Color purple and friend

The blooming season of iris is not nearly long enough. I have been trying to get this deep black purple iris up close and personal, not having the best of luck. So far, this is the best photo.

In the sunlight it glows and sparkles, almost as if it has glitter sprinkled on it.
In the shade it looks almost black.

Enjoy, my friends.

Guilty as charged, I clicked and clicked and clicked some more

In recent past, began looking in 1700's for some family I have not researched.

One stop, World Tree entries at Rootsweb/Ancestry.com (Ya I know, not the best place to look, but I look anyway, for hints.)

Found my man, oh, boy, did I ever.

Several sets of entries where data matched exactly. One set in particular really got my dander up. Ancestor was listed as 149 years old at time of death, so born ca 1740 and died ca 1849.

EXCUSE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?????

We all know what happened, someone put their family tree online, with bad info. Now, lets give them the benefit of the doubt, that 1849 is a typo. Be kind, let it be a typo.

More researchers come along and find the line and click and claim and connect to their own research. That is allowed on the sites. Is it a good idea, you be the judge. May work for you, does not work for MOI.

Anywhoooooooo, there were a LOT of entries with this 149 year old ancestor. I counted, there were at least 22 trees with the exact same data.

No, I did not click and claim and connect it, but, I did click. I typed up a note, where I kindly as I could, pointed out that it was not likely said ancestor died at age 149. Then, I clicked and copied and clicked and posted that same note to all 22 family trees. Yea, took a while.

So far, one response from a researcher that was happy I pointed that little age thing.

Guess one out of 22 is pretty good response.

Click, click, click!

When spelling DOES count

You have all heard me, at least once or twice (okay, more like once or twice a day) say:

SPELLING DON'T COUNT !
When you are searching, that is so, so true.

However, there are exceptions to every rule, here is one.

I am working on cemetery records to be published. We walk the cemeteries, record em, work with sexton or whatever records we can find, we walk them again after they are typed. We check placement in the cemetery, row by row, we check for correct dates, we check for spellings and relationships.

After all corrections are done, we check again, against the old published books, which were done by the DAR during the 1930's and 1940's, when a lot of these stones still had inscriptions you could read.

So, today's work, I find the DAR records show: Ayers

When we walked this cemetery we found: Ayres.

Guess I will be making one more trip out there and check these stones again, cause when you are responsible for the recording,

SPELLING DOES COUNT!

9 Goslings in a Row

Back on May 18, 2009, I posted photos of 3 small goslings in the pond. They were only days old.

We had been wondering where all the goslings were, usually we have up to 4 sets of parents and babies. Until May 18, NADDA.

Six days later, around 6ish in the afternoon, we spied these 9 and parents down by the pond. These kids are about a month old. They are some of our MIA's.

Discovered they had made their homes this year across the street in neighbor's 'dug pond'. We don't know why, but, have to wonder --- did the arrival in our 'natural hole in the ground pond' of either Mr. Mink or Mr. Muskrat have anything to do with the move??

Photo is of the kids and parents charging up the hill, headed for home in neighbor's pond.

Distance between ponds, is at least 400 yards and one street.

The color purple

Not the movie, the book, the story - - -


Sometimes photos are better - - -


From my yard, ya, I love purple - - -

A camping we will go, techy style

Family is planning a camping weekend, ALL of us, 3 boys, brides/significant others, grandchildren.

During the planning stages, Man says, which site is it we LOVE at this campground?

So, we pull up the campground layout maps available through the reservation service and the Satellite view available via either GoogleMaps or Live Search Maps.

Yep, I know which campsite I will be parked in during the family campout, 2 down from the red truck at top of this downloaded photo. (Live Search Maps, thank you!)

Spelling don't count, even IF it is in stone

In the search of the Elusive Ella, which I will chat about some time, but not now, Cousin Reb, was looking at every Trumbo she could find at Ancestry.com. So far, Ella is still elusive, but, it got me to thinking - - - -

Spelling don't count, however, in some search engines, you can use a wild card feature, most search engines require that you type in 3 letters first, then wild card. This works quite well, most of the time, but not so well if the 3rd letter is a vowel. So, what I do when the 3rd letter is a vowel is to search every spelling possible by changing the vowel. First I search with what we consider to be the normal spelling. Then, I switch vowels, so, Trumbo would become Trambo, then Trembo, and so forth. It is quite surprising what I find that way. Found Man's grandmother's birth that way, after looking for 3 years, again, another story, another time.

I was gonna drop Cousin Reb a email and ask her if she had searched that way, when I remembered Zachariah, one of my Trumbos. Zachariah Z. Trumbo is my g g grandfather. He is buried out in Joplin County Missouri. I believe that it was Cousin Reb that got me a photo of his headstone.

Let me tell you, not sure even my tricks of changing vowels would work for ole Zach, proof positive that spelling don't count, even IF it is inscribed in stone.

Got to love it, Z. Z. Treembo.

*I even have a theory of how this happened, whomever ordered the stone wrote Trumbo with the "U" having loops, the cursive "U" now becomes a double "E".

Do you like Spam??

Do you like Spam??

NOOOOO, I don't mean this kind, I mean the kind that your email account(s) spits out at you, day in, and day out. (One time I let it accumulate, over several months, I had over 1200 emails in my Spam mail box. You read it right, over 1200!)

This 'important' email tells me my Pay Pal account has been compromised, sure thing, only I don't have one. Ditto EBay, I don't have an account, so how could it be compromised??

Lots of people want to give me lots of $$$, mega millions. Don't I wish that were true??

I am such a skeptic I don't believe word one of all these emails, but, what is really inconvenient is that I must continually monitor the Spam mail boxes on my email accounts, because some of the good stuff slips in there in error. I know I have ditched batches of Spam email and some of the good stuff went bye bye with it.

This continual monitoring takes time, more than I care to admit to. Now, that is really irritating.

You don't like Spam, do you??

*Photo taken in 2005 on visit by Man and Moi to Austin, Minnesota, Spam Museum. This is part of a large mural they have there. If you have not had the opportunity to visit, you have missed a fun place. Now there is some Spam you just might like!

**If you think I might have deleted an email you sent me, ya know, the good stuff, my apologies, and please write again.

Clifton Bowen, Revolutionary War, solider and service

Clifton Bowen is my 5th great grandfather. He was born in North Carolina around the area of what is now Duplin County, date of birth between 1736 and 1738. He died in 1789 in or around Bulloch County Georgia, place of burial, most likely a family farm/home plot, place now lost to all but his Maker.

Clifton Bowen served in the Revolutionary War as a Lt. in the Duplin County, North Carolina militia. He was honorably discharged in 1781 because of a pulmonary ailment that made him too weak to carry on.

The North Carolina Archives provided copies of several Revolutionary Pay Vouchers and a certified copy of a claim number 1797, from Volume W-1, page 28, said claim paying 6 pounds 19 shillings. Claim number 1797 was also provided in photocopy form, showing date of 16 March 1782. Other claims were: # 1693, appears to pay 13 pounds, 19 shillings (several holes in claim, so amount was hard to read), dated 16 March 1782. Claim #1230, pays 2 pounds 6 shillings, bearing date of 12 Dec. 1782. Claim # 61, pays 4000 pounds, dated 25 Oct. 1781. Claim # 311, pays 15 pounds 3 shillings, dated 11 Dec. 1781. Claim # 232, appears to pay 410 pounds (holes in this claim, making it difficult to read), date appears to be 1781.

Several ladies, including Moi, have earned entry into the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution because of Clifton's service.

The line between Moi and Clifton is: Donald Eugene Bowen I (see blog for Friday, May 22, 2009)
Hayden Eugene Bowen (see blog for Sunday, May 24, 2009)
Joseph Eugene Bowen (no military service has been found)
Hezekiah Bowen (Confederate solider)
Hezekiah Bowen (no military service has been found)
Mark Bowen (no military service has been found)
Clifton Bowen (subject of this blog)

Today is Memorial Day 2009, we honor those that have served.

*Document courtesy of the North Carolina Archives

Another veteran

Being Memorial Day weekend, hopefully you are paying tribute to your family and your families veterans.

In reviewing the direct lines of both Man and Moi, I do not find a great number of veterans. It is amazing, many of our direct line ancestors (grand, great grands, great great grands, etc.) were born in such a time that they did not serve in any major wars.

However, my grandfather, Hayden Eugene Bowen did serve during World War I, photo at the right is poor at best, but it is all that survived the many hurricanes of the east coast.

Records from United States Navy indicate he enlisted June 14, 1918 at Charleston, South Carolina, served active duty, July 29, 1918 to Dec 21, 1918, at Pensacola Florida. His rank was Aviation Machinist Mate. He received the World War I Victory Medal.

Hayden died 21 June 1966 and is buried at Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery in Norfolk Virginia.

This 'n That, prayers go out to

Friend J, who is fighting his own cancer battle.

Auto employees from Chyrsler and GM. We watch in disbelief.

Thanks for the healing of cousin Jan and grandson of friend Glenn, a fellow MOC member.

Families of our veterans, who served this country, from inception. On Monday, Memorial Day, remember the REAL reason we celebrate and burn some burgers. Take a few minutes and do a search, here is just one site I found:

http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

Our veterans above, Donald Eugene Bowen, I and Arthur Norman Stevens, fathers (mine and Man's)

Man got a clean biopsy

For those following the saga - - -

See blog from May 15th, 2009

He just got the call, CLEAN!!

Happy dancing in the stick!!

Hummer in love?

Last night while sitting on the deck, enjoying the fabulous weather, clean yorkies, gentle breezes, low humidity and life in general, we had a hummer (hummingbird) buzzin' the gazebo.

Hummer buzzin' is a pure delight, as you get to see them up close and personal and if they really get close enough you can feel the vibrations their wings make. I can remember the first time I experienced the vibrations, it is so amazing, they are so small and to make that gentle rumbling of the air is, well, words cannot describe!

So, last night this hummer kept coming back under the gazebo. My first thought was, OKKKK, time to get the feeder out and fill it with sugar water for him, gotta be hungry, he is trying to tell me something here.

Because he was attacking the kitchen window, my second thought was, he must have been watching Mr. Robin who about a month or so ago was trying to break into the basement via window.

But Man points out something different, he thinks hummer is in love. With the glass hummer hanging on the kitchen window.

A horny hummer??

*Photo, his love interest.

In full bloom

On the property we have a number of "wild" bushes. They were here when we purchased the property and we have left them.

This one that has never been this full of blooms in the some 14 years we have lived here.

Some days Mother Nature really outdoes herself!

Don't share? OK, contemplate this

Since Man is still in the invalid stage of his post surgery, I have spent good hunks of the last 2 days on the mowing machine.

Sooooo, let me ramble away - - - - -

You are a family research fanatic. You spend vacations chasing headstones, obituaries, visiting libraries, churches, documenting your ancestors. You spend a hunk of $$ doing all this. You spend any time you can find the rest of the year organizing, putting this all on a computer data base, ordering more death and marriage certificates, chasing wills, photos.

If you are like me, Ancestry.com, Find A Grave, Rootsweb sites including GenWeb sites, FamilySearch.org and many other sites are listed in your Favorites on your computer. Usually you have all these web sites open on your computer at the same time, and you flip flip flip, back and forth between all the data bases, searching, and searching and ............

You are a rather selfish sort and don't share your data base, or even parts of it with others. You will have lots of excuses, ohhhhh, I want to publish a book on this and if I share it, no one will buy it. OKKKKKKKK. For now, we will let that argument pass.

Lets jump right to, what happens to your research, your hours and hours, $$$ and more $$$ if perhaps, heavens forbid, you head out tomorrow and don't come back. You know, like you pass to the greater rewards on the other side.......................... okkkk, you die!

You have not shared with anyone. Your immediate family, well, lets be honest, they really don't care all that much about this research and family stuff. They pitch it, ALL of it, don't look, don't care, just clean out the junk, clean out the house, hurry, we have things to do and our own lives, kids, jobs, TOSS IT!!

What a shame, because you did not share before you passed, all your time, efforts, $$$, work, all gone, it just got tossed.

OK, don't share. But, answer me this:

"WHY DID YOU SPEND ALL THIS TIME AND $$ ?"

They're back!!!!

About 3 weeks late, but they are back, estimate they are about 1 to 3 days old, they are still yellow. They are about 4 to 5 inches in size (guestimate). They don't stay yellow very long, again, guestimate, about a week. When this young the parents keep them in the pond or at water's edge. In a month or so, they will wander up the hill within 30 feet of the house.

We don't feed them, don't particularly like the deposits they will leave over the next 6 weeks on our lawn, but we do sooooo love watching them!

*Photos taken from about 125 feet, 12 times zoom and fighting the sun.

It takes a village

Sharing, this is all about sharing. Sharing can be hard for a lot of us, I find family researchers on both ends of this spectrum. I can see both points of view, as researchers we spend oodles of time and cash researching our family lines, it is hard for some to post it on line and have others click and claim it and then never thank us, or give us credit when they re-post the work somewhere else.

Click and claim, a sure fire way to 1.) Build your numbers 2.) Irritate other researchers.

So, lets examine the other end of the spectrum, sharing without holding back. Ok, maybe you don't post it all over the Internet, but, you willingly share with other researchers/cousins. Be warned, some of them WILL post your work to the Internet. Gonna happen.

HOWEVER, if you share you can also be the beneficiary of the knowledge of the other researcher/cousins.

If you have been reading my blog here, you will see just this last week I have been chatting, sharing, comparing with two gals both interested in the same Eliza Lashbrook Charleston (that is NEW to me) Quackenbush.

Because of our sharing we now all have a much more detailed picture of Eliza's life, marriages, children, grandchildren. We each had a part of the story, bits and pieces. By combining them, we put Eliza's puzzle back together again.

It took 3 of us, a small village for sure, but a village none the less.

Wish you could smell it

OK, lousy title, but the thought is what counts!

On the way back to the stick last week, we did a stop at a MickeyDees for rest and fuel. We were hurrying towards the entrance door (you figure out why we were hurrying---) when I smelled a little bit o heaven, and it was NOT the burgers frying!

Imagine the fragrance of lilacs on steroids. It is the best description of the smell of a Koren Spice in bloom that I can come up with.

I have had a Korean Spice at the last two sticks. When we moved out here, I lamented, I will never find another one of those, I am gonna miss that smell of Heaven each spring. Either the first or second spring here we were walking through a nursery when, what did I smell, yep, that sweetness, that wonder. I stopped dead in my tracks, turned around and found - - small Korean Spice bushes. Price, who cares, I want one and I am not leaving without it!

I did that same stop dead in my tracks thingy at the MickeyDees the other day. Yep, Korean Spice, they had at least 8 of them planted around the back of the building.

When we arrived back at the stick we discover that our Korean Spice is in full bloom, I sure wish you could smell via computer and blogs..

May, Skin Cancer Awareness Month

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, made very poignant this year by the fact that Man has been diagnosed with a melanoma skin cancer, the worst kind.

Today, right now, at this moment, he is having surgery # 2, hopefully the last one needed for his mole/melanoma on the back of his left arm.

As I sit in the waiting room area of the University of Michigan Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, I cannot help but note the wonderful staff, the under currents of joy, sadness, fear, pain, happiness, life and death. This place is permeated with emotions.

Don't think this cannot happen to you, because it can! If caught early, these cancers are treatable. But they can spread quickly, and are particularly difficult to deal with if they get in to the lymph glands and beyond.

I would urge you to do an Internet search on skin cancer, melanoma. There are lots of great informational sites for you to study.

Learn the ABCD's of skin cancer. It could save your life.

Spelling don't count, indexing either

I just love spelling in family history. I love indexing even more than I love spelling.

Indexed at Ancestry.com as: Abe Clackenburg, Abrham Quackenbush (added by a user/researcher) and Abe Crackenburlz (added by who knows??)

Need I say more??

*Image from Ancestry.com

Rewarding stuff, this family history

OK, I am geeked, and thrilled. Every once in a while in this research game you get to be the good guy, connect a couple of cousins, provide a missing piece of information that connects entire twigs back to the root.

Each time it happens I get such a great feeling. Talk about a natural high! WOWEE

Last week while we were Tana touring, 2 gals contacted me about the same family. It took me a few days to figure this out, sorry for the delay, but, we were on that getaway.

Funny, they both contacted me because of some memorials I sponsor at Find A Grave. That alone is a new experience for me, new to posting memorials and my first connections from the site to the families I research.

Anywhoooooooo, earlier this evening I emailed both of them, introducing them, explaining how we were all interested in the same Eliza Lashbrook Quackenbush.

Several hours and emails later, from both gals, and we realize these 2 gals have the same great grandmother!

OK, I will go do a happy dance now, giggle a bit, smile at the wonders of the Internet, thank Find A Grave and then dance a bit more.

Gosh durn it, I love it when this happens!

One of the joys of country living

You know the routine, going out of town for a week or so, place hold on mail.

You can choose on the mail hold to have it delivered on a specific date by the mail person, or going in and picking up the mail yourself when you return.

I have done both, last trip out we really had no plans, a "seat of the pants" type getaway. So, I put a date of return much later than I knew would happen, and specified, "I will pick up the mail."

Monday when we were backing Tana into the yard/drive Man temporarily had the road blocked, and along came our mailman (he is a man). We live on a rural route, not a "walkable" route. Mailman calmly waited in his vehicle while Man backed Tana up far enough to clear road. Mailman gave us a friendly wave.

Tuesday, we had planned to hop in car and take a early run to the post office to retrieve, but, alas, stuff happened and it was lunch before we knew it. This is a small community, so the post office closes for lunch hour. OK, we will run over there after lunch. More stuff happened and it was after 2ish and we still had not retrieved mail.

Knock, knock! Yorkies do the "hey mom, someone is at the door" noise. Who is there?? My mailman, with our mail!

Mailman says, saw you were home, noticed when I left for my run today that you had not come to pick up your mail, slow day, decided to bring it to you.

SWEET!!!! One of the joys of country living, a mailman who knows you and goes out of his way.

Thanks mailman!!

This 'n That, 2 notes from the road

Monday on the way back to the stick built:

Spotted along side the road, one lone white plastic lawn chair. Placed in such a way if you were seated you would be observing the oncoming traffic. Chair was clean, white, sparkling new. Was in someone's yard, placed within 3 feet of roadway. Struck our funny bones, would love to know the WHY.

Electronic addict that I am, I just LOVE sending birthday cards, free birthday cards, from Hallmark while Man is driving Big Butt, hauling Tana to the sticks. I remember, quite well, in 2001 when Man retired from the real world what electronics and travel were like.

Cell phones, for one thing, were larger. We had ONE. Coverage was so so, but, it did allow us to be in touch with family, as long as we were near a city, ohhhhh, RVing takes us away from the cities, well...... Now we have two cells.

Air cards, ha ha, not in 2001. Connection to Internet was via AOL and hard wired phone lines, as in telephone lines. Some, NOT all, campgrounds were making phone lines available, local calls only please. I used said lines in laundry rooms, in campground offices and my all time fav, from a phone booth, standing up, in deep southern Georgia, OUTSIDE.

Routers, the only router we used in 2001 was printed on paper, it was called a map!

Cut to 2009, Monday, rolling down the byways of rural Ohio, router with air card running on 12 volt power, computer running on 12 volt power, and MOI, sending birthday greetings.

Yaa, love the electronics when they work, yaa, I am addicted!

This 'n That, heading Tana to the sticks

Had a very nice day yesterday, visited with great friends JandM (thanks again for everything) and talked to all 3 sons, the weather was NOT windy, LOL, okk, the weather was mild and enjoyable.

After the java injection Man and I head back to the stickbuilt (RVers term for permanent home vs our home on wheels). Knowing Man, I will bet that before dusk today he will be riding the mowing machine supreme, the Gravely.

Dogs need a bath, I will be unpacking Tana. I want to get back to finishing off the monster Lashbrook family work/book and home county cemeteries await, stomping and recording time!

Been a great spring breakaway!! Fully enjoyed!!

Well, blow me down, and other stuff

Only moved Tana about 65 miles today, but with the wind at 25 to 35 and gusts of 35 to 45, we feel like we did 250 miles.

We know it is blowing when Big Butt and Tana are shoved all over the road. One thing we love about a 5th wheel is that you don't know it is back there when you are towing. If you doubt me, try towing a 30 foot travel trailer, wind or no, then tow a 5er with a big truck. Huge difference in white knuckle factor, travel trailer loses this contest.

One of the side effects of a visit to Amish country, poor cell service. Air card worked but was really slow. Phones kept eating up battery charge. Now that we are more or less back in "cell" country, the air card is flying and there are 5 and 6 bars on the cell. The weak service in Holmes County did not surprise us, but we are true electronic addicts, and are glad to be back among the towers.

Now, if Mother Nature would cut off the gusty attitude - - - -

Had a great visit in Amish country

As is the way with RV's, it is time to move on.

The meals were great, shopping great, scenery great.

Yesterday Man says, lets hit some more furniture stores (looking for a small table for Tana). We hit a LOT of stores. He says, 2 in Millersburg, but, did not look at map. Well, they have Millersburg mailing addresses. Ooops. No problem, we fill Big Butt with gas, look at maps this time, not just the mailing addresses and decide to head to other towns nearby.

Man says, lets use the GPS (could blog about GPS for days, good, bad, ugly and in between), so, I say, okkkkkkk, use this town name, we can go cross country that way.

Man had a blast, hills, lots of farms, more hills, more farms. A few wrong turns, even with the GPS, and well, we ended up on some back roads, no longer paved, narrow, while we finally listened to the GPS and went where it took us, a big circle I believe.

Getting lost can be fun! Even with the GPS.

Enjoyed the visit, need to come back more often, and not wait over 10 years before our next visit.

They sell what at Lehmans?

Took a ride over to Kidron, to Lehman's. Visited there on the last trip here, many moons ago. My oh my! They have enlarged the facility, a LOT! Before, small aisles, crowded, reminded us of hardware stores of a prior time. Now, large airy aisles, very yuppy, designed for the "destination" shopper in mind. They even have a small coffee house type area, and yep, they sell lattes.

Still have all the interesting items stocked for the Amish and those who choose to live an easier lifestyle. Course, you are gonna pay for that simple lifestyle, goodness!

Items spotted: stoves that use coal or wood, saw one, the Enterprise, priced at $7,995. Frigs, electric, by Heartland, designed to look old, or retro, priced at $5,420. Coke cooler kitchen, including fronts for dishwashers, microwaves, stoves, frigs, if you love red this is for you!

They sell frigs powered by kerosene. Freezers powered by propane. And, our fav - - frigs powered by solar power. Hmmmm, maybe that is why we spotted so many homes of Amish with one solar panel on the roof??

They do have a web site.

Take a virtual tour, be sure to check out the stoves and frigs!

This 'n That, from Berlin Holmes County Ohio

Amish cooking YUM. Amish peanut butter, even MORE YUM!!


Spring in Amish country means the wonderful smells of manure, was particularly "ripe" yesterday in downtown Berlin. GULP.


Spied yesterday on a long slow drive, laundry and solar panels, yes, photo is of an Amish home.

Internet connection is flakey today, so, bye for now.

Blast from the past

Man and I decide to visit the Amish country in and around Holmes County Ohio as part of our short get away. We visited here many years ago and had not been back since. We do love visiting Amish areas, the food, the beautiful countryside, the shopping, the quilts!

When last we visited here, we stayed in a rather new campground, on top of a hill, got hit by a buggar of a storm, one of the worst we have been in, had hail damage to the entire side of the rig we had, $5000. worth of damage. We tell the story, well, I tell the story - -

The unit had 2 entry doors, one came into the bedroom at the back of the unit, the other came in between the living room and the kitchen of the unit. So, we had front kitchen, living room, mid bath, and rear bedroom. We had that unit for almost 15 years, put a lot of miles on it, have lots of good RVing and camping memories.

Storm hits, torrential rain, wind - - thought it would blow the trailer over, and HAIL. I manage to jump out and get back door closed, the hail was increasing in size and amounts, it hurt my back. Could not get front door closed, the hail was just too much. Rain is coming in sideways, getting the refrigerator front wet, that is 6 feet away from the door. New computer sitting on table, did not get wet.

In my "infinite wisdom" ?????? I grab two bath towels and stand in front of the screen door trying to block some of the rain. By the end of storm, towels are soaked, I am soaked from head to toe, carpet is wet, throw rugs are soaked. Hubby is soaked, ohhhhh, well, he was in the shower while I fought Mother Nature, I guess he was supposed to be soaked.

Cut to this visit, we made a call to be sure the campground we have chosen is open, it is, we do not remember name of the campground from years ago. We suspect, but won't know till we arrive.

YEP, same place, the one with the hill. It has grown a lot since our last visit, lots of sites to choose from, and what do we do, but pick almost the same site as we had years ago.

Hope there are no storms while we are here. Oh, dear! Photo is Tana sitting on the hill.

Here's Johnny - - Appleseed

Last few days have had Tana parked at the Johnny Appleseed City Park/Campground in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Lovely park, and another history lesson in the making.

So, now is the time for readers to Google, Johnny Appleseed, there is a great piece on him at Wikipedia, and if you know about Find A Grave, try searching for John Chapman, Indiana.

Photo above, is the burial site, with apple trees in bloom, right is stone at the burial site.

Yes, there is some controversy if this is the "exact" site, will leave that to others to discuss and argue. For the rest of us, if you love apples and the story, come pay his resting place a visit.


Fort Wayne does a great job of history preservation, city parks and more. And the home of the Allen County Public Library, haven for family researchers. Well worth a visit.

Ring, Ring, where is the Ring?

Well, dear me, story to tell on MOI!!

Plugged the cell in last night to charge.

Cut to this AM after the Man drops me off at the library. I realize the cell is NOT in my pocket. Oh, no, how can I contact Man later to arrange for him to pick me up at library?

I did not look, but, I doubt there was a old fashioned pay phone in that huge library, ahhhh, remember those, drop in a dime and make a call.

Anyway, I contemplate, come up with plan A. Plan A is, write him an email, he will be back in Tana sometime during the day and will be surfing. Hope he checks his email.

Hours later, no return email. HMMMMM, now what? OKKKK, need plan B. What shall it be???

I know!! Start emailing or see if I can find someone online at Facebook. Emailed one friend, and Facebook two. "HELP!!! NOW!!!"

They all respond, two phone calls to the Man by two good friends, some more emails, lots of thanks and lots of giggles.

Mission accomplished!!

Don't cha just LOVE technology when it works!

This 'n That, from Fort Wayne

Have to say, Fort Wayne has some charming, lovely parks, the downtown ones are always well kept, clean. But, they are really special in the spring, the crab trees in full bloom and the tulips are amazing.

Man had a pretty good day yesterday, they did a economical fix on Big Butt, time will tell if it is a full fix, if not, it was a good place to start. He got to Best Buy, got a sale price/refund on a purchase he made recently, over $100. so, WAHHOOOO.

Back in the library this AM, found a very very very distant relationship to the White Sewing Machine family, no blood, but a lot of marriages will take me from my great great grandmother to the Whites. Fun stuff, and another history lesson via family history research.

Two accident victims, one a grandson of a Rving friend and one the wife of a Darden cousin, have been healing well and the latest reports we have on their health sure are good. The grandson, who was not expected to live 24 hours, is now complaining about the meat loaf served by the hospital. Cousin Jan is also doing much better, was released yesterday from her second stay in the hospital since her accident. We PTL for the return of their health and pray that they continue on this road away from pain and suffering.

We made some Rally plans this AM, the Fall Rally for the Montana gang, September in Goshen and prelim plans for the Great Lakes Rally , same gang, in late July in Mackinaw. WAHOOO