STEAM CORNER & COVERED BRIDGE - PART 1

October!

Fall break week!

Birthday at the end of the week!

What a happy time-spanning streak!

And DH, Darling Hubby, wanted to go camping.  The school was closed for fall break so he was free.  Very quickly, quite impromptu, he said, "Let's go to Steam Corner.  We can take in the Covered Bridge Festival while we're close."  Oh, wow.  Okay, I wasn't expecting that.  Off we went. 

First stop, lunch in Lebanon, at Backroads BBQ.  Table tops covered with their logo and cut outs of pink pigs, and signs that said "Got BBQ?"  It smelled of sticky sweet, grease, yeast, and light beer.

We shouldn't have been surprised at the quietness of Steam Corner, a campsite and flea market, it was the middle of the week afterall.  Besides, they'd had a rain storm the night before so vendors were in recovery mode -- reaching up to reattach their canopies, laying down cardboard for shopper's feet, dumping vintage blue bowls of rainwater, and pulling wheeled riding toys and hand carts back out of the mud.

After settling in, we hooked up the water and electric, and leveled the camper, then took off walking, hand in hand.  A red mini-covered bridge with a plastic mallard duck attached to the outside wall brought you from one side of the campground to the other, crossing Prairie Creek.

The busy-busy gal at a kids sale wailed about why she had so much stuff and what the others had done to her that she couldn't give it away, so ...she was selling it. Turns out she'd bought 30 totes of things to give kids for Christmas but other charities and churches interferred so she "couldn't even give it away."  It was 10 items for $1.  I restrained.  No kids here.

By now, we need supper, so we asked the gal at the kids sale where was the best food.  She directed us to Crabby Mike's Food Truck. 

The guy at the food vendor truck told us ingredient by ingredient how he made his potato salad and his sloppy joes and where he sells, and what his plans are for the winter.  Yes!  HIs food was good.  Tasted almost like my mother's cooking.  Upon further investigation, he (the vendor) and she (my mother) were both of German descent.  Now, the mental puzzle pieces fit!  You know, why did they taste alike, the two weren't related, nor were their last names anything alike and they didn't grow up in the same areas.  Voilá, they were of German descent!

Out of there and on the way to the Covered Bridge Festival we were enticed by a very large yellow sign "Antiques and Barn Sale".  The tall skinny old dude had 2 barns and a two story house full of antiques, a yard full of wrought iron items like gates, and wind churns, and flower basket holders.  His garage sale was of dish sets, and an old Nash green car covered in 10 years of dust.  But he wasn't willing to sell anything!  He was more interested in eating his soup and talking to his black kitty-kitty.  No, he hadn't given her a name.  He just called her kitty-kitty.  He was also more interested in telling about how he built his house from scratch, including the cobble stone floors.

And about bringing in a triple-sized Fosteria punch bowl from Ohio.  Talking, braggin, content, and story-telling was more to his liking.

It was too dark in there for me.  All very intriguing, I liked the visit, but the smell of wood mingled with old fabric, the Campbell's Noodle Soup, and dirt and dust, made my olfactory senses feel a need of cleansing.  Ah, fresh air.

Speaking of cleansing, a good baptizing, and a come to Jesus meeting, I was surprised at the name of a grave site.  Sitting at the intersection at the top of the hill next to a pristine white steepled church it was.  Bonebrake Cemetery.  What a name!

Back to camp.  The next day, after a good night's sleep in the camper, we'd head to Parke County Covered Bridge Festival, all part of a happy birthday week, er, fall break ...

THIS MORNINGS ESCAPADE, EMERGENCY EVACUATION

DarlingHubby handing food to the needy.

"Ri-i-i-ing, ri-i-i-ing"

"Hello, good morning."

"Hello, I gotta tell ya about this morning's escapade."  It was Darling Hubby, jubilant, saying he had a story to tell.  When I saw his number on the cell phone screen I thought it unusual for him to call at this time of day.  He must've had a few free minutes between his bus route and his mail run.

Everyday, after picking up kids, he picks up the mail from each of the school buildings, takes it to the administration office, sorts it, then distributes back to each of the school buildings.   

There was another noise in the house besides that "ri-i-i-ing", I'd set a timer for my reading assignment.

"Okay, give me a minute, I wanna shut off my beeper.  Go ahead."

"Today, here at the elementary school it's Emergency Evacuation of the Buses Day.  I told the kids last week, on Monday.  I wasn't supposed to, but I did anyway, I told them we'll be having an Emergency Evac on Wednesday."

"Harper and Emmy, a couple of my kindergarten kids, were scared."

Ever since Darling Hubby retired from his career job and became a part-time worker driving a school bus he calls the students "my kids".  He really, truly feels that way; says they are his merchandise and he has to "get them from point A to point B safely and intact".  

He said, "I told [Harper and Emmy] this'll be fun."

They cried, "Oh, noooo." and "Ew, boo hoo."

The high school guys who always sit at the back of the bus were given the job of seeing that everyone got off safely, especially the blind girl, Macy.  They opened the back door, turned the 5 gallon bucket upside down, (it had served as a trash can), used it as a step, and quickly ushered everyone off.

"Macy nearly fell off the bucket but the guys caught her.  I patted her on the back.  She did a good job."

"We have 2 minutes but we got off in just over 1 minute!  We were the fist ones done."

I said, "That's great!  Congratulations!"

"Sherry, a first year bus driver, complained, "Hey, he used a bucket!"

"The boss said, "We-ell...."

"I reminded him, "You said use whatever you have, so I did.  He agreed."

"So I gave all my kids high fives!  We do this once in the fall and once in the spring." 

I asked, "What happened with Harper and Emma, the scared young 'uns?"

He laughed, "
They were excited, "That was fun!  Can we do it again?"

.   

"MAYBE HE COULD TRY IT JUST THIS ONCE WITH THE BRUSH"

He just stood there.  

He was concentrating on his work.

His right hand supporting himself on the tank, his left hand wielding the tool.

It's a new word to him, tool.

When he first learned to speak the word tool it came out toot-al.  But he's since learned to speak it properly.

The door had been almost shut, just slightly ajar.  I'd missed him.  His energy, his chatter, so I went looking for him.  Pushing the door ever so gently open, I spied him before he spied me.

The tool was in mid-air but you could see exactly what he'd been doing.  It was dripping with water.  How he  himself didn't get wet, I don't know, that's a mystery.

With the lid up and out of the way, the ring was dripping with water.  You've seen cakes where the baker slowly and steadily pours glaze on the center of the top layer and it drizzles down the sides? 

Well, this toilet ring had water drizzles, they pooled and made droplets, hanging onto the rim.  It was quite pretty, like winter ice holding sunshine to glisten, to make your eyes happy they saw them.

I couldn't say little Jacob was happy to see me.  He was startled.  His eyes got big.  His body did a twitch.  His brain knew this wasn't something he was allowed to do.  But, he'd seen his mother do it.  At GrammyPam's house maybe he could try it just this once with the toilet bowl brush.

The only word ever spoken between us was a stern reprimand, "JACOB!" 

As fast as I've ever seen, the toilet brush got briskly shoved into it's holder. The hands went down to his side.  He was ushered out the door.  His cheeks were flushed.

We each understood the other.  He understood it wasn't something he was allowed to do.  I understood he was a boy needing to learn about the world, and that his needs and can't-dos were battling.  Still the mess was mine to clean up.  It was necessary that I won.  After-all, I was the bigger of the two ...  heading to the super bowl.

Handling A Hungry Man, Uh, Men, Uh, Grandson, Too!

There are sayings around our house that emerged from the boys' growing years.  One is "I'm as hungry as I ever been."  

Really?  Well, hello there, Mr. Hungry.

Another, and this isn't mispelled, "Are you hangry?  Huh, huh, huh, are you hangry?"  This was 20 years ago before it was ever said on television.  And in response to someone that was so hungry they were angry, too.

In the early days, this from a TV commercial, they would bandy about, "I need a Hungry Man meal!"  Chuckle, get out the meat and potatoes, and super-size it!

And more recently, just a couple months ago, two of 'em called me on the phone as they were headed here,  "Do you have something cooked, or do I need a drive-thru?"  

I think that was blackmail.

Seriously, am I "chief cook and bottle washer?"  And that one was from Dad.  He brought it home from being in the army in the 1950's.

To be more current, though, I have to tell you about grandson Jacob.

Master Jacob wanders into the kitchen and comes out with food!  Something in each hand!  Where he gets it is a mystery.  No one else was in the kitchen.  There was no food setting out.  We hadn't had a meal in there in 4 hours or more.  

With food in each hand, and a big desire to pick up a Hot Wheels car, it was a struggle, and a problem to be solved -- you could read it on his face.  One hand held on tight to the food while it struck out for balance and the other hand popped its food into his bulging cheeks then ... he reached down to pick up the toy.  

Mom says he's discovered that if he gets into the bread drawer he can shake a loaf of bread until it pops open so he can have a slice.  I keep telling her she's got a boy and he's hungry and he'll be growing more muscle than sister Lilly!  Lilly has aversions anyway, and doesn't eat well.  This boy is a whole new ball game.

Most recently he's discovered the freezer drawer which is at the bottom of their refrigerator.  This short little 2 y.o., pulls open the drawer using both hands and his body as weight.  Then he digs down into a box to pull out a popsicle.  Self-feeding.  Survival instincts.

His dad says, "Watch my electric bill go out the door."  His mom says, "He knows what he wants". 

The other day I got a live video on my cell phone.  It was of Jacob.  His dad recorded him 'cause Dad thinks it's priceless when hungry Jacob toddles up and says, "Iwanna nack."