Monthly Archives: June 2014
Walking the Wall . . .
Today was pretty much a rest up day after yesterday’s all-day road trip. We thought about sitting outside with our coffee this morning, and some of Miss Terry’s delicious homemade bread, but the chairs were still wet from last night’s rain, so we gave it a pass.
I mentioned right before we left Houston that I was helping my beautiful great-niece’s Stahlie and Darby get their visas for a visit to China. And now they’ve been and come back, so we have pictures.
The Great Wall
adfadsfads
This is Stahlie
adfadsfads
And this is Darby.
adfadsfads
Here’s Stahlie doing her ‘Praying Mantis’ karate move atop the Great Wall.
adfadsfads
And this is Darby doing her scene from ‘Titanic’, or maybe James Cagney from ‘White Heat’
“Top of the World, Ma!”
adfadsfads
The Forbidden City
adfadsfads
But I think this one is my favorite.
How many other people can say they’ve been photobombed by a Chinese Communist soldier?
Looks like Stahlie and Darby had a great time, and Jan and I are glad they made it back safely. Hopefully we’ll see them in about six weeks.
___________________________________
Since we’re on family stuff, Brandi sent this photo of Landon making pizza at his daycare. (Landon says it’s not daycare. It’s SCHOOL!)
Doesn’t seem like he’s too enthused about the whole process.
___________________________________
Later in the afternoon, I saw Nick Russell outside, playing like he was going reinstall the new locks on his rig’s fuel fill doors. After watching this pitiful display for a few minutes, I went outside to take over the project and do the job right.
I told Nick that I saw through his Tom Sawyer ‘Whitewashing The Fence’ routine, but that it was just easier to do it right the first time, rather than have repair the damage.
What I didn’t say was that I didn’t want to have to drive him to the emergency room after he hurt himself trying to use ‘Tools’.
___________________________________
Looks like we really dodged a bullet storm-wise this afternoon. Weather alerts were coming on saying there was a line of thunderstorms coming through the area, with 60 mph winds and quarter-size hail. Said to expect roofs being blown off and hail damage to vehicles.
But although we got the heavy rain for a while, it’s looks like the really bad stuff stayed north of us. Good.
Don’t have anything scheduled for tomorrow. Good.
_________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
Talk about going two-for-two!
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist
“Radio has no future.”
Lord Kelvin, ca. 1897
adfadsfads
At Least Two!
Today was a road trip day which meant we had to get to up entirely too early. Early enough to be on the road at 9:00. That’s how early.
Nick and Terry, and Jan and I headed out for Peru, IN so Jan could track down some of her old haunts from when she lived here in 1957 when her father was stationed at Bunker Hill Air Force Base.
But our first stop was in Twelve Mile, IN to visit Butch and Fonda Williams, long time RV friends from Nick’s Gypsy Journal Rallys.
Nick was dropping off his RV fuel door locks to have them keyed alike and then we will pick them up on the way home.
By the time we got into the Peru area, it was after 11, so we made a quick stop at McDonald’s for a lunch bite.
The first place Jan was hoping to find was the house they lived in. Jan told me she remembered it was a little outside of town heading towards Logansport, and only a couple of blocks from the Wabash River.
So looking at the map yesterday, it looked like there was only one subdivision that was a likely candidate.
And when we drove down the first possible street, she yelled out, “That’s it.”
She said that when she lived here there was a big picture window on the front where they put their Christmas tree.
It looks like it hasn’t been lived in in a while, but it hasn’t been too long since there was a satellite dish on the back.
As we came into town, we saw a sign that Peru was the birthplace of Cole Porter, the famous Broadway composer, so we tracked it down so Nick could get some pictures for a Gypsy Journal story.
Our next stop was the Circus Hall of Fame located outside of town. At one time Indiana was the winter home for over 100 circuses. And 10 called Peru home at one time.
The first circus was held in Peru in 1884, and many started wintering here soon after. In fact Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show played here several times.
One of the stand-out exhibits is a very large diorama depicting an old-time circus, with a lot of detail.
Heading back into town, we dropped Nick and Terry off at the International Circus Museum in the downtown area. Jan and I headed a couple of blocks away for the Miami County Museum.
Jan wanted to look at old phone books and city directories to see if her family was listed. But we didn’t find anything. Apparently they weren’t there long enough to be in the books.
Jan also wanted to look for information about her old elementary school, which we figured out was called Ridgeview Elementary. She already knew it had been torn down in the 70’s, but she was hoping to find a picture of it.
We did find this photo from 1909, which means Jan’s school was already 50 years old when she went there.
We had already found this photo of her school on the Classmates website.
Leaving the Museum, and based on some info from the Curator there, we drove out to the cemetery so Nick could get some pictures of Cole Porter’s grave.
Leaving the cemetery, and also based some info from the Museum Curator, we stopped at the Carousel Ice Cream Shop for a cold treat. We been told how great the ice cream was there, and pulling into the lot, it was easy to see why their ice cream was so good.
They had a big sign in front that said, “We Proudly Serve Blue Bell Ice Cream.”
Well, of course it’s good. It’s from Texas.
By now it was about 4:30, time to head back home. But first we stopped off at Butch and Fonda’s again to pick up Nick’s rekeyed locks, and also check out this 1951 or 52 Crosley Super Sedan Convertible that Butch was working on for a customer.
Butch is well-known in the Crosley world as a source and manufacturer of Crosley parts. In fact he has a whole warehouse of parts and the machines to built new parts.
And yes, the propeller on the front actually spins in the wind.
But the real question of the day, is how many clowns can fit in a Crosley Clown Car.
And the answer is . . .
At least two.
For my part, I think the car is like Dr. Who’s TARDIS.
It’s bigger on the inside than the outside. That’s the only explanation for how Nick and I could both fit.
Finally leaving Butch and Fonda’s, we headed up to Mishawaka to have dinner at the Golden Corral.
After a really good meal, and eating ‘til we almost hurt., we got back to the rigs about 8:30 after a long but very nice day.
Tomorrow, sleeping late.
________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
"A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject."—Winston Churchill
fasdfadsf
