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.

Re-union Rally and BOOM!

Sunday September 17th, 2006 Temperature 82*

Time for a quick update. We left on Friday night headed to Celina for a quick re-union with some fulltime classmates. The rally was at Mercer County Fairgrounds which is just a couple of blocks away from Ohio's largest inland lake, Lake St. Marys. It was built many years ago to flood the Erie Canal to pass boats from Lake Erie to the Ohio river. Now it is just a recreational lake and State Park. Anyway, we met up with old friends Patti and Mickey, Terry and Dale, Janice and Dean, Jeff and Sue and Smokey and Pam. The rally was being held here as most of these folks are going to the week long Escapade gathering for fulltimers. We chose not to go this year but wanted to meet up with our friends. There were several new faces at the rally that are 06 and 07 Classmates. Was great to put names and faces together. We had a great time eating and gathering around the campfire to swap travel storys and made a pass around the group to hear what each person liked about fulltiming. Most everyone agreed it is the freedom to go where ever you want. All except Janice and Dean left about 9:30 for the Escapade which was just down the road at Van Wert Ohio. We packed up and left shortly thereafter. Only about an hour and 15 minutes to get home. It was our first trip with the truck and trailer with the new air ride seats. Previous trips were just 5 mile jaunts and not enough to make a judgement about how well they would work. Well seems they work just fine and the comfort is pretty good. That is a real good thing. :)

SO, anyway I got home and decided it was a good opportunity to move my satellite dish from the roof to the pole I put up. 28' pole with 4' in the ground. Braced it to the building and moved the dish and antenna. Got that done and can now move on to the next project. While hooking up the cables Gary ( our Tenant in our apartment) comes back and shows me a picture and says "what do you think about this?" HOLY SHIT! THOSE ARE MORTAR ROUNDS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THEM? He said he cleaned out a basement and found them when he got home, they were hidden in a milk crate. "What should I do?" he asked. Call the friggin sherriff and have them get hold of the Bomb squad at Wright Patterson AFB. He contacted the cops and they promptly contacted WPAFB. Said they would have a crew there in about 90 minutes. Well 90 minutes later up pulls the Bomb Squad, EMS unit 2 cop cars and a Fire Engine with 10 guys and a girl on it. I was standing at he garage door and the 2 BS guys go in with the cop and Gary. I heard them tell the cop they were inert mortars. Well by now the 10 fire and ems guys are just outside the door and one of the Bomb Squad guys comes carrying one of them out and pretends to trip and drop the mortar screaming "OH SHIT! HAHAHAHA, should have seen the faces of the Fire engine crew! Priceless! Great humor on the Bomb Squad guys part. After all, the Fire Engine is parked 60 yards away on main street and all the volunteers are at the garage, so if one of these were to blow up, who is gonna go get the fire hose! LOL ! Pretty silly drill I would think. Well, they took the mortars and went home without incident. Interesting day I must say. Last year Gary found a live Tank Missle while cleaning out a garage! Cops told him to leave it in the truck and get the HELL OUT of it! LOL! Only Gary..................................










































Never a dull day!

Week in Review

September 9th, 2006 Saturday. Temperature 68*

Well vacation is almost over and so is the camping. We left the Lake Friday morning. Ken and Kathy will be leaving shortly here this morning. They are headed to Hershey Pa. to vend at a show. They sell a fantastic tape called Rescue Tape. This is the greastest stuff since buttons on a shirt! It completely replaces electrical tape. It is a silicon based tape and has no adhesive. It fuses to itself. Once left it will cure into a solid piece of silicon providing a water tight seal for electric wires. Beats the crap out of electrical tape which gets all gooey when hot. The other nice thing is this stuff will seal pressure. I tested it a while back on an air hose. I wrapped it will about 5 wraps and turned on the pressure and wa-la. No leak. That is holding about 120 psi. It is all I use now. Worth keeping in your car for an emergency like a leaking radiator or heater hose.

Well Thursday was an interesting day at the lake. Janice and Dean came up to the lake and brought Chicken and Slaw. Kathy made Pasta salad and Deanna made Baked beans and Mac and Cheese. Doni had a doctors appointment and when she came back she brought Ice Cream and fixin's. So we stuffed ourselves and then topped it all off with dessert.
I found this HUGE catapilar crawling along and had to collect it for a photo opportunity. As you can see it is quite large. I saw the Naturalist Debbie at the park and asked her what it was and she told us it is a Hickory Horned Devil, it turns into a moth and apparently quite a large one! Shortly thereafter I found this HUGE spider which I did not get a picture of but it was about 2-1/2" diameter. Debbie said that it was a purse spider as it was carrying a egg sac on it's belly. Said it will bite pretty hard and that it was a part of the Wolf spider group. Didn't pick it up to examine :) .




























A link to what this creature turns into is here.
Now for the real excitement. about a 100 yards away a couple of cars pull up and out get a man a woman and a girl in what looked like a Jeanie costume. They proceed to take lots of pictures. Curious as I am, I take the dog for a walk and while walking that way I see this girl pull off her top and change! Now we are not talking shyly either. As I am coming back past she comes over and wants to pet Major. I asked her if they were doing a photo shoot and she says yes but they did not know what magazine yet as they will submit it to several. She was originally from Arizona and now living in Springfield. So I wander back to the campsite and must confess that all of the guys were watching in anticipation with binoculars :) Now mind you there are 8 of us all together and most of us are watching this curious happening. Well sure enough how many pictures can you take of Tinkerbell? Time to change. Off came the top to change to a Bikini (in the open again of course) then OFF COME THE BOTTOMS! WE (being the guys) decided she was a real blonde! :) :) By this time they realize we are watching, (ARE THEY BLIND, WE HAVE BEEN OGGLING FOR AN HOUR) so now she has the nerve to flip us off. HA! The trick is on you, we got the show. WOW, never thought I would have seen that at the park but can't say I am disappointed (insert evil grin here) . Of course the women thought we were terrible for watching all of this, HELLO McFLY! NOW WHERE have THEY BEEN! Have they forgotten WHO we ARE?
Anyway we finished off the evening with a huge campfire and enjoyed each others storys of traveling over the past year and spoke of future travels and destinations. Was sure a great week to camp. Cool at night and not to hot during the day. Only rain we saw was Tuesday night and it rained for long enough we were getting a little worried about whether or not we would be able to get out.

My modifications seemed to be beneficial to the heating system as it performed much better than before with temperatures getting down in the 50's at night.

Here is a picuture of the Buzzards that hang out in this tree in the morning and evening.














Picture of Ken and Kathy's new rig parked at Camp Pulltab.














Couple of pictures from our mini rally at Kiser Lake.

Good friends and vacation!

Tuesday September 5th 2006. Temperature 64*










Well we are now at Kiser Lake. We arrived on Monday afternoon. There were a few campers left but not many. As of today there is one other camper other than our group. Ken and Kathy plus John and Doni came in tonight. Lastnight Kathy fixed chicken with stuffing and I cooked corn on the cob on the grill over an open fire. Later we had Ice Cream for dessert. Tonight I fixed fried catfish on the open fire and Hash Browns. We added some cornbread to the feast and stuffed ourselves. So about 7:30 it starts raining and so far hasn't let up yet. Not a hard rain but pretty steady. Nice to have the whole park to ourselves. We are backed up to the lake were we can look out at it in the morning while we drink our coffee. We will be here till Friday noon, then back to the shop so Ken and Kathy can prepare to leave on Saturday morning.

So today we went on a Geocaching trip to find one of my first Geocaches I hid here in the park. I gave Ken the GPS and might as well have given him a forked stick! :) He had a little difficulty finding it. I retrieved it and checked the contents to make sure they were dry, which they were. This cache has been found close to 100 times over the past 3 years. I have one on the other side of the lake found about 75 times but it is much harder to get to. For those that do not know what a Geocache is you can visit Geocaching.com , a geocache is a high tech treasure hunt. Someone plants a cache which is usually a container with some trinkets and a log book in it. They then post the coordinates on Geocaching.com and you retrieve the coords from there. Load them into your GPS and go find it. It is a lot of fun. Treasures are hidden all over the world and to find some in your area you just go to the website and put in your zipcode and it will retrieve all the ones near you. You would be suprised how many are close to you.


















Well another day of loafing is in order for tomorrow. It is interesting to look out the back window of the RV and see the lake and to the North is a big dead tree that all the Buzzards sit in during the morning sun, apparently drying their wings or collecting heat. They just sit with their wings spread and eventually they all fly off to their jobs where ever that may be and then in the evening they return for a circling party and then fly home to where ever that is just to meet up again in the morning. Oh by the way, today I found a little baby gardersnake probably only 6 inches long. Cute little guy. I took a couple of picures and found him a home near the water where he could catch lots of bugs and grow big. Ken and Kathy spotted a Grey Fox running from back behind our RV across the road. Lots of HUGE fish jumping all day. A local Muskrat carrying a stick that they said looked like a shark going thru the water. Told them they were just fresh water sharks and not dangerous. Well that's it for now. More later from the lake.......

And another sunset says goodnight! Farewell my firey friend till tomorrow.............

My Hummingbird net comes to the rescue AGAIN!

Saturday September 2nd 2006 Temperature 57*

Man, this net has caught more stuff in the last month! Tonight while updating the blog Deanna comes in and says, "I hear something out there. We knew we had some type of critter in the building as the dog smelled it the other night but could not find it. Then last night we heard something fall outside. Then this morning footprints on a table and a popcan knocked over. HMMM must be a raccoon and a baby one probably considering the size of the foot prints. Well I grab the flashlight and put on my shoes and go out and start looking under the truck, under the bench, under the tool box.....nothing, so I say to Deanna "what did it sound like? Paper or plastic rattling? " "no sounded like it was on your tool box", BINGO !!! there it is sitting on an open drawer!














SO! I grab my trusty, Hummingbird slash OPossum net and go to work. It climbed behind my toolbox and under the plastic covering the insulation. AHHH HAAAA, now your trapped. So while Deanna had it trapped I got behind it with the net and it climbed right into it. I whipped it out and got it trapped and took it outside. Of course now it is doing its namesake by playing possum as you can see. I took some pictures and took it across the tracks and let it go. The problem will be they are notorious for coming right back as soon as they can. It most likely slipped in while the door was open after dark. Oh well it is getting to cool for than now anyway.

Man, I need to get me a job trapping animals! :) Another case closed!

Ken Ain't Skeerd either Andy!

For my buddy Mickey, SEE even KEN ain't Skeerd to drill holes on a whim! :)

Ken and Kathy arrived on Thursday and are now parked outside at Camp Pulltab! We have missed spending time with them since we last saw them in January. So we cooked them burgers and had corn on the cob with Funi Salad and our other friends Janice and Dean came over to join us. Janice brought some chips and pepper slaw to add to the pickins. We had not seen Janice and Dean since last September and it was just to see them again. They are passing thru and spending a couple of weeks at the Famcamp area at Wright Patterson AFB.














Saturday we took Ken and Kathy to the Air Force Museum and met Janice and Dean there. We spent a few hours walking the huge complex of airplanes and history of the military world. There is just so much to see here that it seems like you will never see it all. Jan and Dean are going to go back next week and try again and also take a trip over to the Annex to see the Presidential tour of aircraft.














The above picture I stole from Janice's site as it is the only one with everyone in it. Left is Dean then Janice, Ken, Kathy, Me and Deanna.
Janice kept trying to peak under the fig leaf of the statue behind us! BAD Janice! :~)

After the sightseeing we were all famished so we went to Melody Resturant for dinner to celebrate Jan and Deans upcoming Anniversary. 35 years for them I believe she said. "IN" the resturant is a whole different story, it started with Janice wanting to set at a different table. I told the waitress she was being difficult :) . Either way we got moved and I continued to remind the servers that Janice was the difficult one and to let the cook know that the REST of us were quite happy to be here.......WELL then there is Ken who also has to be difficult and order his drink as half iced tea and half lemonade! WHAT! So now I have to make sure the servers know that KEN is the difficult one. Soon Ken's drink runs dry and the drink girl comes by and says "refill" Ken says I got half...............to late it is filled with unsweetened tea as she remarks "your drink is dry, you wanna RETHINK that decision! :) Rolling on the floor laughing our ass off, Ken says OK, that'll be fine! Kathy was about to pee her pants!
Anyway we got our food without any foreign substances in it :) and we finished it and enjoyed our visit with our good friends and parted for home.

So the plan is tomorrow (sunday) we will go to the lake (Kiser Lake) and see if it has thinned out any. If so we will travel down there to spend the week. The week is suppose to be cool but possibly a little rainy off and on. No problem for us as we really aren't camping being we live in our RV. All part of the deal. Some other friends of ours who live in Vandalia hopefully will come down and spend some time with us. John and Doni spent the month of December in Huachucha City Arizona last year with us and then met us again in Quartzsite. Will be great to see them again too.

Last weekend we went for Jordans birthday party. Jordan just turned 14 and in a couple of years will be old enough to drive! WOW where did the time go.
Below is Jordans birthday cake, below that is Bill on Jordans bike and Jessica getting ready to race each other. Next is Tabby enjoying her cake and last is Grandma holding Tabby and Molly's Dad (Fred) in the background.