Indiana, Markleville - Saturday, July 25, 2015 - Ice Cream Social

The Adams-Markleville Fire Territory had their annual ice cream social on Saturday.  They had all of the equipment shined up and on display.  New trucks and a retired antique truck that has been restored.

 

 

 

 

Quite a crowd showed up.  This was just the start, it got even more crowded.

We showed up in support of our favorite EMT, daughter Desira, helping out on the left.

Great grandson Braxton managed to talk Grandpa Dan and Grandma Desira into some ice cream again on Sunday.

We haven’t been out and about much this past week, the Indiana weather took me down with a bout of summer cold/head congestion.  We still don’t know when our motor coach is going to be finished.  Hoping it will be done before grandson Tyler comes home on August 10 and wants to use the apartment where we are now staying.

Indiana, Pendleton - Monday, July 20, 2015 - Trip Down Memory Lane

We didn’t have anything planned for today so we decided to head into Pendleton which is where we both grew up.  Although Pendleton has grown because of its proximity to Indianapolis it still retains a lot of its small town charm from the days we remember growing up.

 

 

We were hoping to be able to visit the Pendleton Museum in Falls Park but found out it is only open Saturday and Sunday from 1-5, so we’ll have to make another trip in for that visit.

We weren’t the only ones out enjoying the beautiful day.  I don’t know when the bridge in the background was built, but I remember it being there before I was in high school (a long time).

Doesn’t look like this huge tree that came down stream in a recent storm caused any damage to the bridge.  Although the park is still a very beautiful park we noted that it could use a little more maintenance.

This is the area where two diving boards were located when this was the town swimming pool.  The stone from these quarries was used for culverts on the National Road.  We also noticed that the years haven’t resulted in a lot of erosion to the stone.

There was a slide right next to where the little deck is built now.  I don’t know how high it was but I remember I was never allowed to go down it by myself because it was “too high”.  Compared with what they have in parks now it would probably look like a kiddie slide.

This island wasn’t here when we were growing up.  The water from the falls kind of circles into this area before continuing on downstream.  Over the years rocks and dirt have swirled into a small island.  At times after hard rains the water can rush through here up to and over the bridge covering the rocks from one side to the other.

Falls Park has always been the town’s center for activities.  The lighthouse has been there as long as I can remember and ducks swim in the pond.  The building on the left is a shelter house that was the place to be for summer dances when we were in junior and senior high school.  It was lit up with lights and a DJ played all the latest records.

We decided to forego a stroll down lover’s lane today.  Now days I think about ticks – that never crossed my mind when I was younger – guess I’m older and wiser J.

If you are from the Pendleton, Indiana area you know where we went from the park.

Jimmies Dairy Bar at 7065 S. Indiana 67 has been in business since 1954.  It started out as a summertime walk up soft serve ice cream stand.  It has expanded over the years to include a dining room and drive thru window and it is open year round.  They definitely do make the “best Bar B Q in Indiana”.  The tangerine soft serve is highly recommended also.

 

 

We did have a storybook-like small town upbringing and it’s so nice to look back on it and reminisce about how lucky we are.

Indiana, Markleville - Sunday, July 19, 2015 - Family Time

Our day today revolved around time with our great grandson and four of the grandkids.  Great grandson Braxton headed for the farm toys first.

 

 

Then he and Grandma Desira worked on coloring.

The dog great aunt Sharon sent Braxton had to have a lease so he could be contained on the couch.

Grandma Desira and Brax – what a pair.

Granddaughter Mackenzie turned 15 this month so she was part of the July birthday celebration at her Nana and Pap Crosley’s.

Granddaughter Braelynn started competitive swimming this year and had to show off her form.

Grandson Kyle managed to splash quite a few of us sitting around the pool with this dive.

Grandson Jackson lost a tooth in the pool.  He didn’t think the tooth fairy would go for a note of explanation of why the tooth wasn’t available so he asked that the pool be drained J  Nana Crosley wasn’t going for that one.

Riding Shamu takes a lot of concentration.

Managed to get all four of them in the same photo (plus great niece Avery, the little blonde) during present opening time.  Avery also had a July birthday.

Indiana, Shelbyville - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - Indiana Grand Casino

Tonight we are at Indiana Grand Casino and Race Track where met up with our friends from Tennessee, Barb and Ann.  What a pleasure to catch up with them again.

 

 

They had a horse running in the eighth race this evening – no prize money this time but he is just coming back from being down with some lung problems.  He is a beautiful horse and ran well, just not quite fast enough to bring in the money.

 

 

We ate supper at the casino buffet.  With the help of my “sushi guide”, Ann, I got outside of my comfort zone again and tried sushi and seaweed salad for the first time.  I actually enjoyed both of them.

We were blessed with a beautiful afternoon and evening for riding the motorcycle.  This is what the skies looked like in Markleville on Monday, no riding then.

On Tuesday evening we started back helping daughter Desira and son-in-law Dan at the trap shoot at the Fall Creek Valley Conservation Club.  Didn’t take too long to get back into the swing of things again.

Wednesday we had to go to Northside Harley Davidson to pick up some parts for the motorcycle so Greg could change the oil and install new brake pads (we were beginning to make quite a bit of noise when we stopped).  We stopped at Sahms on Allisonville Road and made our visit to Indiana official with a breaded tenderloin.

Here’s a couple of pictures of our home away from home for the next few weeks until our motor coach is done.  We are glad Dan and Desira have a place like this we can take advantage of in situations like this.

 

 

Indiana, Markleville - Saturday, July 11, 2015 - Home in Indiana

We rolled into Elkhart on Tuesday evening and stayed at the Elkhart campgrounds.  We needed to empty tanks, finish emptying the fridge and get our things together so we could stay at daughter Desira’s apartment until our coach is finished, we anticipate that will be about three weeks.

Wednesday morning we arrived at Charger Enterprises and waited our turn to get our repair orders filled out – they are really busy!  Gerald walked around with Greg to get a feel for what needed to be repaired.  Daughter Amanda drove over three hours to come and pick up me and our baggage.  Greg rode the motorcycle home, about halfway there he ran into this L.  Since the temperatures never got out of the 50’s (that’s about the 30’s when you are on the bike), it took him all evening to thaw out.

On Thursday I helped daughter Desira with her t-shirt booth at the Indiana State Trap Shooting Competition.  She is the EMT on call for this event so she has to have a backup for the booth in case she gets called out.  We got into our parking spot but we weren’t sure we would get out – a lot of people didn’t.

The rain continued for most of the morning and the winds really blew for a while but she has a nice set up so we stayed pretty dry.  We didn’t have many customers until the weather cleared off in the afternoon.

One of the shooters stopped by the booth with a beautiful surprise for Desira, a stained glass piece he made.  She has organized a “Shoot for the Cure” trap shooting competition every year for the past several years.  Money that is raised goes to support national and local cancer research and prevention programs.  I don’t know the exact amount that has been raised but it is in the thousands of dollars – so proud of her.  She and her husband Dan put a lot of work into this effort each year and rely on contributions from individuals and corporations to make the weekend of competition a success.  The next “Shoot for the Cure” is coming up September 12 and 13 at the Fall Creek Valley Conservation Club in Ovid, Indiana.  We’ll be in Indiana to volunteer to help and then we will be headed back west again.

Friday we spent with daughter Amanda while she had an outpatient procedure done at St. John’s hospital in Anderson.  While we were there we ran into our friend Linda who was waiting on her husband Frank to get through surgery on a broken ankle.  Linda and I had a good time catching up and planning for some future get togethers.

Saturday we enjoyed watching granddaughter Mackenzie at a swim meet.

 

 

 

 

Ohio, Conneaut - Monday, July 6, 2015 - Evergreen Lake Park

Tonight we are in site #5 at Evergreen Lake Park.  We were going to just stay at another facility on the turnpike again tonight but we found this Passport America park right in the area where we wanted to stop for the night.

 

 

It’s probably a good thing we opted for the campground because we ended up having to call out a repair service.  Greg noticed a leak as he was hooking things up.  It ended up being a leak on the hydraulic block that runs the fan to cool the motor.  It’s fixed now.  Seems some kind of plug had vibrated out - thanks rough roads in New York.  Would highly recommend A&A Road Rescue, LLC out of Kingsville, OH if you are in need of repair service in this area.  Don’t know if they have more than one person who does repairs, Scott came to see us and he seemed very knowledgeable. 

We passed a lot of vineyards on the way here.

 

 

Evergreen Lake Park has over 200 sites but most of them are seasonal sites.  Only 30 or so are for weekend/overnight stays.  The town is right on Lake Erie, this might be a good area to revisit when we have more time.

Sitting in the swings at the lakeside gazebo could be a nice way to spend a few hours.

The lake was pretty quiet this evening.  Several residents have paddleboats on the lake.  Lots of people here have good sized boats, I’m guessing for use on Lake Erie.