The End of a Nice Visit

Today is our last day visiting my Mom. We've had a really nice visit
and of course, the time went by way too quickly. We'll be stopping
on the way home to see my sister, Nancy in Oklahoma and we'll
be home soon. We're looking forward to having an enjoyable
summer back in Colorado!

Not So Great Weather

We haven't had very nice weather during our entire vacation.
Today a pretty bad storm came through the area.


Luckily, my Mom has a really nice generator that powers the
entire house. When the power went out today, the generator
kicks on almost immediately. While most of the vicinity
spent the afternoon without power, we operated as normal.
It's a nice legacy of my Dad's, who made sure this was installed
before he passed away a couple of years ago. He wanted to make
sure that my Mom wouldn't have to worry if the power went out
for an extended period.

Mom's on Facebook!

Mom asked me when we got here if I'd help her sign up
on Facebook. Mom's pretty talented on the computer. She's
actually more savvy then she leads others to believe. Regularly,
she checks her email, websites, my blog and of course, the
occasional game of solitaire. So, in a way, her asking me to
help her join Facebook was not that big of a surprise. We just
signed her up and she already has 12 friends. Of course
most are her family members, and she'll mostly use it to
look at photos of the grandkids, but it's great that she's
staying on top of technology and keeping in touch with
the world through her computer!

Back Home Again...

Back home again in Indiana
And it seems that I can see
The gleaming candlelight, still shining bright
Thru the sycamores for me
The new mown hay sends all its fragrance
From the fields I used to roam
When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash
Then I long for my Indiana home

We're at my Mom's house in Indiana, where we'll
be for the next two weeks. We're looking forward to
a nice visit.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Hope you've had a nice day!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's Birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

It's also October 10, 2010...or 10/10/10
The next time this happens will be 100 years from now!
We're both pretty healthy, but I would hazard a guess
that neither of us will be around to see it. It's
interesting to think what the world will be like when
it does happen again though!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Our Last Day at Mom's

Today is our last day at Mom's house and we've had a
wonderful time! Mom makes us feel so welcome and
wants us to make ourselves at home. It's been a great
visit, seeing family, visiting close friends and enjoying
great weather. I can't wait until our next visit!

Outstanding in Her Field

When we first got here three weeks ago, Lynn thought the
corn surrounding my Mom's house would be about the same
height is she is. We didn't take a photo then, but it was much
taller than she was much to her surprise. We took another
photo today and it was even taller...about another 6 inches!
I think Lynn has a new appreciation for Corn!

Visiting the Hospice

I have been wanting to visit the hospice where my Dad
stayed last year and also to go with my Mom to see the
bricks that we had placed there to remember my Dad.
They did a really good job placing the bricks and they
are right outside his window. There is even a small bench
there that I can picture him sitting in, admiring the
beautiful garden and pretty flowers.


Lynn and several other women on the Ice last winter were
working on another "Warm Up America" afghan and Mom
was contributing with her own squares on this end. Lynn's
spent the last few days putting them all together into a really
pretty afghan. The "Warm Up America" project is aimed at
contributing these projects to hospitals, shelters, etc and
Lynn felt that the VNA Horton Hospice Center. Two of the
women that were there when Dad stayed there greeted us
and were thrilled to see us and to receive the afghan. Both
very nice women, it was great to see them again.

Wax Beans!

My Mom and I snapped Wax Beans this morning. I LOVE Wax Beans!
Especially how my Mom makes them. First you boil the beans.
Then, you fry cracker crumbs in a frying pan with butter. When
the cracker crumb mixture is crispy, add the beans and continue
to fry together. This recipe is AWESOME!!!!!!

Shipshewana

A family favorite place to visit over the years has been the
Amish community of Shipshewana, located just a short drive
from my Mom's house. My Mom, Lynn and I piled into the car
today and made the trip, seeing lots of farmland along the way
and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Of course we stopped at
several of our favorite places including E&S Sales to look at
all of the bulk food and Yoder's Meat & Cheese Company. Both
places have small containers of cheese available for sampling
and we contributed to the local economy by making a few
purchases including several kinds of cheese curds! Yum!
We ended our day in the area by having a late lunch at
Das Dutchman Essenhaus in nearby Middlebury. Another
place my family has been going for years, it's famous for it's
Amish-style food. Especially it's pies, including my favorite,
Old Fasioned Cream! Yum Again! Although our waistlines
may have expanded after today, our wallets didn't shrink too
much as we controlled our shopping urges. A great day
overall!

The Porter County Fair

We went to the fair today. I've been talking up the fair to Lynn
for years now and it certainly didn't disappoint! If you enter the
fairgrounds before 1pm any day, admission is free. Of course we
took advantage of this. We went through all of the 4H buildings,
had lunch and then walked through the midway. Mom was a big
winner of a cute teddy bear at the guess your age booth (they
always say she's younger than she really is) and won a pink
stuffed Scooby Doo at the Mouse Game. Except this mouse
game used a ball instead of a mouse. The PETA people must
have complained. Then we walked through the Commercial
Building and got lots of free stuff including a yard stick! What
is a county fair without a free yard stick! It was a fun time had
by all and after a many year wait, I wasn't disapointed.

Teibel's

A longtime family tradition (now into our fourth generation
as dining patrons) is to go to Teibel's Restaurant in
Schererville Indiana for special occasions. Tomorrow is my
Sister Terri's birthday so we were asked to go along with her
entire family and my Mom to celebrate. Teibel's is kind of a
quirky place where the average patron saw their 20's...heck,
their 50's, long ago. However, I like it and it has kind of a
Frank Sinatra meets Lawrence Welk kind of feel to it.
Plus, they have good chicken! Happy Birthday Terri. !!!!

Yum...Sweet Corn!

I have waited for today for almost three years!
Sweet Corn! I love to eat corn on the cob and since we've
wintered the past two years on the Ice, it hasn't been
available to us. The Hallbergs brought Mom some
corn from their farm so we cooked hot dogs on the
grill and had corn for dinner. I was in heaven!

Colorado-Oakland-Reno

It seems that we can never stop traveling. This morning, we flew
out of Grand Junction's friendly little airport and after a stop in
Salt Lake City, found ourselves in Oakland, California. We had
to fly to Oakland so that we could pick up the Truckasaurus.
Truckasaurus is Lynn's sister Lenlee's Toyota 4Runner that we'll
be borrowing for the next 6 weeks. It also means a very long
drive for the next few days, as we slowly make our way east to
Indiana to visit my Mom.


This drive is an adventure for both of us as we have never driven
the stretch between San Francisco and Colorado. After leaving
Mill Valley, we made the obligatory stop at In-N-Out Burger and
feasted. I mean, who can't stop at In-N-Out Burger if given the
chance? Crossing the Sierras wasn't a problem since it's July, but
I wouldn't want to drive this route in the winter since it gets literally
feet of snow at a time! We stopped at Donner Pass which is famous
in history for the struggles (and not-so-tasty food choices) of the
participants on their way west.


The Sierras are beautiful though and although we couldn't spend
much time here on this trip we vowed to return someday. Lots of
really pretty mountains, lakes and vistas...with clean running rivers.
Similar to the mountains of Colorado...but different.


Once we crossed the Sierras we found ourselves in Nevada.
Neither of us had been to Nevada before so it was something
different. We stopped at a CVS drugstore in Reno (it was huge!)
and they actually had 20 slot machines in the store! Probably
not uncommon for Nevada, but certainly different than what we
are used to. We drove a bit longer than we wanted to but we had
reservations at the Red Lion Hotel and Casino in Elko, Nevada
and we pulled in about 9:00. It was a really nice hotel. When
we checked in, they gave us a coupon book for free stuff and
after we ate dinner, played $5 worth of free slots and ended up
losing $10 more. They wouldn't make a lot of money off us,
but when in Rome...or I guess in this case, Elko...

A Good Day

There haven't been a lot of good days lately, so
when one does come along, it's certainly worth
noting. I got up this morning and received a
call from our friend Deb, that lives in Vermont.
She was my first boss on the Ice and she's having
her 60th birthday party in March and wanted to
invite Lynn (it's an all-girls party). She
can't go since we'll be in NZ, but it was nice
to hear her voice. Next, I talked to my Mom back
in Indiana. Although it's been a miserably bad
winter weather-wise, it was 50 degrees Fahrenheit
when I talked to her. Always fun to talk to Mom!
Then I talked to Lynn for a while. Less than 2
weeks til I'm in Christchurch! Yay! For someone
who doesn't like to talk on the phone...I sure
did a lot of it. After helping Kaska with the
first big transport of the season...about a 100
people leaving...I started walking down the hill
toward home. I hear this rumbling coming up the
road and it's my friend Tony driving in a Pisten
Bully. It's a small enclosed snow-cat sort of
vehicle. He's the head of the MEC which is
responsible for all of the equipment that the
scientists use while they're here. He had to
go to Castle Rock to move some snow around so
he asked if I wanted to hop in and go. Sure,
I said and off we went.


I had never been to Castle Rock during the day.
Only last winter I went there in a Tucker
(another track-type vehicle), so it was a treat
of sorts...kind of a mini-boondoggle. I'm way
to lazy to walk the 7 mile Castle Rock Loop so
getting a ride there is definitely the best
option. The first half mile though was hellish
since most of the snow in that part of the trail
had melted and big ruts formed the trail.
Picture a ski mogul run without the snow.
However, soon we were on the path and were
climbing to the top of the trail. The view from
Castle Rock is pretty amazing. Even if it was
a cloudy day, you can easily see for a hundred
miles. Tony even drove around where we could
see open water just north of Cape Evans and
All of the islands in the area. The view
looking the other way is just as amazing as
you can see the Trans-Antarctic Mountains and
the cluster of buildings that makes up Williams
Field. The way down is really steep and I'm
glad that I was in a vehicle and not walking it.
We saw the Kiwi A-Frame from above...which I've
also never seen in the daylight and got a good
view of the Kiwi Ski Hill.
When I got home, I was just in time for "John
Simonson Appreciation Day". John is a longtime
ATO cargo guy and several folks in the department
felt he has never gotten the recognition he
deserves. Lots of Sushi made by Sam and Molly,
BBQ Scallops wrapped in bacon by Hooch and a
good time had by all. A great wrap up to a good
day!

Happy Birthday Mom!

VPZ

My Mom had an appointment today so while we were
waiting, I geeked out and went to visit the Porter
County Municipal Airport (VPZ). I knew I only had
a few minutes until my Mom's appointment was finished
and fortunately, that's all it took to look over this
tiny airport. It's so small, it makes our home airport
in Grand Junction look like O'Hare. Even though it's
small and has no scheduled flights or airlines, it's
very well appointed and has a friendly staff. I think
that most of it's traffic comes from Valparaiso
University. I attribute my geek-love of airports
because of our trips to VPZ when I was very young.
We would stop at Dairy Queen for Mr. Mistys and watch
the small planes take off and land at the "airplane port".
On several vacations we stopped at O'Hare in Chicago and
the Green Bay airport in Wisconsin as actual tourist
destinations. Not your typical tourist fare but I think
my Dad was interested as well and it was free. These
pre-TSA days were great for airport aficionados.
So today, my visit to the airport in Valpo was kind of
like going home. I felt very comfortable there.

Mom and Dad