Day 14 - More Goshen

We started the day with a large breakfast provided by our host, Jerry Lapp, owner of The Red Bridge Bed and Breakfast. We then decided to take a little walk and work off our breakfast.  This stream ran along the side of the house...it was a lovely walk in about 65 degree weather.

                       

After our walk we headed for South Bend to see the University of Notre Dame campus.  After getting majorally lost we finally did get there ....very large campus.  Our "tour" of South Bend was very interesting also.

Next was a trip to Shipshewana, an Amish community near Goshen ....saw many horse and buggies along the road but because it was Sunday all the businesses were closed.  What a disappointment! Even the many eating establishments were closed...we finally found an open Subway and grabbed a sandwich there.

We went into downtown Goshen and took some pictures....everything was closed there also.   Gave up and went back to our B&B and caught up on our reading.  It's after 9pm now and is still light out!

Wanderings of the Warrens

Day 13 Wisconsin/Indiana

We spent last night with Jack and his youngest Jason in Hortonville,  Wisconsin.  Jordan (#3 son) had to work and then spent the night with his mom. We had a wonderful time having dinner with just the 6 of us (Martha/Gerry, Jack/Jason and us) at the The Machine Shed in Appleton, Wisconsin.  AWESOME food we'd highly recommend.  This morning we got up early and the 6 of us met up with Jack's #2 son, Matthew and his beautiful wife Amanda, at IHOP for breakfast..... such a wonderful time, just way too short.

Gerry, Martha, Howard, and I left IHOP about 10am for the 300 mile drive to Goshen, Indiana.   Going through Chicago was a little tiresome as we hit 4 toll booths, all of which wanted $$$$.....when we stopped later Gerry told us that we actually 'ran one toll boothes' and we never even realized it....will a ticket be in our mailbox when we get home?  We will see in a couple  months!!

We arrived in Goshen about 4pm, checked into our B&B , rested up a little, and then headed into town to check things out.  We saw the building where mom use to work and found the court house (both of which I will be visiting on Monday).  We had dinner at a local pizza place (I was good and just had cottage cheese and fruit).  One of the waitresses was a Goshen native and answered many of our questions....where Goshen High School is, where N. 10th St was, is the Goshen News building the original one (yes it is, so it is the actual building my mom worked in) and gave us other info.  I am ready to hit the streets on Monday and follow through on all of this.

More tomorrow after wandering around Goshen and other close towns. As we prepare to end this long day we lay in bed listening to the tooting of trains in the background.

                                                  Jason,  Jack and Howard

Day 11 and 12 Catch Up Time

I haven't been able to post for a couple days because of laptop doing a crash, it's semi-fixed so I am working off my tablet right now. Please forgive any errors.

Thursday we were in most of the day working on the computer.   Then Janet, my niece, came over with salad, dessert and family, at Martha's, for pizza and fun.  We talked and laughed all evening.

Friday we were up early and on the road at 9:00am, with Gerry and Martha following - 250 miles to Jack's house, near Appleton WI.  Fun seeing Jack an his youngest Jason.  Meeting Jack's second eldest and his wife for breakfast at IHOP before they have to go to work and we have to head onto Goshen IN (where my mom grew up).  Gerry and Martha and us will be staying in a B and B there until Monday when we head east and they go home.

I have to say Wisconsin and Minnesota are 2 VERY beautiful states, with wide open spaces, lots of green and lots of water. Unlike Arizona, California and Nevada where there is only a couple feet between houses.

  

Quick stop at McD's

Day 10 - This and That

Taken in Maplewood MN - can you imagine having to decorate that for Christmas?

We spent the day doing this and that and seeing many parts of the Minneapolis/St Paul area of Minnesota.  Took a short tour of the cute little town of Maplewood....old houses mixed with buisnesses on the same streets....some of these houses were early 1900's and maybe even late 1800's.  I love just driving by and seeing them from the outside.  So much green in the area too....so different than the rock/pebble yards of Arizona.  We then met a friend and her husband at Chili's for lunch and did the usual of talk, talk, talk....she is a real estate agent here in the Minneapolis/St Paul area so we had much in common.  

When we got back to my sisters we all took off again and did some damage in the stores :)  There's NO SALES TAX in Minnesota so I had to take advantage of it and do some serious shopping!  Later we hit Culver's for dinner and then picked up Dairy Queen Blizzards for dessert later (which may have to wait until tomorrow to be eaten :) ).

This area of the country is so beautiful with it's many lakes, beautiful greenery, green grass and trees galore.  I could take living in an area like this if it didn't get so stinking cold during the winter! At the top of the page is a picture of one of the beautiful trees we came across.

Mark, Howard, me, Martha, Gerry, Aiden on table and Hazel on floor

Day 9 - Just Chillin' and Enjoyin'

Monday we spent most of the day just chillin' and resting up from our long drive Sunday.  We went to Perkin's for breakfast (man, I wish they had these in Arizona), did some grocery shopping, re-evaluated our trip schedule and mad a couple small changes.  And then we had a wonderful home cooked meal provided by my sis and brother in law.  We will leave here on Friday for Wisconsin and see our Foster-son and his children while there.  Saturday we'll head to Indiana....where we have some special places we want to visit.

Pictures taken from the windows of my Sister and Brother-in-Laws beautiful condo.

A View from the Balcony

Another View from the Balcony

One more View from the Balcony

Day 8 - Pictures

After an 11 hour (600 miles) drive yesterday we finally reached my sisters home in Eagan MN (near St. Paul).  We ran into much rain on the drive and even some hail, at one point we had to pull into a rest stop and sit for 15 minutes until the heavy rain died down.  We ate lunch at a Perkin's, which was nice since at one time we had one in Phoenix but as far as we know it's no longer there.  We were exhausted upon arrival in MN and just had some sandwiches for supper.  This post is short as we're about ready to turn in for the night - I'm showing additional pictures from Mount Rushmore.  Will try and do a better job with my posting tomorrow night.

Emtering Mount Rushmore

Fog slowly lifting from Mtount Rushmore

Day 6 - 7 Monument Colorado to Rapid City South Dakota

We left Monument Colorado about 7am on Friday, May 30, 2014.  Saying farewell to long time friends was hard but we know but we know we'll get to see them again soon.

We drove 500 miles in the one day to Rapid City, South Dakota - driving through Wyoming was awesome nothing but green grass and fields for 100's of miles.  Wyoming is by far one of the most beautiful states we have driven through.  We just wish we'd have had more time to stay and visit and explore.

Pulling into Rapid City about 4:30 (we got lost in Wyoming and it took a little longer than expected) we were amazed by all the mountains and greenry.  We met my sister and her husband, my nephew, and my niece and her husband and 2 children at the Holiday Inn Express just a few miles from Mount Rushmore.  Friday night we ate dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (across from the hotel) and then flopped exhausted for a good nights sleep.  Up early on Saturday morning we ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and then packed up 3 cars for the trip to see Mount Rushmore.  Fog was very thick and we had to wait around about an hour for it to lift before we could get decent pictures.  Had a ton of fun visiting, watching people, watching the young ones but we were all exhausted by 1pm-ish and decided to head back fro a nap.  

Our biggest disappointment in this part of the trip was that it rained steadally from the time we left Monument, CO on Friay morning  until after we woke up Saturday morning.