Butler Browsing

It was very rainy, all night and all morning. When there was finally a break, we decided to walk to Butler, about a mile from the campground. The first interesting thing we encountered was the recycling. They collect aluminum and steel cans, #1 and #2 plastic, and newspapers.

We found a nice little memorial park.

The town is quite small--it doesn't even have a small market--but it has a very large elementary school which must serve the entire region. The school is on College Street, but there is no college nearby. The town has 933 residents, a few small local restaurants, a museum open one afternoon a week, and a great bike path!
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Y-Not Cycling and Fitness

We biked along the trail to the Y-Not Cycling and Fitness shop in Lexington this morning, planning to get some repairs done. The really nice guy adjusted my front brake and one of Ken's brakes, and lubricated our chains, but said that both bikes need major repairs. My rear brake cable is rusted solid, and the cable runs through the frame, so it's no minor job. He refused payment, so we took his picture and promised he'd be immortalized in this blog.

We were impressed that Y-Not carries Electra Bikes--that's what we have, and they're not sold everywhere.

The weather held for our entire 21 mile ride. We could tell when we got home that we're pushing ourselves, but that's what we need to do to get in shape. Read more!

Biking

We are enjoying the bike trail. Today we headed northwest for a round trip of 15 miles. We passed a sign advertising a bike shop three miles ahead, so tomorrow we're planning to get there for some repairs. One of my brake cables is frozen in place, and the other brake is squealing.

More views of River Trail Crossing:

View across the neighboring farm field. Read more!

On the Trail

We went to explore the bike trail after breakfast, On our first outing, we went southeast to the town of Butler, where the trail begins at Hitchman Park, mile 0. It's only about a mile from the RV park, so of course we rode back northeast past mile 6 past the town of Bellville, for a total of a bit over 12 miles at 9 mph.

The trail is relatively flat and mostly shaded, which makes for easy riding. We encountered a few other users, including a mother who was jogging along behind her young son on a small bicycle, plus lots of little chipmunks, a large fat cat, and a frightened little rabbit that tried to outrun us down the trail instead of heading into the brush.

Tomorrow we'll try for a longer ride.

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River Trail Crossing "WHERE THE CLEAR FORK RIVER AND THE B&O BIKE TRAIL CROSS"

We had a short drive today, mainly in I-71 and then Ohio 97, to our home for the next two weeks. We are planning to take advantage of the 18 mile Rails to Trails Richland B & O Trail, which passes right by the RV park, near Butler, OH.

Clear Fork Mohican River

Where the bike trail crosses the river, adjacent to the RV park


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Spending the Night at Costco

We packed up and got ready to move this morning. Jean joined us for a final walk around her neighborhood. We said goodbye and thank you to Jean, and she said that it would be quiet around her house without us and she'd miss us. Sweet of her. We carefully pulled out of the driveway without making any more deep ruts in her yard and waved goodbye.

Our first stop was quite nearby, at the Flying J, where we fueled up, got our propane tanks topped off, and dumped our gray tank. All this took nearly an hour, so we were later than usual pulling out of Indianapolis, but we still made it to Costco just north of Columbus, Ohio, before 5:00 p.m. We'd called in advance and been told we could stay at the north end of the parking lot. It turned out to be a quiet place to spend the night--after we'd done our shopping at Costco, of course.

We had the lot to ourselves. After dinner we walked over to the nearby Earth Fare for some soymilk.



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Daredevil Brewery Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Today was a special one for Jean and her son, Bill. He was an award winning craft brewer who has now gone into business with two partners and built a brand new brewery in Speedway, IN, right next to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Mary, Jean's sister Joyce and her husband, Bill, Jean, and Lee chat in the public taproom

Bill, Jean, and daughter Connie

Ribbon Cutting

Jean also showed us around some of Indy. Jean, her friend Mary from the hiking club, Ken and I walked along the Central Canal Walk, where we saw (but didn't have time to visit) several museums, including The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. We also saw the Medal of Honor Memorial and the USS INDIANAPOLIS National Memorial, both well designed and impressive.

After supper we headed to the first session of the 2015 Academy for Advanced and Challenge Enthusiasts (AACE) convention, held at the Wyndham Indianapolis West. We were happy to see and dance with several of our friends. Jean found a partner for the evening, so she was able to enjoy dancing an entire dance (three hours), a first since she has recovered from her broken ankle and painful hip. Read more!

Meeting Friends and Back to Babler

We continued east on I-44 today, heading toward Babler State Park. Our route took us through Rolla, MO, where our good friends Hardy and Judy live. They would normally be off traveling this time of year, but they've been involved in getting repairs done on their water-damaged kitchen for the last month. So we called and made plans to meet at Cookin' From Scratch in Doolittle, MO, just west of Rolla. It was delightful to see our friends waiting for us in the parking lot.

Cookin' from Scratch has a very large chicken outside. It's a restaurant in a truck stop, and its signature dish is pan fried chicken, so that's what Ken and I got and split. It was good, but not great. However, getting together with Hardy and Judy was very enjoyable. We were there for over two hours before saying goodbye and moving on towards Babler.

Hardy and Judy are hoping that their kitchen repairs will be finished soon and then they will go back down to the RGV to check on their house there. They've been having breakfast in the Casita, not eating much in the way of lunch, and going out to eat every night for the last month while the repairs have been ongoing.

After lunch, on to Babler. We're in site #25. It took us an hour at the fresh water spigot by the dump station to get the fresh water to 88%.

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RV Express 66 in Marshfield, MO

We left Arrowhead State Park this morning and drove north on Hwy 69 through Muskogee. We intersected I-44 and followed it east. The section of I-44 in Oklahoma is the Will Rogers Turnpike. It is supposed to have interoperability with the Texas Toll Tag, so we hope that worked okay.

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Exploring Arrowhead

On our walk this morning we decided to explore a bit to see if we could find a view of the lake. We did catch a glimpse, and as you can see, even this lake is well above its usual level.

The campground we are staying in is called Turkey Flat. However, we didn't see any turkeys (except for the rude picnickers who dumped their trash on the ground). Since we stayed hitched up, we didn't venture too far from our campground, but we know there are other campgrounds in the park.

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Arrowhead State Park in Canadian OK

After a visit to the dentist for Ken's crown prep, we headed north. We're far enough from the lake here that the campground is high and dry. It was completely redone four years ago and has beautiful, well designed sites.

We're here for two nights before moving on toward the St. Louis area to dance to Romney Tannehill.

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Disneyland Day

Rebecca and Catt are both big fans of Disney, so of course they decided to take Ken and celebrate today.

Rebecca and Catt waiting in line for a carousel ride

Catt likes animals

Jose at the Tiki Room

Dinner at the Blue Bayou, just next to Pirates of the Caribbean (with Rebecca, Catt, and Kevin)

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Congratulations, Graduate!

Catt graduated today from Cal Pac at the Grand in Long Beach. The Cal Pac Academy of Arts and Sciences is an accredited online school We are all very proud of Catt for this achievement.

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Ken's Day With Catt and Lee's Day With Kelley

Rebecca went to work today, so Catt and her grandpa had the whole day to visit. They went to nearby Big Bear Lake to walk around and sightsee. Catt drove in her appropriately decorated car. The lake is a favorite getaway destination for Southern Californians. It has mountains and evergreens and desert scenery.











Meanwhile, back in Texas, Kelley went to her morning job, and I took the truck to Sam Pack's Five Star Ford in Lewisville for new fuel filters. It turned out that we also needed rear brakes, and they also fixed a few more minor things, like the turn signal that quit working yesterday. Definite sticker shock, but it's important to keep the truck in good, safe running order. Everyone at the dealership was very nice, helpful, and professional.

After work, Kelley came to Lewisville and picked me up for a trip to Arlington. We went to visit her Nana, Jan. I last saw her at Kelley's graduation party in December of 2011, so it was nice to catch up a bit. Then Kelley and I went to Treetops RV Resort, which is near Jan's house. I wanted to check it out as a possible place to stay when we visit Ed and family, assuming that everything goes as planned and they move to Mansfield or the south Arlington area this summer. It's a great location, but I wasn't really impressed for the price.

Next Kelley drove to Cedar Hill State Park, but they wouldn't let us in because the campground is still mostly flooded. It would have been better to call first. Kelley drove me back to the Lewisville Walmart to pick up the truck. We ran into some rush hour slowdowns, but not too bad. I said goodbye to her until Saturday and headed out to Bluebonnet Ridge in Terrell. The traffic on I-635 was terrible, and I barely made it home before dar,


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California Trip

Ken flew to California today to visit his daughter, Rebecca, and granddaughter, Catt, and to attend Catt's high school graduation ceremonies on Thursday. Rebecca picked him up at Ontario airport on her way home from work. When they got to the house, Catt was fixing dinner, a good start to what should be a great visit.

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Moving Day and Visit

We said goodbye to Tyler and headed over to Terrell (about halfway to Dallas), where we are staying at Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park. It's a well laid out and maintained park, with large grassy sites and a private lake. The only drawback is that it's very near I-20, so that means traffic noise if we have our windows and door open. It also means that the park is conveniently located and easy to get to.

Kelley and Will drove our from McKinney to visit us this afternoon. We had a good time catching up on their lives and exploring the RV park. We watched the geese with their goslings and a mama duck protecting her brood under her wings. And of course we ate dinner (baked dijon salmon and asparagus fettuccine with lemon and pepper and berries and ice cream for dessert).

The moon is nearly full tonight and lovely in the sunset gold.

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