misty, cool, 54 degree morning

Here we are in Ohio Amish country. The scenery is rolling, green, and manicured Amish farms. We've been here for several days, enjoying the nice weather and beautiful views. I'll write more later, but just wanted to let everyone know we've been busy seeing the sights and haven't had time to keep up with blogging. We've driven somewhere every morning and been so tired when we return to the RV, but I promise I have some stories to tell!
mimi

a day in the life....

2 days ago I visited a local quilt shop, The Corn Crib, near Esssenhaus (a wonderful restaurant that serves threshing meals--but you need a field to thresh if you eat one of these). I found a charming fabric that will always remind me of Amish country in Indiana.

I laid Alan's glasses on each fabric so you can see the size of print. I also found some embroidery pictures that a local woman makes on her embroidery machine. I could make these but the cost of thread alone would be more than the $7.50 each I paid. They're perfect for putting on an apron bib or a potholder.

Each embroidery is on a 7" square of white fabric. I love these.

Remember I wrote that we went to a flour mill? And I bought some flour--New Rinkel flour. I decided to make homemade bread for supper last night.

I made 2 loaves and they were so yummy. Last night we had a cookout. Fern and Ronnie bought steaks, Alan and I bought a steak for him and chicken for me. Fern cooked baked beans and made a salad, I made bread. Here's some pictures of our cookout. We all enjoyed the beautiful weather, slight breeze and each other's company. You might recognize Susan in the pictures. She flew in yesterday and she's staying with us for maybe a week.

I think we're going back to Yoder's today. I also want to make a return visit to Lolly's, the most wonderful quilt fabric store in the world. I want to see if they've received any new fabrics over the weekend. I think Susan is looking for walking shoes at Yoders. She packed light and didn't have room for walking shoes. We're staying here until Monday, only because the RV park in Ohio was full. But that's okay b/c we love it here!

mimi

Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day, the 40th day after Easter, the day when Jesus was on earth that he ascended into heaven to sit at God's right hand. This day is an Amish holiday and all Amish stores are closed. Not a buggy, bicycle, cart in site. I don't know what they do to celebrate the day, but it appears they stay home for sure. Thank you God for giving us your Son as our Saviour, that you love us so much you gave us your Son and He died, was brutally killed for us, was hung on a cross for all to see and witness, that he took with Him all our wrongdoings, all our sins, that His blood was shed so ours doesn't have to be, that He rose from the dead and was Alive, that he showed himself to people on the earth and stayed with them for 40 days, then ascended, went up to heaven to be with His Father. And all we have to do is believe in Him and confess our sins one by one, ask for forgiveness. Accept Him, declare Him Lord of our life. Wow.
We don't have to live our life and fight for Him, we have to give up our life and die for Him.

mimi

Veer here, over yoder dare

the title meaning (in a comical way because so many people here have the last name of Yoder)....we're here, over there (in a Dutch German accent).

Here we are parked in Shipshewana Campground south.

We're lovin' Shipshewana. Alan and I have been coming here for 5 years and we still love it here. It's fun showing Ronnie and Fern all the neat places. We went to Lolly's, the biggest, bestest quilt store in the world. We went to Yoder's, a grocery store/hardware store, general merchandise store. They both loved it. Yesterday we drove to a cheese factory where we saw cheese curds being rinsed, flavored, scraped, etc into cheese logs. We bought enough cheese for a long time. It was all so good--they had samples of each variety. Then we drove to the harness shop, where harnesses are made for all the draft horses around here. The harnesses, bits, collars, etc were huge and absolutely beautiful, there were horseshoes for some mighty large horse hooves. I went upstairs to watch a fun loving, giggling Amish woman sew leather strapping for a customer. She was using a treadle machine and enjoyed her job so much. She was a delight to visit with and to listen to as she spoke in low German to 2 other workers there. Then we drove to Topeka, IN, about 30 minutes away to eat at an advertised diner. It was delicious, nothing fancy, but good food. We saw a table of 8 elderly Amish women eating. They had a driver with them--that's what Amish folk do. They can hire a driver to take them places, to the doctor, to another community, etc. Anyway, as these women were lined up to pay, I could see their waist bands were held together with straight pins. Most Amish here don't use buttons, zippers. They use hooks and eyes and straight pins. They were very creative how they had those pins in there so they weren't poked! Plus they never overeat!

Below are 2 pictures of an old bank barn (the ground is banked up to the barn so wagons can be backed up to it and loaded and unloaded. You can see the roof is being covered in tin--what a shame it's going to look so different in the future.

After lunch we drove to the bulk food store where most of the Amish and Mennonite families shop. Boy was that fun. I love all the bulk food and enjoy watching the little kids in their plain clothes with their mothers.

This is the parking lot on the side of the bulk foods store. Each buggy is driven by a woman who usually hitched it up at home and drove it to the store for Monday morning shopping.

I read in one of the magazines about a water powered flour mill near here. I had to see it so we drove to Greenfield Mills where we saw a huge mill where New Rinkel flours are made. We didn't take the tour but we could see the equipment and we were inside the very old mill. It was so neat. Of course I had to buy some pastry flour, bread flour, and a small sample of their buttermilk pancake mix and hearts of wheat cereal. Yummy!

I'll try to keep up better with the blog. We're having a great time. We're going to stay here until Monday when we move to Ohio Amish country.

But I'll leave today's blog with a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTA BERTE!!!! I love you.

time flies when you're having fun

Here's some pics from the weekend at Heidi's in Nashville. Heidi made us a wonderful Mother's Day brunch on Saturday, and on Sunday we boiled lobster and grilled steak and chicken. What a feast.

Monday Fern and Ronnie drove back to Memphis to pick up their RV, and low and behold it was ready by Monday afternoon! Alan and I couldn't believe it! So they stayed in a local RV park and Tuesday morning they were on the road back to Nashville area. They had a new transmission installed and they were on the road again! We met them north of Nashville on the state line of Kentucky at a Welcome Center. Perfect timing. We were off to Shipshewana, IN, Amish country. That brings us to my next blog entry.

mother's day eve

It's 7:15 pm and I just returned from a nice 20 minute walk to settle the Mexican food I just ate. I took pictures of where we're parked. We're boondocking (parking not in an RV park but with either the windows open or using the generator) and this is our favorite kind of RVing. We're in Franklin, TN visiting Heidi and Todd. We're parked at the Williamson County Agriculture Expo Center. We're the only ones here this weekend, but next weekend is the county rodeo. There's 3 tiers of parking, and we're on the top tier all by ourself. It's great. In the first picture you can see us way up on the right side of the photo. The buildings are down below on the left side of the photo.

The second photo shows all the buildings, and the last photo shows us parked on the top tier with some of the buildings on the left. It's a huge place.

Heidi prepared us a wonderful brunch this morning. We had homemade blueberry pancakes, potato casserole, cut up fruit, bacon, adn the most scrumptous strawberry french toast. Yummm! Thank you Heidi for being such a great chef. We loved every bite. then we went to a quilt shop and woodwork shop in teh same parking lot--of course we all enjoyed that. Then Heidi and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond so I buy a percolator coffe pot. Then Fern took us all out to eat Mexican food for supper.

On the way back to our motorhome, our friends from Missoula, LaRue and Adam, called to visit and catch up. They're sitting out on their deck having a cold one--have one for us you two. We miss y'all and your town!What a great day! Lots of visiting and plenty too much eating!

oh what a day!

This morning brought waking up to lots of rain. I looked at the doppler online and saw the line of thunderstorms coming our way. Ronnie was waiting for his repairman and I was waiting for my repairman (to work on my direct-tv). As it turned out the rain missed us and my repairman came and figured out what was wrong with my set up. Since we turn it off for several months, the system needed to be re-booted and updated. He called the company and they talked him through it and after 30 minutes my system was re-booted and the satellite was found and a signal finally came in. So now I know what to do after it's been turned off for several months. Well, Ronnie's repairman came and couldn't fix the problem. His motorhome had to be towed. Here's a picture of his emergency roadside repairman's truck. I thought it was clever.

Then the tow truck came and hooked him up. Alan and I feel so bad for Ronnie and Fern! We've been there, done that, and it's not fun. It's not knowing what's going to happen next. He should get some answers tomorrow morning after the repair shop has a chance to look at it.

I brought out my sewing today, got it all set up, then found out Ronnie's RV had to be towed, which meant they might ride with us. So thinking they might travel with us, I put it all away. Here's a picture of my sewing when I first got it out. I travel with a 4 ft folding table and put it against the dining table in an 'L' shape. My ironing pad goes on the dining table, the cutting pad goes on one end of the folding table. Berte, I sewed some of the center log cabins, and it's looking good. For some reason the strips I cut and sewed before I left home are different widths, which isn't good. I had to recut and sew a few of them. But it's looking soooo good.
So now Alan and I are in Tunica, MS or actually at the Hollywood Casino RV park. We love it here. The park is all paved, nice wide spaces, a separate space for the car, and the buffets are so inexpensive. Tomorrow's breakfast is 55 cents for each of us. Nice to be a senior, huh?

we're still here

Just to let everyone know, we're still here. We didn't make it to our destination, but we're still kickin'. Ronnie decided at 150 miles he was just getting used to his motorhome seat, and wanted to go further. So we drove through Vicksburg and headed for Tunica, MS. We stopped for fuel in Batesville, MS at a Walmart parking lot only to discover Ronnie had oil leaking underneath his coach. Turned out it was transmission fluid, and lots of it. So Alan and Ronnie bought a case of it and put it in, no leaks detected, so off we went. Only 20 miles down the road and the fluid was pouring out again. So 2 more quarts of fluid and we decided to call it a day 5 miles down the road in Coldwater, MS. He called a mobile RV service to come in the morning and he directed Ronnie to someone who would work on transmissions. I have the mobile RV guy coming to take a look at my satellite tv--not working no matter what I do! Well, we went to bed last night with thunder and lightning, and it turns out we're in a huge severe weather pattern. It rained all night, raining this morning, and we're under a huge green and yellow glob on the radar. We're just below Memphis if you look at a doppler radar. We know there could be strong winds, maybe hail, and lots of rain. We have a building here we can go in if needed. As far as plans being changed, that's the fun and adventure of RVing! It's not fun that Ronnie's motorhome has problems, but we're all okay with it. We'll still eventually be able to go see Heidi, and we're at a nice RV park so all is alright.
Okay, the sky is rumbling and another downpour is coming our way, so I'll sign off for now.
mimi

on the road again

We left the orchard today and it felt great to be on the road. I mean really good to be traveling again. Thanks Daddy for giving me this desire to see the world. I love it. My backyard is the world. Tonight we're boondocking at Harrah's Racetrack in Shreveport, LA. We stay here quite often. But the casino is very empty, the parking lot is filling up with 18 wheelers and a few RVs. Good thing we're using our generator b/c every truck out here has their's on and it's loud out here! Alan says it makes good sleeping noise. And it does.

Tomorrow we meet up with Alan's mom and uncle--Fern and Ronnie. We're headed to see Heidi and Todd in Franklin, TN, then maybe up to Amish country in Indiana. We said we'd caravan with them for awhile, then they're going east and we're either going west or back home.

We're going to Tanzania in Africa the latter part of June. Our church is partnering with an organization to go on a scouting trip to visit villages, spread the Gospel, and see which villages we can partner up with and start visiting and helping in the future.

I have no pictures of today. I'll bring out the camera and start clicking so I can post pics of our daily life here in the motorhome and on the road.
But since I want to post a picture, I've decided to post a picture of Fergie and me at the airport in Atlanta, about 3 or so years ago. Yep, that's me with Fergie. She was buying a piece of fruit on her way to the plane, so I asked her if I could have a picture with her. As you can see, my hair is pretty short and looks bad, but hey, she looks pretty tired as well.
Until then, everyone stay safe and I'll see ya next time!