July 25 – September 3, 2011 - Warren, Indiana

This was a short 5 ½ weeks and very busy. We enjoyed company overnight our first night home. Cindy and Amber stayed the night before going to softball in Indy. That evening we went to a Fort Wayne Tin Caps game with Taylor University alumni and had a great time.
We went to the Huntington County 4-H fair. It had been years since we have been able to do that. And for those of you who know me and my fear of chickens you will be shocked to find out that I actually walked down 2 rows in the poultry barn. We also went to Swiss Days in Berne, listened to the community choir program and saw the play Heidi. Met with some Optimists and plan to join the Bluffton Club in the spring of 2012 when we are home for a little longer. We did get to enjoy some tomatoes from our plants.
We visited with Rhonda and Lanie and of course got to spend some time with Coleen’s dad. We went to see Annie Get Your Gun at the Pulse Opera House in Warren, Church Basement Ladies 2 at Beef and Boards in Indianapolis. I was privileged to go with church ladies to attend Living Proof Live with Beth Moore in Columbus, Ohio. It was an awesome experience. I have studied and done videos but this is the first time I have seen her in person.

We went to Ohio to visit Mavis & DeVon for a few days. We had a great time. We visited, played games and got to see Michael, Tina, Alana

and also Matthew, Melissa, Eden and Kai.

Jeremy got to spend some evenings with us playing games. Bob had help from Alana with the air bed.

We also went to the Air Force Museum and learned a lot since DeVon is a docent there and he was able to give us lots of information.

We will have to continue the tour another time as we did not finish seeing all of it.
I worked on quilting and finished the QFL quilt top. It is now ready to back and be quilted.

I also created a pattern and made a book cover for Bob. The one he had been using for years actually fell apart. I used a new tool and decorated it with a “double diamond” piece.



I completed 2 more lap quilt tops to take to the home.



On Thursday before we left we had a visit from Eric and Martha and also Lloyd. On Friday we went to another Tin Caps game with some of Coleen’s high school class. We left on Saturday for Pennsylvania.

Canmore, Alberta to Bayfield, WI

On Saturday after leaving Deb for her flight on Sunday we drove to Medicine Hat where we saw the world’s largest teepee. It made a nice rest stop.



Then we drove on into Saskatchewan and spent the night in Moose Jaw. The terrain that we drove through was beautiful rolling hills and very grassy.
We crossed back into the U.S. on Sunday near Plentywood, Montana. We visited Fort Union Trading Post NHS which is on the Missouri River in North Dakota. There was so much flooding that it was hard to tell where the channel of the river was.







We stopped at a state visitor center for the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.


We stayed the night in Williston, ND. The next morning found us crossing the Missouri which because of the severe flooding was almost two miles wide. The water was right next to the road. We went to the north end of Teddy Roosevelt National Park, watched the film and drove through the area on a 16 miles drive in, drive out same way.

These formations are called Cannon Ball Concretions and we found them extremely interesting.





This area was also called “badlands” and was similar to South Dakota but was greener. We saw the bison herd from a distance. Then we headed to the south entrance of the park which was in Medora. It was a beautiful drive through this part of the park which was a 36 mile loop. We were able to see the feral horses twice.









There were prairie dogs again, hundreds of them I think.


The town of Medora is just tourist shops, motels and small restaurants.


We went to the Pitchfork Dinner Fondue. They cooked the steaks in hot oil on actual pitchforks.





Then we saw the Medora Musical. The musical was about North Dakota and I was impressed with their pride in their State. Other than Texas we haven’t heard a program about a State. It was held in an outdoor amphitheater which had escalators down to the seating. Bob found this online when he was researching, made reservations and I am so glad he did. It was a wonderful experience.



Tuesday, July 12th we drove east through North Dakota and stopped at Knife River National Historic Site. Much of the park was wet and under water because it was on the Missouri River. We viewed the film and saw the reconstructed dirt lodge.





We continued on to Bismark for the night. Wednesday we toured the capital building. It was built in the 1930’s after the other one burned. It is a tall 19-20 story structure. They have one room called the monkey room because of the pattern in the wood. One even looks like a Cheshire cat.






We spent the night in Fargo and on Thursday we drove to Bayfield, Wisconsin. It was cloudy and misty the entire day. We ate a nice dinner at a restaurant called Maggie’s and Friday morning we took a boat tour to see the Apostle Islands National Seashore. It was rainy and stormy so the trip was cut short and we were only able to see one lighthouse, Raspberry Island Lighthouse.








In the evening we went to the Big Top Chautauqua for the show “Keeper of the Light”. It was a play about lighthouse keepers in the Apostle Islands.


Saturday we drove to the Wyndham at the Dells. We did stop at 2 quilt shops on the way. We spent a rather lazy week including the lazy river at the water park. We went to the Circus World Museum in Baraboo. We saw a one hour circus show and also a 45 minutes magician show. The museum had the history of the circus, especially Ringling Bros. and many of the old circus wagons.












Friday, July 22nd we left Wisconsin and went to Ron & Cindy’s in Bartlett, IL. We were planning to go to softball games most of the weekend but most of them were cancelled because of rain. We headed home to Warren on Sunday.