House Sitting, Visiting and Eating!

Pat, our SIL, was attending a work conference at The Breakers in Palm Beach, so Kelly accompanied him.  Who wouldn’t?  She asked us to house sit so the house remained occupied with someone coming and going.  So when we came home from Geneva, we moved in!  On Monday we got our suitcases sorted out.  There is an empty bedroom which gave us room for everything without crowding the guest bedroom.  

Kara had been insisting she would cook dinner for us so we have been to her house M T W for dinner and we are binge watching Downton Abbey.  We are refreshing our memories because 1) the third movie is coming out mid September and THEN 2) in October on our cruise we will spend our day in England at Downton Abbey for garden and castle tours plus a light buffet!  The girls put it all together and are so excited. 

Thursday we attended a funeral for her high school friend and neighbor’s mother that we knew when we lived here.  I believe that was #12 death for our family, friends and acquaintances this year!  So afterwards we went out to eat.  

During the week Ted went shooting three times, I visited work friends Pat and Barb plus did a short shopping trip to use a gift card.  And I had to do laundry for the second time this trip.  

We went out to eat after church on Saturday so we hosted 2 vs.Kara’s 5 meals because she had everyone over on Sunday.  Pat and Kelly had flown back and CeCe wrangled a sleepover because she certainly missed her Grammie and Boppa.  (Sharing each other’s sunglasses!).  

I played Concentration with Morgan, Ally and Bidkar and my memory is shot.  Morgan and Ally wiped the floor with me and Bidkar!  Sam and Haley were unable to come Sunday so we took them out on Monday after I had gone to the doctor I still see up there every two years.  Then I spent the evening getting packed up.  We like to take just one small suitcase in the overnight hotels.  Takes a bit of thought to remember what you will need from other bags but I did it!

Tuesday we got on the road about 9 and drove to Sikeston, MO.  This was our usual RV stop coming and going to OH and MI.  There is a nice, convenient RV park right off the exit and the big draw now is …

Home of the Throwed Rolls

Diet Dr Pepper in a Throwed Roll mug

The “thrower” pushing a tray of rolls to be “throwed.”   They are HOT when you catch them!  Miss it?  No problem, he throws another!

We stayed at a motel right off the exit and we could see the RV park.  The tsunami’s info was coming on so we stayed up to learn what we could which wasn’t much.  

We left about 8 am and drove all the way home.  We intended to spend another night in Little Rock or Texarkana but we just decided to keep on going.  

We had some work done on cabinets in the laundry room and master closet.  I was anxious to see it.  And more anxious to go through everything that was taken out of the old cabinets so I could “discard” some things!   

We are very pleased with the outcome.  Anna had sorted and put everything away.  I was dreading having to put all the stuff away we had piled all over the kitchen and guest bedroom.  I wasn’t expecting that and I was so grateful!

We arrived home about 7 pm, 11 hours of driving.  Just over 1300 miles in two days.  Driving doesn’t bother Ted at all!  

The “Christmas Story” House Cleveland, OH

On the way back to Michigan, while traveling along side Bill, Kara and CeCe, we decided to stop at the house/museum where the “Christmas Story” was filmed.  I don’t know about your family but ours watches it round the clock on Christmas Day during its annual 24 hour telethon.  Kara has a Thomas Kincaid print of the house and a leg lamp she puts out at Christmas.  

Mostly photos with a comment.

The famous major award leg lamp!  

After Ralphie used the F bomb when he accidentally kicked the hub cap holding the nuts while his dad changed a flat tire.  It was Lifebuoy soap (plastic).

The infamous Red Ryder, carbine action, 200 shot range model air rifle with a compass and sundial built into the stock.  

 

Where Randy hid under the kitchen sink.

The gun in its arrival case with Fra Geel y (pronunciation) by Dad.  The T in “this side up” was cut off to make it through the door.  Its absence was hidden in the handling during filming.

The note written on Ralphie’s essay “What I Want For Christmas.”  

The  house as it appears today.

There was so much info on how the concept came about.  It was inspired by short stories authored by Jean Shepherd.  Finding the house, choosing the actors, overcoming difficulties in filming are all discussed.  Well worth the stop if you like the movie, 

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Ruhe Family Reunion

 We arrived at Geneva on the Lake Lodge in Ohio mid afternoon.  

We were in the Lodge but most of our family were in cabins which created a huge circle around the awesome fire pits.

There was an indoor and outdoor pool and CeCe had a ball swimming with Ted, Bill and Kara.  I forgot my swimsuit!

There was Trivia which our team bombed.  If we had Ted the outcome may have been different! 

The kids played bingo, did face painting, drew with sidewalk chalk, attempted corn hole and just ran around with each other.

It was a great time in a lovely place.

Short Time Between Trips

We arrived home on July 29 from Canada and then spent a quiet 4th of July.  It rained a lot so going to the Pavilion to see the Red White and Blue Houston Symphony Orchestra performance lost its luster.  We watched the DC entertainment and fireworks on TV.

We are having some cabinet work done in our master closet and laundry room so I needed to get that settled and then before we left again I had to empty everything!  There is stuff all over the place!  

We headed out on Thursday 7/10 giving ourselves two days to get to Cincinnati.  I have to say all the roads were in great condition with very little construction going on.  We made it to east of Memphis before stopping for the night.  I think I fell asleep at 8 pm!  The next day we finished up and checked into the Red Roof in Lawrenceburg IN.  Other than downtown and north of the city of Cincinnati, there are no motels.  We stayed in Northerm KY for the funeral in May because we flew in and Cincinnati’s airport is in KY!  We have little choice and found this Red Roof the most acceptable.  Of course we had Skyline for dinner and I was asleep by 9!

Saturday I met with alumni of my high school for a bi-monthly luncheon held at LaRosa’s, another place we always hit when we visit here. While I did that, Ted had lunch at White Castle and he checked off one more cheap eats that are staple in Cincinnati.  He also took a vagrant in and bought him lunch when he told Ted he was hungry and had no money.

We went to Mass at 3:00 where we ran into Barb and Kevin.  We will see the Rogers clan on Tuesday.  From there we went to Whiskey’s in Lawrenceburg to help niece Sherry and her husband John celebrate their anniversary.  We intended to go to the winery for music afterwards but there was a terrible rainstorm so we just stayed, from 4:30 to 9:30, almost to closing.  We had a very nice visit.

Sunday we checked on the Titanic Immersion experience.  We have been to an exhibit quite some time ago but were disappointed to learn this was mostly photographs with few artifacts, people complained of it being very hot.  So instead we took a ride through the cornfields of Indiana to Brookville Lake.  We walked out on the dam and drove over the causeway.  Ted’s maternal grandma was from Cedar Grove IN so we drove there to see what he remembered of his visits there as a child.  

I made plans for us to visit with one of my very best friends!  You know the kind, you can tell them anything and they will never judge, only help.  And you can pick up right where you left off.  Karen sat next to me in training at Procter & Gamble in 1963.  We have been through engagements, showers, weddings, births, houses, jobs, you name it! They suggested a restaurant in Bellevue KY that had a great menu, very good food but their happy hour was $1 off beer!  That was it but you have to realize that the old saying was  “if the Ohio River was 🍺 it would never get past Cincinnati!”  So no moscato for me!  We ate outside overlooking the river.  As the sun was setting our table umbrella became useless so we moved inside to AC!

Tuesday we learned of another relative’s death.  My aunt who had me as her flower girl and my kids were very close to passed away at age 93.  That evening we learned my late father’s widow passed sway at 91 and we are going to a funeral for Kara’s friend’s mother that we knew this Thursday.  That makes an even dozen so far this year and I am sorry I bought that purple dress for funerals!  

Kara asked us to go to Jungle Jim’s to buy LaRosa’s pizza sauce and pasta sauce.  We bought about 18 jars so that should hold them for awhile.  This place is the amusement park of supermarkets.  She also wanted a bag of one flavor of dum dum suckers for CeCe.  “They are right by Elvis.”  What?  

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The seats are from Crosley Field, where the Reds home field when I was a kid and spent 25 cents to sit in the bleachers.

We joined Ted’s brother and two sisters with their spouses that evening for dinner with all of us feeling Dan’s absence. He was such a story teller and he is acutely missed.  

Ted went to Fairfield gun club Wednesday to shoot but there was some mechanical issues and the event was cancelled.  In the meantime I was at the motel and the electric went off.  The bathroom is black as night so there was not much I could do but hope my phone and I-Pad didn’t run out since the TV obviously wasn’t working.  Ted came home just as the electric came back on.  Anna called from home.  She was picking out the Silestone that will be the counter in the laundry room and wanted me to pick between two. 

 I was finally able to shower and get ready to meet my BFF since kindergarten to senior in high school.  She had been at the lunch on Saturday but had not seen Ted yet.  We were together the night we met Ted in 1960!  We picked her up and had a nice dinner and visit.  She just sold her condo and is moving to her daughter’s lower level apartment.  And time marches on!

Thursday was our last day here and we took advantage of the lull to head to the laundromat.  We had lunch at LaRosa’s afterwards then started packing to limit how much luggage we needed to take into the Lodge at Geneva on the Lake, OH.  We will leave for there tomorrow after breakfast.  It is our 13th every other year family reunion.  

Pincher’s Creek

While in Pincher’s Creek we visited the Bar U ranch where all the massive ranches were carved out of the open plains.  Problem was for every square mile you had to put X number of cattle on it!  It was quite an undertaking but produced a lot of opportunity for folks arriving in this wilderness.

From there we road to Logan’s Pass at an altitude of about 7,000 feet.  Though the snow had all melted, a recent storm had brought some back in the highest elevations. 

We continued on at a lower elevation to ride the gondola.  They said 6,000 people per day ride this to the top.  The views were gorgeous. 

Because Jasper hotels had burned down two years ago, we were staying in Banff 4 nights instead of 2 and 2.  It was nice not having to move but it caused some backtracking in bus travel.  But the scenery was so mesmerizing we didn’t mind the longer rides.

We visited a beautiful garden that Ted named Mini Buchart after the glorious gardens in Victoria we saw in 1999 on our way to an Alaskan cruise.

We took a raft ride on the Bow River.  There were 3 rafts and one got hung up on a rock.  Our captain had to walk in ice cold water to help pull it loose!  His feet were so red when he got back to us!  I felt so bad but he shrugged it off.  We are #2 and #3 on the right side.  

Our next adventure was to the Columbia Icefield where we walked on the Athabasca Glacier.  It was very windy and you are walking on crushed ice so your footing is unsteady and we didn’t stay out there too long

Our only bad weather day was on our visit to Peyto, Moraine and Louise Lakes.  It rained pretty steady so limited the time off the bus and wasn’t great for photos.  

Our last day was driving back to Calgary to have a farewell dinner and spend the night at the Hilton Garden Inn in preparation for flying home.  We had a 9 am flight so we were instructed to catch the 6 am shuttle.  

As we approached Calgary we were given an opportunity to visit Heritage Village.  We took advantage of the train ride, sternwheeler ride and a horse carriage ride.  After purchasing an ice cream we boarded our bus for the last time.

We had no problems with the shuttle, checking in, maneuvering through Security, Immigration and Customs.  Ted took this photo of a herd of buffalo.  We enjoyed a huge breakfast flying home and arrived in plenty of time to go to church at 6 pm!

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