Interesting trip to Elkhart

So glad the news from Chile is so good.

Well I whined and whined about the satellite until I convinced The Driver to drive to Elkhart, IN. 230 miles from home. Now I don’t know if I’m glad I did or if I wish I hadn’t of.

Leaving Home 8:30 a.m.

But we are here now. Had an eventful trip up. We left home about 8:30. Off like a herd of turtles! First off I’m glad we decided to take the longer straighter road when leaving home instead of the twisty, turny, narrow way we usually go. A little ways down the road it was apparent that there was something not quite right behind us. Lots of jerking and noise. Got to a wide place in the road stopped and went back to check. Oops! One arm of the tow bar was not extending all the way and locking. Unhitch, hitch, push, pull, WD40, more hitch, unhitch, more push, pull. A couple people stopped to ask if we needed help. Nope – just patience. Finally all was working well. But we were both paranoid by then.

Got onto the main highway and things were still not right. The Driver thought maybe a tire was going flat. Pulled over. Nope. Tires seemed fine maybe they were just out of round from sitting so long. Eventually everything smoothed out.

We stopped for breakfast in Columbus then hit the I-65 north. Just after we made the circle around Indy and just as we were entering the off ramp – BANG THUMP THUMP! CRAP! Luckily the ramp was wide enough so we could pull over and stop. The Driver got out and headed to the rear. The right rear outside tire had blown. By the time he got back up front I had the GPS hunting for a tire place. Found a Firestone place a few miles away that had the right size tire in stock. So we limped off the off ramp onto the main road. Hazard lights on driving on the shoulder people stopping next to us and telling us we had a flat. No s**t. Got a new tire and after another 45 minutes we were off again. 12:30 and we were less than 60 miles from home!

Got about another 50 miles and it started to pour. 110 days with out rain and it decides to rain today. I actually managed to use our Droid to check Weather Bug and saw it was a fast moving storm and clear in front of us. Good.

Saw this on the road - it was for sale

How'd we get to Mexico already?

Rest of ride was uneventful. The Elkhart Campground is very nice. It’s a big place over 300 big grass spaces. WiFi is pretty good. Then we went out for Chinese. A real international night – the lady in the office is from India.

Elkhart RV Park

After arriving we called the satellite guy and he will be here tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock.

Hadn’t planned on staying here more than tonight and tomorrow night but I’ve been looking at info about the area – hummmm – maybe we’ll be here longer. Do want to go to the RV/Motorhome Museum for sure. Also see there are a lot of quilt murals around here.

We remain City Slickers I guess

Tuesday a.m.


It’s just a couple minutes before 8a.m. and it is just barely light out. At 7:30 it was still pitch black out. What’s up with that? Makes me want to just climb back into bed again.

Loading Jennie for tomorrows short trip – anyway we only plan on being gone three days. Unless it turns into more. Kind of weird getting ready for such a short trip. Not sure what to take with us – don’t plan on doing much any cooking.

Today will still be warm but weather is supposed to change tomorrow – of course – maybe some rain??? Then a lot cooler until the weekend – when we will be home – then warming up into the 80s again.

I think the trees are about as pretty as they are going to get. Lots of leaves already on the ground. These are from out back.

We got another reminder about what “city slickers” we still are. Were in the restaurant we go to a lot and the manager told us he had been hunting the night before. So of course we asked what he was hunting – didn’t think deer season was going on yet. Well he told us – squirrels. Said he got about six of them. So like a dummy I asked what he did with squirrels. “Well eat them of course.” Eat them? Those cute little things! He said it took quite a few to make a meal – well dah! Says he boils them first to get rid of the wild taste then breads and fries them. Hummmm. Just never thought about it before.

Had more trouble with my web pages – they just disappeared. Took many more e-mails and a couple of days but now working again. Hopefully that is the last bug from their “upgrade!”

Not happy with the outcome of Sundays NASCAR race. My favorite Kyle #18 – is most likely out of the Chase. He’s too far back now to catch up. Mechanical problems seem to plague him in the Chases. I have a couple of little friends who watch all the races with me. Aren’t they cute?

Wednesday dark a.m.

Well I didn’t finish this yesterday so best get it done now as don’t know when we’ll get internet. Hopefully tomorrow.

Not long after I post this we’ll hit the road. Stop in Columbus for breakfast and head north to Elkhart. And wouldn’t you know it is supposed to rain – for over 100 days it hasn’t rained but today its going to. And supposed to get colder too.
Don't you just hate it when a program  (Internet) you are used to using makes changes in the way you have to do things. Don't they remember "If it ain't broke - don't fix it."

All the Pretty Colors

Saturday a.m.


Well we are in the midst of another heat wave. Supposed to be in the high 80s maybe 90 today and tomorrow. Indian Summer I guess. Still no rain. Just a very few short sprinkles in the last 100 days!

We have had a taste of winter though. Had to have the heat on for a couple of days. And the nights have been down into the 30s. Bill says it is time to get out of here. Personally I’m loving it. I’ve had more energy the last couple of cool weeks than I had all summer.

Finally, after three years, finished painting the laundry room and one long wall in the glass workshop. Looks SOOOOO much better. No more chipped and peeling paint and lots of different colors and just plain ick on the walls. At least I’m happy with it.
                                                                         before

after

 

before

after

You gotta love the times we live in….Went to buy some croissants the other day. We’ve been buying them for years. They came 20 croissants in a large clear plastic container. Well went to get some the other day and couldn’t see any on the shelves so we asked the clerk. She pointed to a cardboard box and said “There they are.” Well the box was quite a bit smaller than the plastic container. Bill asked, “How many are in there?” She replied, “Twenty, same as before.” Hummm. They were the same price as before so we got them. Well when we opened the box – there were 20 alright but they were about half the size as they used to be. Barely three bites each!! So many things are getting smaller for the same price. Ice cream for one thing and TV dinners. Oh well.

Bill got me a Nook for my birthday, early. Took a little bit getting used to holding it comfortably. Have discovered that hard cover books are cheaper and paperback are more expensive to buy as eBooks. I’ve only checked Barnes and Nobel so far. It’s mainly to use when we are in Mexico and I can’t find English books. Just need a wifi connection and I’ll be able to download them. Speaking of which – we will be taking Jennie north to Elkhart next week to get the satellite up and running – I hope.

Went over to visit the Alfa yesterday. It’s all covered up and settled in for winter.

Lots of color in the hills now. Took some pictures going into town yesterday. Every day it gets prettier and more and more tourists show up. A couple of pictures of the ground fog a couple of days ago.

Getting prettier and prettier

There is a horse standing there.

 Corn field

Just an old shed

 More horses

More pictures from the road into town.

More Adventures in Country Living

Wednesday a.m
Well its been quite a while since I updated this…..We have gone from record high heat the first day of fall to almost freezing this morning. A week ago today it was 96 and this morning it was 39! But supposed to warm up to the high 70s. We still have not had any rain to speak of. Just a few dribbles here and there. Not enough to help the lawns or fields. The whole bottom 2/3rds of the state are under a “burn ban” and every day on the news are stories about fires. Seems more like California newscasts then Indiana.
The trees have started to change their colors. Hope the dryness didn’t affect them too much.
Coming up the road from town to home.       (Remember - click on the picture to enlarge it)

So what’s been going on around here you ask? Well we got our permanent driver’s licenses (so we rand downtown and took care of the adjustment for the house taxes.) The color pictures don’t look quite as bad as the black and white temporary ones did. Now we just look like we should be in county jail instead of a federal penitentiary. Maybe Willie the Jeep got a peak at them cause he sure has been giving The Driver fits lately. Didn’t want to start in the morning without a jump. So got him a new battery yesterday. Hope that takes care of the problem and it’s not his innards.
And speaking of driver’s license – I mentioned before that WE (us old folks) have to show ours to buy alcohol. The state legislature is thinking about changing that. Well we discovered another liquor law the other day. You can’t buy more than 760 oz of wine/alcohol at a time. How do we know? Well we tried to buy 24 bottles of wine at once. The cashier could only ring up 12 of them – 760 oz. To buy the other 12 we had to go out of the store then come back in and buy the other 12 from a different cashier!!!! Also found out one can’t buy liquor before 7 a.m. – no we didn’t try the person standing in line behind us told us that gem.
While speaking of shopping – was in Wal*Mart and saw these were on the shelves. Guess it is common here but kind of threw me.
This is C'mere Deer

 Do you put this on toast?

In the same vein – these are the fawns – no more spots. We saw them yesterday in the road by the house as we were coming home. Mom had just gone down the hill into the trees.

Had more trouble with my web sites on the internet. Couldn’t even get on the jewelry site!! About had a stroke. Several e-mails later with the internet company and it was up and running but still more problems. I couldn’t up date it with the new necklace set I had made. More frantic emails and all is now well.

Just thought I’d include these pictures. One is just of an old barn we pass all the time and the other is from downtown.

Last weekend was the Welcome to Fall weekend and the “famous” outhouse races were held. They are called the NashCar Races!

We are starting to think about our winter trip. Well the Driver is planning and doing things, I am just thinking. No trip ever keeps to the plans. Got the satellite dish for Jennie but have to wait until we get somewhere to find someone who can connect it and make it work…….
Well that’s about it - oh, yes, we bought The Rosetta Stone in hopes that somehow the Spanish language can somehow penetrate my hard head. But guess I’ll have to study it now and then for that to happen. It doesn’t seem to be seeping in by just having my laptop sitting on the desk next to me. Oh Well!