Back through West Virginia

We left Indiana this morning heading east. We had thought that it may take us 3 slow days of traveling to get to Virginia, but we made it a little more than halfway today, stopping at Tamarack in Beckley, West Virginia, for the night. We stopped here back in July too (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/07/on-our-way.html), so we knew that it was a place that we could park for the night and be comfortable.

Kanawha River from I-64 in Charleston, WV

The state house dome was covered in plastic when we were through here in July, and it is still wrapped in plastic... It  seems that the limestone blocks are being removed and repaired and replaced (https://wvmetronews.com/2019/05/30/large-limestone-blocks-being-removed-from-capitol-dome/ - scroll through to see additional pictures including one with the plastic sheeting).

I was hoping that there might be pretty fall colors on the West Virginia hills and mountains as we drove through, but it is mostly still green here.

One tree with pretty fall colors (behind an evergreen tree) behind where Gracie is parked at Tamarack.

We got up on the roof to check for something being loose - for the last few miles before we got to Tamarack, we could hear something that sounded like it was flapping on the roof (never a good sound!). We were concerned that some wires, or a cowling, or one of the solar panels had somehow come loose. It turned out, though, that a piece of the EternaBond tape that covers the seam between the roof and the front cap had come loose. We removed the part that was flapping -- the exposed part is to the left of the horn -- and we've ordered new EternaBond to be delivered to the farm so we can replace it while we are there.

We walked to the Cracker Barrel near Tamarack for dinner, and this picture was on the wall next to our table. It reminded me of St Peter's Church in New Kent... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Church_(Talleysville,_Virginia))

If we make as good time tomorrow, we should make it to the farm in the afternoon! And... then the work on getting Miss Doozie ready for pictures for advertising will start!

Fall is here (in Indiana)

We are enjoying the cool days and beginning of fall colors while we're here at Indian Lakes RV Campground near Batesville, Indiana:

Some of the trees are starting to change...

This is in the KOA part of the campground.

 

A few of the Thousand Trails campgrounds are co-located with KOA campgrounds. It is kind of an odd pairing - KOA customers generally expect to have a lot of services / things to do; my impression is that they are more targeted to RVers with children. Full time RVers often negatively refer to KOA as standing for "Keep on Adding" as everything you might want to do is an additional charge (the conversation might go like this: "Oh, you have children, that's an additional $10 per child." "Pets? Add on $15" "Golf cart, $10/day"), while Thousand Trails campgrounds are largely occupied by "members" or seasonal renters. Quite a few fulltime RVers have Thousand Trails memberships. When Thousand Trails campgrounds were originally being built and opening (80s and 90s), they were characterized as "RV resorts" and "Preserves". The "resort" concept probably aligns with the KOA character, but Thousand Trails has really not maintained their parks well enough to deserve that designation today. Anyway, this is one of the Thousand Trails that is co-located with a KOA. The KOA tends to be pretty empty during the week and totally full on the weekend. Thousand Trails has some of that characteristic, but not quite as much as members tend to come and stay for a while.

A precious comment...

We went shopping at the Kroger in Batesville on Saturday. I spent quite a bit of time in the produce section getting the various vegetables we needed. Another lady and I seemed to always be about to get the same thing, so we were often waiting for the other to finish, giving appropriate social distance. ;-)

Soon after we got into the store, I realized I had left some recipes in the Jeep that had information about additional items I wanted to get, and Carl offered to go get the recipes for me while I kept on shopping. When he came back, he looked for me, but didn't see me in the produce section, so walked over the rest of the store before returning to the produce section and finding me. He said, "I missed seeing you here (in the produce section) so I looked all over to find you."

Unbeknowst to us, the lady that was shopping for so many similar things to me overheard him. A couple of minutes later, we were again about to pick items from the same area, and Carl was with me. She asked if we were married, and we confirmed that we were. She said that she had heard him say that he had been looking all over to find me, and she thought, "Wow, what I wouldn't give to have a man who would say that to me!" She thought that maybe we had known each other in the distant past and had just found each other again there in the Kroger.

While that wasn't the case exactly, we are so thankful that we found each other after losing Sue and Dwayne... and it was a good reminder to continue (as we have been) cherishing each and every day!

A visit to Casey - Part 3

Continuing the story of our visit to the "Big Things Small Town" (https://www.bigthingssmalltown.com/) of Casey, IL - including some of the shops in town:

We stopped for lunch at the Tetzel-Prime Pretzel shoppe...

I was all for trying the new chicken, bacon pretzel with ranch, but they were out of chicken... so I think I got bacon and cheese instead.

Interesting seats in the pretzel shoppe

Bible verse on the wall: "I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me."

My bacon and cheese (I think) pretzel

Carl got a regular with salt and a side of nacho cheese for dipping

The outdoor walk-up window for the pretzel shoppe

The hotel in town - Eighteen Nighty Sleepover

This shop was near the wind chime (and across the street from the rocking chair and teeter-totter). From the website: "The man behind the idea of Big Things Small Town is Jim Bolin. Bolin is a local business owner. Born and raised in Casey, he felt like he owed something to the community that has given him the opportunity to build a life, home, and business. All of the items were constructed by him and his crew from Bolin Enterprises, Inc." (https://www.bigthingssmalltown.com/faq)

We found parking right along Main Street - but there was a large gravel lot at SW 1st and W General Robey that could have accommodated a motorhome, even one towing a vehicle behind.

Near the parking lot was a large minion - Carl is trying to get his fingers into the same configuration...

... so he could pose right next!

He also posed next to the World's Largest Twizzle Spoon (can't imagine how many gallons in the drink that would come with!)...

This sign was just down from the spoon - so maybe it is a Swizzle Spoon? I was wondering if the spoon successfully was named "World's Largest" back last year - but it is listed as one of the World's Largest on the website (https://www.bigthingssmalltown.com/list), so I guess it was.

The Big Top...

... and the Big Mousetrap (I guess it is intended to be a place to pose for a photo) - the sign at the top says, "Help me! I'm trapped in Casey, Illinois." -- but the grounds directly around it were being maintained / constructed, so we didn't get close.

Some of the items (like the shoes that were in the candy shop) are located inside businesses. The World's Largest Knitting Needles and Crochet Hook were inside The Farmer's Wife Gift Shoppe...

... and it was normally closed on Wednesday (the sign on the door said "Wednesday hours by chance") -- so we didn't see them directly - though you can kind of see the knitting needles through the window and in front of the window on the other side of the store around the corner. There is also a photo of the lady who proved that they were indeed valid knitting needles as she cast on 10 stitches and knit 10 rows of material. As the sign says, each needle is 25 pounds... I think that would make a very cumbersome knitting bag!

On the other side of The Farmer's Wife building was a mural...

"So God Made A Farmer"

Part of the text of Paul Harvey's speech is included below the mural - I recommend hearing it - here is one source for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWjUT1RjNdQ

 

A visit to Casey - Part 2

Continuing the story of our visit to the "Big Things Small Town" (https://www.bigthingssmalltown.com/) of Casey, IL:

World's largest pencil

Largest barber pole

Closer up on the pencil

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." NIV Proverbs 3:3

Car Key ring and key

Bible verse with the key

It is kind of hard to see, but the world's largest bird cage is over there to the left of the yellow vehicle.

World's largest mailbox

There were steps in the back to access the mailbox

Bible verse for the mailbox

Inside the mailbox looking out from the back

Around the corner was Casey's Candy Shoppe

Shipping "props" outside on a railroad car included a barrel labeled "Carl's Caramels"

The caboose of the train

A small portion of track

Information about the Doty Railroad. "This is the original track that was in use from 1890-1938, measuring 30" in width."

Inside the candy shop = world's largest shoes

"Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Ephesians 6:14-15

(Part 1 of our visit can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-visit-to-casey-part-1.html)

Brum Woods

Carl did a search of things to do around Batesville, IN, and found that there were hiking paths in Brum Woods, so we decided to check them out today.

https://batesvilleindiana.us/departments/parks-recreation/brum-woods/ 

https://batesvilleindiana.us/wp-content/uploads/brum-woods-trail-map.pdf

We started on trail 1, a 0.6 mile loop -- we later did trails 5 and 4.

Trail 1 was hard surfaced asphalt

An information sign as we entered Trail 1. Unfortunately, we never found out exactly when this land was changed from agricultural to allowing woodland to grow up.

A shelter about halfway around the loop...

I had noticed when we were on I-74 that the eastbound rest area was closed, but the westbound one was still open... not sure whether there was a decision that east bound folks could wait to rest until they got to Ohio or what! I always think it is odd when there is a rest area in one direction but not the other...

The beginning of the connector trail to Trail 5. Under the "Open" sign, it indicates "Ride Hike Frozen Trails Only"

Carl and I discussed while we were hiking what that might mean... we came to the conclusion that it must mean that you should stay on the designated (established) paths and not create new ones... but we thought that was an odd terminology if that was the case! We also thought it might mean that, in winter, you shouldn't use the trails if they are thawing. After getting back to the rig, we did some internet searches and couldn't really find any information on the terminology, though there was a post in a mountain biking forum that recommended that you not bike on trails on which your foot would leave a footprint if you were hiking to protect the trails from damage.

This was the connector path to Trail 5.

About the same composition on Trails 5 and 4 -- mainly dirt, lots of roots and ups and downs and around abouts...

Reaching Trail 5 from the connector - Trail 5 is about a 1 mile loop

We decided to branch off and do the 1.06 mile Trail 4 loop - about halfway through Trail 5.

Entering trail 4

Carl on the trail

Carl tracked our route with an app on his phone -- here is the information that we got at the end of the hike:

Looking at the route we took (aqua and royal blue lines) it looks like we were doing circles as much as we've been doing on our route thusfar this year (check out the maps section on the right frame of this page!).

They were very nice trails, and we used some muscles that we haven't been using as much recently! Carl kept on saying that it is good to walk on dirt trails and have our ankles and knees get challenged. I'm wondering how much my ankles and knees are going to agree with him tonight!