December Movies, Dining, Christmas, and Anniversary

December was a busy month. On the 9th I attended our genealogical society's monthly meeting for the DNA group in the afternoon, then I went over to the Heritage Center for the retirement party for Pam Cooper who was the Supervisor of the Archives Center and Genealogy Department. Thanks to her 30 years of work the Vero Beach Library's local history section went from 250 volumes to over 30,000 titles. 

Then I left Pam's retirement party and met Mike and our neighbor Barbara at the Italian Cousin in Sebastian for dinner. Mike and Barbara had the Sausage and Meatball Rigatoni and I had the Salmon Special with Mozzarella Sticks for an appetizer. Always a great place to eat!

On the 13th I went to our monthly Genealogical Society meeting and on the 16th Mike and I went to the Vero Beach Yacht Club for the monthly MOAA (Military Officers of America Assn.) luncheon. 

Fletcher and his friend Frankie drove up from Fort Lauderdale on Christmas Eve. After they got in, we drove up to the IMAX theater in West Melbourne to see Rogue One, A Star Wars Story in 3-D. After the movie we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse in Palm Bay for dinner. Mike, Fletcher and I ordered the Bacon Cheese Burger and Frankie had the Smokehouse Burger. We all ordered the Loaded Steak Fries with cheddar cheese and bacon bits. 

Christmas Day Mike and I drove over to my sister-in-laws for Christmas dinner with her son and her daughter and her husband and 3 sons. We had invited our neighbor Barbara over for dinner on Christmas evening, so since Fletcher and Frankie decided to stay at our house instead of going to Kissimmee I left them instructions on how to fix Pepper Steak in the crockpot. So when Mike and I got home, I only had to

November Happenings

I haven't posted since last month and thought I would update what's been going on.

My brother Cyril died October 27 - he would have been 90 in December. He had been in failing health for several months and my sister-in-law Elaine had been taking care of him at home. My niece's husband and sons would come over daily and help Elaine, so she did have some help. Cyril was 20 years older than me, so he was my "big" brother in years as well as in size. I really miss him.

Cyril's funeral was November 1 in Kissimmee. Our son Fletcher drove up from Fort Lauderdale and my first cousin Frances and her husband flew down from Illinois to be there. Elaine's brothers & sister and some of their children drove up from West Palm Beach. 

I had applied to join the Daughters of the American Revolution and my application was accepted. I was inducted in the Treasure Coast D.A.R. Chapter on Nov. 7 at their monthly luncheon. I received my certificate in the mail about a week later. I only had to prove  my relationship back to my 4th great grandfather Jacob Utley since he was already listed as a Patriot.

We had the shower in our guest bathroom resurfaced by Patrick at Resurface Specialist earlier this

Back to Normal after Hurricane Matthew

The rest of the month of October was pretty normal once the cleanup from the storm was done. And oh yes, all of the breakable stuff I had put away in drawers and closets in case any of our windows were broken - it took a LOT LONGER to put everything back than it did to put it away! But I'll do it again if we have another hurricane - which is very likely since we live in south Florida.

The monthly meeting of the Indian River Genealogical Society on the 11th was cancelled because the internet at the Vero Library hadn't been restored. 

On the morning of the 15th we drove down to the Home Show at Port St. Lucie and we took our neighbor Barb with us. We saw a product that we both liked - it was resurfacing a shower or bathtub/shower combination. We spoke with the owner Patrick from Resurface Specialist and made arrangements for him to come and give an estimate for our guest shower and Barb wanted an estimate for her guest bathroom. After the Home Show we

Hurricane Matthew and After

Not too long after my post on Oct. 6 our power went off at 11:30. By then we were having 30-40 mph winds with 55-60 mph gusts.

Fortunately earlier that day we had turned down the A/C cooler than usual so in case our power did go off, it would take longer for the house to heat up. Mike walked Tinker one last time that night and we went to bed.

On Friday Oct. 7 we were having more frequent bands of rain and stronger winds. During one of the "lulls" in the weather, Mike went over to Barb's house and started her generator so it would run her refrigerator. He then started our generator which he moved to the front of our storage shed and connected it to the house. We can run the refrigerator, lights and ceiling fans. 

Fortunately Tinker hasn't been too nervous in the storm. But he's not too crazy about having to go outside to do his business with this storm and we try to take him out when it's not raining really hard. 

Hurricane Matthew stayed about 45-50 miles east of our coastline, so we didn't get the full brunt of the storm. But we did get 74 mph gusts Friday and 4½" of rain. 

By mid-afternoon Friday the worst was over and we went outside to see if we had any damage. The roof looks good and there was no damage to house or the storage shed - but the oak trees and the yard are another matter!

The tops of the trees have been stripped and are now all over the front yard. Our side lot looks worse.

Before the Storm

Preparing for Hurricane Matthew

Mike finally decided to trade in his Droid Bionic phone for a Samsung Galaxy 7 after doing some research on the Galaxy 7. So on the 3rd of this month, we went down to the Verizon store in Vero and traded in his old phone for the Samsung. As always with a new cell phone, there are differences from the old phone and Mike has been learning about the Galaxy's features.

We have spent this last week preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Matthew - buying bottled water, a few non-perishable groceries and filling the gas tank in the Outback and the gas cans we use for the generator. We didn't have too much outside stuff to put away, but I have a lot of potted plants that we moved inside of the garage. 

Mike and I grew up in Lake Worth, FL and we know what to expect with a hurricane. But this is Tinker's first hurricane and we'll see how he does. Fortunately he doesn't have any anxiety during thunderstorms - I guess as long as he has his best friend Bear, everything will be OK.

We have no shutters on our house and I moved everything that was breakable away from the windows - putting smaller items in dresser drawers and larger items in closets. Our house went through the 2005-06 hurricanes. We know there was roof damage, but according to Barb (our neighbor) she doesn't remember the previous owners having any windows damaged. I did go around the house taking photos of everything and I took photos outside of our house, trees and landscaping. 

Mike got Barb's and our generator ready with the extension cords, so they would be ready in case our power goes out. Barb always goes to stay with a friend in town during the storms, but Mike will be able to keep her refrigerator running if we lose power.

So now we just sit and wait for Matthew to arrive. We haven't had any rain today, but since about 4 p.m. the winds have been picking up. We've been getting winds averaging around 20-30 mph with wind gusts from 30 to almost 50 mph. We did have some rain about an hour ago, but it has stopped.

We still have power, but as the winds increase I'm not sure how much longer it will last.

House, dog & cat sitting

Fletcher came up from Ft. Lauderdale for a visit on Labor Day weekend. He brought his dog Vala and Doug's dog Diva to visit also. Tinker, Vala and Diva all get along well together, but I know Tinker is always glad when they go back home and he has "his" house and us all to himself. I fixed Fletcher's favorite meal of Pepper Steak and rice on Sunday for dinner. Monday before he left to go back home we went to Sebastian Roadside restaurant for a late breakfast. 

While Fletcher was here we talked about how the wifi signal could be better in the family room especially when we're watching movies on Apple TV. The wifi router is in the office on the other side of the house and Fletcher suggested that we get a wifi extender. So on Labor Day after Fletcher went back home, I went down to Best Buy in Vero and bought a wifi extender. I put it about half way between the family room and the office and it seems to have improved our wifi reception.

Fletcher flew up to Boston on the 23rd to visit some friends and Mike and I (and Tinker)

D.A.R. application, Mike's PT and other things

Mike spent the first 2 weeks of this month going to physical therapy 3 days a week as follow-up to his knee replacement surgery.

We drove up to West Melbourne on the 3rd to see the movie Star Trek Beyond at the IMAX theater there. Afterwards we stopped at 5 Guys to have a couple of bacon cheeseburgers and fries - the small cheeseburgers. 

We had some sad news that a high school friend of Mike's had died earlier this month and we drove down to Lake Worth on the 13th to attend his funeral. 

Before our next door neighbor moved several months ago, she gave me about 2 dozen Flaming Torch bromeliads from her garden and a few of them are blooming. 

I've been kind of toying with the idea for years of joining the Daughters of the American Revolution. So this month on the 25th I met with Laura from the D.A.R. at the Vero Library and we went over the records and documentation I have proving my relationship back to my

Mike's Physical Therapy and Home Nurses

Mike came home from Sebastian Medical Center late in the afternoon on July 1. Dr. Maes has arranged for home physical therapy and nurse visits for 2 weeks. The first weekend Mike was home a physical therapist and nurse came on Saturday and Sunday. From July 5 to July 15 we had a physical therapist come Monday through Friday and we had a nurse come 3 times a week. 

After that Mike was able to go to outpatient physical therapy here in Sebastian and he is going 3 days a week. Mike's not been cleared to drive yet, so I take him to his appointments. There are several physical therapy offices here and Mike chose Longevity Rehab Center in the same building as his surgeon.

We have both been impressed with the care he received at Sebastian Medical Center, the home physical therapy and nurses from Nurse on Call and his outpatient PT. Mike probably has another 2 weeks of PT after this month. 

Since my landscaping partner is out of commission this month, we had a landscaping company come and plant our new flowers and put down the mulch we had bought. It was a special from Angie's List last month and In the Son Lawn came the morning of the 18th and the owner and 1 helper did the work in a little over 3 hours. I had paid for 4 hours, so the owner looked around and they trimmed our oak tree in the front yard and planted a couple of plants in a smaller flower bed. 

I thought that was nice that they looked for things to do so I would get the 4 hours I had paid

Mike's knee surgery & some Landscaping

The first half of this month we had cousins visit and Mike's doctors' appointments for tests prior to his knee surgery.

On the 16th we went to Sebastian Medical Center to attend "Joint Camp" in preparation for Mike's surgery. We were given a run-through on what to expect during Mike's stay before and after his knee surgery and about the physical therapy he would receive after the surgery. We were also told about what items we would need at home after he came home from the hospital - a walker, a chair for the shower, etc.

This last half of the month has been almost as busy. As I mentioned in my last post, Mike's cousin Mary Lynn from California had to replace the stove in her rental house in Melbourne. So on the afternoon of the 21st we drove up to her house and met the appliance company that was delivering the stove and the plumber who was doing some work on her house.

We had bought some new plants for our front flower bed and it was now apparent that Mike wouldn't be able to help me plant them and put down the mulch. Fortunately, Angie's List had a special on landscaping for 2 men for 4 hours for $259 and we've made arrangements for a company come next month to do the work. I've placed the new plants in their pots in the front flower bed where I think I want them planted. 

We did move the Lady Palm from the front flower bed where it was getting too much sun

Visits from Cousins and Mike's prep for Knee Surgery

We've been busier this month than usual. My cousin Jimmy and his wife Sally from Illinois came on the 10th for a visit. They have a time share in Orlando and their son and his family came from Texas for a visit. Jimmy and Sally drove over to visit with us for a few hours while their son and his family went to Disney. We just had homemade subs and a pasta salad I fixed for lunch. It didn't occur to me until after they left, that we hadn't taken any photos! I guess it was because we were having such a good visit, that we didn't stop for photos.

Mike's cousin Mary Lynn from California flew in to Orlando late in the evening on the 9th to check on her rental house at Melbourne that is now empty. We drove up to her house the day of the 9th and left her our air mattress, a table lamp and a bedside table to use while she stayed there. We drove up to see Mary Lynn on Saturday the 11th and she always has a few small jobs for Mike to do around the house. Mary Lynn took us out for dinner to Squid Lips in Melbourne. Mary Lynn left on the 15th and we drove up that day to get our stuff we had left for her to use.We always enjoy seeing Mary Lynn the few times we get together.

June 13th was Mike's 74th birthday and we drove down to Vero to have dinner at Outback Steakhouse. The steaks are always good there. 

Mike has been having knee problems for a while and our primary care doctor recommended

Rain, Dining out and a Movie

Well, the title pretty well sums of the last half of this month!

We had 5" of rain on May 17 and 2" on May 19 - I'm not complaining because our plants really liked the rain and we didn't have to put out the sprinkler to water that week.

We went to dinner at the Italian Cousin here in Sebastian on the 18th and had their spaghetti dinner. It's such a large portion that we have learned to eat only half and bring the rest home for another meal. 

Today we went down to Vero to see the movie X-Men Apocalypse in 3D - which we really enjoyed.

Afterwards we went to Olive Garden for dinner. We both ordered the unlimited salad and soup with breadsticks. I had the chicken and gnocchi soup and Mike had the pasta e fagioli soup and we both had a second bowl of soup. It's always a good choice and even with the

Back home from NGS Conference

Mike and I drove home last Monday after spending several days at Fletcher's house. We were there so I could attend the 2016 National Genealogical Society's annual conference. It was especially nice since last Sunday was Mother's Day and we could spend it with Fletcher.

This has been a much slower and less busy week than last week and it's great to get back in our regular routine.

Tuesday I attended the monthly Indian River Genealogical Society's meeting at the library in Vero. Wednesday Mike and I dropped Tinker off at the groomer's for a bath and then we went to Country Ham N Egg for breakfast.

I took Tinker in to the vet's on Thursday for his annual checkup and all of his tests came back great.

This morning I went to Home Depot and WalMart Supercenter shopping for a couple of planters and found them at WalMart. Then I stopped at Sandwich Shack and got lunch for Mike and I. He had his usual Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and I had the Turkey, Avocado, Bacon Wrap.

Tonight I ordered a Y-DNA test from Family Tree DNA for Mike. We've both had our autosomal DNA tests done at Ancestry. I'm hoping that maybe with the Y-DNA test I can break through the brick wall I have on Mike's ancestors.

Mother's Day at Fletcher's

It felt so good to sleep in this morning!  If you can call getting up at 7:00 this morning sleeping in! As much as I enjoyed attending the National Genealogical Society Conference that last 4 days, I'm not sure I could have done a 5th full day of seminars. In those 4 days I attended 19 one hour seminars and 3 thirty minute seminars. 

Tinker has really "mellowed out" around cats now. I got a picture of Tinker and Josie taking their after breakfast naps on the sofa this morning.

Josie is 14 years old (as best we can figure) and used to be our cat until we sold our home and moved into the motorhome. Then she went to live with Fletcher along with our other two cats Bailey and Joey (who are now deceased).

Mike and I just spent today relaxing and watching movies with Fletcher. Then Fletcher took us out for dinner to Miller's Ale House in Ft. Lauderdale. We each ordered steaks and salads and Mike and I had the Apple Crisp for dessert.

A final note on the genealogy conference, I didn't get to attend some seminars that I would

Last Day of 2016 NGS Conference

My first seminar this morning was "Identifying Women: The Ultimate Brick Wall" by Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS. She talked about the early laws governing women and what their legal rights were or weren't and how that affected the types of records they would leave behind and how to find those records.

My 9:30 seminar was "West Florida Pre-1830: the History, the People, and the Records" by Sharon D. Monson. This was a class on the early history of West Florida under different countries and how that affected the types of records that were created. She provided a list of websites that had some of the early West Florida records. I'm especially interested in this because Mike's Fletcher and Manning ancestors lived in West Florida before 1845.

The 11:00 seminar was "The Hidden Gender - Finding Women in Courthouse Records" by Janice Lovelace, Ph.D. As in my seminar at 8:00 this morning, Janice covered the types of legal documents and records that women could be found in. She spoke about what legal rights women had and didn't have. I know it sounds like I basically repeated my first seminar, but each speaker sometimes will cover one type of record in more detail than another speaker will or will have a different way of researching to find records.

I took a break from attending any of the lunch break seminars today. I decided to get some Chicken Fingers with coleslaw and a soda for lunch ($14). After eating I stopped by some of the vendors' booths in the Exhibit Hall to see if I found anything interesting that I might have missed before. Then I realized that I REALLY missed

Third day of the 2016 NGS Conference

Mike and I stopped at a Burger King for breakfast this morning before taking me to the conference center for today's seminars.

My 8:00 seminar was "Reasonably Exhaustive Research, The First Criteria for Genealogical Proof" given my Elizabeth Shown Mills, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA. She explained the difference between "search" and "research" and that the Genealogical Proof Standard had been changed in 2014 to "reasonably exhaustive research" instead of search. She covered the processes that we need to go through in our research. The second part of the seminar was a research project and the steps taken to prove and disprove some of the information from past researchers.

The next seminar was "Focus on Place: Building Locality Profiles for Your Research" by Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS. I have heard Josh talk on this subject before at one of our Valentine Seminars for the Indian River Genealogical Society. He is a lively and entertaining speaker and none of the other seminars in the 9:30 time slot really struck an interest in me. After my last seminar which was really an in depth and complicated subject, this one was a welcome change. I still learned some new pointers from Josh today. Basically his concept of a locality profile is the same as creating a timeline for location - county, state, country. We learned how and where to search and locate information on the locales that we were searching in.

The 11:00 seminar was given by Richard Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA "Territorial Papers of the Southeast". This was really informative and Rick gave us some terrific printed sources for locating territorial papers and told us which ones were online and where to find them. This was really helpful since a lot of our ancestors' lived in areas that were still territories before they became states.

I've eaten a turkey wrap and a hamburger for lunch this week and really wanted something

My second day at the 2016 NGS Conference

We're up again early this morning and left Fletcher's house about 7:15 to go to the conference center. Mike dropped me off at the front entrance and I had plenty of time to locate the room for my first seminar this morning at 8:00.

The seminar is "Mapping Apps for Genealogists" given by Richard Sayer, CG, CGL, FUGA. He discussed standalone apps for smartphones and web-based apps for computers. A lot of the mapping apps or websites he discussed, I was familiar with but he did have some that I didn't know about and want to explore. He covered platting programs (which I really need to take a look at) and cemetery apps (which I knew about) and some genealogy related mapping websites that look interesting.

My 9:30 seminar was on "Private Land Claims" by Pamela Boyer Sayer, CG, CGL, FUGA. This covered land claims in the public domain which were in the early territories before they were states. She discussed researching in the Bureau of Land Management's website, the National Archives and where to find local records. I've researched the BLM GLO site and have found ancestors' records there and this was a good refresher course for me.

My next seminar was at 11:00 "Justices of the Peace: Miscellany, Mischief, Marriages, and More!" by Diane Florence Gravel, CG. I took this course because a few of our ancestors were Justices of the Peace and I wanted to learn more about their function. Diane covered their responsibilities and the types of records the justices would have produced and where to find those records - I got a LOT of information in this class.

During the lunch break (12:00 to 2:30), I walked around the Exhibit Hall and decided to attend Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems 30 minute seminar "3 Cool Tools for Newspapers" from 12:45 to 1:15. The first "Tool" is

My first day at NGS 2016 Conference

I got up at 6:00 this morning to shower and get ready to attend the National Genealogical Society's conference here in Ft. Lauderdale. Mike and I left Fletcher's house about 7:00 and drove down to the Conference Center. Mike dropped me off at the front entrance and he will pick me up there this afternoon.

Our morning started off at 8:00 with everyone attending the opening session titled "Ordinary" People, Extraordinary Lives given by Connie Lester, Ph.D. She talked about the men and women who first settled in Florida and what hardships they endured as pioneers. This ended at 10:30 and then we were all off to locate the room where our next seminar was to be held.

I picked "Bounty Land: State and Federal" as my 11:00 seminar. Debra Mieszala, CG was the speaker and she talked about how to find Federal and state bounty land records. She explained why and when the bounty lands were awarded and which states had state bounty land records. I have done some research on bounty land records and have found some

Trip down to Ft. Lauderdale to attend NGS Conference

I've spent the last couple of days packing and getting stuff ready for our trip down to Ft. Lauderdale where I'll be attending the National Genealogical Society's 2016 Conference which is sponsored by the Florida State Genealogical Society. I'm excited since this is the first conference of this size that I've attended - make that the first conference of any size that I've attended except for our local ones.

This morning I took Tinker to the groomer's for a bath and packed the car while he was getting a bath. After picking Tinker up at the groomer's we headed west to I-95. Since it was noon, we stopped at McDonald's for a late breakfast before getting on to I-95. We headed south on I-95 to Ft. Pierce where we got on to the Florida Turnpike.

We stopped at the Dunkin Donuts at 2:00 for coffee and a snack at the West Palm Beach Plaza on the Turnpike. We continued on south until we reached exit 62 and headed east on Commercial Blvd. We paid a total of $7.15 on tolls on the turnpike. We drove on down to the Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center so I could pick up
my conference packet.

There is huge sculpture at the conference center depicting three sailfish in different poses "jumping" out of the water and its quite impressive.

After leaving the conference center, we drove over to Fletcher's house and got there about

New GPS

In my April 11 post, I mentioned that our Garmin GPS had developed vertical lines on the screen. Well, I researched the problem on the internet and Garmin's website and found out that we needed to buy a new GPS - that there wasn't a fix for the problem. So after some research and shopping online, I ordered a Garmin nuvi 68LMT from Amazon. It has a 5.4" screen which is larger than our old 4" Garmin. There are differences between the two and so it will take a little time to get used to using the new Garmin.

We've just been taking it easy the rest of this month. We did have breakfast at Sebastian Roadhouse on the 23rd and had lunch at Olive Garden yesterday - all you can eat soup and salad, always a good choice!

I did join the Florida State Genealogical Society today - $35 for a family membership.

Busy week after returning home from Illinois

We got back home on Monday from our trip to southern Illinois and the next day was the monthly meeting of the Indian River Genealogical Society in Vero. The guest speaker was
Diahan Southard from Genealogy Gems and her topic was "Back to Basics - DNA". Mike & I had our DNA tested at Ancestry almost 2 years ago and we're going to get a Y-DNA test for Mike soon. Diahan is really good at explaining DNA and how to use it in genealogical research. I signed up for a private session with her on Wednesday and she went over our DNA matches on Ancestry. She explained how to use the matches and how to analyze them.

Yesterday Mike and I attended the monthly MOAA (Military Officers of America Association) luncheon at the Vero Beach Country Club. Mike and I chose the chicken entrée when we mailed in our reservation. Then for dinner I went to Little Caesar's and got a pizza. Don't get me wrong, lunch was excellent at the country club, but we both were craving a pizza.

We don't have anything scheduled for the rest of this month and it will be nice to have some time just to take it easy after our trip to Illinois.


 

Back home after 9 days and 2064 miles

We got up this morning about 7:30, walked and fed Tinker and then packed the car. We left the motel at 8:30 and drove over the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Mike ordered the Double Meat breakfast with bacon & sausage, scrambled eggs, grits and biscuits and gravy. I had the Old Timer's breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits and gravy. 

We always save a little piece or two of bacon to give to Tinker when we get back to the car. The weather has warmed up since we are further south, so we left the car running with the A/C on and locked while we ate breakfast. We left Cracker Barrel about 9:15 and stopped at a Flash Foods station to get gas ($1.859 a gallon) and a Starbucks for another cup of coffee before getting back out on I-75. 

We stayed on I-75 south until we reached I-10 and then went east to Jacksonville and then south on I-95. We stopped for lunch at a Steak n Shake at a Melbourne exit and were back on the road by 1:00. 

When we got off of I-95 at the Sebastian exit, we stopped to get gas ($1.879 a gallon) before going home. We arrived home at 2:15. 

We were gone for 9 days and traveled 2064 miles. We had a great visit with my cousins and our friend Symphony, but it is nice to be back home and to sleep in our own bed tonight.

While we were traveling, the screen on our Garmin GPS developed vertical lines on the map. I'm going to research that to see what is causing it and if it can be fixed, but I'm thinking that a new GPS is in our future.

Attending church and then leaving to start home

The weatherman was right - it was 46° with a wind chill of 44° when we got up this morning. After breakfast Mike and I packed up the car because we're leaving today and then we changed clothes so we could go to church with Symphony. We kept out a change of clothes from the suitcase for both of us, so we can change from our "church" clothes before leaving the church and getting on the road.

Thank goodness it was chilly this morning, because we brought Tinker with us in the car when we went to church otherwise we would have had to leave the car running with him in it. We arrived at Collinsville Baptist Church about 10:45 plenty of time before the 11:00 service started. Before the service starts, Pastor John Morgan always asks if there are any visitors and Symphony introduced us and Pastor John remembered us from our previous visits - which maybe is once every year or two.

Usually on Sunday after the 11:00 service, they have a pot luck lunch and we have attended them and have always left stuffed with good  home-cooked food and today was no different. After we ate, we got our change of

Collinsville Trade Day with friends

The cold front has made its way down here now - it was 46° yesterday morning with a wind chill of 42°, but by the afternoon it had warmed up to about 59°. Symphony has a Class C Brave motorhome and she wanted Mike to check a few things on it for her and he did that yesterday. We spent the rest of the day catching up with each other's news.

Today Symphony took us down to Collinsville to go to Trade Day which is a huge outdoor market with handmade crafts, antiques, homemade pastries and canned food, fresh fruits and vegetables, clothing, tools, furniture and booths serving hot food. We have been to Trade Day before when we visited with Symphony and its just fun to see what all is there. 

This morning it was 44° with a wind chill of 38° when we got up, but it had warmed up a little by the time we were in Collinsville. We've been here when it was much warmer, but today was really pleasant and we didn't get overheated walking around the market. We bought some homemade cheese and canned pickles from an Amish booth. We also bought a "N" medallion at another booth that Mike is going to paint and put on a front wall of the house.

After leaving the market, Symphony took us over to a friend's house for us to meet him. Chuck had been ill earlier this year and Symphony had helped him out until he recovered. We visited for quite a while and then we all realized that we were hungry. We said that Symphony and Chuck could choose the restaurant and that we would pay for dinner. They suggested eating at Don Chico's Mexican Restaurant in town - it sounded good to us since we always like trying out different Mexican restaurants. The food was very good and we had a good time with Symphony and Chuck - such a good time I can't remember exactly what we all ordered, but it was very good. After dinner Chuck left to go home and we headed back to Symphony's house.

It did warm up to about 55° today and is supposed to be in the mid-40's tomorrow morning.

Leaving Illinois and heading to Alabama

It was a little warmer when we got up yesterday morning - 57° with a high of 68°. We spent yesterday at Frances and Jack's house and just relaxed. We did go to WalMart to get a couple of things we needed for the trip home and got gas in the Outback ($1.839 a gallon).

We got up early this morning and had coffee with Frances and Jack before loading the car. They offered to fix breakfast before we left, but we declined and said we'd stop somewhere on the road and get something. It was hard to pass up one of Jack's homemade breakfasts, especially since this morning's temp was 48° with a wind chill of 39°. 

We left their house at 8:00 and took IL-34 south to connect with IL-142 at Eldorado and then down to IL-1 to Cave-in-Rock. We stopped at Hardee's in Harrisburg on IL-34 about 9:00 for a quick breakfast. We arrived at Cave-in-Rock about 10:00 just as the ferry was leaving.

While we waited for the ferry to return, we walked Tinker down to the river and he watched the ferry leaving and crossing the Ohio River.

The ferry was back by 10:20 and we were the first vehicle on board. 

We arrived on the Kentucky side at 10:30 and took KY-91 south to Marion, KY and then south on US-641 to Eddyville, KY and stopped at McDonald's for lunch before heading down to I-24 and over to Nashville. 

Looking at Old Family Photos at Jimmy & Sally's

Jack fixed us another great breakfast this morning - biscuits and sausage gravy. Yummy! Breakfast was especially good this morning because the temperature was 34° with a wind chill of 28° when we got up this morning.

We all just lazed around the house this morning and caught up on email and I entered our trip expenses in Quicken. 

This afternoon we drove over to Jimmy and Sally's house in separate cars in case Mike and I wanted to stay longer and visit more. Frances and Jimmy's sister Eva drove over this morning from Troy, IL to be there when we visit. 

Sally had fixed lunch for all of us and as usual everything was great. We had barbecue pork sandwiches with all the fixings, potato salad, baked beans and of course, dessert. Shortly after lunch, Jimmy brought out several photo albums for us to look through - I think there must have been about a dozen albums. The four of us (Frances, Eva, Jimmy and myself) sat on the sofa with the albums in front of us. Mike took a photo of us and he said something funny and snapped a picture as all four of us were laughing. I wish I could remember exactly what he said, but can't.

We started looking through the albums and some of the photos were taken before any of us had been born. I saw photos of my parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen before and didn't have copies of. Thank goodness for smart phones - I took photos of the pictures (and the names on back) with my iPhone.

After a few hours, Mike and Jack decided to go back to Frances & Jack's house for some

Visiting with Frances & Jack

We spent today visiting with Frances and Jack. As usual Jack fixed one of his great breakfasts - bacon and waffles - always a special treat. It was nice and cool this morning 59°.

I mentioned how I would like to have time to go down to the Johnson County Courthouse in Vienna to do a little genealogical research and Jack said he and Frances would take us down there. So this afternoon we drove down to Vienna where Frances & my Jones grandparents and great grandparents had lived. Jack and Mike said they would stay in the car while Frances and I went into the court clerk's office. A nice young lady showed us where the birth, death and marriage record books were and left us to do our research. I had hoped to get copies made, but the cost per page was too much and I just wrote down on a pad the information I was looking for. I did find some information that I hadn't had before, so it was a good trip even it it was a short one. 

On the way back to their house, the subject of supper came up and we said we would buy dinner, but Frances and Jack had to pick the restaurant. After some discussion they settled on O'Charley's in Marion. We ordered the Potato Skins for an appetizer, I had the grilled Atlantic salmon and everyone else order steaks. The food was really good and the restaurant was a great choice.

Afterwards we came back to Frances and Jack's house and are now watching TV. We're going over to visit with my other cousin Jimmy and his wife Sally tomorrow.

It's supposed to much colder tomorrow morning - I think in the mid-30's. Today was nice and cool and it warmed up to 64° - a nice change from southern Florida.

Acworth, GA to Benton, IL

We didn't have as many miles to drive today, so we slept in a little this morning and ate breakfast at the motel. After packing the car and checking out (the room cost $96.64), we were on the road at 9:20 and heading north on I-75. 

About 30 minutes after leaving Acworth, we saw that the southbound traffic on I-75 was backed up for miles

I remember thinking how lucky we were that it was on the other side since we had been stuck yesterday with traffic backed up for miles.

Traffic was flowing along nicely on I-75 today until we were about 7 south of Dalton, GA. We had just passed the southern exit to Dalton when traffic came

Heading up to Illinois

We got up this morning at 6:00 and after loading the last minute items in the car, we left the house at 7:45 and headed north on I-95. We took I-95 up to Jacksonville and then I-10 west and got onto I-75 north. We stopped at Camping World at Lake Park, GA and bought a Next Exit book to give to my cousin Frances and a small utility leaf blower for us. We stopped at a Flash Foods in Byron, GA to get gas and paid $1.879 a gallon. 

About 45 minutes after leaving the gas station, the northbound traffic on I-75 came to a halt. We decided to exit I-75 south of McDonough, GA and try to go around the traffic. We took exit 216 and headed north on US-23 into McDonough. We did have traffic backed up in

Preparations for Trip to Illinois

I had made Tinker an appointment with the groomer for this morning and he was clipped and bathed and is ready for the trip.

We spent today running last minute errands in preparation for our trip to Illinois. We stopped at Hale Groves here to buy a couple of bags of oranges to take with us to give to my cousins Jimmy and his sister Frances and we filled the tank in the Outback at Speedway and paid $1.879 a gallon. 

By the time we finished with our errands, we were hungry and decided to stop at Ay Jalisco in Sebastian for dinner before going home and packing the car for our trip. 

We've been watching the weather forecast for Benton, IL and it looks like a cold front will be moving in there about the time we arrive, so we are packing some long sleeve shirts and a jacket for each of us and we should be OK. If it gets too cold for the clothes we packed, there is always Walmart.

A Little More Gardening and Sue's Fall

We didn't do as much gardening this month. We did plant 4 Tibouchina Bushes and more Ti Plants in front of the house. 

Our Spanish Bayonet in the back yard is starting to bloom - not really crazy about the plants and we have to watch Tinker so he doesn't walk into the sharp ends of the leaves.

Last month our raspberry bougainvillea was looking really bad (I'm told its because of too much rain or water, OR not enough rain or water - go figure!)

and now take a look at it!

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday, we had a really nice rain. On my way back into the garage after checking the mail, I slipped and fell and really hurt my ankle. At first I thought I had broken it, it hurt so BAD. I had planned on taking my cell phone with me, but I didn't since I was only going out to the mailbox. I crawled from the garage door to the door that

Still Gardening and More Stuff

We've continued working on our flower beds this month. I took a photo of the Tibouchina Tree after we planted it.

We bought a Starburst Bush (Clerodendrum Quadriloculare) and planted it on the south side of the garage near the bougainvillea on the fence. The bougainvillea hasn't been doing well lately, so I gave it a severe pruning and hopefully it will do better.

We also bought some Drift Roses and Ornamental Cabbage plants and added them to a flower bed by the garage.

We're still taking our neighbor Barbara to her doctor's appointments and she introduced us

Gardening and other Stuff in January

We've been kept busy this month between working on our flower beds and helping our neighbor Barbara after her fall last month.

We've dug out the front flower bed in front of the dining room and lowered it about 3". When the house was built, the flower bed was sloped towards the house and whenever it rained real heavy water would puddle up against the house. When we would have some really heavy rain, we would end up having a small pond there. 

I did all of the digging (my back is better than Mike's - go figure!) and Mike emptied the wheelbarrow and we had about 20 loads of dirt that I dug out of there. Now all we have to do is to decide what we want to plant in the space.

The first thing we planted was a Tibouchina Tree, or Princess Flower. We tried centering the tree between the front entrance and the side wall. Then we tried centering the tree on the dining room window (which is centered on the inside wall, not on the outside wall of the house). 

We eventually settled on centering the tree in front of the window - which looks good when looking at it either from inside the house or from outside.

We had a really heavy rain (2") earlier this month and a large flock of cattle birds were