The Rest of Jim’s Birthday Dinner

Bremen, IN  - still dreary

Can you tell we are in Amish country?

Sharon – sorry but no home cooking for dinner tonight. Nan – Jim got his ice cream with his apple pie.

When we first visited this area of Indiana in 2009, someone recommended the Das Dutchmen Essenhaus in Middlebury. Jim ordered their broasted chicken and I ordered the chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes. Every time we are back in this area we HAVE to make a stop so Jim can have his chicken.

Jan and Bill were kind enough to drive so we didn’t have to try and clean out the back seat of the truck. Thank you guys so much for driving.

This visit we decided to try the buffet. It offered Jim his chicken along with the noodles and mashed potatoes and a huge salad bar and other stuff (like veggies) and turkey and ribs. Jim was the only one who had room for dessert – apple pie ala mode.

Dinner was fantastic and we will return.

After dinner, Jim and I were talking and decided that we wanted to stay another day. So the next morning he went up and paid for another night. Felt good to sit still for awhile next to good friends.

A Visit to Nappanee

Bremen, IN  High 64  Low 48

Dreary, just plain dreary. Still raining and when it’s not raining, the clouds are gray and threatening.

A good day to get the laundry and grocery shopping done.

I love going to the grocery store. There is just something about walking into the store and seeing all the beautiful displays of food that just makes me happy to my core.

Martin’s Grocery is a wonderful place. They have a salad bar that offers everything you could want on a salad. That made our decision as to what we were having for lunch that day.

The front end of the huge salad bar.

From there we wandered into the produce department. I love all these colors.

The rest of the store looked just as wonderful.

We also made a stop at the Rise n Roll Bakery. They offer samples of everything in the store and it was almost impossible to make a decision. It was all great. We ended up with a luscious cinnamon roll and a fabulous apple fritter. We will definitely visit again when we are in the area.

Another stop on this dreary day was at John’s Butcher Shop in Nappanee. Brought home a couple of T-bones and some cube steaks. A full fridge and freezer makes me very happy.

Nappanee is preparing for an apple festival on the 18th which is home to Indiana’s largest 7 foot baked apple pie. They serve approximately 800 slices of pie. Too bad we’re going to miss it.

To celebrate their apple heritage they have apple halves painted and sitting on the corners throughout downtown. I only got one picture but Jan's blog has some of the cuter ones.

This apple was sitting on the corner near the butcher shop.

I also loved this carving in front of the Post Office. A dark and dreary day does not make for a great picture.

It started raining again so we headed back to the Bungalow and the girls. Wait until I tell you about dinner.

Bad Roads, Good Friends

Bremen, IN  High 76  Low 53

Not sure where my brain went but it wasn’t working when I plotted our path through the Chicago area. I decided that we would exit I-80 just beyond Joliet and take US 30 over to Plymouth and then US 6 to Pla-Mor Campground in Bremen.

There must have been 200 lights along US 30 and we had to stop probably 180 times. We also traveled through some poorer sections of the city and the roads were very narrow and rough. Not a good decision on my part but we still pulled in next to Jan and Bill about 3:00. We are now on Eastern Time so it’s hard for me to keep track of what time it is.

I had thought we were going out to dinner after we got set up and Jim had his nap but Jan had thrown a roast in the crock pot. She also had fresh baked bread, potatoes, and veggies. Then a carrot cake for dessert. What a way to end our day. Great food and wonderful friends.

Actually got to sleep because there were no storms to upset the girls. However, about 8:00 this morning the rain started and it seemed like it was never going to quit. They issued a sever weather alert for our area and the weather lady said the more sunshine we saw the worse the weather would be when the second cold front moved through. So I prayed for rain. And the Lord definitely answered that prayer.

Jim got his hair cut today so I don’t have to worry about getting him any dog tags.

Jan and I discussed where we were going to dinner and came up with several choices. The Flippin’ Cow, the Lux Café, a couple of places right in Bremen and the South Side Soda Shop which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. We decided to give the Soda Shop our business.

I had read good reviews on Yelp for the Philly Steak Sandwich and that is what we all ordered. Jan and I got the spiral fresh cut fries and Jim also got a root beer float. The fries and the float were really good but the sandwich was nothing to write home about.

It was pouring rain when we went in and still raining when we came out. Jan offered to drive home and we hadn’t got 100 feet when the rain stopped and the sun came out. Way to go Jan.

Stay tuned for further adventures tomorrow.

Back to our Eastward Journey

Geneseo, IL  High 78  Low 48

We made our way on I-80 to Geneseo yesterday. I-80 is such a “joy” to drive with its bumper to bumper semi’s. We’re staying at the Geneseo Campground which is a wonderful place. Nice level sites on the Hennepin Canal.

The main reason for our stop here was to visit our neighbors from the Santa Fe RV Park in Apache Junction. Peg and John live across the street from us there. John is the 91 year old that goes fishing with Jim. Both Jim and I hope that we are as active as they are when we get to their age.

We celebrated Jim’s birthday today by going to Bishop Hill for lunch with John and Peg. Bishop Hill is called Utopia on the prairie and was founded as a religious community in 1846 by Swedish immigrants seeking religious freedom. We stumbled upon this neat little town in 2009. You can read about our visit here.

I wanted to go back to the wonderful bakery but we found that most of the town was closed on Monday.

We did visit their wonderful museum and the docent sent us to P. L. Johnson’s for lunch. After eating our lunch I was glad the bakery was closed so we had to go to a different place for lunch.

My grilled chicken/spinach salad was fabulous. Look at all that fruit.

Jim had the Swedish meatballs which were also excellent.

And where else but DQ for dessert. Banana Splits were a big hit.

We have had a wonderful visit with these dear friends and look forward to more good times down in Arizona.

One More Billings Wrap Up

I forgot a few pictures that I really want to save.

This is the wooden shed that Michaela painted with it’s new roof. Looks new doesn’t it.

This picture is showing the new roof and skylight on the house. I really like the color of shingles we picked out.

This is the new metal shed going up after we left town.

Our last day in town we took the time to see a couple of dear friends. We went to breakfast with Carol. Her husband, Bill, was Jim’s best fishing buddy and he died a couple of years ago from a heart attack while out hunting with his son.

Then Monday night we met up with Judy and Gary for dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Bob and Jo were also supposed to meet us there but if you check out their blog you’ll find they have had some big problems with their trailer brakes. Sure hope they’ve had some luck getting everything fixed.

And this picture has nothing to do with Billings but I just had to share it. This is my great niece, Tara, her significant other, Eric, and, of course, Emmet. Tara lived with us for a couple of years when she was in grade school and her Mom was overseas in the Army. Definitely a special bond was established.

Eastward

Story City, IA  High 77 Low 51

The wind died down Thursday night and we headed out Friday morning. Our original plan was to spend the night in Mitchell but that was before I found out that Nan and John were in Sioux Falls. We pressed on and ended up at the fairgrounds in Sioux Falls parked next to our good friends.

We went to the Pizza Ranch for dinner. It’s a buffet type of place with all kinds of pizza, a salad bar and some of the best fried chicken we have ever had. They also had a couple of dessert pizzas which were fantastic. Jim even shared his root beer float with me. We tried to figure out how to stay another four hours so we would have room to eat some more, but finally gave up and went back to the rigs. Let the girls out and then went over to their rig and we played Phase 10 and laughed. Hard to say goodbye but we’ll see them again in Q in January.

Have no idea what this is but it was along the road in SD.

We planned on stopping at a County park in Webster City, IA. No way. We pulled in and the place was packed with rigs parked every which way and hundreds of kids running wild. We turned around and headed on down the road. Finally ended up in Story City, IA at the Whispering Oaks Campground. It’s an okay place, lots of noisy trucks that go in and out constantly. Not sure why. They must have had a storm go through because there were only three sites open when we got here and two of them were all mud.

The girls are being so good.

Moving on in the morning to Geneseo, IL. I really do miss the desert. I know lots of you folks like trees and grass but I’m just not one of those. One of my problems is mosquitoes and every other bug just love me. My legs are covered with bug bites (even after using bug spray) and I spend most of every night awake scratching until I bleed.

Headed East

Wall, SD  High 71  Low 46

We finally got out of Billings about 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday. We had to stop and get fuel and dump on our way out of town. Our destination was Broadus, MT, 165 miles southeast.

Jim has a good friend who lives in Broadus. Used to work with Phil at the Chevy Dealership in Billings. Phil was in a terrible auto wreck about five years ago. Rolled his car several times, got thrown out of the car, and spent many months in the hospital. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt which made things much worse. When they picked us up to go to dinner, both Jim and I noticed that neither Phil nor Heather wear seat belts. I just cannot believe that they would continue to risk their lives.

They have nine children – five are his, two are hers and two are theirs. There were 11 of us at the restaurant for dinner and it was really loud with lots of laughter and everybody talking all at once. Quite a change for Jim and I and our quiet dinners.

They took us back to our rig and we went to bed shortly after we got home. It had been a really really long day.

Left Broadus about 9:00 with our next destination in Wall, about 205 miles. We got about 30 miles down the road and the change fuel filter light came on. I found a Chevy dealership in Spearfish, SD and they could get us in at 1:30. We got parked on a side street at 11:15 and unhitched. It was hot - in the 90’s, so Jim pulled out the awning and opened all the windows.

At 2:15 Jim walked over to check on the truck and they were just finishing up. He filled up the truck and we hitched up and finally got back on the road at 3:00.

Spent the night at Sleepy Hollow Campground in Wall, SD. The place was packed. Good thing I called ahead to make a reservation. Felt really good to plug in and turn that air conditioner on.

Then the WIND hit. About 10:30 last night. And it’s still blowing. Gusts at 52 mph. Wind advisory until 3:00 this afternoon. We are going to spend another night here at the Sleepy Hollow. At least it cooled down.

Most of the other RVs in the campground took off this morning. Saw lots of travel travels without a good sway bar system, one of them was even a one axle camper with no sway bars being towed by a mini-van. Down right scary.