Grandma Weezie and Luke
G W and Allie

Climber

Awesome treehouse

Laughing boy

We are back in Texas! We arrived without incident on Monday after breaking our rule of not driving on the weekend. We spent Saturday and Sunday evenings enjoying the Wal-Mart campgrounds in Mississippi and Alabama. We got lucky and didn't have any truck running or rv generator running next to us either night. Sunday we made a detour to the Vicksburg National Battleground for a short visit to the visitors' center. We learned the importance of the battles fought there. We opted to postpone the 22 mile driving tour of the battle sites until a return visit. We didn't feel we could do it justice in the rain. We arrived back "home" at Shallow Creek RV Park around the corner from Jeremy and Jennifer on Monday. We spent Monday evening and all day today visiting and playing. The kids in the pix above are Texas cousins to Madeleine, Simon, and Judah in Ohio. Allie (4 1/2) is 6 months younger than Maddy and Luke (1) is a year younger than Simon. Duane and I really enjoyed playing with these two as much as with the Ohio cousins. Their personalities are very different, so we had to power down from the high-energy Ohio kids. We were sad we only had two days to get reaquainted, but tomorrow we move on to Celina Tx (north of Dallas) to play with the twins. Ava and Emma have changed a lot in the last three months and we are ready to see how much they've grown.

Enough for now!

Louise and Duane

Hurray we're rollin' again!

Wild turkeys
One of many little valleys

See the deer?

Appalachian folk art and humor

At last we are turning our wheels again, doing our tourist thing. The month we sat in Ohio was fun, but with the turning of the weather we like to head for sunnier skies. We have been 2 1/2 days here in Raccoon Valley (Escapees) RV Park and have made good use of them. When we arrived and set up we joined the afternoon social hour and met some of the friendly folk who make the park a nice place to stay. Both mornings have been overcast and damp, but by afternoon have made way for sunny skies and dry air--perfect for sightseeing. Yesterday we headed for the Great Smoky Mts. National Park and Cades Cove. This is one of many little settlements in the mts. It is an 11 mile drive to visit some of the home places. I can't say homesteads because the people who settled here actually bought land. Some places are right by the road and some are a short walk away. There were several roads crisscrossing the cove. Some have been preserved as walking/hiking trails and some are now paved and drivable. Since we were there in the early afternoon we didn't see much wildlife (dawn and dusk are best for this), but Ole Sharp Eye managed to spot the deer and turkeys even though he was driving. (I was reading the info booklet). After we exited the cove we headed for Gatlinburg and took the artisans' loop outside of town. We found a nice quilt shop and a couple of local carvers and the ice cream shop before everything closed up.

Today we took off under cloudy misty skies to visit the Museum of Appalachia. This is a large complex of several original historic log buildings that have been moved to the site to represent Appalachian Mountain living. The tour is self-guided. The buildings are full personal belongings--tools, toys, clothing, utensiles, etc. that were used by the original inhabitants. One of the buildings is called the Appalachian Hall of Fame and features notable, historic, famous, interesting, colorful and unusual folk that lived in the area. We thought the cost--$15 each--was more in line for a living history village, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

As of now we haven't decided whether we will move on tomorrow or stay for the weekend. We are done touring the area for now, but don't really like to travel on the weekend. We'll see.

Basta por hoy,

Louise and Duane

Back on the road

After a month of visiting in Ohio, we are headed south again. We really enjoyed our visit with friends and family. A big thanks goes to our daugter and son-in-law, Rachel and Benji for their hospitility and the use of their yard for the last month. I spent last weekend at the annual blacksmiths conference in Troy. I had a great time talking to old friends and meeting a few new ones. Barbara Harmon and her friend Gene came to the fairgrounds for a visit Saturday night. They had a good time watching the forging compitition and looking over the items in the gallery. Last evening we spent with daughter Stacy in Cincinnati. Today it was off to Knoxville, TN for a few days of driving around the Smokies. Tomorrow we will drive to Townsend, TN to the carving store and in search of quilting stores.
Still next time
Duane and Louise

All the girls liked the sparkly shoes
Checking out gifts from us

A beautiful princess card

We have been very busy doing nothing much, mostly visiting daughter Rachel and family. Friday was Madeliene's 5th birthday. We gave her our gifts then. The top pic is at her birthday party next day admiring pink sparkly shoes with mom Rachel and various cousins. Tuesday and today we actually went sightseeing, but both times SOMEONE forgot his camera. Tuesday we went to downtown Dayton (Ohio, of course) to the National Aviation Museum and Wright Brothers Complex. We went there primarily to get Duane's senior's national parks pass. Woo Woo!!! Now we can get in any national park, site, memorial, or recreational area for free for life. We also get 1/2 price camping in any national park run campground. We stayed for a very pleasant and eye opening three hour visit of the complex. This consists of a very nice museum and gift shop, the historic Hoffman Building where the brothers ran one of their print shops, and one of the buildings where they ran their bicycle shops. Just outside of this complex is the site of the house they built and lived in for many years with their family. This house has been moved to Michigan and is now a part of the Greenfield Village Museum. The Complex is part of the Aviation Trail, a driving tour to various places around the area which are important in aviation history. The museum also pays tribute to Dayton native Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the first nationally published black writer. He wrote plays, song lyrics, essays and stories, but is best known for his poetry.

Today we visited Amish Country with our friend Barbara Harmon. Our first stop was Dover and the Warther Museum. This was our second visit and Barbara's fourth. Ernest "Mooney" Warther was a self-taught master carver who specialized in carving steam trains in perfect detail and perfect scale. One of his most famous is the Lincoln funeral train, carved in ebony and ivory. All of his trains moving parts actually move. They are assembled with tiny pins, as the glue available was unstable. Awsome. He is most famous for his pliars tree. He fashioned this from a single piece of wood. It consists of 511 working pliars made with 31ooo cuts and no shavings. It took two months. More awsome. From there we drove through Sugarcreek to Walnut Creek and had ice cream for lunch at one of the new shop complexes. After making various purchases and a serendipitous meeting with one of Barbara's cousins and his wife (small world!) we drove through beautiful rolling farm country to visit various craft shops in Berlin (BER lin) and Millersburg. There were many other towns and villages to visit but we only had one day so we just drove along Rt. 39. Supper at the Cracker Barrel in Hilliard (outside Columbus) rounded out our day trip.

Enough til later.

Louise and Duane

A trip to the service center

Mud daubbers nest in furnace

We took the rv to the service center in Troy for an oil change and lube. We also had them look at the front furnace that was not working. I thought there was a bad part in it and my warrenty would pay for it, BOY WAS I WRONG!! They took the furnace out and found mud daubber nests on the burner and in the heat tubes. I knew that I had had a nest in the blower, but it worked after I took that out. They had built the nests when we worked at Hidden Cove outside of Dallas last year. It worked fine till I tried to use it since we reached Ohio. I looked at it and thought it had a bad part in it so I had them work on it. Oh well.... They also checked for a slow leak in the air system, didn't find anything wrong. After $506.00 we got it back. That was for everything of course. I think I will take the back furnace out myself and check it out. This has been a rough month on the pocketbook. Insurance and repairs both this month, almost a whole retirement check. If anyone out there feels sorry for us, we are accepting donations to pay for it...LOL While the rv was in the shop, I mowed the grass for the birthday party this weekend. Madeleine will be 5 tomorrow, the party is Saturday.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Hangin out in Troy

Simon
Maddy and Simon chasing bubbles
Judah

We are hanging out in Troy, Ohio. Sunday we went to Piqua to the festival where the kids got to ride the ponies and do some crafts. They each got their face painted and all had a good time. After the festival, Louise and I headed for my brother Dennis's house. We rode with them to Kristy's, our niece, for her and Lisa's sons birthday party. This was first time we had seen some of the grand nieces and nephews in 5 years. Both my brothers were there too. We had a great time talking about old times and what the future holds for everyone. Monday evening was spent at Barbara Harmon's house. We met her friend and played cards after eating a great meal.

We got a call from the Escapees today. We start our training to work for Escapees parks in Livingston, TX on Feb. 15. It will take about 6 months to get through our commitment with them. After we complete our training, we have to work 3 months out of the year to stay in the system. They have 8 parks around the country that we can transfer among.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Back in Troy---again

Simon, Madeleine, Judah with G. W.

Caught Grampa taking pix

Soccer girl

Good goalie

Visiting before the game

Jude found something interesting

Here we are back in Troy, safely ensconced in the back yard of daughter Racher and son-in-law Benji. The grandkids think this is great. They can walk to our house by themselves! We have been spending our time visiting, playing, and goofing off in general. We had a nice visit yesterday with friends Pam and Eddy Shouse at lunch and Barbara and the GM pipefitter gang for supper and of course an evening of visiting and playing Euchre. This is a regional card game we grew up with and don't get to play anywhere else.

The pix above are of course dominated by our adorable grandchildren: Simon aged 2, Madeleine who will be 5 on Sept. 11, and Judah aged 4 months. On Wed. we went to Madeleine's soccer game. It was great watching a bunch of 4 year olds learning the technics of the game while having fun. All the parents shouted encouragement to both teams. While Madeleine played the boys found interesting things to do. In the pic of Madeleine on my lap, Simon is in the left background headed for fun with gravel and other 2 year olds. At the top we were relaxing before the game.

We will be in this area for a month visiting all of our friends and relatives, so you will probably be meeting more family members.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane

Geocaching with Stacy and Carrie

Signing a log
Stacy pointing to knot on tree where cache was

Louise up a tree retrieving cache

Arrow pointing to cache

We arrived in Cincinnati on Friday the 21'st to spend the weekend with Stacy and Carrie. On Saturday we went to a local park to do a little geocaching. We had 4 to find and found all 4. They were all placed by the same family and all but one followed the same theme, UP A TREE. Louise was the only one in our group that was 'brave?' enough to climb up the tree to get at the one cache. I had to lift Stacy up to get to the one in the knot hole. We had a great time and had a real nice walk in the woods. After hiking all day we headed to the pizza place...lol Had to replace all those calories we burnt hiking. Sunday we ate a great fish dinner that Stacy and Carrie had caught in Canada. On Monday we headed to Troy, Ohio to meet our new grandson and visit with our kids and grandchildren there.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Fun Fun Fun

Paddlin' man
Cindy and Mike


Biking the tow path

Working horses

Canal boat

Cindy the Naturalist

Playing in the mud and water

We have enjoyed this past week playing with friends Mike and Cindy Smith in the lovely town of Mogadore, just a little south east of Akron. One of our fun outings consisted of paddling canoes 6 miles down the Tuscarawas River from Canal Fulton, then riding bikes back along the tow path. This area is part of the Ohio Erie system. As you can see, this part is still in use as a tourist attraction. One day we joined Cindy at West Branch State Park where she works as the naturalist. On our hike she informed us of various uses for some of the plants and trees. The hike ended at the edge of the lake to look for crystals that form in the mud there. Tomorrow is moving day, so look for more fun times ahead!

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane

Tourists

Our beautiful selves with the Lolly Trolley
Friends Bob and Sharon with the steamship William Mather

Brandywine Falls

Too fabulous to mention who

Marty the village blacksmith

Onward in our quest for adventure! Go east old people, go east! So we did, (well south east) from Grand Rapids, OH to Hinkley, OH. From Sheely's yard to Bob and Sharon Cameron's we traversed the miles in our intrepid quest for adventure. The Camerons came through beautifully. We toured the lovely city of Cleveland aboard the Lolly Trolly, crossing bridges from east to west and back. Cleveland is a city of bridges since the city straddles the Cuyahoda river. After one of Sharon's yummy picnic lunches, we explored the area along Lake Erie next to the Cleveland Browns' stadium. We poked around the Mather, which plied the Great lakes from Ironwood, MI to Erie, PA. It hauled iron ore one way and steel the other. This ship is unique because it also provided luxurious (at the time) accomodations for selected guests. Next we viewed the Colorado River Grand Canyon adventure from comphy seats in the Imax theater. From there we went across the plaza to the Great Lakes Science Center for an afternoon of learning. Another afternoon the Camerons introduced us to part of the Cleveland end of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We hiked to Brandywine Falls, Blue Hen Falls, and lock 29. The park encompasses the area of the old Ohio Erie Canal. One day we toured by ourselves. We visited the Hale Farm, a living history farm dating from the Civil War. Reenactors intpreted various buildings in the park, including (of course) the blacksmith shop, school, church, various homes, potter, broom maker, weaver, spinner, and lawyer. Lots of tourist fun. Evenings we visited with Bob and Sharon over supper and cards, dominoes, and campfire.

We took off this morning headed for Mogadore, just southeast of Akron. The next few days we will be visiting friends Mike and Cindy Smith.

Enough for now!

Louise and Duane

Goofing Off

Brother Ed
Ed and Eddie

Louise, Eddie and mom Heather fishing

Our new coach

Hummer

Butch's Shop

Butch and Cindy's house

Butch, Cindy and Louise

Ruby Throated Hummer

Last Sunday we went fishing with brother Ed, his wife Paula, daughter Heather and grandson Eddie. As you can see by the pix, we all were very serious about that. (Ed's pole is a little short doncha think?) Paula sat in the shade reading. We were more serious about our picnic lunch. On Tuesday we headed east and ended up at a nice quiet rv park just east of Huntington, In. It had four fishing lakes, so we stayed Wednesday to try our luck. Actually I cast a line Tuesday evening and decided to read all day Wed. Thursday we made it to Grand Rapids, Ohio and parked in the Sheelys' yard. Butch is a blacksmithing buddy of Duane's from way back. Butch and Cindy built their beautiful log house from the ground up. We have spend a lot of time yakking and showing each other what we have been making. (Cindy is a beader and I quilt and count cross stitches.) Today we visited Sauder Village, a privately owned historical village. It was there we found our new coach. Unfortunately the owner, a migrant beet harvester, wasn't around to seal the deal. Back at the house we all sat around chatting and enjoying the pleasant breezes and the antics of the hummingbirds. Tomorrow is our last day here. Monday we head for Hinckley.

Basta por hoy!

Louise and Duane