Cavin' (again)

Our tour guide

Cave Crickets

Stalactites

Flow stone

Stalagmite 'cactus'

Flow stone

Underground 'slot canyon'

Swiss Bell Ringers were here

Since it was a beautiful day yesterday in sw Ky, we decided to go underground. This is our second visit to Mammoth Cave. The first time we took the Historic Tour. This time we went on the longer (4 miles, 4 hours) Grand Avenue tour. Duane says I have to hurry and turn 62 so I can get my America The Beautiful pass. He got in for $12 while I am high maintainance at twice that. We didn't see a lot of cave growths because most of this cave system is 'dormant' or 'dead'. This means that no water percolates down from the surface. The water dissolves the calcium carbonate in the limestone and deposits it in flow stone, soda straws, stalagmites and stalgtites as it drips over millions of years. No water, no formations, so no 'growth', hence the cave is 'dead'. The caves were privately owned until the 1920's when the state of Kentucky acquired them in preparation of becoming a national park. In the early 1940's Ky sold the acreage to the federal government for $1 and became the 26th national park. At over 300 miles, it is the largest cave system in the world. The Grand Avenue tour is one of the more strenuous with lots of ups and downs and leaning over for low ceilings. Halfway along, the tour stops in the Snowball Room where lunch is available. We didn't pack food (no bags on any tours of course thanks to 9/11) so we bought bottles of water before the tour and the available box lunch at the Snowball Room. It consisted of a cheese and ham or turkey hoagie, cup of soup, apple, cookie, chips and drink for $7.50. A very good price but a lot of food so we split. The temperature is a constant 54 d F but even so we ended up sweating, shedding jackets, and drinking all of our water. In addition to the 1/2 lunch/pottie break we also had three other sit down breaks (one of which also had a restroom) and 3 or 4 pauses where we were treated to our ranger's history lessons and groaners--punny jokes. For instance, someone made a comment about the amount of rocks that have fallen from the ceiling since the water receeded. He said not to worry, the park has a good insurance policy. In case a rock fell on you, you'd be covered. And so it went. After our entertaining afternoon we reboarded our busses for our 5 mile drive back to the entrance. We arrived in time to head out for church at 4:30 then pizza for dinner. Today we are laying low until after lunch. Then we plan on visiting either the Shaker Museum or the Train museum before meeting (Duane's) brother Dean for supper. He lives in Bowling Green and drove here (Franklin is where we parked on Thurs and hung out ) to see our new rig and visit. Later he took us a tour of his golf club then to dinner. We head out tomorrow to visit our longest narrowest national park--the Natchez Trace.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane

The rush is over

Baptising Judah

Sittin' n spinnin'

Yellow submarine--blacksmith style

The candles are not metal

Another 'thinker'

Our trip to Ohio is almost over. We have made it to East Fork Lake and are camping on one of the seven full hookup sites. After a month and a half of visiting people in high traffic areas we are really enjoying the quiet. Since the Escapade we have spent 5 more days in the Latimer campground. On Thursday we moved to the Miami Co. fairgrounds and have been busy with the blacksmiths' Quadstate Roundup. Duane helped set up, man the Gallary (where people display their latest projects to compete for cash prizes) and tear down. I hobnobbed with my favorite blacksmiths, spent a couple more days with our adorable grandchildren, and visited with friends Gene and Barbara who came on Saturday. On a whim I took a couple of quilts to display in the Spouses' section. I was the only one so I couldn't earn First Prize. I did get an Honorable Mention and $25. Pretty good for a whim! Sunday we headed to East Fork, which today we learned was named for the east fork of the Little Miami River which feeds it. We had enough energy to set up and drive to the Frisch's down the road for dinner. Today was rainy and gray all day. We took our time over getting up and breakfast (by that time I had the first load of laundry done) then set out for the WalMart. All afternoon Duane computered and started planning the next leg of our journey. I did more laundry, changed sheets and towels, put away groceries and finally sat down for half an hour before we had to leave again. We met our daughter Stacy and her friend Ruth Ann for dinner then they came here to see our new house and visit for a bit. We will be home tomorrow then meet them for dinner again. Wed. we plan to relax and enjoy the park. If the rain is gone we will probably do a bit of hiking. There are plenty of trails here ranging from 1/2 mi wheelchair accessible to the 31 mile rugged perimeter trail. There is a horse campground and plenty of trails to ride. The lake has lots of good fishing. There are several campgrounds with over 300 campsites including several cabins. They all have paves cites and electric but no water (except for the 7 full hookups of course and we don't know what the cabins have). Right now there are very few people here but the weekends will be busier through the fall. We really enjoy Ohio's state parks. They don't have day use charges and some, like this one, are Passport America.

Our tentative plans for Thursday are to stop by Bowling Green KY to visit with Duane's brother Dean, then head to Boonsborough State Park for a couple of days. From there we will go west of Nashville and pick up the Natchez Trace Parkway and enjoy the longest narrowest national historic area all the way to its end.

PS: We just found out that the World Equestrian Games are in Lexington this week so no campgrounds available in the area....scratch Boonesborough. So we will be off to the Bowling Green area to visit my brother and see some sites around there. Might take another tour of Mammoth Cave. They have a number of tour options.

Basta por hoy.

Louise and Duane

Back in Ohio

We spent the last week at the Escapees Rally in Goshen, Indiana. We met a few new friends, saw some old friends and worked a lot. Yes I said worked a lot. I volunteered to instruct wood carving, Louise quilting. What we didn't realize was the time it required. We were both in the craft hall from 8:30 till 3:30 the first 3 days of the rally . I did get to attend a couple of classes on Wednesday. Louise stayed at the quilting tables all the time. I don't think we be doing that again unless we know what the hours will be going in. I enjoyed the teaching but not the hours it took.

We are in Celina, Oh tonight. Thought we would stop here and do some chores around the trailer before moving back to the kids yard for a few days. Thursday we will move to the Miami County fair grounds for the blacksmith convention. I try to go to that when we are in the area to see old friends and do a little hammering just for old time sake. I think we are going to head to Cincinnati to visit daughter Stacy for a few says after the blacksmith conference. At this point we have no idea where we are heading after that. We will let everyone know when we know...lol

That's it for now

Duane and Louise

TAPAMAG

Painter

Mowin'

Mr. Cool Guy

Crafters

Workin' man

Loves bubbles

Three generations

Good big sis

One of the twins

Stacy and (hopefully) the other one

Emma (I think)

Who knows?

So, ok it was more than a peek. The title came from a little box my mom carried in her purse. Inside were mini pix of grandchildren so: Take A Peek At My Adorable Grandchildren. These were taken since we arrived here in Troy, OH a week ago Sunday. We have been parked in the back yard of our daughter Rachel, son-in-law Benji, and grandchildren Madeleine, Simon, and Judah. We have managed to meet with quite a few of our friends, but spent most of the time visiting and playing with the kids. (They were the ones that visited us at Raccoon Valley). On Monday we celebrated Labor Day with our other daughter Stacy and son Duane Jr, daughter-in-law Brandey and of course Emma and Ava. (Jr and family were visiting from Texas.) From the top the pix show Jude likes painting (kids' paints, wash right off but he didn't want to quit), pushing his mower, bubbles, riding with Sissy, and anything else his sibs are doing. Simon likes his new sunglasses and riding his Deere. Maddy loves crafts, and one-on-one time with grandparents. The little girls are cheerful and pleasant most of the time and look more like each other every day. Mom and dad can tell them apart, and take pity on everyone else by putting in different color earrings. The ones we visited here are 5 of our 9 adorable grandchildren who live in three different states. We were fortunate to have so many close together at one time.

We have had ten great days of visiting, but now it's time to get those tires rolling back to the Goshen, IN fairgrounds for the big Escapees rally starting Friday. We will be back in the kids' back yard in about a week, though, for more visiting and playing. We hope to meet with more friends and relatives then too.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane

Who knew?

Louise in the middle

Grand Haven lighthouse

G H beach

Enjoying the water

Can you hear the waves?

Wooden shoe production

De Klomp factory

Holland strip mall

Delftware factory

All hand painted

Holland State Park lighthouse

In the bay

Old lighthouse

Jonathon Livingston Seagull

My good side

Rays and yacht--what more do I need?

Holland S P

We are free once again. We spent three days in a resort rv campground in Howell MI before heading to Gillette's for our repairs. Mostly we walked around the campground and tried to keep cool. There were too many people there to enjoy the beach or the pool. A week ago we moved to Gillette's little campground. They mainly keep it for people who buy a new trailer and use their old one as a trade-in so they can move door-to-door. Our appointment wasn't until Wed. at the earliest, but by this time we were having slide problems so we were allowed to move in early. Good thing. Once the slide was opened it stayed open until it was fixed. We spent the better part of Fri and Sat in the waiting room before everything they could fix was fixed. There are still some minor things to be addressed when we move to Elkhart IN tomorrow. That's where this place was born. Between times we decided to explore a little of the eastern coastline of Lake Michigan. As you can see from the two state parks we visited it is mile after mile of beautiful tan sand beach. The day was perfect (as they have been for the last week--bright sunshine with high puffy clouds, a cool breeze. On the two beaches we visited the sand shelf extended out about 100 yds. Here the water was no deeper than 18" or so and warm--80-85d. Further out with the cool breeze I think people were getting cold. People were everywhere but there was plenty of room for everyone to do their things. Along the causeways to the lighthouses people were diving and jumping into the deeper water and climbing out via the ladders placed there. The lake was a pleasure to be in and around. The water was a very clear brownish green to a depth of at least 15'. It smelled clean and refreshing. We had a great time. We got our walk in too. We counted double time for walking in loose sand. In pic one Duane had a hard time telling me apart from some of the young babes walking around. He thought he was taking a pic of me! In the fourth one I was talking to my daughter-in-law Brandey who is in TX with her one-year old twin girls. She loves the beach. Whenever I'm near waves crashing I call her to give her a "fix". The crashing waves temporarily transported her away from the activity and the heat. Glad to do it for you, kid!

Before we hit the beach we checked out one of the local tourist traps. There are several here with the Dutch theme since this is a Dutch settlement. (The rv park where we are staying is called Dutch Treat). Just north of Holland, home of the famous seed catalog, is Veldheer Tulip Gardens and Bison Ranch, home of 5+ million tulips, the wooden shoe factory and the Delftware factory. One stop shopping at it's best! One building houses the garden store where you can pick up your favorite tulip bulbs and buy your bison steaks. We wanted some bison meat, but had to pass--way too expensive for us ($24 for an 8oz tbone). We passed on paying to view the garden also--no tulips this time of year. At the other end of the strip is the bison ranch. Sorry, no pix. The bison were too shy. Actually they were all out of sight at the other end of their pasture behind their barns. No tours available, so we were out of luck in the bison department. We struck gold in the middle. In one long building we saw hundreds of pieces of Delftware. No one was demonstrating except the painter, but that was interesting enough. I am now the proud owner of my own Delftware--a tiny cup and saucer for drinking my hot brewed loose tea. We did get to see a part of the construction process for wooden shoes. The demonstrator was very glad to answer all of our questions. There was a whole wooden shoe store there too. Wooden shoes were available for trying on. Then you could find your size pair in plain or painted--red, blue, or yellow. From there we went to lunch at Red Robin, a chain restaurant known for its burgers and "endless basket of fries", then on to the beaches to walk them off.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane

We are FREE!!!

We finished our workcamp job on Wednesday and headed north on Thursday. We drove all the way to Crittenden, KY...lol...a little over 200 miles. We drove into Cincinnati to visit with daughter Stacy. The last time we were in Ohio she was on the road for her work. She is hard catch, so we took advantage of the chance to catch her home. We went out for bite to eat, took a walk, ate ice cream and had a real nice chat. She leaves on a trip this morning, did I say was hard to catch, we leave for points north.

We're heading for East Lansing, MI to have a few things tweaked on the trailer. We purchashed the trailer from a dealer in Lansing, they delivered it to TX for us. After repairs are made we are going to hang out in MI till time to go to the Escapade RV Rally in Elkhart, IN on the 10th of September. Plans are to meet up with some of our RV friends that will be in the area at the same time. We are making a quick trip to Ohio on the 11th for granddaughter Maddy's birthday, then back to Elkhart for a week at the rally. After the rally we head to Troy, Oh for a visit with daughter Rachel and her family. At this we have no idea which way we will head next. We are leaning toward going to the east coast and down. We may head across the mid west and down, who knows? Our next work date is January 2 in Deming, NM so we have plenty of time to get there. We need to stop for doctors in TX before going to NM, so we will visit the TX kids on the way by.

That's it for now

Duane and Louise

This work shop is great!!!!

Here are some lapel pins I have been making. I can sit in my work shop, in the rv, in the air conditioning and carve. Much nicer then sitting outside in the heat. I have been able to get a lot done since getting the trailer. I have been working on these pins to have something to sell at the rv rally we are going to in September. I hope they sell.....lol I could use a little money coming in off the carving....lol

Duane

We Survived!

Atop Norris Dam

Bombarding Cumberland Gap

Circus performer

Tough artiliaryman

Water babies

As the title says, we survived our summer of heat and humidity at Raccoon Valley RV Park. This week they both abated to the June levels and are again fairly tolerable as long as you avoid the midday heat. This our last week here. Duane works tomorrow and Wed. and I work Wed. afternoon. We plan to be packed up and ready to hit the road Thursday morning for East Lansing Mi. Last week our daughter Rachel, son-in-law Benji and grandchildren Maddy (almost 6), Simon (3) and Judah (1) came for a visit from the Dayton OH area. Having 7 people in our little rig wasn't as bad as you would think. Everyone got along well and had a good time. They arrived late Thurs night so most of the activity was aimed at getting everyone to bed. Next day we went swimming, cooked out then went for a drive to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park so some overly-excited, under slept children could have a nap on the way. We drove through the gap tunnel between TN and KY and to the pinnacle for some views. We had fun re-enacting the valley bombardment , then went down to the visitors ' center. On the way home we stopped for pizza, then topped off the day with some more pool time. Next day after pool time and lunch, we drove to Norris Dam for some sightseeing, then home. We had one last time in the pool and Maddy and Simon and I had time for a little creek walking before time for the kids to leave. We are glad they came and are looking forward to seeing them all again in Sept.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane