Sunday, October 25

What a beautiful day. Each day since I got here, Luke comes in to my room and says "Grandma, the sun is shining, time to get up!" We spent a nice relaxing morning, had bagels and donuts for breakfast and made homemade biscuit pizzas for lunch. Trish and Chad took Luke to a Haunted Fall Fest in the afternoon and Lily and Grandma hung out together. First we took a nice 1 hour nap and then we had some pureed peaches before we went for a walk around the neighborhood. When we arrived back home Luke was waiting for us in the driveway. Mexican for dinner topped off with Cold Stone ice cream made the day complete.

Saturday, October 23

Pumpkin painting.

Petting barn.

Bulls eye or should I say Pumpkin's nose!

Sliding down the Straw Slide.

The straw maze.

Yesterday was spent on the road, destination grand kids. I left at 6:15 and got into Dover around 3:30. Luke saw me as I walked up to the door and yelled "Gamma is here!" and suddenly the 9 hour drive was all worth while. The evening was spent watching the kids while Trish and Chad finished some work at the track. Lily is as pleasant as always and Luke as demanding as ever! We had a great time. This morning Luke and I squeezed in a trip to Fifer's Orchard Fall Fest. We went through the straw maze, painted pumpkins, petted animals at the petting barn and climbed a straw fort to go down a slide. Then Luke, Trish and Chad had to attend Max's 2nd birthday party. I stayed back with Lily because Trish didn't want to expose her to that many pre-schoolers before her tests on Wednesday. We took a long walk around the neighborhood in the 70 degree weather and played and played and played. She is a lot more vocal than when I last saw her but still has that infectious smile. Hope the weather stays this nice all week.

**Tomorrow, pics of Lily!

Sunday, October 17

Lincoln Memorial University, The President's Home.

Hiking the Wilderness Trail from Cumberland Gap.

The Iron Furnace. I had a picture taken here of me and my grandfather when he came to visit in 1970.

Inside the new Tex Turner Arena.

Sunday morning at the Pinnacle Overlook.

Just had the most fabulous weekend in a very long time. I went to my college homecoming with two of my friends who also attended LMU at the same time, and we had a blast. It was as if we had never left. We had so much fun reminiscing about our college days. It had been a while since Phyl and I had been on campus and there have been some tremendous changes during that time. The enrollment is no longer a mere 700 students, there is a veterinary tech center, college of osteopathic medicine, a business education building, a center for health sciences, a new baseball and softball field, sports arena and several new dormitories. The main campus is just about as we remembered it but it is certainly growing everywhere around it. We stayed at The Olde Mill Inn B & B in Cumberland Gap about 5 miles from campus and really loved the atmosphere and the breakfasts there were awesome. We had time to do some hiking up the mountain behind the Inn as well as attending some sorority functions and touring the campus and visiting the bookstore. Saturday afternoon we drove to LaFollett, a town about 30 miles southwest of campus to visit Barb's cousin. Phyll and I had done our student teaching at LaFollett High School and the first thing we noticed was how much it had grown since we were there last. We watched the Ohio State/Wisconsin game. We were so frustrated during the game that we had to break out the "moonshine" before halftime to soften the blow of the inevitable defeat. This morning we had another fabulous breakfast before checking out and then driving up to the Pinnacle Overlook. It provides a beautiful vista of the Cumberland Gap and the tri-state area. From the overlook you can see Kentucky and Tennessee while standing in Virginia. We made really great time driving home until we hit Cincinnati where there were 2 lanes closed at the bridge crossing the Ohio River. Traffic stopped for almost an hour getting across the bridge. We made it home around 6:30. I'm so very glad I decided to go to the homecoming and even happier that Barb and Phyllis were able to join me.

Wednesday, October 13

Picnic lunch

Madison Lake

Watching the lake, leaves & occassional fish jumping

Mom & Dad walking the lake shore after lunch.

Today we met with Darren, a nutritionist, at Madison County Hospital. Our goal was to get some ideas of how we could change our diet to get control of Mr. B's glucose levels. Darren was great at explaining how carbohydrates and proteins work together and how to read labels while shopping for food. We spent an hour learning how to eat smart and then we left and bought a bucket of chicken at KFC. We picked up my parents and drove over to Madison Lake for a picnic on what might have been one of the last nice days of fall.

Tuesday, October 12

Luke at almost 3 years old.

Luke at 2 years.

Luke on his 1st birthday with Shorty.

Luke at 6 months napping with Pop Pop.

Happy Birthday to You, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear LUKE, happy birthday to you. Today is Luke's 3rd birthday. I feel badly that we weren't able to get out to Delaware for his birthday but we just had too many appointments and things going on that it just didn't seem feasible to drive out 9 hours for a day and drive 9 hours back. I'm sure we can make up for it on our next trip. It was another beautiful day today and a lot of folks were taking advantage by visiting the zoo. We had over 4,ooo visitors by noon today. By the way, fall is one of the best times to visit the Columbus Zoo because the weather is still nice and there are not many school groups. Some of our new song birds were out of quarantine and were being released into the aviary. I had the pleasure of watching to see if they were acclimating to their new environment and finding the feeding stations and also making sure they weren't being bullied by other birds. Yes, we even have bullies in the bird world. Get outside and enjoy the weather, I'm thinking it isn't going to last much longer!

Sunday, October 10

This is the newest addition to my backyard cat crew. He has the most beautiful markings.

He is much too pretty for someone to have just dumped him out here. Anyone want a cat?

10-10-10. The weather yesterday and today has been nothing short of spectacular. 84 degrees yesterday and 87 today. Thank you for all your positive energy yesterday. I was able to back the 5th wheel into the garage in under 20 minutes. No dings, dents or scratches. I was quite proud of myself. Today I finished the winterizing process by pumping antifreeze throughout the water system. I can now check that chore off my Fall List of things that have to be done before the first freeze.

Tomorrow we have our Madison County Retired Teachers luncheon at the Dutch Kitchen. It will be good to see some of our old teaching buddies again.

Friday, October 8

Our newest addition to the North America Region. Meet Hermie the 5 month old bison.

This is Hermie with his new BFF (Bison Friend Forever) Clover who is 6 years old.

Home, Sweet, Home! Pulled into our driveway around 4 this afternoon. It was a very pleasant drive and I found a much better route than going downtown Toledo and Oregon. We left the campground around 11:30 after getting our gear stowed away and all of the water tanks drained. We drove for about an hour and stopped in Findley at the Cracker Barrel for lunch. I had a delicious harvest chicken dish. The chicken had been roasted in apple cider and onions and it was very tasty. Mr. B had his standard country ham and mashed potatoes. The leaves seemed to be more colorful as we headed home in just the two days that we were gone. We carried everything inside, even the canned goods so we are ready to winterize the camper as soon as I pick up some RV antifreeze. Tomorrow I will tackle trying to back the camper into our garage. Wish me luck!

Thursday, October 7

Sunrise walk around the pond behind our camper.

One of three deer I saw on the boardwalk trail behind the Nature Center at Maumee Bay.

Ottawa has a beautiful new visitors center. The receptionist was feeding a baby finch while I was there.

A Great Egret at Crane Creek, where I walked to while at Ottawa.

Not sure if this was a Tundra or Trumpeter Swan. Guess I should have asked a real birder.

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise this a.m. We did get a little cold last night. Forgot to turn the propane tanks on so the furnace didn't come on. About 5 am we put the electric blanket on and finally warmed up. Yes, I know, you say, this is camping? Well, I like to call it camping in comfort. After a hardy breakfast, we drove down to the lodge and nature center. I did the 1.5 mile boardwalk trail behind the nature center and Mr. B walked to the lodge and out on the beach and then found a soft chair with a view of Lake Erie to wait for me. We had lunch at the lodge. After lunch I drove over to see the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. I did another 3 miles but really didn't see too many birds. I was hoping to see the bald eagles that had nested there earlier this summer but I didn't. As I was leaving I did pass Ken Kaufman, who is one of the best birders in the country. I even have his field guide, and imagine this, he asked me what I had seen. I am sure had he been with me, he would have seen 20x the birds I saw. It was really neat to talk with him, he is a really nice guy. He also wrote a great book called The Kingbird Highway. I've been to several of his lectures and even got to go birding with him once. This chance meeting made my afternoon. On the way back to the campground, I stopped at a farm stand and bought some sweet corn. We cooked hamburgers out over the campfire to go with our corn before Mr. B retired for the evening. I just finished watching one of my favorite movies, "A League of Their Own". Now it's time to hit the sack. Maybe I'll be up early enough for another fantastic sunrise!

Wednesday, October 6

Mr. B had a doctors appointment this morning but we, or I, decided that we would still try to make it up to Maumee Bay State Park for several days. It was a 3 hour drive, about the limit for Mr. B's tolerance for riding in a car. It was a pretty drive and the leaves are just starting to change. We got to the park around 4:30 and I had us backed into our campsite by 5. Mr. Bichler borrowed and axe from our neighbor, I forgot to bring one, and he had the campfire going and we were eating by 5:30. Food is such a wonderful motivator. Our campsite is backed up to one of the large ponds here. We watched a beautiful sunset before turning in for the night. No plans for tomorrow. Maybe some trails, a little bird watching or a drive to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. I was going to bring the bikes but apparently we lost part of the bike rack when we drove to Delaware so I just left the bikes at home. I hate that we did, they have some beautiful bike trails here. Oh, well, next time. I'm just glad we are here and the weather is beautiful!!

Monday, October 4

The Springhouse on LMU campus

We are still feeling pretty good about the Brown's win over the Bengals yesterday. Today, Mr. B worked on the leaves. He uses his "mow them, blow them into the creek" method. The leaves too far away from the creek he mowed together so I could go along with the bagger and pick them up. Unfortunately, as good as it looks today, there are still a lot of leaves that haven't fallen yet.

Tomorrow, I've got someone coming to measure for our new windows. Just in time for the last of the energy rebates.

Getting excited for my college homecoming. Mrs. Butler and I are going down to Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee in two weeks. It should be really pretty driving down and I'm really looking forward to seeing all the changes on campus. I'm sure we will have a great time.