gonna take a few posts.
This is a very long blog—more like a “booklet” of old. Remember them? If a writer only wanted to cover one subject or one location or idea, instructions, doctrine (usually called a tract, they would write it in 5 to 50 pages and refer to it as a booklet. A novelist would call it a short story, magazines would buy them for fillers because they were interesting and “teasers for more.” This might fit one of those pockets. To most who start reading this, it’ll probably not get finished. but, to some I hope they’ll find it interesting enough that two octogenarians decided, planned and carried it out.
A Blog To Remember: The Road To 50
At 8:20 this morning, Sept. 13, 2024, we began our almost 3 week run up North and West to complete our visiting all 50 states. Between the two of us we need to see Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. To begin getting to those states we must travel through Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and on the way back home we’ll traverse Illinois. So this trip will take us through a good portion of 13 states. The planning of this trip began a good while ago when we realized we didn’t have many more states to go to get through them all.
We wound up deciding last Spring to rent an RV and do it this way. Tonight, first night, we are stopped in Madisonville, KY—a town straight South of Evansville, IN and North of Clarksville, TN. 19,000 happy Kentuckians live here and it has a true middle-America look to it. In the morning when we leave, we’ll look the city over a little closer, we’re putting up with some rain this evening, sort of curtailing our plans to walk their downtown area.
Driving the RV was not as daunting as some might think. It’s a 25ft. C Class we rented, so not a big road hog, just a little bigger than a 16ft. rental truck, but tricked out very nicely. Seemed comfortable for both Barb and Bessie (the toy Aussie who thinks she runs our life.) I drove, but was not terrible tired out and at 6:30 pm, feeling refreshed, looking forward to watching the Cubs baseball after a while—yes, we have internet—can’t leave home without it!
Saturday morning drive to Trafalgar for the Lockhart family reunion was delayed by a couple of minor things and caused us to be late getting there. We let the family know we were coming but would be late, it brought to mind one nephew whose tardiness is pretty regular. So, his brother who was at the reunion called me and when I said “hello,” he said, “Is this my tardy brother being late again?? or is this Jerry who is learning from him on how to do it?” —a good laugh in the background at our expense, and at the tardy nephew’s also, who never made it at all. It was wonderful to see those who were there, but attendance was down considerably.
When the reunion ended, Barb and I trekked on—to a farm in Northern Indiana which raises Alpacas, a very welcoming place with an Alpaca shop, beautiful barns and event facilities. As a matter of fact, they had just finished an event and the workers were gathered to eat a veritable feast and invited us to join in. It was a wonderful gesture and the food was exceptional—beef brisket or salmon, vegetables and dessert —pie and ice cream.
We walked the grounds, introduced Bessie to hogs she had never seen (don’t think she cared much for them), and shopped in the Alpaca shop (don’tcha know?) These were exceptional people. They treated us as if we had known them a long time, and now sitting with them and talking like we were now getting “caught up” with our long-interrupted conversation. I drove on thinking, is this whole trip going to be like this?
Driving North in Indiana is always enlightening. As a kid and then a young man in the business world, I thought I went to a lot of places in Indiana, but every trip I see places I’ve never been. We were stopping for the night at Barb’s nephew’s beautiful small farm and , as usual, they were perfect hosts. Good fellowship and reasons for prayers, and good laughing about old stories, as well. —Onward early the next morning.
Monday with our friends Tom & Donna Morse was a really nice day. Their part of the Detroit suburbs, Canton, Dixboro, etc., are really beautiful cities/towns. We ate a brunch meal at Anna’s House in Westland at about 10:30 and were not hungry again until stopping for the night (7-ish) at Cracker Barrel about 150 miles West of there.
While with Tom and Donna they took us to an orchard built out to be a family park with everything from hayrides through the orchard to a petting zoo to a retail store with more apples than we’ve seen in a long time. Followed by a tour and walks in the park along side the beautiful Huron River.
It was a wonderful visit with them, marred only by Donna receiving a call that her favorite uncle (90 yrs old) had just passed away. So we left them about 5pm, drove almost to Holland, MI before stopping.
Took a side road along the way because we saw at an exit, a small “camper” sign with an arrow to exit so we did. We turned the correct direction, down a classically countryside highway; clean, neatly kept farms, occasional businesses related to farming, etc., but no RV park or campers to be seen. So, I stopped at a really nice convenience store (obviously local, not a chain) and ask the girls working there, “Hey, where’s the camp ground?” One said, “Oh, you mean Elm Grove? It’s down that way a ways. You go to the 4-way, then turn left and it’s a few miles.” I said, “ok, do you know if it’s a good camp for RVs to park at?” Neither knew anything at all about it. With no more info than that, we got back on the I-169 and kept driving.
When we approached Grandville, we noticed a billboard for Cracker Barrel, so as tired as we were that was an easy way to finish our day on the road: eat dinner at CB and park in one of their designated RV slots and sleep free. A super nice finish to a super nice day.
(Part 2 in a couple of days.) Thanks for reading, the Elder
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