Indiana, Anderson - Saturday, May 31, 2014 - Birthday Celebrations

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GRANDKIDS – KYLE, JACKSON AND BRAELYNN!!

Three of the grandkids had birthdays this month so everyone got together at great-grandpa and grandma’s house for a pitch in and an afternoon in the pool.

After lunch they were ready to open presents.

 

 

 This is what they were waiting on.

It got a little confusing before it was done.  I think everyone got something they wanted and then there were the clothes that were on the mom’s list.  I thought it was funny that six year old Jackson recognized our names on his birthday card.  We send them a lot of postcards when we travel so he was used to seeing our signatures.

We may have to remind mom and dad that they put this “real” tool set on his birthday list.  He can’t wait to take it with him to help his other grandpa farm.  Sorry Dave.

This ought to prove interesting also, the twins got fishing poles and a tackle box with real hooks.  I’m thinking a first aid kit might also go well with this.

After the gifts all of the swimmers headed for the pool.  I quit taking pictures at that point because it meant I would have to get out of the swing which was in the shade.

Later in the afternoon we headed inside for dessert.  We contributed a peanut butter pie.  It was my first time trying this recipe, it turned out really well.

 

 

Indiana, Anderson - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Not much happening at the Jones’ coach.  After the crowd that was here during the Memorial Day weekend, the peace and quiet is kind of nice.  I don’t think any kids at all are in the park right now.  Internet reception was down to nothing while the park was so full, so I’ve been catching up.

On Tuesday we made a trip to Columbus to see our dentist.  I just had a cleaning but Greg is having some work done so we’ve made several trips since we have been back and have a couple more to go – too bad Medicare doesn’t cover dental work.

Tuesday evening we helped son-in-law Dan with the trap shoot at Fall Creek Valley Conservation Club.  Daughter Desira is in Kansas visiting her brother so we didn’t have her supervision to make sure we got everything right.

Today we made a trip to Winchester to Wick’s Pies.  We’ll be going to visit Mom at my brother’s house tomorrow.  Everyone there likes gooseberry pie so we were hoping we could find one at Wicks – we got lucky. 

Indiana, Anderson - Sunday, May 25, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Sometimes we get caught up in the long weekend with family, friends and hopefully sunshine that the Memorial Day weekend brings and we forget the real meaning of this holiday – to honor the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed forces.  We want to say thank you to those brave men and women who died protecting the freedom we so dearly love.

Before the Memorial Day weekend crowd started coming in we took a quiet walk in the sunshine.  This pond is artesian spring fed and the swimming area will soon be full of swimmers.  Outside the swimming area will be people in canoes and paddleboats.

 

Along this line of trees about 9:30 in the morning the sun must be hitting just right because the whole shoreline is churning with the number of large fish jumping.  This is a catch and release pond, looks like they are well fed.

 

 

This trail leads through the trees along the White River, we can get in a nice mile walk up here. 

Another pond on the property is called “turtle pond”, I think it is obvious why.  This pond is also a catch and release pond, no swimming.  We think it must be fed by White River.  Not nearly so clear as the spring fed pond.

All of the sites in the campground are full this weekend and additional campers are out in the tent camping area along White River.

This jump pad drew a big crowd on Saturday when 10-year old grandson Kyle, his sister Mackenzie and mom and dad were here.  Kyle reported he had met one hundred new friends while checking it out (he might not have been exaggerating too much).

 

The Saturday night hayride was also popular.

 

The last couple of evenings it’s been nice to have a fire as the night got cooler.  One evening this little squirrel looked like he wanted to join us.

 

 

Saturday afternoon we watched grandson Kyle’s last soccer game.  They lost, but he made some good moves during the game.

 

Saturday evening we cooked hamburgers on the grill along with corn, potato salad and baked beans.  Kyle was the only one who left room for s’mores.

Later in the evening Greg and I had strawberry shortcake.  Memorial Day weekend wouldn’t be right without it.

 

Indiana, Perkinsville - Friday, May 23, 2014 - Bonge's Tavern

Last night we had a wonderful meal at Bonge’s Tavern in Perkinsville with our good friends Michael and Susan.

It’s not a fancy place.

 

 

This is the lobby where you wait for your table to be called.  Last night we didn’t have to wait long.  I understand that on weekends in the summertime your wait can be two hours or so.  You can either wait here in the lobby or join others who are waiting and tailgating in the parking lot.

 

 

I hesitate to interfere with other diners meals to take pictures with my camera when I’m in a restaurant so I waited to take pictures until most of the other diners had left.  I didn’t count but I think about 50 people could be seated at one time.  The tables were covered with brightly colored oilcoths.

 

 

This was the wine list – very original.  They serve beer and wine, no mixed drinks.  The wine we had was very good, the name escapes me now.

The menu is limited but wonderful.  There was one pork selection – Perkinsville Pork which was a pounded thin breaded and parmesan crusted tenderloin.  I chose it – good choice.  Greg and Michael ordered the steak and shrimp which they declared was excellent.  Susan had halibut, she had her choice of three or four different sauces, and she cleaned her plate so it must have been good too.  There was a duck choice, chicken and lamb chops also.  The entrees come with the chef’s choice for the evening.  Last night it was mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus.

We started out our meals with some excellent appetizers.  Susan choose sautéed mixed mushrooms which she shared.  Greg and I split a shrimp cocktail, there were six large shrimp and a very spicy sauce.  Michael shared a shrimp cocktail with Susan, but nobody was getting any of his oysters.  They were raw, but not served on the half shell.  They came in a small cup topped with the spicy cocktail sauce and additional horseradish.  He was sweating, but he enjoyed every bite.

After the appetizers we had our choice of a lettuce wedge with homemade bleu cheese dressing or raspberry vinaigrette.  Their “world-famous” tomato soup was the other option.  Greg had the tomato soup and the rest of us had the lettuce wedges with bleu cheese.  I definitely recommend the lettuce with bleu cheese, but Greg said the tomato soup was great also.

Susan chose to take home some of the chocolate ganache cake.  I had a bite – oh my goodness it was heavenly.  We didn’t need dessert to take home, we still had chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge.

Two couples were at the table next to us.  One of the young men had just come back from Afghanistan – and he had just gotten married.  So they were out celebrating.  Their evening got better when Jeff Saturday came up and paid for their meal!!

That’s right, Jeff Saturday, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts, was there last night with a group of eight or ten other people.  I so wanted to take a picture, but I think even if you are well known you have a right to have a pleasant night out with friends and to not be interrupted by fans flashing a camera in your face.

I would definitely recommend heading to Bonge’s if you end up in the Anderson/Perkinsville, Indiana area.  But, be prepared, just because it is a small town tavern, it’s a place for us at least, reserved for special occasions.  A dinner for two with appetizers and drinks will be about $130 to $150. 

Indiana, Anderson - Thursday, May 22, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Bright and early this morning we headed to Indianapolis to be with our Rolling Thunder Indiana One group as they prepared to head to Washington D.C. for this year’s demonstration ride.

This year there are 73 bikes in our group, many with passengers, so I am guessing over 100 people.  Most of those people are from Indiana, but groups from Texas and Colorado also gathered here to ride with the Indiana group.

 

  

Part of the ceremony is a release of balloons with the names of the 51 Indiana POW/MIAs still missing from the Viet Nam conflict.

 

 

Governor Pence was there and gave a very impressive speech.  I think he really wanted to head out with the group.

Another part of the ceremony is a roll call of the 51 Indiana POW/MIA names, in turn each name is acknowledged as “still missing”.

Channel 8 was there interviewing people and they had a nice mention of the group and what they are doing on the news at noon.  Greg and I were shown in the newscast, standing in the background, but it’s doubtful anyone but us could have picked us out since we were just a couple of 100 plus people standing around in sunglasses, hats and black vests.

I tried to get pictures of individual bikes as they left, but the only one that turned out very good was one of our good friends Dick and Linda.  We wish them and the entire group safe travels.

We came home this afternoon and took a nap sitting outside in the nice weather.

This evening we treated our friends Mike and Susan to supper at Bonges.  They graciously loaned us a car for a month or so when we had to come home early to Indiana.  We certainly appreciate good friends.

The weather is just now getting nice enough to be able to do all of our traveling on the bike.  If our planned return to Indiana in mid-May had worked out we would have been fine.  However, sometimes the plan just doesn’t work out.

Indiana, Anderson - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GRANDSON KYLE!!

Yesterday we put up our flags.  We forgot to put the stand under the tire when we set up so Greg unhooked all of the utilities outside and I secured the cookie jar inside.  As Greg moved the coach about 8” forward I slid the flag pole stand in so the tire would sit on it as he backed up the 8 “ and put us back where we started.

The wind has been whipping all day but we have avoided getting any rain.  As I write this a little after 5:00, it looks like we might not continue to be so lucky.  Naturally, when I went out to take a picture the wind died down.

 

 

Today was a recipe testing day.  My first test was a bread recipe that had only four ingredients; flour, yeast, salt and honey plus water.  I was intrigued by the ingredients and wondered if it might not be a simple recipe granddaughter Kenzie could use for her 4-H project this year.  It was good, but not extra special.  If I am going to go to the trouble of making bread from scratch only an extra special recipe is a keeper.  I don’t have a heavy duty stand mixer, so I’m mixing by hand and then kneading for about 10 minutes.  I’m also puzzled that it didn’t round up in the pan.  After it had risen the second time it was rounded up slightly over the top of the pan, but it fell somewhat during baking.  I wonder if it has anything to do with the hot air that is circulating in the convection oven.  The texture was fine and it didn’t look as if it had fallen, I’ll see if the next bread recipe does the same thing.

I made broccoli cheddar soup for lunch.  This wasn’t a test, I had made it before.  You'll note that I keep forgetting to take nice pictures before we jump in for the taste test.

Daughter Desira gave us some rhubarb so the next test was a rhubarb cake with a cinnamon crunch topping.  Once again good, but we decided we liked rhubarb crisp better.  We aren’t throwing this out, but it isn’t on the keeper list.

Spinach Artichoke Dip was next, definitely a keeper, but I need to add more cheese than the recipe called for to make it a little looser.

Glazed Sausage and Pineapple Bits turned out really good.  I saw a recipe but I didn’t have what it called for to make the sauce, so I made one from half orange sauce and half barbeque sauce.  The recipe called for them to be baked for 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees.  I picked 20 minutes, I think 15 would have been better.

Last on the list was Chocolate Dipped Strawberries.  I had never tried dipped fruit and the strawberries were so nice I just couldn’t resist giving it a try.  I used the semi-sweet chocolate I prefer rather than the milk chocolate Greg prefers.  I hate he won’t really like them J. 

Needless to say, after all of our taste testing I didn’t fix an actual meal for this evening.

Indiana, Anderson - Monday, May 19, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

Clean up day at the coach.  When we were at the rally in Sevierville several discussions popped up over the week regarding having a washer and dryer in the RV.  My vote goes for having one.  We have a stacked unit, I don’t know if I would like the combination washer/dryer, that concept just sounds weird to me.  It takes about an hour to wash a load and 80 minutes to dry.  I can wash a load about one half to 2/3 the size I was able to wash in my conventional washer.  The good thing is, we don’t have as much laundry to do any more.

I like being able to put in a load and go about vacuuming, dusting, etc.  I also prefer our own unit because I know it hasn’t been used by anyone but us.  I understand that having a washer and dryer is impractical if you are going to be boondocking (living without hookups).  Although we do that from time to time for a short period of time, we usually prefer to have full hook ups.  You would quickly deplete your electrical supply and fill up your gray tank without the full hookups.

The weather was so nice today, I had to have the windows open – so much for the dusting I did earlier.

One of the things we are going to have to do while we are in Indiana is to go through our storage unit.  We still have things in a 5x8 unit that is pared down from the 20x10 unit we originally had after we sold our house.

 

 

We went to the storage unit today to take a box of wine glasses.  I’ve decided that I have very little need for fancy stemmed wine glasses on the road.  I’ve decided to use that space in the coach for a dozen canning jars.  The small mouth ones can be used for beverages and I’m seeing some ingenious uses for the wide mouth ones on Pinterest J  We still have a few stemless wine glasses if we want to be fancier than canning jars.  I’m keeping my eyes open for some brushed stainless steel wine glasses I saw being used by several French Canadian couples we met in South Florida – they would be very practical for traveling.

While we were at the storage unit we dug out a picture of Greg when he was in his prime in tractor pulling.  Grandson Jackson wanted to see the picture of Papaw Greg after he saw some of his cousins participating in a tractor pulling event.

 

 

We sat outside this afternoon and enjoyed the antics of three young squirrels wrestling on the lawn.  As soon as I tried to take a picture, they stopped wrestling and just stood there.

I fixed Oriental Cole slaw to go along with the steaks Greg grilled for supper.  Had to finish out the evening watching Dancing with the Stars, I’m rooting for Meryl and Max.

Indiana, Anderson - Sunday, May 18, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

We attended the monthly meeting for Indiana Rolling Thunder Chapter One today.  They are getting ready to participate in the 27^th Ride to the Wall over the Memorial Day weekend.  We’ve participated in this ride for the last four years and will miss going with them this year, it just doesn’t fit into the budget since we had some unexpected repairs on the RV this year.  We are now living on a fixed income and getting along very well, but we just can’t afford to jeopardize the budget.

Today we took over our past duties of quartermasters.  That spot hasn’t been filled yet so we were glad to help out.  Greg is holding down the fort while I take a few pictures.

 

There was a really good turnout today, looks like there will be about 70 bikes leaving from Indianapolis headed to Washington, D.C.

The Ride to the Wall promotes involvement in POW/MIA issues.  Our group addresses and actively lobbies our congress men and women on issues that impact the future policies of the U.S. Government and U.S. Military.  This directly relates to its handling of those service men and women that become missing or captured during a time of war.

The ride isn’t a parade, it is a protest demonstration to draw attention to the fact that we still have POW/MIAs that have not been brought home.

If you are a relative, close or distant, of an unaccounted-for Indiana service member from our nation’s past conflicts, our chapter would like to hear from you.  We are hoping to get more DNA samples to add to the Department of Defense database which will be used to try to identify remains of unidentified service members.  For more information check out www.indianarollingthunder.com

This is us on last year’s ride.  It was really cold!!

 

The chapter dedicated a POW/MIA flag at our hotel stop in Athens, OH.  That’s us  in front.

Indiana, Anderson - Saturday, May 17, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resport

Today was a busy day, good thing, Greg says things are pretty slow when I have to write about a rolling pin J.  But, it’s a really good rolling pin.

This morning I met three fabulous ladies for breakfast.  Our group has been friends since high school and prior to that.  We try to meet once a month for breakfast or lunch when I am in town.  It takes about half an hour to eat and another hour and a half to catch up and to assure ourselves that we aren’t really as old as the calendar says.

I stopped on the way home for a little “retail therapy”.  I hadn’t bought anything new for my wardrobe for several months so I thought a little spiffing up was in order.  Luckily, I found some things on the clearance rack that fit the bill.  I just hate to pay full price for clothes.  Now I have to go through the closet and drawers and get rid of a few old things.  Greg says I can’t borrow a car anymore, I can’t be trusted out by myself.  This Indiana weather just isn’t cooperating with our plan to ride the motorcycle.  Thanks to son-in-law Michael I had a warm ride this morning.

I also picked up some plants while I was out.  I’m betting on the weather improving.

 

This evening we went to Indiana Downs to meet up with our friends Barbara and Ann.  They had one horse, Mr. Rooster, running this evening.  There is a wonderful buffet in the race track club house on Saturday evening and we ate until we were very stuffed.

When it was time to get ready for the race Mr. Rooster wasn’t real sure he wanted anything to do with the saddle.

 

He was looking good heading to the starting gate.

Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t his night to shine.  He stumbled a bit coming out of the gate and the race was too short for him to catch up after that.

The new Indiana Downs mascot, Grand Daddy, took a liking to Barbara.