Travel Journal

July 2005

Travel Route:

The month of July began with the task of completing the June travel journal. While Renée began this task, Chuck went to the cemetery to lay flowers on his parent’s grave in Falmouth. The following day was the high school reunion in Falmouth which was the main reason for this stopover in Kentucky. The reunion was an all day affair with registration in the morning followed by a generous lunch, a visit to the musical “Oklahoma” in the afternoon, an evening meal, and then the main program. This was not a reunion of a specific class year, rather all who had attended Falmouth High School. The school had been absorbed into the county school system in 1968. That means the youngest graduate at the reunion was now around 55. There were some in attendance that had graduated in the 30’s. Several former teachers were also there.

After the program, a disc jockey played Oldies, with the older ladies dancing with each other since no man would even try! The reunion has been occurring every five years and this was the first time we had attended. Chuck knew very few people there, ten at the most. This tradition will probably fade away after a few more times since the town is really dying. We probably notice it more than most since our memories are of so many years ago.

On Sunday Chuck’s oldest sister, Mary went with us to Newport to visit the Hofbräuhaus that had opened in 2003. The Hefeweizen was good (authentic), the surroundings somewhat authentic and enjoyable but the food was substandard. After eating, we got Lobo from the pickup and then walked across the “Purple People Bridge“ spanning the Ohio River to Cincinnati. It was quite hot and humid, therefore not so much fun. That evening we visited Chuck’s other two sisters in Falmouth, saying our goodbyes. We spent July 4^th packing up and getting ready to leave. On the 5^th we left around 1 o’clock on the way toward Indiana. Except for a short part of the route around Cincinnati, we stayed on US 27. It was quite a pleasant drive through the small towns and countryside. In Geneva, Indiana we spent the night at the “Amishville” Campground after a small confrontation with two Amish men. The campground was a few miles from the main highway and as we saw a covered bridge in the distance, it appeared that we would have to drive through the bridge which was certainly not high enough for us to pass through. Chuck pulled off the road into a gravel area on the left side of the road that appeared large enough to turn around, if necessary. Renée got out with the intention of walking up the road toward the bridge. Suddenly, two Amish men came walking hurriedly toward us. We then went to them to ask about the bridge, rather than walking so far down the road. We immediately asked about whether the bridge was still a part of the normal roadway and were informed that the road went around the bridge and we would have no problem. But they had a problem with the fact that we had driven onto their graveled entry to their property. It had cost them a lot of money to have the gravel laid down and unnecessary traffic would cause it to be worn out ( Huh?). We apologized and explained it wouldn’t happen again, then left for the campground. The campground was quite nice but the accompanying restaurant closed on us at 7 PM so we had to open the emergency canned stew for supper. On the next day we arrived in Fort Wayne at Michael’s at about 1:30 PM, spending the rest of the month with him and the kids. While there, we took a trip with the kids and dogs to Elkhart, IN to cash in a $50 gift certificate at Camping World (We received the $50 for listening to the timeshare spiel in Orlando). As we arrived at Camping World we noticed a SUV with a German shepherd inside. The windows were all closed and it was parked in the sun without the engine running. Had it not been for Ruby and Lobo with us, we would not have noticed the dog, but it had made a big fuss about us because of our dogs. We immediately told the receptionist about the car and they announced over the PA system for the owner to immediately correct the situation. The ladies at the reception were quite concerned and noted that if no one responded within two minutes, they were going to contact the police. Fortunately for the dog, a sheepish woman responded, mumbling that her dog was okay, but immediately took the dog out of the overheated car into the building.

We allowed kids to choose a gift at Camping World. Keith chose a model RV that could be disassembled and the furniture rearranged. It even has a slide out. He spent most of the evening trying to arrange everything the way our RV is laid out, but it won’t exactly work because of the door and windows. He has spent a lot of enjoyable hours with it though. Katja chose a Mexican train game played with dominoes which she is still enjoying (Michael and Renée, too)

The days in Fort Wayne have been quite busy, not only the babysitting but the task of lightening the load in the RV. Now that we have been on the road a while, we have a better idea of what we really need and what is excess weight. Most of the books and a lot of other things have to stay behind. During this time Michael and Chuck painted Keith’s room and then put it back together. Of course this also included curtain cleaning, window washing, etc.

July has really been a scorcher this year but as the month ends, the weather is cooling down a bit, but for how long?

To be continued in August …………………..

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