Posting of this blog delayed due to a health issue that has caused a few detours....see Part II

July 15 - 17, 2017

The plan was to leave Lexington Tuesday, July 11 and visit my aunt and cousins in the little Southern Indiana town of Leavenworth, Indiana. From there I'd head to Michigan.  That was the plan.....

Instead I got to watch my nephew Kevin have a 36 hour 14th birthday party.  Most were basketball and soccer players and the mid-summer fun was a great team-builder.  I stayed because needed plugs didn't arrive.  I stayed because I had to order 3 Inverters to finally receive one and was lucky to get it since the UPS conveyor belt ate the label and further delayed its delivery.   

But, I finally pulled up stakes and rolled out of my brother's backyard on Saturday.  I arrived in Leavenworth to find the exterior panel to my refrigerator was missing.  My brother retraced my path on his motorcycle and found it on the grassy median in Versailles (Ver-sales in Kentucky-speak).  

My time with my aunt, as always, is very special. Elaine teaches us all how to live a life of character, dignity and love!  Elaine was, and still is, one of the best teachers a student could ever have. She has also bred and shown Morgan horses for most of her adult life.  Elaine has Parkinson's disease but it hasn't slowed her down, just altered her mode of movement, and she can still wear me out!   She remains in her home with about 30 incredible neighbors who work out schedules so someone is with her 24 hours a day. Now that's a testament of love!  There are Morgan horses, 3 goats, a Standard Poodle and rabbits to keep her company.  But her passion is recording the history of her tiny town and developing phamplets that cover all the things there are to do in Leavenworth to help bring visitors and keep the town alive.  On Sunday we attended her church and after we went to a state forest, which provides an electric wheelchair, for a stroll on their beautiful accessible nature trail. 

Then we traveled to Alton, a small Ohio River town, that used to be a thriving riverboat town with several mansions including one once owned by a riverboat captain and all the expected community buildings; some restored and others being reclaimed by nature.  The only way into the town was by these 2 bridges that creak and groan with every roll of the tire.  

Then there was the rope swing! 

Cousin Polly took the first turn.  I'm no dummy.....I wanted to be sure the rope held! 

Then it was my turn to FLY!  

Oh, I forgot about the Copperhead at my cousin's cabin.  I'm not sure I've ever seen one so close.  He was by the pond where we played but he wasn't going to bother us; so we didn't bother him.  We talked about it and decided we didn't want to ruin our wonderful day with the death of a creature who was just doing what snakes do on a lovely sunny day. 

My memory bonus was when I found a gold GMC Motorhome from the 1970s that was identical to the one owned by my brother-in-law. Chuck and I had a wonderful time on a trip to the western states and it is where we were when Elvis Presley died.  

Sunday night I headed back to Lexington to collect the refrigerator panel and then I did what I hate by driving the interstate north through Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan but the long trip was worth my resting spot just east of Grayling in northern Michigan.  I'm in a primitive campground all by myself.  The solar charging system is working, Josie and I are getting used to being tethered together by a leash and I'm about to cook a steak.  $13 for the night gets me a bubbling stream, singing birds and fly-fishermen trying to catch trout. 

528 miles today which put my car over 40,000 miles.  

Hopefully the next blog will be all about baby Loons!

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Added note:  it turns out it will be about Angels rather than baby Loons.....