Sunny Start, Family Campers Leaving, Neil Armstrong

I woke up Saturday, Mar. 31^st and was shocked to see it was 10 minutes to 8. I slept in! I remember looking at the clock at 6 am and rolled over and fell into a deep sleep again. And I dreamt about a gathering with Bill's family. I don't mind telling you about that Friday night dream because no doubt, there will be one. Bill and Clemson were already up and settled downstairs, about half hour ahead of me. I think the temperature dropped to a low of 35F last night and by the time I got up, it was around 42F. The sun was shining but I felt lazy today and didn’t go for a walk.

These few pictures here are from last night’s sunset AFTER I posted. They are so pretty that I wanted to share them today. Bill and I had our morning brew together and read blog posts from our friends. Nice to see what they are up to, where they are in their travels towards home. Some are still having some wonderful weather in Arizona and Nevada so I’m a tad envious. That’s what happens when we leave as early as we do in October and we live with it and plan accordingly.

Wapakaneta water tower

Today, it was my turn to shower so I took care of that after making omelettes for breakfast. We took a drive just a few miles through Wapakaneta to the Armstrong Air and Space Museum. This looked like it would be interesting and it certainly wasn’t disappointing. We spent a couple of hours walking around and trying our hand at landing the shuttle. Good thing we weren’t in the cockpit, it would have cost a fortune! I'm going to let the pictures of the museum speak for themselves. It is worth the very reasonable admission cost of $7/seniors (over 60).

We left there and drove around Wapakaneta a bit. Bill let me nip into Goodwill but I didn’t need anything so didn’t look too hard or spend too much time inside.

This train was putt putting through town

We drove home and arrived just in time as it started to rain after we stepped inside. Clemson, of course, had to go out so took me for a joy ride. This means he piddled right away and then pulls every which way as if looking for a spot for #2. All we’re doing is getting wet and Mom is getting more and more frustrated. Finally, one of us has to take control and he gets put inside.

 It was 2:30 and of course, the munchies hit. Bill makes himself something and I have to decide what can I eat, knowing full well too much will delay our required supper time. I stood looking in the fridge and saw the answer. George’s soup! So, I warmed it up and that did the trick. I added a tablespoon of butter and skipped the noodles but everything else was yummy and on my list of foods to eat.

A few pictures of the astronauts I'm familiar with

The rest of the afternoon went pretty quietly. I didn’t have any interest in the pool, maybe tomorrow when it will be quieter and we have no plans to go anywhere. We got our books out and between flipping pages and catching the odd doze, the day passed. It got really windy, 25 – 30 mph, which made the 55F feel all that much colder. Bill took Clemson out for a piddle and soon enough I decided I’d better get supper started.

Cute picture of Neil Armstrong at 6 years old
Love the old television, talk about flashbacks!

The actual Gemini spacecraft showing the very small space for
two astronauts to sit in, each clothed in 65 lb. suits and helmets
this was not a window, just cut out for us to see inside

when this hatch closes, the small oval (orange spot) is the only window they have

Bill docking the Gemini
Well, I don't think it worked out that way but he tried!

Hungry? the chocolate pudding, chicken and rice, applesauce
beef and potatoes and a survival bar
Yummy!

You walk into this lighted space to go into the theatre for the film

Hard to explain but a narrow walkway, with glass/mirrored panels all around
Cool but if you have vertigo, I think it would do you in!

It was a great 20 minute film

Small step for man
Giant leap for mankind

Apollo Module mockup

Goofing around

Looks like a natural!

And you can buy a mock spacesuit before you leave

I’d planned on Chicken Breasts with Mushroom Soup in the convection oven because we didn’t need to cook outside today. It was another recipe I found on line which is making me start to believe that I don’t need to be carting recipes around with us. I have very few favourite recipes so I could probably lighten the load right there.

Some nice old homes in Wapakaneta

And churches

This recipe was easy. 2 chicken breasts in a baking pan, onion salt, garlic powder, celery salt and pepper seasoning. Blend a can of mushroom soup, undiluted, with ½ can of half and half cream and pour over the chicken. I added chopped onion, carrots and a potato around the chicken and baked at 375F for 1 hr. and 15 min. I didn’t realize at first that it took that long so it wasn’t done until 7:15. Good thing we had that late lunch!

Looks like mush but I hate to waste good creamy sauce so dumped it on my plate

and we each had a glass of wine on the side

Bill doesn’t care for chicken too much. Well, it isn’t his favourite like pork chops aren’t mine but we tolerate them. I loved this meal and I think Bill enjoyed it. The only problem was that the breasts were too big. One would have been enough for us to share. So, we have leftovers for soup. I especially enjoyed the creamed sauce on the chicken and will save that recipe on Word on my laptop. With dishes cleaned up quickly by 8, we could relax. Nothing like a one dish meal!

Small creek runs between the front and back campsites

This section of the park is closed for camping until May 1st but it is great to walk around
undisturbed

Another area to walk out to the lake
all the lake fishing is Catch and Release

It is a very nice mini golf area with water and 'rocks' too

While the chicken was in the oven, I bundled up to bring in bottles of water from the basement. After doing that, I decided I was going to take a walk and walked to the very back of the park where there are sites but no campers. It was a good brisk walk and I was surprisingly warm in 2 layers of hoodies and my wind breaker. It was a good walk and I’m glad I pushed myself to get out there. This has been a good day and I hope yours was too.

This is a nice site, we'll keep in mind for another time

Thank you for stopping by today! I love to hear from you and will respond to every post in time.

Good Friday, Upset Tummy, Taking it Down a Notch with Walks, A Swim and A Soak

I woke up at 5 when I saw lights on downstairs and no one in bed with me. Funny, how you sense something is amiss even when you’re sleeping. I heard Bill say to Clemson “do you have to go out again?”. Oh-oh, I figured that we may have to give someone a sink bath, I got up and woke myself up. I looked outside through the windows but couldn’t see them. That’s weird.

There are a couple of cabin styles here to rent

I bundled up and went out looking for my boys. After a few minutes, I saw them and went to meet them. Bill said Clemson’s tummy was upset and so he’d taken him around the block hoping he would feel better. We came inside and settled ourselves in our recliners. Lots of times when our pooch feels this way, he just wants us to sit with him until he feels better.

These are all cabins down this row along Bluegill Lake 

Bill dozed off and I was unable to so I suggested we all go up to bed around 5:45. His tummy had stopped gurgling. Again, Bill dropped off pretty quickly and I’m sure I did a couple of times but at 7 I had to get up for good. I once more bundled and went out for a walk around the park. It had started to spit some but the spatters didn’t deter me too much. I still managed to get a mile in before returning.

There was a pretty pink glow in the south this morning

When I returned I brewed a cup of tea with cream. Clemson and I sat in my recliner with my book. I was so close to finishing it. When Bill joined us around 8 he made his coffee and read posts on the laptop. I had sat earlier and gone through our receipts, the ones already compiled and named ‘border claims’. Since this is our last long ‘rest period’ before crossing into Canada, we like to have our ducks in a row.

18 hole Mini golf

We had grapefruit and almonds today and at 10:30 I made our bacon and eggs. Instead of just making up the bed, we stripped the sheets off and put clean ones on. Our plan is to do a few loads of laundry before we leave here. We’ll need to ask where the laundromat is here since their map leaves a lot to be desired. LOL It looks like a nice park and we are in here under our Coast to Coast membership for $10/night. That’s pretty good for full hookups and all the amenities.

and this is Bass Lake

At 12:30 I changed into my bathing suit and walked up to the pool. It is a very nice large pool with the deepest end being only 4’. Works for me since there are no noodles to use. The park is filling up. Being this is a holiday weekend, many families came in last night and more are arriving today, Good Friday. They have a nice 3 or 4-day weekend. Bill and I are looking forward to the relaxation after a couple of days of hard driving. We have a couple of sight-seeing things in mind early in the week.

The sun fought for some space in the early sky

Within the hour, I had changed and was back at the Suite. Bill had managed to get the satellite dish set up in my absence without any problem. A good signal was found easily. After going through the receipts, I wanted to dig under the bed for the collection of ‘gifts’ we’d bought to take home. This was a good time to do that since it wasn’t warm enough to sit outside. We’ve already reached the high under mostly cloudy skies and 46F. There are some moments with sun which is nice.

A nice picnic and seating area out at the lake

So, after cutting myself a few small pieces of cheddar cheese I went upstairs and lifted the bed. This was a small fun job, some of the things I’d forgotten about. Putting names to things and recording prices I packed them back away and put the bed down again. Bill and I fed Clemson at 3:45 and went for a walk up to the office. Bill tried to hold off feeding the munchkin since we are on ‘home’ time, after all. No such luck!

Office and poolhouse

There will be no Easter dinner here in the park and I wonder if that is because there are more families than couples. It would be more of a challenge putting something together, at least I think so. We checked on the laundromat location but we were informed that they don’t open it until May 1^st. Hmm, further to my point above. She did inform us of a new one just across I-75 in Wapakaneta so we’ll see before we leave if that is something we need to do.

A really nice pool and 2 hot tubs on this end

With lots of spare gb this month to use up, we both played relentlessly on our laptops and phones. I mean, they were worthwhile searches, mostly, but we were just killing time. At 5:30 we talked about our supper time and Bill washed and cut up a potato for fries. I got the meatloaf out and began steaming my broccoli. I just won’t look at his potatoes! 😊

Look at all the buds!

By 6:15 we were eating and by 7 everything was all cleaned up. That meatloaf recipe gets 5 gold stars, we enjoyed the second night as much as the first. Bill doesn’t often comment on my ‘creations’ when it comes to meals but this was he said I could make ‘many’ times. I found a winner! Bill found the movie Red so we watched the last half of that during supper and then Red 2 came on. These are fun Bruce Willis movies and we always enjoy them.

Bill's supper tonight

and mine - both were very good!

Since about 3 o’clock, we have had solid blue skies but that air is quite chilly. We are blessed in that we don’t have any wind today, so there are a lot of people out and about enjoying the weekend. 90% of them are from Ohio and it is a getaway from the humdrum of jobs and school. The rest of us, seem to be in the retirement stage, at least according to their appearance.

Just 20 degrees warmer and it would be perfect!

There are a lot of fat robins here, flitting around, fighting for the worms. They needn’t worry, there seems to be plenty for all of them. With the change in our time zone, it is even lighter out, longer in the day. I might have to go for one more walk. We’ve had a Good Friday here in the park. It looks like we’re going to be getting more rain tomorrow so we think we’ll go sightseeing for a bit. I hope you’ve enjoyed your day.

And the sun sets behind the evergreen
Good night all!

Thank you for stopping by today! I love to hear from you and will respond to every post in time.

Good Sleep, Damp Driving Day, Cool (Cold) Arrival at Wapakaneta

When I first jostled myself on Thursday, Mar. 29^th I noticed I was alone in bed with Clemson. It was 5 minutes before 6 and with the light on downstairs I knew Bill was up for the day. It is rare that he comes to bed at the same time as me but we all retired last night at 10:30. We washed and had our morning drink together and something to eat. Bill had his cereal and I had some yogourt, granola, homemade applesauce and wheat germ.

We had a pretty cozy spot last night

And to give credit where credit is due
I advertise Cracker Barrel in Effingham, Il
The manager was very welcoming

Before I tell you that we hopped on the road, I wanted to share these pictures with you. Last night when we were walking back from supper, we could hear these thousands of birds flocking the trees. What you see as black, are not leaves. These trees are bare of greenery. They are birds. I immediately though of Alfred Hitchcock and his movie The Birds. So very weird, I was fascinated!

Cool, eh?

Okay, onto the day. It was 7:20 when we pulled out of the CB lot, nice and easy and instead of jigging around to the Flying J, we went down I-70E to the next Exit 162 to the Pilot to fuel up. Once more we lucked out and got .08/gal off our 24 gallons of diesel. The temperature was 48F and the rain began, enough for the wipers to roll fulltime but not full power.

We pulled into a Rest/Welcome Area just west of Terre Haute, IN at 8:45, er, wait a minute! Our clocks just changed so now we are on EST the same as back home. It is 9:45 am. We took a walk and answered nature’s call. The rain has slowed a bit but it is always different off the highway without traffic spray anyway. Bill picked up an Indiana map, always good to stay current with those. And they’re free!

there we are, sidled up close and personal with the big guys
It actually makes us look small!

We are finding certain parts of this interstate in desperate need of repair but then other spots are smooth as glass. Mostly it is worse on the small bridged sections where cement meets asphalt but I’ve heard Bill mutter “We’re not travelling this Interstate again!” There are sections along this stretch, near Cloverdale/Putnam, IN where the median between eastbound and westbound traffic is filled with trees. I like and prefer that when you can’t see them so close.

It doesn't feel so much like an Interstate with a 'forest' median

As we approach Indianapolis, we watched for the bypass of I-465 which takes us around the expanse of the city’s heart and that worked quite well. Again, two heads and four eyes (6 counting my goggles) are better than one, especially in the rain. We follow this around the outskirts and it changes from I-465S to I-465N and who I-465W as it subsequently drops traffic off its tentacles to Hwy 65, 74 and then us at Exit 44B onto I-70E again towards Dayton.

Entering Indiana 

Trying to read signs in the rain is not always easy
but at least there are two of us
We needed the sign on the right to catch the I-465 bypass

There’s our sigh of relief for the day. 100 miles before our next turn so our next focus is a stop within the hour to make some lunch. Soon enough, at Greenfield, IN we found the spot. A large Rest Area with plenty of overflow parking way at the back. This would be one you can stay overnight in if you needed to. It wasn’t too busy so Bill found a good wide spot and we opened up the slides and made lunch.

The Rest Area but we didn't need their facilities,
we opened up our home instead

This is where it gets challenging for me. When I’m trying to avoid bread and crackers, what do I eat? We can’t warm up anything when it is a rainy day, at least not in the microwave. Our panels are not charging the batteries so they are on the low side. The key is not to dirty too many pots and dishes either so while Bill made a sandwich, I made a lettuce salad with cottage cheese, olives and cheese. Yah, it filled the hole at least and I stuck to my plan. It wasn’t that enjoyable though to be honest.

I'd love to know what Clemson thinks about all this
All he cares about is our company and Daddy's coat

Back on the road 30 minutes later and we should be good now for the remainder of today’s journey. Less than 130 miles to go. By the way, when we stopped last night and opened things up, we saw no damage, surprisingly. Stuff was jostled around in the dish and medicine cupboards. And yes, I use ALL the tricks to prevent too much movement and breakage. This highway today is worse still and peeking in cupboards at lunchtime, so far so good. I’m afraid to look in the closet until we stop for the night.

We crossed into Ohio, under the blue arch at 1:00. With 15 miles before our left turn onto I-75N I notice my sweetie showing signs of fatigue. Fidgeting and yawning and readjusting his position. I look on our gps for the next Rest Area and find one 24 miles down the road on I-75. Two long days on the road can take a toll on anyone and add the steady rain to that, makes it even longer.

The big circle merge onto I-75N

After driving a few miles, we are both thinking the same thing. “Aaaah”, the road has cleared up like night and day. What a relief! I’m still afraid to open the closet. We hit a huge bump in the road where we couldn’t move into the other lane. Now we have turned north onto I-75 and Bill has his second wind.  “Let’s keep going, it’s only 35 miles”. He’s the driver and I’m as anxious as he is to arrive and put down stakes (so to speak) for a few days.

Going under  I-70E which we just got off

We have never been to the park we are heading for but it is a membership park and supposedly very nice. There could be a soak in the hot tub in store for someone tonight! Leftovers to warm up for supper so the night should be easy for us. I-75N is starting out good so far with decent ravel roads. I can’t help but wonder just how many rv damages result from rough, 'uncared-for' highways.

We travel 60 mph in a 75/70/65 mph zone. Sometimes, we drop below that like on these wet days. What we saw after a traffic slow down 8 miles from Wapakaneta was pretty scary. Coming from the north, a large SUV type vehicle had somehow left the pavement and rolled over the guard rail and landed upside down against the cement overpass pillar.

The wiper is about to take out the highway sign!

The worst thing we saw today
We sure hope they got out alive

That is terrible to see BUT you always envision how bad it could have been. Yes, they were probably badly hurt, which is very sad, but what if the vehicle had rolled across to the northbound lane and involved other vehicles? Things could usually be worse, at least in many cases. We carried on, in the rain, until we came to our Exit 111 and got off this racetrack.

As soon as we turned onto Bellefontaine St. we noticed the TA Travel Centre that I’d found on the gps for fuel. This is the lowest we let our tank go simply because we knew it was here, so close to camp. Sitting at ’19 miles to empty’, we left a big deposit. Unfortunately, no discount here. We paid $3.05/gal. It is 2:30 and we have a hop, skip and a jump to go. Yay!

Another rain shot, couldn't resist
Isn't it lovely? NOT!!

At 3:00 we were set up on Site #23. Bill drove up to the office to tell them what site we are one. It was our choice which I absolutely love. The opportunity to pick our own site raises the parks to my Top 10 list too. It is yeuchy with rain and our jackets were pretty wet when we came in but we turned the fireplace on plus our Blue Flame heater and the Suite was toasty warm in no time!

Here we are all set up on a nice long site

Already, I feel that I’m adjusting to the cool temperatures. It was 44F when we pulled in and all I felt was wet. Brrr. It doesn’t mean I’m going to like being cold! So, telling you that we are settled and safe, I’m going to stop typing. It was a pretty good day’s drive, at least we made it in good time and without incident. I hope you’ve had a good day too. If anything exciting takes place after this, you’ll hear about it tomorrow!

It is cozy inside so if it doesn't stop raining,
NO one will be going to the red building for a hot tub tonight!
Good night from Wapakaneta, Ohio

Thank you for stopping by today! I love to hear from you and will respond to every post in time.