Just another July

Another July bites the dust, well I guess I should say that it bakes the mud, since it has either been storming or 90 degrees everyday this month and most days we had both which of course pushes the humidity up near the hundred mark.

Owning this lot and staying in the same park for the summer is taking it toll on us, somewhere along the line we got old and our bodies have decided to revolt against all the yard work that we're doing.











Cathy has got the garden looking pretty good for what she has to work with, every time she tries to plant something she hits a root from the tree that was removed last fall and has to dig in another spot until she hits an open area.








With a lot of help from my Chiropractor I finally finished the lean-to on the back of the shed the other day and got most of the tools and other junk fit into it. How come every time you stop traveling and stay in a park for a month or so would end up with tons of extra stuff that has no place to go.


We did pet sit for the kids when they went up north for a week during the 4th of July, Don's (SIL) side of the family (Aunt ,Uncle and cousins) have been doing a reunion every 4th for about the last 30 years and Don and Suz have been going for about the last 15 years. So while they are all up north right on the Lake Huron shoreline enjoying the beach, water, sun, BBQ's, parades and much much more, Cathy and I are watching the new little puppy, the old, set in his ways and doesn't want another dog around, cat, plus two chinchillas, which by this winter will be large enough to rename Left Glove & Right Glove.

The puppy did really good at being house trained she only had a couple of accidents during the week, she goes and stands by the back door when she needs to go out but she doesn't make any noise so unless you happen to walk by and see her you don't know. Her biggest accident was thinking that after 3 weeks she was tough enough to take on the cat. She chased him down the hall and cornered him in the bathroom, the next thing we heard was a very loud yipe and two sets of paws running back down the hall. They came into the kitchen, cat chasing the dog, Samantha raced around Cathy who was standing there and put her head between Cathy's legs and started barking at the cat as if she was saying,”You think you're big enough to take on both of us”.

We ended up house sitting again last weekend when they did a cross state trip for the weekend and now that they are done running around the state we're going to be having one of the grand kids out here for the next few weeks, we change off every 4 or 5 days depending on baseball and volleyball camp schedules

We had a two hour down pour this after noon so I took over the kitchen and made my should be world famous cheese spread.

Cheddar Crock Cheese Spread
1 1/2 c. shredded Cheddar cheese (use sharp)
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
3 oz. cream cheese
Couple dashes of hot sauce (to taste)
1/4 c. margarine
1/3 c. milk

Bring Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and margarine to room temperature.
Beat cheeses and margarine in small bowl with an electric mixer( I use a food processor), you want this as smooth as you can get it)
Add milk, Mustard, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce,
Beat till smooth.
Refrigerate at least 6 hours or until serving time. Makes about 2 cups.

This is an excellent spread and makes a great base to add anything else that you might like, onion, garlic, roasted red pepper, bacon, pepperoni or whatever else you might think of.

If you like Blue Cheese after it is mixed smooth add about 3-4 ozs of Blue Cheese, just pulse it a few times so that it doesn't break up to much.

Maybe next week I'll share my “Absolutely the Worlds Best Pizza Dough” recipe, which is also the easiest one to make that I've ever found.

Return of the Gators

Gee! Bet you can't guess where we went back to today.
The Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary in Athens, Michigan. We switched grand kids the other day and Rachel wanted to see the gators so we headed back over there. Being a weekday it wasn't as crowded as it was Saturday, as a matter of fact we were the only ones there today. They were doing so research and moving some of the gators from one pond to another, they have three different ponds depending on the size of the gator and once they get to big for the pond they are in they get moved up to be with other gators more there own size, this is to prevent them from hurting each other.

They were right in the middle of moving one that was a little short of being 4 foot long and decided that Rachel should help them, now Rachel is just a tad over 5 ft and the gator was just a tad under 4 ft but when it comes to animals she know no fear, as you can see in the following pictures.



This place is really amazing for both the kids and adults, as I said earlier we learned more about gators then we could imagine. We have a new respect for the animal but a lot less fear, we now know some of there habits and what to do when you encounter one in the wild. Just call them by named and when they come to you reward them with Purina Gator treat.

Yes Purina really does make Gator treats.






She didn't have any problem at all in handling this guy and the curator was very impressed with how well she did and how fast she caught on.












A little contest to see who had the biggest smile.












A two for one gator girl.

If you are ever in the area with or without kids this place is well worth the 1 1/2 to 2 hours to visit. I know that we'll be back there again before summers over.

Gators of Michigan

We managed to survive the week of thunderstorms that past this way, the first one hit and knocked out our power for two days, with the generator and fathers day dinner at the kids we managed to get through it without to much of a problem. Then three days later we got hit with another series of storms that took the power out again for about 36 hours, the generators getting a good work out this week.

We brought Nick our grandson back out with us for a few days, after playing about 30 rounds of Putt Putt golf we decided to take a little road trip today.

The kids have been to Florida 4 times and never seen a alligator, not to many of them at Disney World, so we went to a little place I found out about on the internet.

Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary, this is a small place for reptiles to find a safe haven and the proper care after they have been mistreated by people that thought that they would make good house pets.

The mission of Critchlow Alligator Sanctuary & Zoological Garden's is to inspire and educate people to care for the environment by providing fun and educational experiences that lead to understanding the natural world.

This is one of the best little places that we have been to in a long time, they make sure that everyone there from the youngest to the oldest takes part in being involved with the animals, from holding them to feeding them.

Australian Bearded Lizard




African tortise


Five year old gator

...........................................Tom hiding from Godzilla

During our two hours there today we learned more about gators then all the time that we've spent in Florida. They have them trained to respond to voice commands and each has their own color stick that they react to. When he called them by name they would come out of the pond to be feed, one at a time.

We also learned what they are saying by how much of their hear or body is sticking out of the water. While we were there the biggest male,Godzilla kept chasing the smaller males from the pond, they would hide in the grass and make different sounds, asking for permission to return to the pond, Godzilla would make a certain sound and they would return, but not to close to Godzilla.

The good thing is that Nick's sister Rachel is coming back out and we get to go back there to take her.

.alligatorsanctuary.com

Our granddaughter Rachel spent a few days with us last week, her brother was still in school, so she got to come out here all by herself. There is another family out here and their grandson is a classmates of Rachel's, their place is on the pond and Rachel has become good friends with all their grand kids so we spent a lot of time over there with the kids playing and swimming in the pond. After about three hours in the pond the kids had lunch and then I took them down to the pool for about 2 ½ hours, a short break for dinner and they were back in the pond for another two hours, guess who was ready for bed around 8:30pm, ME, Rachel wanted to stay up and watch movies.

A few ladies on our road have been here for a few years and have fantastic gardens growing, a couple of them are thinning them out and have told Cathy to come by and grab what ever she wanted, so she's getting here exercise carrying buckets of flowers back to the lot and getting them planted. She's got the place looking pretty good and homey right now but says that she has a lot more to do before she's satisfied.

A few pictures of the flowers, the garden still needs to fill in a bit, but you can only do so much. By next summer she;s going to be having to thin it out.















Mean while I decided that with my Chiropractor being a hour and a half drive away I better find a local one, found one about an 20 minute drive away. If you use a chiropractor then you know that they normally have goofy hours, a few hour morning session then a few hours in the afternoon but different depending on the day of the week. My new doctor is part of a clinic and they are open from 8am to 6pm everyday which is going to be great.

Now I've had back pain since my early 20's and have seen dozens of doctors about it, after a few vehicle crashes when I was with the police department they sent me to specialist and nobody has ever figured it out the source of the pain. I started seeing a chiropractor on my own in my late 20's and that has been the only thing that has relived the pain when my backs gone out. Today she started out with X-rays of the top half of the spine and another of the lower half, as we were looking at the X-rays, which are now digital, she hit a few buttons and stitched the 2 images into one large picture. She started at the top and working her way down my spine she pointed out different things then she got to the lumbar area which is where my problem is located. She started counting the 5 lumbar vertebra's, the problem was she counted to 6, after 40 years of doctors and specialist she is the first one to notice that I had a birth defect and have a 6th lumbar vertebra. She called it a transition vertebra and the little wings that stick out each side, I forget what she called them, have attached themselves to the hip bone, so instead of being somewhat free floating the 6th vertebra moves with the hip and that is what has caused me all my problems over the years.

When I was younger the muscles surrounding that area held everything in place for the most part, but since I've retired, gotten fat and lazy the muscles have lost their tone and don't support it like they used to. Guess I have two choices one, lose about 50 lbs and get back into my playing shape or two, get lazier and do no type of physical activity at all and just lie around. Damn, I'm going to have to give this some long serious thought.

After my visit to the Chiropractor yesterday I felt so good I stopped at Home Depot on the way home and picked up some lumber and when I got home I framed in the addition to the shed, of course this morning I could barely get out of bed. Some people just never learn!

Stuff

A few weeks ago the old (125 years) Historic Mill in downtown Homer burnt to the ground, for the last few years it was used as a teen night club (non-alcohol dances) and as a spook house at Halloween. The State Police are still trying to figure out what caused it, it was built on the banks of the Kalamazoo River, for a small town like Homer (pop. 1800) this was a major event.


Everybody has heard about a boy named Sue, well meet a girl named Sam. The kids and grand kids decided that with Arthur passing the house was just to quiet and lonely so they rescued this little thing that was taken from a puppy mill somewhere in Kentucky, we're not sure how all the puppies got to Michigan from Kentucky but they sure are glad that they did. The kids went into the shelter and there were three big area's filled with puppies, the area in the center had about 12 black little puppies all curled up together sleeping and this little girl immediately perked up her head when she saw Nick and Rachel and ran over to them, that was all it took for them to make up their minds about which one was going home with them. Thing have changed since I last went to the shelter for a puppy, now you have to fill out a ton of forms, the animal has to have all it's shots and be fixed and you are asked for a donation of $300.00, at some shelters you have to provide references. We got to meet her Thursday and you can tell that she's going to be one smart dog and great companion.







Cathy's has been busting her butt trying to get a garden going, when she started this area the first of May it was a huge tree stump, she finding places between the roots where she can dig down a little to get a plant in, by next year she'll probably have to many flowers in it and have to thin them out.





We've got a lot of bunnies out here and they're working as hard as they can to eat as much as Cathy plants.

This is her walking herb garden, she found some wooden klompen's at a flea market when we were in Florida.


Gotta go get the bikes ready, the kids are coming out tomorrow for a few days.

A Bad Memorial Day

Our weekend started out pretty bad and didn't improve a whole lot.


Arthur (our grand kids protector) was a big giant Chocolate lab who was as gentle as could be, the average weight for a lab is between 55 and 85 lbs, Arthur weighted in at 127 lbs and he wasn't fat just very very big and loveable.

Friday they dropped him of at the pet saloon to get his nails clipped, play with all his buddies there and end the day with a nice bath and shampoo, his idea of the perfect day. During his bath he collapsed and despite CPR, Mouth to Mouth and twenty minutes in the vets ER it was to late. It appears that it was a blood clot in the lungs

Arthur was loved by a lot of people and will be missed for a long time. .

RAIN-Rain-rain

We have been wanting to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and get some things done on the lot so we can just sit back and enjoy the some, notice I said wanting to, the weather just will not go along with our plans. In the last week we have had one day without rain and that day it got all the way up to 52 degrees, the nights have been dropping down into the low 30's and one night it went into the 20's.

I have managed to line up and electrician to wire up the grand kids shed/bunkhouse (my MAN CAVE) and he has a friend that does the additions to the shed so if all goes well I should have all of that done in the next few weeks and be ready for the kids when schools out.

With all this rain I was updating some of our travel website we use and figured I would list them, some are very helpful and others not so helpful but here they are:

http://www.discoverourtown.com

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America

http://www.museumstuff.com/museums/

http://www.factorytoursusa.com/

http://www.museumlink.com/

http://www.history.army.mil/museum.html

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/bystate.htm

http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/

http://www.civilwartraveler.com/

http://www.localharvest.org/

http://www.radio-locator.com/

http://www.roadfood.com/

http://www.festivals.com/

http://www.booksalefinder.com/

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/search/

http://www.freecampgrounds.com/

http://www.roadnotes.com/info/

Hope you find some of these useful.

The Thin Blue Line

Someone killed a policeman today and

A part of America died.

A piece of our country he swore to protect

Will be buried with him at his side.

The suspect who shot him will stand up in court,

With counsel demanding his rights

While a young widowed mother must work for her kids

And spend many long lonely nights,

The beat that he walked was a battlefield too,

Just as if he had gone off to war.

Though the flag of our nation won't fly at half mast,

To his name they will add a gold star.

Yep, somebody killed a policeman today

In your town or mine.

While we slept in comfort behind locked doors,

A cop put his life on the line.

Now his ghost walks a beat on the dark city street

And he stands at each rookie's side.

He answered the call, of himself gave his all

And a part of America died.

Detroit Police Officer Brian Huff Killed,

Four Other Officers Wounded.

This was the headlines I woke up to the Yesterday May 3rd,2010.

It's been a long time since I took off the uniform for the last time and pulled the pin, July 4th 1997 I declared my own personal Independence Day and retired after 25 years of service with the Detroit Police Department, but it still hits home when a Detroit Cop is killed in the line of duty, it's one of those things that you never get used to and I've had plenty of opportunities to get used to it. During my 25 years with the department their were 52 Officers killed in the line of duty, hell during my time in the academy and my first year on the street until I was confirmed as a REAL Policeman we experienced the worst time in Detroit Police history with 13 officers killed in the LOD. Needless to say my mother wasn't too pleased with my choice of occupation.

I didn't know everyone of the officers but I knew quite a few of them and three of them at one point or other were my scout car partners. You can leave the uniform behind but never the memories or the profession.

R.I.P. Brian

Homer, Michigan

If you drive down Main Street of downtown Homer Michigan (both blocks) you will see banners on all the street lights proclaiming that “Homer is Home” and so it will be for us for the rest of the summer.

We got back to Michigan early this year, normally we would still be in the Tennessee and Kentucky area trying to dodge all the floods and tornado's that have been hitting that area, it's been cold and wet but nothing to bad. We got her April 20th and since the park opens April 15th we're some of the first one here, we came up early so we could attend our grandsons Confirmation on the 23rd, then Grandparents day at our granddaughters school and a couple of baseball games and we've been staying busy.

Last fall be bought a lot in the Lighthouse Village Resort, we got it right at the end of the year and didn't really have time to do to much to it, there was a big Ash tree that was dead and they cut that down right before we moved in which let us with a big stump right in the middle of the yard. During the winter they ground the stump out but there is still a lot of roots to deal with, we decided that this will be the main garden area and hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have it pretty much filled in. Cathy started this week with about 20 small plants from Home Depot, it looked like a lot in the back of the car but once she had them spread out in the ground they didn't cover much.

Cathy's big project is getting the yard in shape, hopefully we'll find a few farmers markets where we can load up on flowers and shrubs cheap and my project is making the shed into a bunk house before schools out for the summer so there will be no more sleeping on an air mattress or couch. No not the kids, me, I'm the one that always get stuck on the short little couch because it's to short for the kids to sleep on comfortably but apparently it fits me perfect. So I'm going to make a MAN CAVE out of the shed so I can stretch out on a full size bunk while I'm watching the ball game on my flat screen TV with Direct TV hooked up and if I get thirsty for an ice tea I'll just have to reach into my refrigerator for one.
I feel a Tim Allen (the comedian) grunt coming on.

This what we came back to , where they ground out the tree stump. It doesn't look like much now but Cathy will have it looking great by mid-summer, the little green patches you see our the ones we picked up the other day, she'll be adding to it all summer and I'll post another picture of it when it's full.




This is our lot at LVR, we're on the very last row as far from the gate as you can get. The lot is about 85 feet deep and about 42 wide and there isn't a ton of elbow room but it fits what we were looking for very well. The neighbors on either side are only out here for the 3 holidays, about 1/2 the park use it on weekends and for their two week vacation and the rest of the park is snowbirds using it to visit family in the area. The park is a none profit co-op so the yearly association dues are very very low, the amenities of the park match just about any park in Florida. Pool, hot tub, sauna, two club houses (one adult one kids) putt putt golf,15 acre stocked lake with two beaches, the St Joseph river runs along the one border, six miles of roads for biking or walking and a lot of other stuff. Of course if you want to go to a grocery store it's a 25 minute drive through Amish country so you may be stuck behind a slow moving horse drawn wagon for a while.

This is the view from the front of our lot looking towards the lake, one of the things we like about this road is the open space across the road from us, they were going to put in more lots, they cleared the trees and graded it when the State stepped in and said no more lots, you've reached your limit for the EPA stuff. So we have no one across from us.

Good news on May 1st Michigan became the 38th state to enact a smoking ban in public buildings and locations, so now we can go to our favorite locations for lunch without having to race home to get out of our smoky cloths.

A Bicycle Built for You

A couple of days of rest in Wapakoneta before heading into Michigan for the summer, a cold front has blown in so the temps are down about 15 degrees, but when we woke up this morning the water line was frozen. Must be time to head south again. For years I've been wanting to stop at the Bicycle Museum for America in New Bremen, its only about 20 miles from here so we headed over there.

When we got there the first thing we noticed was how neat and clean everything was, the entire street looked like a post card from the late 1800's with every building immaculate. We found out the reason for this is that the Crane Equipment Corporation bought up the entire street for their corporate headquarters, instead of one big building they have numerous beautiful old buildings. The one we were interested in was the corner one with the museum.

We were met my an elderly gentleman that it turns out knew everything there is to now about bicycles and was able to answer any question put to him. We watched a twenty minute film which showed you how to ride an old fashion bike wheel cycle, which came in handy later, then we start checking out all the bikes which ranged from a 1816 model with no pedals to the most modern racing machines.

I've been in love with bikes all my life and before I meet Cathy and got married ( a bachelor until I was 36) I lived on bicycles. One of the guys I worked with would pick me up in the morning and I would throw my bike in the back of his pickup, then after work I would bike the 20 miles home, if I drove to work I would bike out to a suburban coffee shop when I got home for a round trip ride of 25-30 miles. When I took my vacation I would load two bags on the back rack and two bags on the front rack drive to Ohio,Indiana or one of the Carolina's, park the car and take off on the bike for two or three weeks, I would average about 5000 miles a summer on the bikes, so this place was like heaven to me.

As usual, I took a ton of pictures, so I'll just post a few of the ones I thought we more interesting, we were there close to three hours and we could have probably stayed a little longer, when we were getting ready to leave the host said “you guys really love bikes, ya wanna see some more” of course we said yes, so he lead us to a door, opened it up and said there's a lot more down the basement, down there we found more bikes that they rotate on display and three rooms full of bikes that were waiting to be restored and brought back to life. I know what I'm going to be dreaming about tonight.

One good turn deserves another.




........No chain just Gears






The orange bike is a 2008 delivery model, the one next to it is almost identical but it was made in the late 1800's. Nothing is new.


.....How the Pennyfarthing got it's name.





World's fastest bike, 108 MPH.


Click image on right for the story





Pee Wee Hermans bike from the movie "Pee Wee's big Adventure"




Bike used in the military during the early 1900's








Remember the kid that had one of these.

Monocycle used in the closing ceremony of the 2009 summer Olympic games.

The Queen of the Pennyfarthing bike.

Vincesses

We put Louisville in our rear view mirror and headed for Vincennes Indiana, we took US 150 NE out of Louisville which is a beautiful drive especially if you're in a CAR. With a motor home pulling a toad it's still a beautiful drive it's just a very winding, twisty, up, down and around type road and you don't get to relax enough to really see the scenery.

We're going to try the city campground which is right in town and on the banks of the Wabash River, it has 10 level large gravel sites ,with water and electric (30-50amp). The electric hook ups are about 6 feet off the ground, in case the Wabash over flows it's banks. It's located next to the city boat ramp so it gets a little traffic during the day and then after work the fishermen show up and fish the shoreline until about dusk. But after dark it was very quiet and peaceful. The bath house is locked (you get a key) so that only campers can use it. We tried the showers which came with both cold and tepid water with hardly any water pressure, the toilet area was clean but the sink area made you want to run for cover. So figure on using your own facilities.

OK now it's time to see the Historical City of Vincennes (pronounced Vin sez), after setting up it's about 3 pm so we thought that we would head down to the visitors center to get the low down on the city. We were met by Loretta Day, who spent about 30 minutes with us telling us where to find everything, loading us up with maps, pamphlets, sample menu's, tips as to where the best restaurants were and the best order to see the sights. She was super helpful and made our stay more organized and enjoyable, thanks Loretta.




When we mentioned that one of the things that brought us here was the new Peter Wolf Toth carving of a Whispering Giant, Chief Tecumseh, she told us that he carved it right behind their office and then the city moved it to it's park location, then she went and got a miniature of the carving that he made for them. She let me take a picture of Cathy holding it in the lobby, as I was lining up the photo I had Cathy move a few inches to the left so that her head would line up with a wreath they had hanging on the wall,which she didn't know about, kind of makes her look like a flower child of the 60's heading to San Francisco.




DAY ONE
Our first stop was at the Vincennes Historical Site, right across from the campus of Vincennes University, There are four historical bldg that have been moved here from their original city location so they could be restored and displayed There is the building were the Territorial Legislation met, a Printing Shop with an extremely rare printing press and the original building of Vincennes University which at that time was named the Jefferson Academy. After our tour here thanks to Loretta we knew to tell them that we wanted to tour the French House, since it's only open by appointment. They had someone meet us their ( two blocks away) and give us the tour, everyone is in period costume and plays a specific role. The French house was built around 1809 by the French fur trader Michel Brouillet, and has been used continuously as a home until bought by the association and restored to its 1809 configuration. It gives you a good look at how the house was built back then.


Old French House & Indian Museum










They have the wall cut away so you can see how it was constructed.

Try a guess what it is on the right.
Answer at the end of the blog.





Our next stop is the Grouseland Mansion, but a small detour on the way there takes us to the Whispering Giant Chief Tecumseh.


I wrote about Peter Wolf Toth in January when we visited his Home/Studio/Work shop, while there Cathy bought Little chief POM-POM so we kind of feel like blood relatives to the carvings. We're glad to see that the city is treating this statue properly by placing it in a small park and it looks like they're going to take care of it, unlike some other cities that have let theirs go to hell and rote away.



After paying our respects to chief Tecumseh we walked over to Grouseland. This is the home built by the Governor of the Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison, later the ninth President of the United States. At the time he built this house this area was considered to be the western edge of civilization, where the other homes were small log cabins or two room houses such as the French House. So Grouseland (named for all the Grouse in the area and it was Harrison's favorite meal) was just an unbelievable sight back in 1803, it's still an unbelievable sight today. No photos are allowed inside the house so I can't show you how magnificent it is, at $5 a head it's a great bargain. We had a private tour by a lady that knew enough about the house, Harrison and the city that she could have grown up with him. She told us that Harrison wasn't a rich man and he built the house by bartering, for the 400,000 bricks that were used to build the house he bartered 400 acres of land, which the man used to build a small brick factory on. The tour was right around an hour and well worth it, thanks to the DAR for buying this property and restoring the house to its original grander.


Time for lunch, one of the restaurants Loretta told us about is Dot's, Located in the old downtown area, so that's where we're heading. It looks like the building was once a factory and has been divided up, a very nice atmosphere, as we were led to our table I was checking out the other tables to see what they were having and everything look delicious. Cathy ordered the Chicken Salad sandwich and when I asked the waitress what the best sandwich was she told me it's different everyday, but today it was the Crispy Chicken BLT, so I told her I would give that a try, Loretta had told us that they had some of the best Onion Rings, sliced real thin (I think some places refer to them as straw onion rings) so we decided to split an order, she asked us if we wanted the half order or the full order. Since we're slitting them lets go with the full order, this turned out to be our only mistake in the restaurant. They brought the onion rings first and when a saw her bring them out I was speechless, it wasn't a plate of rings it was a platter, one like Grandma used to serve Thanksgiving Day's turkey on. Cathy didn't see her coming and actually let out a little scream when she set them in front of her, now we had to glance around to see if everyone in the restaurant were looking to see who the pigs or new kids were. When the sandwiches came they were on a large plate that was half cover with potato chips, so we're glad that this is our last stop of the day because we're going home to take a nap.
Dot's is at 101 Busseron Street, TX 812-882-1973, We both recommend the restaurant and the HALF order of rings.

Day Two
It starts out with Cathy swearing off onion rings for at least a month.



We're heading to the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, this is the largest National Monument outside of Washington DC, the reason for that is that they wanted the monument to reflect Clark's great contributions and accomplishments to the United States. At the visitors center they show a 30 minute film about Clark and his campaign in this area, it is one of the better films we've seen at a visitors center and really explains what went on around here during the Revolutionary War. Then a Ranger takes you over to the Memorial Building to tour that and learn so more history. What we found out was that if Clark and his brave volunteers hadn't done the things they did we would all be ending our sentence's with, eh!, because we would all be Canadians. The British along with their Indian allies planned on attacking the colonies from the west, splitting them into two section (north and south) then forcing the colonies in both section to fight on four fronts at the same time, the results would have been a British victory and the end of the United States. The thing that amazes me is that Clark won the west from the British, saved the United State, and opened up the west for further exploration and settlement, all at the ripe old age of 26. At 26 I had managed to get myself in debt up to my ears so I could buy a fancy car, times change.




During our visit to we took a little break and walked across the street for lunch, you guessed it another one of Loretta's recommendation. The Offerings Cafe, this is a small cafe that is run by Volunteers from a church, it's located right on Main Street (124 Main St) the prices may have been a little high but the profits go to the church, the food was fantastic and the service was great, Since this will probably be our only trip here we went a little overboard, we both ordered dessert, Cathy saw that they had Pear pie and figured she would try something new, not being as brave as her I went with the Bread pudding with rum sauce, both were great. When you go in you go to the counter and they give you a menu, check off what you want, hand the menu back to them and go find a seat, they will bring your order out to you. When you're finished you take your menu to the register and they total you up. They're open Tuesday through Friday 11am to 2pm a worth the walk we took across the street from the National Park.
We were going to go to the Indiana Military Museum today but they are only open from noon to 4pm and it's already 1:50, we don't want to rush it so I guess there will be a Day Three. Back to camp to read and catch up the blog.



Did I mention that Red Skelton was born here. The story we're told is that when he was 10, he was selling papers on the corner, right across the street from the Pantheon Theater when a man asked him if he was going to the show at the theater, he told him that he didn't have the money to buy a ticket and he had to sell the rest of his paper. The man bought all his papers and gave him a ticket to the show. He ran home to get permission from his mom to go and when he return the generous stranger was gone. He went to the show and found the stranger, on stage, it was Ed Wynn the comedian. During intermission Red went back stage to find Wynn, Wynn asked him if he had ever seen an audience before, when he said no he took him on stage, Red said that did it, he was hooked on show biz from that moment on. The University just opened the Red Skelton Theater and the lobby is a small museum of his stuff.

Day Three
We didn't do any rushing around this morning since we're going to the Indiana Military Museum and it doesn't open until noon. Well this turned out to be another one of those great little hidden gems, at least it was for us, we were met by a gentleman named Jim and a furry little cat, we found out that this museum was started and owned by Judge Jim Osborn. Ever since he was about 5 years old he's been collecting any kind of war item he could get his hands on, and he's gotten his hands on a whole lotta stuff. Right now the display area is small and crowded with artifacts everywhere you look, Jim said that they have tons more that they don't have room to display, so the Judge's solution, he bought 12 acres in town near the visitor center and they are going to expand enough that they can display everything. Right now because of the unique items on display we would rate this museum above a lot of municipal museums that we have been to, we don't judge a museum by it's location,building or size but by what they have to display, and we judge the Judge's top notch, that is if you're a military or history nut. I'll just post some picture of the thing we liked and add a description wit them.




1st marker for the 38th Parallel










As we were getting ready to leave the Judge pulled up and we were able to meet him and tell him how much we liked the museum, it turns out he was just down at the new location taking delivery of a missile that had just arrived, always collecting.


Click on pictures to enlarge and read.






There are so many things here that have been donated that is hard to believe.











Two more unique items




I could add another 30-40 pictures of the items on display but then you wouldn't have to go there.






We spent close to two hours enjoying the Indiana Military Museum before giving the cat a last scratch on the head and heading for lunch. We were going to head back to the Offering Cafe for the second day in a row, because it was that good, but then we noticed the time and they were all ready closed. I must have been hungrier then I thought because we went in a Wendy's and I ordered a quarter pounder with cheese, OOPS. Once we got our order straight I told the girl that after lunch I would go across the street to McDonald's and order a large FROSTY.

We got back to camp just as it started to rain a little, started getting things ready, tomorrow is moving day.

We have really enjoyed our stay her in Vincennes and highly recommend spending two or three days here to take in the history of the area.

Answer:

It's a bed for a small adult or 1 or 2 children, since the only heat was from the fireplace in the main room they were able to close the doors and the body heat would keep the compartment warm.

When they found this one it had been converted into a wardrobe so they restored it back to a bed.