Friday, May 15, 2009

Mother's Day get away




Mother's Day get away

Look – we’re gone and back and you didn’t even miss us!

Most mom’s get to go out to dinner on Mother’s Day but I went out for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel in Findlay Ohio and then supper at Captain D’s in Muncie Indiana. Along the way we stopped to investigate Fort Recovery on the Indiana/Ohio border. It was quite interesting to read all the signs and plaques telling about the Indian war and how General Anthony Wayne helped build the fort and called it Recovery. There was a wooden statue outside the fort and it’s plaque told of a young mother who hit an Indian brave with her heavy iron skillet while trying to protect her young baby.

Our parking spot for Sunday evening was at Big Oak Campground, a picturesque little campground in the middle of a farmer’s pasture, just north of Muncie. Monday morning, we moved to Summit Lake State Park, 20 miles south of Muncie, just outside the quaint little town of New Castle and parked next to Roger and Diane whom we had met last winter while parked in WP Franklin corp. of Engineers Park just east of Ft Myers Florida. R and D are officially full timers but still have a beautiful historic old home to sell in downtown Historic Pendleton. It was great to renew our friendships and to play with the whippets- Jasper and Chaplin- the real bosses of that family!! Just a bit spoiled - just ask R or D!! I did get to talk to the cat Charlie thru the screen but he stayed safely inside!

Our schedule was busy- exploring the nearby towns, locating and checking out the birthplace of Wilber Wright and the model airplane flying field behind the museum grounds. R and D took us to Pendleton and showed us Fall Creek Park where the creek runs thru the park and is the only place where white men were hung for killing Indians. We received the grand tour of their wonderful old home built in 1902. The house is filled with glorious antiques, an extremely modern kitchen hidden behind more antiques, big deep oak woodwork, a 3rd floor master bedroom suite, 5 bathrooms and delightfully secluded back and side yards full of fountains, statues, sitting areas and almost as many flowers as my own yard!! We walked a block to “Historic Downtown Pendleton” and enjoyed a leisure dinner at a restaurant called “The Bank”. You guessed it- it used to be a bank. H and R chowed down on an Indiana favorite- breaded pork tenderloin.

Tues we shared our life stories, talked about our future plans and exercised the dogs. It’s amazing to see those seemingly lazy skinny dogs who had been sleeping all morning run soooooooo fast from R across the field to Diane who was cheering them on! We took them on a hike that led thru a forest strewn with sweet smelling wildflowers, to and around a peninsula on the overflowing wooded banks of Summit Lake. Yummy burgers, potato salad and Chocolate Éclair Cake for supper and then a relaxing campfire finished off a wonderful day with wonderful friends!

Wednesday we were hoping to meet and have lunch with brother in law Paul but the weather forecast showed heavy storms with wind and possible hail. We all agreed to postpone our lunch date to a future trip and we headed north to hopefully outrun the fast approaching storm. We endured strong winds all thru Indiana and then rain once we crossed to Ohio but we made it home, safe and sound. Now it’s time to repack so we can head out again next week!!