There's more then corn in Indiana!

View of Sugar Creek in Turkey Run State Park

 

We had a marvelous time at Turkey Run State Park.  There wasn't enough days to hike all the trails. We've already decided we will go back.

 

You would just never suspect that this kind of landscape existed in little ole Indiana. Especially to us Northern Hoosiers who only see flat land and corn fields.

 

 

On a hike in one of the ravines by the creek.

 

 

 

I was a little anxious about some of the "mountain goat" trails, but Rog was always there to lend me a hand



 

 

We had 3 days of beautiful weather, wonderful campfire food and good times with the Shafers!

 

 

 

1800's log church

Log Cabin





 

 

I didn't realize that Turkey Run State park was Indiana's 2nd state park (McCormick's Creek was #1). I also didn't know that a German immigrant, Richard Lieber, was the founding father of Indiana's state parks.  In 1816, Turkey Run property was saved from the logging industry by citizens who loved the beauty of it all.

 

 

 

For those of you that have visited the park, this suspension walking bridge is currently closed because of a severe flood in April of this year.  Flood waters were almost up to the walkway and damaged the infrastructure of the bridge.  We saw pictures it was pretty amazing.

 

Next week we are on our way to Mackinaw City!  Heather, Rob, Justis and Logan will be meeting us up there.  We are really looking forward to it!



In case you were wondering...

Rog, Logan and Justis involved in a serious water fight. The kids took no prisoners!

 

 

We finally got our new boat!  Took Justis and Logan out for a spin!

 

Had a great time at Mounds State park in Anderson, Indiana. Great trails and...

SNAKES!!

Hey, we are still alive!  Been busy with home remodeling, camping trips, spending time with family!
Retirement is a wonderful thing!  Getting ready for a trip to Turkey Run state park, and then up to Mackinaw later in July!  Should be a blast!

Just got back...

Rog sailing Tuuli under Rhonda's watchful eye in Puget Sound.

 

We spent the last week in the Pacific Northwest!  It was fabulous! Three and 1/2 days with Rhonda and Ivan in Olympia, Washington and three 1/2 days in Pacific City, Oregon.

 

 

 

 

As you can see we got to try our hand at sailing.  Rhonda and Ivan actually let us steer, although I'm not actually sure if it's called steering, it's probably called something else.  They tried to teach us some nautical terms but they didn't stay with me at least. We had Tuuli, their sailboat, up to 4 knots and on a little bit of a keel, I think it's called.  It was amazing! We headed to Hope Island which is a state park in the Puget Sound and grabbed a mooring bouy for the night. 

 

The game plan was for us to kayak into the island and take a hike.  The last time I tried to get into a kayak I went for a swim!  I was anxious, nervous, you name it. I wasn't necessarily afraid, main concern was just plain looking stupid!    However, Rhonda and Ivan had this all figured out.  Rog got into the kayak with Ivan and went over to the island.  Then Ivan came back to pick me up.

 

Anita getting into the kayak.

As Ivan held the kayak as still as he possibly could Rhonda instructed me on how to get down into the thing as quickly as possible and I'm proud to say I made it without going for a swim!

 

 

Anita in kayak with Ivan paddling (poor guy)

 

Once on the island we went for a hike, here are some pictures;

 

 

We headed back to Tuuli and had a fine dinner and watched a sunset, it was soooo peaceful. 

 

 

Next day we headed back to Olympia.  Rhonda and Ivan are preparing to head off on their Big Adventure.  They are headed to the Sea of Cortez in July!  We wish them fair skies and winds...at least I think that's what they said you are supposed to say to a sailor.  It's very exciting and we are looking forward to reading about their travels on their blog.















When we left Washington we were headed to the Oregon Coast, Pacific City to be exact.  Many of you have heard us talk about Cape Kiwanda several times..  We are just plain in love with this place.  The rest of the world fades away when we are there. We even saw a whale while we were there!

Here are some pictures from our stay.

View from our hotel room

Very busy beach

 

Tide was way out

 

Rog playing in the tidepool

 

Heart drawn in the sand,,(I stole it) :)

 

Sunset from our room

 

 

 

 

Here's to you everyone!

 

I think you can tell we had a great week!

 

We are hoping to go to Mackinaw, Michigan in June, more blogging to come!

Back Home again,,,in Indiana

We are back all safe and sound.  Arrived Sunday evening.  Took us 4 days to cross Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. 
This is the sunrise as we left Texas.

We drove over 300 miles a day, which is really fine for 1 day, but 4 in a row is not our cup of tea.
We didn't make it in time to say "goodbye" to Uncle John.  In our hearts we believe he knew we loved him.
Uncle John's funeral was yesterday.  It was a beautiful service and almost all the family was there.
Took this picture at the luncheon afterward of the cousins. Sons and daughters of Elwynn and Janice.

 

Now, it is back to reality.  Rog and I both feel like we were in a dream state.  Doing different things everyday, seeing new places.  We have another big trip planned for early September, we are headed to Maine!  There will be other shorter trips through the summer with our RVing buddies the Shafers and hopefully we will get our grandsons to tagalong at some point or another.  The other excursion on the agenda, hopefully, is we want to take Rog's Mom and Step Dad to the Badlands of SD. 

 

For now it is laundry, yardwork, once the weather actually feels like Spring and some home improvement projects that were put on hold.

 

Until the next time my friends!

God Bless

Rog and Nita, Grabnlife

Heading Home, Thank Yous and an Unfinished Journey

We head for home tomorrow.  Hopefully we will return before Uncle John passes.  We would like to tell him we love him one last time.

We will be making stops in Mt Pleasant, Tx, Memphis, Tn, Horse Cave, Ky and finally home.

We probably won't make posts during this time frame.

We would like to thank some people for their kindness, assistance and friendship during our 1st official "Grabn Life Journey".

First our daughter, Heather, for going to our house once a week and taking care of things for us there.  Thank you honey!
Second to all our neighbors back in Elkhart, Rex and Terri, Jo and Brian, Dan and Donna.  Thanks for keeping an eye on everything.  A special thank you to Rex for plowing the drive for us!
Third, thanks to our cousins, Kennen and Terri!  Wow, what a surprise and what fun we had with you in Grayton Beach, I don't think you guys can top that one!
Fourth, thanks to Ed and Cathy in Lakeland, Fl, for inviting us into their home and family, we really enjoyed spending time with all of you.
Fifth, Deb and Bernie in Gulfport, neighbors and fellow travelers,,although they take the easy way out and rent condos :),,anyway, thanks for showing us around last week, see you at home.

Finally a BIG we are so sorry to Anita and Dave in Austin and Leo and Thelma in Allen, Tx.  We won't make it to see you guys as we had hoped.  We were really looking forward to spending time with you.

We have an unfinished journey, but sometimes those are the best, because you can just keep looking forward to the next time.

Love to all and we will post once we are back in Elkhart.

Ode to Uncle John

We are in San Antonio, we arrived yesterday afternoon.  Our journey thus far has been an amazing one.  I learned alot about myself and what's really important to me...but enough of that.

Uncle John, Rog's uncle on his mom's side, has always been there for his family.  He never married and so he focused all his attention on his nieces, nephews and sometimes his great nieces and nephews.  He cared for his elderly mother in his own home, so that she would not have to go to a nursing home.  He is a Korean War veteran, but he won't talk about it.  He volunteered tirelessly for Habitat for Humanity, he really loved it.  He is a walker, or at least he was till his health began to fail.  He would walk from one of of Plymouth to the other,,,I'm guessing 8 - 10 miles in a day and he loved that too.

Over the 40 + years I've been "in" the family, Uncle John has always been there for everyone.  Never judging or questioning just helped how he could.  I can't tell you how many different family members he took in because they had fallen on hard times.

Uncle John is very close to joining his mom in heaven.  We got this news on Monday morning as we were about 30 miles from San Antonio...In a perfect world we could have just turned around right then and headed back to Indiana.  But,,,as fate would have it, we have some mechanical problems with our truck,,no not from the "shade tree brake mechanic"  something totally different.  So we came on in to San Antonio, and we are staying here at Ft Sam Houston.  It is a beautiful park.  Our truck is at a dodge dealer right now, being looked at.

Rog wants to be home,,,which I wish I could wave a wand and have him be there,,but  that isn't possible.  What is possible is once we figure out what's up with the truck, we can fly him home and I will stay here.  Or, who knows, we may decide to pull up stakes once the truck is back and head for home.  However, that will take us 4 days to get there,,4 hard driving days.  (we have found that more then 350 miles a day really wears us out, this isn't like just driving a car).  So,,,our journey continues and we will adjust and perservere, that is what a journey is all about.

Oh, and by the way, if you are ever in Louisana with a camper, DO NOT TAKE Interstate 10.  It is the bumpiest stretch of road, 60 miles worth, which is probably why we have problems with our truck.
Below is a picture of the swamp land in Louisiana, nothing but this for many many miles.  Don't think I'd want to live there.

When we stopped in Gulfport, MS for the evening, we met up with our neighbors, Bernie and Deb.  They took us to Bay St Louis, MS, this is very close to ground zero of Katrina.  They took some of the destroyed Live Oak trees and carved them into statutes.  This one is my favorite, it was an angel tree.

 

 

None of us know what tomorrow brings, so Grab Life my friends!

Lakeland to Clearwater

Yesterday we drove west to the gulf coast to the town of Clearwater.  Clearwater beach is on an island,,,one bridge crosses from the major interstate to the beach.  We managed to get stuck in traffic and a one hour drive ended up being two and a half.  It was VERY windy again yesterday, and we didn't think of that before deciding to visit the beach.  After seeing the Florida panhandle side of the gulf we think we prefer it to this side.  Clearwater was HUGE and very developed, didn't have the "beach town" feel to it.  I'm sure it is a packed during high tourist season.  Here are a few pictures from the beach itself.

 

 

 

We had dinner with the Criswell's last night and learned to play the card game Golf.  I've discovered I am neither good at the on the green or the one on the table :)  But, it was fun!

 

Today, we toured Southern Florida University which is where Cathy C. works.  Beautiful, small liberal arts college.  The majority of the buildings were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

This evening will be our last get together with them, as we head to Tallahassee tomorrow. Saturday, Gulfport, Mississippi, where we will meet up with our neighbors from Elkhart, Bernie and Deb W.

Sunday is Iowa, Lousiana and finally we arrive in San Antonio on Monday the 11th!  We are both looking forward to getting there.  Rog went to basic training in San Antonio and there are alot of places he wants me to see.  So, we probably won't "blog" again till Monday.

 

Oh, and I promised more pictures from our "safari" here at SanLan.  We have really enjoyed our stay here!

 

Rog in his safari outfit,,,no, we didn't buy it specifically for this occasion :)

In the center of this, there is an alligator,,,pretty hard to see I know, but he's there.

 

Oh, and here is a shart boat from the Clearwater bay.



and, a pirate ship..

 

Yo HO Maties, until next time...