to go there.”   I look to the future and I know what my eternity holds so it’s all good.  There will probably be more good times as well as bad times. In fact, my sister- in -law, my oldest brother’s wife, just passed away this morning.   She has lived without Jack for several years so I can imagine the reunion in Heaven today.    She was one of the last few people who remembered me when I was a kid.  She married my brother when I was five or six years old.    I use to spend time at their house when I was a kid and play with their next door neighbor’s kids.  Carroll was always so nice to me.  I will miss her, but I look forward to seeing her again one day.

Anyway, David and I celebrated our fiftieth by going to West Baden Springs in southern Indiana.  In the early part of last century some businessman got the idea to build a big hotel surrounding the mineral springs that were there.  People would come from all over to drink the water and bathe.     The hotel was many things during the century.  It was a hospital,  a Jesuit school,  soldiers were housed there during one of the wars.  The Jesuits blocked up all the Springs. The hotel fell into disrepair.  Then several years ago, someone decided to resurrect the building once more and bring it back to the grandeur of its heyday.    My son-in-law’s place of business provided all the new carpet throughout the hotel and repaired much of the tile that was damaged or missing.  Here are a few pictures of the hotel now.

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Wish I had brought my swimsuit.

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Wish I looked like this in a swimsuit!

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The carpets were beautiful.

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I never could get a full picture of the hotel. It is huge and very beautiful. This picture does not do it justice at all.

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This was in the atrium, a huge room with sofas and chairs where you could sit and look at all the beauty.

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This was a balcony looking over the atrium.

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Statues all around the atrium.

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There was a billiard room where you could play billiards.

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At one time they had shoeshine men and men would sit on this marble stand and get their shoes shined.

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The halls to the rooms were luxurious.

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There were flower gardens everywhere. It was so beautiful outside.

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At one time there was a barbershop in the hotel.

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These are some of the dishes they used in the restaurant and for room service back in the day.

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Some of the commemorative plates they sold.

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Big, wide porches you could sit on and watch the world go by.  I didn’t get to do this. Must go back.

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Fountains on the vast lawn.

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These lights lined the drive.

Now David and I are more Best Western and Comfort Inn kind of travelers. We don’t stay in luxury hotels, well, not ever.   But this was our fiftieth anniversary and we splurged for a wonderful night at a wonderful place and we are so glad we did.

 

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When we got in our room there were flowers on the table and I thought, “How nice of the hotel to have flowers in the room.”  Then I saw another vase of flowers and thought, “Wow, they really go overboard here.”   I lay down on the bed and David said, “Aren’t you going to look at the flowers?”  And I said, “I looked at them, aren’t they pretty?”  And then David said, “Aren’t you going to read the card?”  and I said, “There’s a card?”  Then  I read the card and realized David had had flowers sent to the room. Oh, my.  Then I read a card next to the other flowers that read “Happy Anniversary” and we both thought they were from the hotel.   Then I found a card behind those flowers and discovered the second vase of flowers were from our children so I called our oldest son to thank him and he asked us if we liked the chocolate covered cherries and I said we hadn’t gotten any.  He said there were supposed to be twenty-five flowers in the vase and twenty-five chocolate covered cherries for David in the room.  Hmmmm.

We left to do some exploring around the hotel and when we got back to our room there was a plate with twenty-five chocolate covered cherries waiting.   I think our son did some calling.

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That same day we went to an elephant ranch.  Yes, elephants right smack dab in the middle of the country in southern Indiana.  These are rescue elephants who spend their Summers in Indiana and their Winters in Florida.   I was so excited about getting up close and personal with them.  While we waited our turn to see the elephants we looked at the other animals in the petting zoo they had there.

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Goats.

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Mama kangaroo.

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Baby kangaroo.

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A tortoise who really wanted out of his cage.

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There were giraffes. This one was slobbering so badly and throwing his slobber several feet from his pen.   I stood waaay back from this guy.  Or girl.  I don’t know.

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Giraffes sure do have a pretty coat.

And my all time favorite was there at the petting zoo.

 

 

 

 

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A chicken who didn’t seem all that thrilled about being caged with the goats.

Finally our time came to get on the bus to ride to where the elephants were and this is the funny part.  The elephants were probably a block away from where we were. We could have walked there just as easily.  We laughed about that.

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We all sat on bleachers while a man told us all about elephants.  He takes care of these elephants both in Indiana and Florida and use to take care of elephants in India.  He knew all about elephants.  They are such majestic creatures.

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What kind of people kill these animals just for their ivory tusks?  It’s terrible.   Don’t buy anything made with ivory.

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These creatures are extremely intelligent and once they have met you, they will never forget you. I tried to be sure one of the elephants got to know me. I hope my image is imprinted on her mind forever.     It was so amazing to be in the same room with three of these wonderful animals.    I got to pet them and they have very thick, stiff hairs on their bodies.    I told the lady she was blessed to get to work with elephants every day and she said it gave her great joy.

When evening came we sat in the atrium at the hotel and listened to sixties and seventies music played by these guys.

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They were really good. They sang the Everly Brothers’ song, “Dream” and David and I sang along with them.   Made me feel like I was a teen-ager again.  Ha.

At the end of the day we were really tired and went to our room where this very comfortable bed awaited us.

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And should I have needed to call someone from the bathroom, there was a phone nearby!

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We had a suite and I had to walk through two rooms to get to the bathroom.  I was hoping I wouldn’t get lost during the night.

I don’t usually sleep well the first night in a new bed, but David and I both fell fast asleep and slept all night.   In fact, when I went to take a shower and came back to the room, David had fallen asleep already.  So much for romance!  Haha.

And when we checked out the following morning, someone had paid for our room.  Wow.  What a wonderful anniversary we had.

Here’s to anniversaries and grand hotels. Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still Traveling, But There’s No Place Like Home

One of the last things we did on Dauphin island was tour the fort that was on its Eastern most end.   This fort was here long before civilization crowded in.  The men had no stores from which to buy their food, so they depended on the oysters, fish and alligators for their meals.  It must have been a long, lonely tour of duty as there was not much to do but guard the coast, eat, sleep and find food each day.   Their sleeping arrangements were not the best either.

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Hopefully feather mattresses were put on these narrow beds.

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Or maybe they just laid down on this and covered up with a thin blanket.

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This must have been an officer’s room as he had the fortune to have a fireplace to keep him warm at night.

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There were many hand written letters home to family and they typed them up so we could read them as many of the words were hard to read and many were misspelled.   Notice this guy received some shirts from his wife, but the wristbands were too tight!  There were many  letters like this and I could have stayed and read them all, but we had more to see.

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Another military man looking at quarters in which he is very happy he was never quartered.   But he had to sleep out in the woods a lot so it wasn’t much better.  He didn’t have to hunt for food, though.

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This is another place I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a ferry to catch.

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Out to sea.

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Past pelicans and seagulls resting on rocks in the bay.

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Past oil rigs that looked somewhat alien in this scenery.

We were driving to Destin, Florida in hopes of spending a day at the beach before we headed north, but near Fort Walton our car starting bucking like a horse in a rodeo.  It would run well for a while until we stopped at a light and starting up, it would start bucking again.  Thankfully, we made it to our motel without hitting one red light after I said a prayer.   We found a repair shop and took it in.  Of course they could find nothing wrong. “Bring it back in in the morning,” They said so we did. David left the car running so the repairman could witness what was happening.  It was a relatively simple fix, but we missed our beach time. So on north we drove.

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This will mean nothing to anyone but those who attend my church.  Our pastor talks about how he was saved in Piney Grove Baptist Church and wouldn’t you know it. We drove right past it!  I had to get a picture. There was a man there we hoped knew Brother Bailey, but he was just visiting the cemetery there and didn’t know him.

Then we found this wonderful museum of Alabama history.

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I can’t even begin to show you all the pictures I took and how much was in this little museum, but it was wonderful.

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Rooms set up to look like long ago.

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So many antique quilts.  Many I didn’t recognize the pattern.

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Set up for a quilting bee but…..

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The quilters were on break.

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This hat and purse were made from corn husks.

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An old baby bed.  Kept the mosquitoes and flies off baby.

Besides the museum. there were buildings to see.

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A general store that was full of old general store stuff.

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A church heated by an old cast iron stove.

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Lit by kerosene lamps. I told David it would be wonderful to decorate this church for Christmas with a tree and holly and have the lamps lit, the stove heating the room and having a church service at night. It would be magical.

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And Pastor David said, “Yes, that would be nice.”

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There was an old chicken house, but no chickens.

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A covered bridge and several other houses to see.   And then it was time to move on.

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Through more little southern towns with beautiful houses with big front porches.

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Until we came to another town where we found this park.  Another place off the beaten path.  Not a tourist trap, but well worth seeing.

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Over a bridge…

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To a beautiful falls.  It was roaring like Niagra.

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History tells us that an Indian maiden, betrothed to a man she did not want to marry because she was in love with another, jumped to her death at these falls.  No woman should ever have to marry someone she is not madly in love with.

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I would have probably done the same thing if I were being forced to marry someone I did not love.

Back on the road again and what do I see ahead???????

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We passed it, David, go back!

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I can’t believe it. It’s a Haunted Chicken House!  Opens in October.  Road trip!!

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So many cars with chickens on the top.  There was a big building there where the haunted part was, but I was loving seeing all these cars with the chickens.  So funny.   And I can’t even tell you what it’s near so we probably could never find it again.

Many times serendipitous things happen to us. Like when David missed his turn in a town and right at that very moment when he knew he had missed it, we saw to our left a part.  This park had log cabins on its grounds and a walking path.  “Let’s go in!”  And we did.  I walked  and looked at all there was to see.

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A bridge to walk and fountains.

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A log cabin with plaques of “dead mothers,”  There were a lot of them.

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Another old cabin. I love cabins.  I would love to live in one.

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There was a little free lending library there where you could take a book and leave one.  There was a book I really wanted to take, but I didn’t have one to leave so I passed it by.   The paths in the park wove round and round and it really was so easy to walk a mile without even thinking about it.  I walked around for quite a while an met this man walking his macaw.

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He told me he walks it every day.  His name is Bobby.  The macaw, that is.  This guy is an old Navy man.    That bird was so tame, it just walked on his arm and sometimes over his shoulders and back to the other arm and he talked as it did it like it was the most normal thing in the world. You meet the nicest people and their birds while walking in a park!

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Coming through Kentucky, we stopped at this Lincoln memorial.  There are exactly 56 steps up to the memorial.  The age President Lincoln was when he was assassinated.   So young.

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This log cabin was inside the memorial. At one time it was believed the Lincolns lived in this cabin, but in recent years and with testing of the logs, they learned the cabin was too new to be of that time.  So it’s kept as a memory of log cabins.

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We walked this wooden walkway back down.

There was  a little museum where we watched a movie about Lincoln’s life.  It told that although we have learned that Abraham Lincoln’s family was very poor, they were actually middle class and very probably upper middle class at that time in history as they had been able to buy a farm.  Sadly that farm was lost because the deal had not been done legally by the seller.   They bought another farm and it was lost too.  Evidently Abe’s father wasn’t too good at making deals.

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I found this picture of Lincoln made from pennies very interesting.

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The Lincolns probably did get water from a spring here on the property.

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Then it was time to get home driving through rain over the Ohio River in Louisville.

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We are in Indiana!  Yay!

And back to home sweet home.

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To one of the prettiest gardens I’ve seen except for Bellingrath Gardens.   And I didn’t miss any of the blooms.

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The magnolias were magnificent.

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The daffodils had not faded.

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The azalea was as pretty as any I had seen down south.

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And the redbud was bursting with bloom.  It was good to be home.

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And David was so glad to get home because he was starting to look like that old man in “Up.”   Sorry I don’t know how to turn this picture, so lay on your side and look at it.  We have laughed so hard at this.   He did this playing with his cellphone one night.

Here’s to traveling and all the sights we’ve seen. Bye.

Traveling South Part I

David and I love to travel.  We have been in every state in our country except for Hawaii for David and Hawaii and Rhode Island for me.  Some of the states we have visited several times. We love the west.  But we love the south, north and east also.  It was hard deciding where to go this year. Since we have not spent a lot of time in Mississippi except the time when my brother and his family lived there, we decided to travel that state to the Gulf.  We also planned a stop in a town where one of our favorite television shows is filmed.

I was having mixed feelings about leaving my pets this time as our favorite pet sitters have closed their business.  They are older than us, so I was not surprised that they had decided to do so, but I was worried at finding a new pet sitter. Then someone suggested a girl who attends our church so I called her and she came and visited and I at once felt calm about leaving my dogs and chickens with her.  The dogs loved her the first time they met her.  As dogs are very good judges of people, I knew she would be very good to them. She is a really sweet girl and very good with animals as she works at a dog daycare where I plan to take Molly this Summer for some play with other dogs as Belle would rather sleep than play.

So we left and I actually cried a little at leaving them and all the flowers that were in bloom around our house.  Crazy, isn’t it?

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The daffodils and magnolias were blooming and here is my crab apple I really hope won’t bloom and be gone before we get back as I wait for it every year.

So off we set.

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Down the road.

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Through little Indiana towns.

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Over the bridge over the Ohio River.

And south.

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We stop at little out of the way places. Not a big tourist site, but interesting.

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A park where we stretched our legs.   Walking around the paths twice was a quarter of a mile. Yes, I am counting my steps again.

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This old house was next to the bridge park and there were feral cats coming in and out of it.  I think they have taken it over.

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There is something about old, abandoned houses that interest me.  I often tell David if I were a billionaire I would travel the country and restore these old houses to their former grandeur so people could again live in them.  What history would this old house tell?

We passed many old houses the first day as we traveled further and further south.

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Wouldn’t this house be beautiful if repaired and brought back to life?  Now a farmer keeps his tractor parked where the cars use to park.  I could see me having a sewing room in that upstairs room with the big windows.

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There are still a few log cabins around. When I was a girl, there were two log cabins near my home. My brothers and I use to have walnut fights in one of them.  Those cabins are long gone.  It appears someone is trying to preserve this one with a new metal roof on the porch.

 

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You don’t see these houses driving the interstate.  This one must have housed a large family at one time. I think of the Waltons looking at it.

Besides houses the trees and flowers were in bloom everywhere the farther south we got.

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This is what my crabapple looks like every Spring.  At least I got to see a flowering crabapple this year.

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Beautiful blooms everywhere.

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Then, we noticed something strange ahead.

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I believe they have landed!   Don’t know what this was.  But it looks alien.

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I always think of the south when I see azaleas.  Even the most humble home looks wonderful with azaleas blooming in the yard.

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Another park where I walked in a wonderful southern town with lots of old houses.

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They really knew how to build them.  Many houses built today are all pretty generic.

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This house looked like a castle.

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David was trying to get out of all the pictures I was taking!

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Big front porches where one could sit and rock and sip sweet tea.

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I fell in love with this little house and it had a name.

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If I were a little old lady(well, I kind of am) and didn’t have a husband(which I don’t want to happen), I would live in a little pink house like this with a dog at my feet and a quilt to work on in my hands.  I would invite people in for sweet tea and cookies.

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I love the ingenuity of people. Who thinks of planting flowers in an old boat, but it works.

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A pumpkin colored house.  We are getting our house repainted in a year or two.  Think this would be a good color!

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Some of the houses had little carriage houses in the back converted to something else.

Then we got to one of our destinations.

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Down tree covered streets with large live oaks covering them. Past beautiful parks. This town had so many parks.

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Live oaks, a tree that is everywhere in the south.  Thankfully, many have been allowed to grow to this size.  Many dripping with Spanish moss.

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Roses blooming in profusion.  Then we reached our destination.

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We were in Laurel, Mississippi.  The site of the home renovation show Home Town. This is Ben and Erin Napier’s mercantile.  Of course I bought a few things here. It was a cute little store.  I was hoping maybe one of them would show up, but I am sure they have better things to do.

So on south we went.  I will write more soon. Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Daze and Country Roads

I had the best two days this past week doing something I love to do. Drive along country roads and go antiquing.  There was an event going on.  Several ladies had joined together to have a tour of their home owned shops out in the hills and valleys of southern Indiana. It was called Country Neighbors.  Now country neighbors don’t always live close to each other.     When David and I started out, we didn’t have a map, just addresses I had gotten off the internet.  Miss Garmin had a problem finding the first one.  We missed it entirely.   But just remember, the best is usually saved until the last.

It was just by happenstance I saw a sign along the road  regarding one of the shops and then we realized there were signs all over if we had known to watch for them. After that, we had no problem finding them as we got a map at this particular one.

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Please forgive me if I don’t put the names of  all the shops here as we went to several and I can’t remember which was which, but this one was called  the Washhouse for a reason you will soon see  It was so wonderful with so much to see and so much to buy if you chose to do so. I bought several things here.  I added to my Santa Claus collection. Getting to this place was quite a trip along high cliffs and woods.

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This was a gem of a scenic drive that not many people see.  Most people go to Brown County to see the Fall foliage, but this was just as beautiful and we were the only people there.

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The colors of the leaves on the trees was just wonderful.  This picture looks magical to me.

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It was just a gorgeous Autumn day.  But, back to the shop…..

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The proprietor had a washhouse where she actually did her laundry, but it didn’t look like any ordinary laundry room. It was a building off by itself.  Full of all kinds of old laundry paraphernalia like wooden clothespins, wash tubs, old baskets and old clothes pin bags hanging on the walls.

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Here is David getting ready to go inside.  Long underwear hung on clotheslines outside.

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She really had quite the collection.

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And she really did her laundry here because there are her washer and dryer hidden underneath a cloth. If I had a laundry room like this, I would be doing laundry every day!

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This was another little shop and here are some pictures from a few others.

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Each was unique in its own way.

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I remember this one only because the lady who had the shop told us to go on through her house and look at it.  I was a little concerned to just walk into a stranger’s house and look all over it and I said, “Do you really mean we can go walk around your house?”  And she said, Yes,” so she didn’t have to tell me again and in David and I went into one of the most wonderful houses I have ever seen. Her husband was standing in the kitchen offering hot cider(which I am not fond of) and I said to him, “How do you feel having strangers walk through your house?” and he answered “I’m use to it.”  I found out this house had been in the magazine, Country Sampler and another magazine I don’t remember the name. It did look like it came right out of the pages.   Her décor was primitive with woolens folded neatly in an old cupboard. The bathroom is the rustic bathroom of my dreams and I told David if we ever get our little house built in our woods I want my bathroom to look like hers. I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t feel right doing so, but if you ever get the chance to see this house, you must do it.  Her shop is called Mustard Seed.

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She has this cute sign out on her front lawn.

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As you can see from this brochure, Mustard Seed and the Washhouse will be open on December 1st and 2nd and will be decorated for Christmas.  Oh, How I would love to go back.  Maybe we will.  Who knows.   These shops are well worth the trip.

So we wandered through the countryside looking for all the shops and finding most of them.

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I really, really loved this building.

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And this little shop in a little barnlike structure.  I was fascinated by all the lighting in this shop. The husband had done some very unique light fixtures, one being an old fan. He used canning jars and hung them from the ceiling with old fashioned looking light bulbs inside them.    He directed us to the last shop we were going to and believe me, it was the best one and I don’t have any pictures because there was so much to see, I didn’t have time. It was in a very nice neighborhood by a state park. The lady who lived there had made her backyard a wonderland of old buildings and antique art with little old looking shops full of goodies to buy.  While waiting for me to get out of a shop David saw two deer and I got a picture of the backside of one of them before it got away.  But I can’t show it because I forgot to download it. I did buy a primitive table painted red. David and I had a discussion about how I had too many tables already and I won the discussion because it came home with us and sits in my girly room as I type.  We are going to put our Christmas tree on it.   One day, when we are gone, our kids are going to have the neatest stuff or the best auction!  I keep telling David I am buying our children’s legacy.  Ha.

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David is the perfect travel companion.  He drives me everywhere safely and waits patiently as I look at everything.  He did find himself a canister of buttons as he is a button collector and has thousands of them all over my workshop.  I am blessed and I know it.

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We drove by woods, old barns, bucolic scenery, majestic old houses, and little churches that dotted the countryside.

We followed a swollen river for miles.  They had had a lot of rain in southern Indiana and the rivers were overflowing their banks.

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The river was this close to the road.

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We drove down this road and came to water standing in it and David thought about driving through until I said a big “NO!” imagining us getting caught up in the current and swept downstream never to be heard of again, so we turned around and went another way.  It can be an adventure sometime to drive backroads.

Sunday was church and a day of rest and then today we got up early and drove to our younger grandboys’ school for a Veteran’s Day program. They put one on every year and invite veterans to come. The children sing patriotic songs and the principal gave a speech and a retired army colonel spoke and a boy played taps for all those lost in wars.  I must say, I got tears in my eyes hearing the children sing and a lump in my throat hearing taps.  David and I have talked about him being in the military. I have said it is my one regret that I did not join a branch of the military when I was a young girl.  It would have been good for me, I think.   We counted up all the days David was gone from home while in the National Guard and he was gone well over a year of our marriage and that doesn’t include the times he was traveling to other states to take classes.  He would go to different states and take pictures while there and later on our family would take trips to see what he saw.   That is how David and I have traveled in most of the states.  He was in the guard for over 36 years and not until he retired did he tell me he did not enjoy it. He was taking care of his family and that is what it meant to him.   It was a job and he did it well and was well respected by the men in his unit.  I didn’t know how well until one time we went to a Veteran’s Day parade in Indianapolis that he was taking part in and so many young men came up to him and saluted him and greeted him with smiles.  It made me very proud of him.

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This picture is horrible but here he is with our grandboys during the program.  They are learning to love our country, what serving our country means and they say the pledge of allegiance.  So proud of them, too.

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There was a bigger crowd this year than usual.   I think this school must be growing. It’s one of the highest rated schools in Indiana for elementary academics.   So happy my grandsons are going here.

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God bless our flag

Now to end this post with some added sweetness.

Our daughter’s golden retriever had puppies a couple of weeks ago.  She had eleven and six of them lived.

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They don’t pick them up for two weeks and it was so hard for me to keep my hands off of them.

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Such a sweet mama. Their little bellies were full as you can see.

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This is proud papa.

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In a couple of weeks we will go see them and I can hold them then.  Can’t wait.

To end this post today I will tell you a cute story. Or at least I think it’s cute. David came into the house today and told me to put on my shoes and come outside, he had something to show me.  I had no idea what it was.  He said he had heard our little lame chicken, Miss Mary Foster, just cackling up a storm like she had just laid an egg.

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This is Miss Mary Foster. She is such a pet.  She follows me around when I am in the chicken yard hoping for some extra chicken scratch and she gets it.

Anyway David showed me this.

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Just a bunch of old boxes and wood stacked in the garden,  but……..DSCN6449

behind it, Miss Mary Foster had been laying her eggs for at least five days. I don’t know why she started laying here as she has been laying in the chicken house, but now we know she is hiding her eggs.  I wonder if she thinks she can hatch them?  She can’t because they are not fertilized as we have no roosters. Poor Mary Foster.  Her hopes are dashed.

Here’s to darling shops, fun drives, puppies and sly chickens.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indiana

I love my state.  I cannot deny it. I have been in almost all the states except Hawaii and Rhode Island and while all the states have something to offer and many are simply beautiful, I am always glad to get back to Indiana.   It’s been my home all my life and I’ve had a great life in it. No, we don’t have mountains, but we have rolling hills and valleys. No, we don’t have an ocean, but we have rivers and great lakes.  We also have weather that changes on a dime.  Cold today?  Just wait. Tomorrow you will be turning the air conditioner on to freeze.

This weekend David and I drove through southern Indiana. We were going somewhere.

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A Beth Moore Bible conference in Evansville.   I went to Evansville with my youth group when I was a teen-ager to visit Evansville College where I was thinking of going and to see a football game there.   I didn’t remember much about the city.

So with my trusty chauffeur in the driver’s seat, off we went.

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He wasn’t sure about all of this. You see, Beth Moore conferences are mainly for women.  Very few men attend them, but since way back in January I bought two tickets thinking I would give one to a friend and because no one was free that particular weekend, David was going to attend.  I told him it was just like going to church and since we missed our church services this weekend, we would still be worshipping.  He agreed reluctantly.   But it was a weekend away and we had other things planned as well.  Shopping, antiquing, sight seeing.

I went to one other Beth Moore conference with some friends from church and we had a great time.  But I do remember the music being very loud.

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Travis Cottrell does all the music for her conferences.

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You do feel like you are among friends when you are there.

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When all the women got their seats there were five thousand women(and a few lonely men) waiting to worship.

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Then Beth came out.  Her study was about God’s feet.  I know, it sounds strange until you know the context of what she was talking about. How God came to earth and he was an innocent baby with tiny little feet. He grew to be a man and wore sandals that John the Baptist said he was not worthy to unlatch.  The sick, lame and blind were brought to His feet to be healed.  People fell at his feet.   So many passages about Jesus’ feet in the Bible. That God’s sits on his throne in heaven and the earth is His footstool.  That Adam and Eve heard God’s very footsteps in Eden.    I never thought about God like this.  And that one day His feet will stand in Jerusalem once more.   And one day every single person will bow at His feet and proclaim Him Lord.

Now, I love Beth Moore conferences, but I do have one complaint.  A complaint that probably most of the young women attending the conference don’t have. I think the music is way too loud.  It hurt my ears. I don’t listen to much music anyway since I think music went downhill after the sixties!    David held his ears the whole time and he said he still could feel the beat, beat, beat of the drums on his chest.   It probably is our generation, but I like worship services to be a little more quiet and reverential.    I wonder if we can hear God’s still, small voice through all the noise.    Please, don’t take this personally if this is how your church worships.   If it’s a true worshipful service and it’s not just about the music and being entertained, then go for it.  I don’t think I will be getting David to another Beth Moore conference in the near future, however.

I felt like I learned a lot and want to do some more studying on the subject of God’s feet.

We didn’t go to the Saturday morning conference as we wanted the day for traveling and taking our time and not rushing to get home.  So we got up the next morning and searched for a donut shop. Yes, more donuts.  We found a Krispy Kreme and when we walked in the store’s door, the girl behind the counter immediately handed each of us a donut warm from the oven. Oh, my, goodness.  What a way to start the day!   We ordered some donuts and a coffee for me to go and set off to find a place to eat them on the Ohio River.  Did I say it was 102 degrees outside that day?    We decided to sit in the air conditioned car to eat our breakfast and look at the river.

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While at our motel, I read about the town of Newburgh.  It has an interesting story.  During the American Civil War, Confederate soldiers were seen across the Ohio River on the Kentucky side.  The leader of the Confederates knew they could not take the city with the few men he had so they took burned logs and stove pipes and made them look like cannons and made a lot of noise as if it was a great army and wouldn’t you know?  The whole town surrendered.  The Confederates came into town and got all the food and munitions they could find and then left.  Not a shot was heard because there was none.

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The town seems to take some pride in this.  I guess it’s their claim to fame.  Funny.  But that is not all the town is known for.  It’s a place out of history with so many old houses.  When we first drove into town we immediately saw this little store(which turned out having three buildings with neat things to buy.)

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Yes, they were retiring Vera.

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It was chock full of all kinds of goodness. I bought a few things, of course.

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I almost bought him.  I could kick myself for abstaining.

Newburgh is so wonderful.  How could you not love a town that gives one whole side of a street to walking paths?

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Walkers on the left, cars on the right.  The way it should be everywhere!  And there were a lot of people out walking in the horrible heat. Carrying water bottles  Smart.

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River towns take pride in how they were settled.   And their homes reflect their pride.

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This little white house had lime green and pink painted windows.  Cute.

We drove by secret gardens.

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We kept seeing these bushes and found out they were Crepe Mertles.  I don’t know if we are a little too far north to grow these.  We were in the south, don’t you know!

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Up and down streets, always with the great Ohio River within view.

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On back streets most tourists never see.  We love exploring the towns we are in.  There is never enough time to see it all, no matter how small the town.  I think I could live in any of these little towns and be happy as long as I had a garden.

Down a back street and we saw this.

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Large rock formations and we wondered how they were formed and only formed in this place.

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Then we saw these stair going up the side of the rock, so we stopped. “You going up?” I asked David.  I knew with my short legs and the steps being about one foot apart, it would be a chore for me, so I knew I  I wasn’t going.  “Sure, I’ll try it,” David replied.

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So up he began.

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Up.

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Up.

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Almost there.

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“I made it and you didn’t!”  How I wish I was up there with him.

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Wait. Now it’s starting to scare me.  Where is he going?

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No, no that is enough!   When he turned around and came down I asked him what was up there. “Not a darn thing,” he answered.  Oh, well. It looked like there might have been a cave up there.

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Evidently there had been a cave because some man thought it was a great place to live.

On to other little river towns.

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On a back street where we were the only people, there was a little yellow swing so we sat ourselves down and looked at this.

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The Ohio River flowing by.  How I love it.

Behind us was this.

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A mural painted on the side of the walls to keep out the flood waters when the river rises.

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This shows how far the river rose in these particular years.

Well, it wasn’t going to rise today.  They were having a dry spell in southern Indiana while we have had lots of rain where we live and flooding in the northern part of the state.

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The River trail.  It’s a great drive if you want to take it one day.

It was time to hurry on down the road through more little towns and we saw some very old buildings.

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We managed to drive to Rome, but no coliseums to see there. Only this wonderful old building.

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Sat down in the middle of nowhere.

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Right on the corner of Main and Mulberry.

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It was Rome’s courthouse, but there were very few houses around.

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This old building use to house an antique store. There were still antiques inside, but it doesn’t look like it’s been open for years.

Across the street was this building.

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At one time a cotton mill.  Now it’s apartments.  If I had to live in an apartment, this would be a great place to live. I would have loved to have seen inside.

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They have rooms to rent if you are looking for some out of the way place to live.

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It was built one hundred years before I was born and appears to be in great shape.  Don’t think I would hold up that well in another hundred years!

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I always look for barn quilts when we travel, but this is the only one I photographed.

We ate our supper at the Overlook, a restaurant right on the Ohio River with wonderful views from every window. We were high up there with the birds.   Our meal was catfish and was it ever good.

We were almost home but wanted some hand dipped ice cream for dessert.  That is hard to find, but finally I saw a big sign on a building in Salem.  Six Scoops was the name of the ice cream shop.  We put it on Garmin and she led us right to the door.

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And look what was painted on the side walk right outside.

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So cute and the ice cream was so good and a wonderful ending to a perfect weekend.

Here’s to Indiana, it’s old river towns and ice cream. Bye.

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

Anniversary!

 

David and I are celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary this weekend.   The last couple of days we have been traveling, but today is supposed to be a day of rest.  We told each other even though we were home, we would not do any work. Which is why I have already done two loads of clothes and taken care of the chickens.  Ha!   There is no such thing as no work when I am at home unless I am sick and even then I do things.   The rest of the weekend we are going to be on the road again.

Thursday we left on a rainy day to drive to Athens, Ohio.  Just for a drive and  Ohio University is there so we figured there would be some neat things to see and do there.  We drove through rain almost the entire way. The route we chose was rather boring, so we got off it and onto another highway that was much more scenic.   But wouldn’t you know, we saw only one antique store and didn’t stop along the way.  Now I wish we had, because our whole trip we saw no antique stores that looked the slightest bit interesting.  We did stop at a little fabric store.  A man was standing in the door with rain pouring out of a gutter right over the door. But I was determined to go in so we sloshed through the rain and under the gutter into the little shop.  When we got inside, it looked like a building site with unfinished walls and ladders standing around. “We are remodeling,” the man told us.  There were a few quilts on the wall, a room with a quilting machine with a quilt in progress on it and nothing much else.  In another room there were about four shelves of fabric.  Or partial full shelves.  But among all the rather old fabric I found some Pamkitty fabric.  Really pretty and the price was right so I bought five yards of it for backing for a quilt.   So it wasn’t a total waste.  The man was really nice, but I could tell he was out of his element cutting and folding yards of fabric.  When he was trying to fold the fabric, he was more or less wadding it up and I just jumped right in there and showed him how to fold the fabric neatly.   Having had a quilt shop at one time, I have folded thousands of yards of fabric for people.  He seemed kind of relieved I did it.  It is his wife’s store and she is an RN and was at work, so he was being put to work for her.

He apologized profusely about the leaking gutter and I hope that’s on his fix it list because it will deter some people less determined than myself to enter his store when it’s raining.

On we drove through pounding rain.  Sometimes visibility was almost nil.    It made us remember one time when we were in New York and I wanted to go to this quilt shop miles away from where we were staying and we drove through much the same kind of rain storm.   And that quilt shop was rather a disappointment when we got there!   David has driven through rain, storm, hail, tornado and snow to get me to a quilt shop.  That’s part of the reason our marriage has lasted so long.  He’s a great husband.

We got to Athens later than we thought we would.  We found a little restaurant the lady at the motel where we were staying recommended and we were not disappointed.  A few days ago I got a craving for fish and we could not think of a single place in our town that served good fish except Red Lobster and we aren’t enamored of Red Lobster so we didn’t get fish.  This restaurant had grilled tilapia on a bed of rice pilaf and it was delicious!   Flaky and not fishy tasting and just the best fish I have tasted for a long while.  There is a restaurant on the river in Chattanooga, Tennessee that serves the best catfish, but it is only open certain days and we have only managed to hit it at the right day a couple of times while on our travels.

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See, it was still raining.

Not wanting to go back to the motel and spend the rest of the evening, we decided to go to a movie and we saw where the new Spider-Man was showing at the local theater.  When we got there, the sign outside showing all the movies said that Spider-Man didn’t start until the next day.  We chose another movie, but when we went inside we found that they were showing Spider-Man!  Yay!    So we bought tickets and popcorn and drinks and went inside. The theater was lit hardly at all and I couldn’t see one step in front of the other and we always sit at the very tip-top seats, if we can,  and we slowly walked up the steps. I couldn’t even see the seats it was so dark.   Finally got seated and the theater slowly filled up until it was filled to capacity.  I will tell you, the movie did not disappoint and was very exciting.  I will never look at the Washington monument the same ever again and don’t know if I would ever take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty now!  Ha.   They showed a preview of the new Jumanji  movie coming out and it looked hilarious and is on our list of movies to see.

Athens is a pretty little college town with houses built on hills.  I love old houses and the town was full of them, but because it was raining so hard the entire time we were there, I got very few pictures.   We drove around and looked at the sights.  There is an old asylum in town that you can go through, but it was not opened and we didn’t have the time anyway so we didn’t tour it.   There are walking trails all over and I would have loved to have walked them, but again, rain.

So early the next morning we got up and went in search of donuts.  We hardly ever eat donuts at home, but when we vacation we always look for donuts.  I know. They are fattening, full of sugar and down right bad for you, but we still love them once in a while.  We were going to go into a Kroger to get some when David spotted a real donut shop.  We went inside and they had lots of yummy looking donuts, but I got my usual, Boston crème and David got his usual, jelly filled and with my cup of coffee, we sat down to eat.  I was just finishing a bite when this couple sat down beside us.  Suddenly the most horrible smell hit my nose. Now David does not have a good sense of smell, but even his nose wrinkled up.  I whispered, “Where is that smell coming from?”  It was unlike any smell we both had ever smelled.  The couple sitting next to us looked perfectly clean and nice, but, the smell was definitely coming from them.  I gagged down the bite in my mouth and said, “Let’s leave,” so we gathered the rest of our food and drink and went to the car.  “What was that?” I asked.  “I don’t know, but it was the worst smell I have ever smelled,” replied David.  Take skunk smell and triple its strength and that is what that smell seemed like.  I really would have liked to know what that couple came in contact with.

We drove down the highway and found a nice rest stop with picnic tables and finished our donuts.   It was more fun that way anyway.

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I love to picnic and would eat more of our meals outside if I could.

So on we drove toward home taking a different route again and this route was wonderful.

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For a great deal of the way we had the road almost to ourselves. Through little towns where American flags waved on lamp posts.   Past old houses built along the Ohio River almost a century or more ago.

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I love old houses. I like to think of the people who lived there in long ago days.  I hope people will continue to preserve them because most of the houses built today are nothing compared to these old timers.  Built solidly to last and they have.  I don’t think a lot of the houses being built today will be around in another hundred years.

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This town was very interesting and full of history.  This tells of some Welsh travelers along the Ohio River whose women folk may have cut the boats loose when they landed because they were travel weary and wanted to settle some place. I like to think that is what really happened and that the menfolk were disgruntled that they lost their boats, but knew they had to stay in one place.  Good for those women!  They found a great place to settle.

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A monument to all the local men who had died in wars around the world.

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I’m not much for getting my picture taken, but David wanted a selfie of us, so here we are!

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Impatiens planted in planters and hanging baskets all over the town. It was all so pretty.

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An old G.C. Murphy store. Haven’t seen one of those in a long time.  They were sort of the precursor to Wal-mart.

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Barges carrying loads down the Ohio River.   David and I both think it would be fun to have  a houseboat and travel the rivers of our country.

We drove through more rain but it stopped for a little while and we decided to visit Ulysses Grant’s home and former school.  Ulysses Grant was a general for the Union army during the Civil War and became president of the United States several years afterward.

We went inside the house and there was a man standing in another room and I said, “Hello,” and he said he would be with us in a minute.  It sounded like he was talking to someone.  I looked at the visitor book and according to it, David and I were only the fifth and sixth persons who had visited that day.  While we waited, I snapped pictures.

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There is a name for this type of picture, but I cannot think what it is. It is cut from paper.

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A door that appears to go to the upstairs.  It was quite a nice home.  Rather extravagant for the day I would say.

Anyway, we waited and waited and the man kept talking and finally we decided to leave.  We drove over to the school house site.

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We didn’t go in and as we were running late and wanted to get home before dark.

David asked me as we were leaving Grant’s home, “Did you see that sign that said, no pictures?”  No, I didn’t.  Whoops.  You are looking at contraband photos of Grant’s home.

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I wonder if Grant was groomed to be a soldier?  I haven’t read a lot of history about him, but maybe I will now.   Here he is as a fine looking young lad.

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And how I remember him from history books. He always looked a little unkempt  to me.

So on we drove through Cincinnati where the rain was once again coming down in sheets and I turned on the radio and the announcer was telling how there were high winds, damaging hail and rain going through Cincinnati.  Well, of course it was. We were driving through!  We have driven through two tornadoes, countless rain storms, snow, sleet and hail.  Nothing stops us.  But I must say, it was rather harrowing and I know there were times David was driving on a wish and a prayer.  But we made it through and got home safely.

Before I go, I will mention the Fourth of July.  We gathered with a few friends at our church parking lot where we have front row seats to the fireworks across the street.   We are a group who like to play with fire.  Someone brought lanterns and the menfolk were lighting them while the womenfolk held them.

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Up and away.  There were lanterns going up from several parts of the city.  I think it ought to be a city wide challenge next year to see how many lanterns we can set adrift.   I must say, it was better than the fireworks show for me.

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The radio station that provided the music chose the most perfectly awful music to play for the fireworks.  Hardly patriotic and some were inappropriate for children to hear.   It kind of spoiled the fireworks for me.   I am hoping next year, since it is on our church’s grounds, that we play gospel music and real patriotic music for those to hear around us.    After all, we are to be a light in the darkness.

So David and I have two more days of celebrating our anniversary.  Hoping to get into some antique shops and we are going to places where the show “Good Bones,” is shot to look at some of the houses that have been renovated.  Two women formed a company and are taking one house at a time to redo, to revitalize certain parts of Indianapolis and they got their own show on HGTV. It’s become one of our favorites.  If I get pictures, I will share them.

Here’s to long marriages, traveling in the rain and the 4th of July.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

A Most Excellent Weekend

  Last weekend was David’s birthday.   He had the whole weekend off so we made plans. 

First of all, Friday, his birthday, we spent most of the day in front of the television watching the presidential inauguration.  This election in the states has been like none other I can ever remember.    But now, we have a new president and we celebrated it because we live in a free country where we can elect a new president every four or eight years and the country doesn’t fall apart.  Or at least, I hope it doesn’t.  Some people are taking it pretty hard, which I don’t understand because I have lived under several presidents I was not fond of, but they were my president and I lived with it.   Anyway, I enjoyed all the pomp and circumstance of the ceremony. Loved seeing what all the women were wearing.  Loved the music. Well, most of it.  Loved the parade.  The high school band in my town played in the parade.  They were asked to play for Vice President Mike Pence, who is from Indiana, at another venue before inauguration day.   It was an exciting time for them, I am sure.  Something they will remember all their lives

David and I enjoyed the day and later, I took him out for dinner where he got a free dessert for his birthday and then we came home to have cake and ice cream. David is a sugarholic so he was in heaven.

Saturday we got up and drove to Indianapolis to the Indianapolis Home Show.  There were many exhibitors in three buildings, but David and I missed one of the buildings because we didn’t read the program they gave us.  We did that the last time we went to the home show.  You’d think we would learn.  There was so much to see, but it was very crowded.  In one booth I found the table I want for my shop or at least what I want my shop table to look like.

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This one cost ten thousand dollars!!!  It had a granite top and a special finish, but I didn’t think it was that special.  David can make one that looks like this for a whole lot less than this one costs, but he knows what I want now and has a picture of it.  His may not have drawers either, but that’s okay.   I don’t think our whole kitchen remodel cost as much as this table.  There were a lot of exhibitors, a lot of window displays and outdoor furniture and patios and flowers.

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Planted just for this show.

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Forsythia.

There were birdhouses for sale, pots and pans for sale, mops for sale with people demonstrating them.   I bought a new toy.

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A steamer.  Actually, I bought me more work.  A note to whoever has a steamer.  Don’t use it on wood floors or laminate floors. They say you can, but my son-in-law sells flooring and he said that steamers will ruin them very quickly. Glad he told me because the salesman did say I could use it on wood and laminate, both of which I have.

We spent much of the day at the show and afterward went to our motel where we were staying the night.   Then we went to Olive Garden where David got another free dessert for his birthday.   And our weekend was not over yet.

Sunday we lazed around and then drove to Nashville.

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Driving down the hill into Nashville.  We were meeting some family for dinner.   When we got into the restaurant the waitress immediately told us they were out of rice and cornbread!  Well, we hadn’t even looked at the menu yet.  My son said he wanted the fish with rice and a huge order of cornbread!    The food was good and the company was even better.

Then we went to our daughter’s house to visit.

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The men went outdoors and shot guns.

The women stayed inside and played with these.

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Golden retriever puppies. Two boys and two girls.  That’s their mother, Lily.

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And this is their daddy, Oliver.

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“I did nothing.”

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How cute is this?  They are going to keep this one since he was born on our grandson’s birthday.   They named him Farley.

David and I walked outside and found this.

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What is this, you say?  Looks like a pile of trash, doesn’t it?  Oh, no.

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Come closer and see.

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Just a hole in the ground, you say?  It’s a hideout, built by our grandsons and some of their friends.

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Complete with a mailbox!

David and I walked down the hill by our property and on to another property that is for sale on the mountain.

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The man who owned all the property had originally wanted several houses built around a cul-de-sac.  We walked back and around the cul-de-sac with our grandsons.  I love being on the hill.  It’s so peaceful up here and even in the dead of winter I think it is beautiful.  There is a log cabin for sale by here that we looked at.  We have pondered selling our house and building a house on the hill, but it would be a twenty mile drive to doctors, dentists and our church and we are not sure we want to make that move, yet.   Who knows?   We are open to change.  I told our grandson that we might sell our house and he said, “But, I like your house.”  Okay, we won’t sell it until he’s grown.  So many happy memories in our home.

We finally came home tired, but happy that we had such a nice weekend and decided we need to get away more often.  My birthday is coming up in March.  Another trip?  Hmmmm.

Here’s to birthdays and puppies.  Bye.