Party's and History

Sunday October 8th, 2006 Temperature 46 * Burrrr!

Yesterday was our youngest grand daughters first birthday. Tabby turns 1! Unbelievable how many presents she got! For someone who has no clue she should still be pretty tickled! Several generations of family attended her big bash which we celebrated with CHOCOLATE CAKE and ice cream. Can't go wrong with that combination. It must have taken 30 mintues to open all the packages. Can't imagine what Xmas will be like or what anyone could buy that she has not already gotten! She is so cute and was in such a great mood playing with ribbons and chewing on cards. Then it came time to give her the cake. She just kind of picked at it first but eventually ended up with her foot in the cake. First birthdays are always fun for everyone. Some pictures below.
































As you can see she now has her ears pierced. She sure looks cute with the little diamonds!















Happy Birthday Tabby!

As a side note to Tabby's birthday, when we went to pick up Deanna's mother in nearby New Carlisle, they have this crazy deal they do every year called parade of planes. The local airport provides the planes which include probably 30 planes and they make a pass thru the town. Now that sounds interesting and normally it would be but we were trying to get to Deanna's mothers and there was no way to get there. Almost a square 1/4 mile of the town was shut off due to the parade. No one in or out in a vehicle. Took us an hour and half to get to her and back out. Seems like a crazy plan to us. Can't believe they were routing commercial trucks thru side streets of town. I know I would not have wanted to pull our 5th wheel that route let alone a 55' trailer 14' high. I stopped and talked to one of the deputys directing traffic and he noted he had never seen such a crazy deal himself. SO avoid that are the first weekend in Octber if you are towing or trailering!


I thought I would post some history about the town we lived in for the last 28 years. I bought a house here in 1978 and with the exception of last year while we were traveling have always lived in the same house. Of course now the oldest boy and his wife own it and we still live fulltime in our RV but currently back in St. Paris. Anyway it is a little community that was founded in 1831 and is the 11th county in the state. This town was a big producer of alcohol back in the early days. The sour mash leftovers were given to the local pig farmers. At one time 800 gallons of liquor was produced a day. Later the town became a dry town although now it does allow the sale of beer and wine but when I first moved up here they did not. Eventually a city block of the town burned down from a fire that stated in the back of a feed store. The biggest thing this town lays fame to is the factorys that built Pony Wagon Carts. Apparently there were several of them and they celebrate the history of this every year with a festival. the festival leaves a lot to be desired but the community seems to enjoy it. During the last festival in Septemeber (annually) they dedicated a plaque on Springfield street which was an item of interest of something I never knew about. Back in 1865 when President Lincoln was assinated his funeral train passed thru here and stopped for a brief moment to allow morners to lay a wreath on the coffin. Personally I find this a more notable item of interest than the pony wagon thing but that's me. In the nearby town of Fletcher there is a man who wrote a book called the Lincoln Funeral Train by Scott D. Trostel. He writes about the journey the train took from Washington Dc to Springfield Il,. The tracks that carried this famous President thru Saint Paris have now been removed and are just about 150 yards south of the commercial building we own here in town. So from now on when someone asks me what the town is famous for I have an answer of my own. This is a question I always like to ask whenever we are travelling and stop in small towns because every town has its link to history. So there is a new task for you to take on. Ask next time you are in a little bazzar town how they came to be. Here is a link to the path of the train. http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/WHMC/WHMC-LFTR-01.html
Below is a picture of the plaque.

Sharks!

Friday October 6th 2006, Temperature 40* YIKES!

Well time to catch up on the blog. Been almost 3 weeks. Amazing where the time goes cause it sure doesn't seem like it.

A couple of weeks ago we took Jordan and Jessica to the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky. We haven't been there for about 3 years. The kids loved the adventure. It is interesting to see all the different types of fish in the world and also that the most colorfull seem to be salt water fish. The are brilliant in blues and reds. Several of the walk ways go over top of ponds and the bridges have see thru floors, Jordan had a good time telling Jessie that she would fall thru and especially the one that had alligators swimming underneath! They had different displays of all parts of the world with the fish and animals in their natural habitat.




























There are tunnels that you can walk thru on the way that are covered by see thru arches. This would be the big aquarium that the sharks and rays swim in. There were a couple of divers in the aquarium trying to feed the sharks. That was pretty cool. Never did see any of them take the food though. Could be because most of the larger ones had wetsuit stuck in their teeth! :) Just kidding. There were some large ones swimming with them though. Some probably 10 feet or so long. The glass is a little deceptive as it curves it also seems to magnify, though not a lot.
One of the stops was the shark petting area! Yep you can pet a real shark. It is a big pool that several sharks are just constantly swimming in circles in and when they come by you can reach down and pet them. You are suppose to do it with your first two fingers pointing out and just touch them as they swim by. They do tell you not to splash in the water or try to pet them in front of their eyes. Interesting feel, kind of stiff swede leather texture. Some were probably as large as 3 feet. I believe they were Reef sharks or some such thing not the famous White Sharks that often make meals of arms and legs! Jordan couldn't wait to pet them and spent quite a bit of time doing so, Jessie on the other hand was quite a bit more hesitant but did finally do it and then we couldn't get her to stop.
There were also great displays of Penquins and otters. It is interesting to watch them and their actions. There were a couple of baby Penquins which is kind of funny because they are covered with what looks like fur and are all puffed up and as large as the adults! They just stand around and decide all of the sudden to dive into the water swim a while then back out. Funny to watch them waddle.














A week or so ago Janice and Dean came by to visit and I helped Dean install some stabilizers on their 5th wheel. We first met them last year at the Escapade and they are also part of the 05 Graduating class of Fulltimers. They just spent one night but we had a great time. After doing the work on the Rv we took them to Youngs Dairy for dinner although they bought. We ate and then ordered dessert of course. I had the Buckey which was chocolate with peanut butter mixed it topped with Hot fudge and a huge buckeye on top. WAY too much for one sitting! Well they took off the next morning in hopes of beating the incoming rain. They are now in Tennessee near Knoxville.














Tonight the moon was HUGE! Just coming over the horizon. Quite a sight and it is full on top of that!














Well that is a quick update on the latest, I will post some more soon. As this weekend is Tabitha's first birthday and we will be taking some pictures of hopefully a very messy little girl. :) Deanna's sister from Oklahoma is coming in this weekend also.