Happy Birthday, Troy (and America)!

On July 5, 2007, Troy turned 42. (He looks pretty good for being an old man, huh?) Since we both had July 4th off as a holiday from work and we needed to deliver Sisko (the Wonder Hound) to the farm for safe-keeping while we were going to be away on our next motorcycle adventure, we decided to make a day of it. We packed all of us in the car in the morning and headed to southern Indiana.

We enjoyed having some lunch with Troy's family (his mom, dad, sister Tricia and brother-in-law Dennis). His mom is a great cook and always seems to have an amazing meal just at the ready. I guess years of practice making meals for hard-working farm hands can give a woman a leg up in that department!

Troy opened his cards from his family and was quite blessed by their generosity. The card from his sister and brother-in-law caused quite a stir as Troy punched out the eyes and mouth in order to make himself look like the monkey on the front. Quite a sight, I assure you!

Later in the afternoon, we headed back to Indianapolis. Troy has some GREAT real estate in the downtown area which affords a wonderfully unobstructed view of the fireworks display that the city sets up. As the evening moved into darkness and the traffic picked up, we gracefully gathered our camp chairs and easily strode about 100 feet to a bridge near his house. From there, the view of the downtown skyline and the canal below can be quite breathtaking at times. This evening was no exception. There was a bit of a mild cloud cover and the temperature was near perfect. (I brought along a little blanket though, since I tend to get a little chilly.) People started to gather around us and as the fireworks started, we could just hear the faint strains of a radio playing music set to the colorful explosions.

It was a lovely evening and hopefully a great way to celebrate one's birthday eve. He often considers selling his house in this prime location of downtown Indianapolis. I keep hoping he'll come to his senses and realize what a blessing it really is. All the greatest things that the city has to offer are within walking distance!

Family fun and frivolity

At the beginning of July, Troy and I were able to attend a bit of a family reunion for the members of his mom's side of the family. Troy's aunt, Judy, and her husband own a bit of property in southern Indiana and have made it quite the place to visit. Judy has three daughters and a small army of grandchildren who are spread half-way across the country. A few years ago Dan and Judy decided to build a house which would allow them all to come home to visit at the same time.

It was a grand plan and the execution was flawless (thanks to Dan's meticulousness!). The house itself is quite large and the entire upper level is set up as one (VERY LARGE) bedroom where I think there are least 3 queen beds. However, it's so large that they look tiny in the space. The beds, combined with loads of sleeping bags are the sleeping quarters for all of the adults and children when they come to visit. It's a GREAT layout!

Outdoors, there is also plenty of room to spread out. They have an area set up with lines of picnic tables for dining al fresco, teeter-totters and swings for the kids, two horseshoe pits and a cozy little outhouse complete with two toilet spaces (with toilet seats!). I'm not sure why two people would ever go in at the same time to relieve themselves, but I'm not one to rock the boat on these issues. ;-) There is even a little stream that runs through the area and a brand new bridge over it installed by Dan in the last year or so. It's all very homey.

At the family reunion, all of these spaces were filled to the brim with people. The smaller kids enjoyed the teeter-totter or searched for creepy crawly things in the moist ground near the water. The older kids enjoyed a game of basketball or horseshoes. Most of the adults brought their own lawn chairs and gathered in a big circle to discuss the events of their lives. The soccer games and school projects, job promotions and plans for the future were all brought out and chewed on for a while.

This conversational appetizer was just the beginning as Dan was busy standing over the line of grills preparing the hamburgers and hot dogs. Three entire picnic tables were also filled with hoards of other goodies from pasta salads and potato chips to the prized dessert, a microwave cake! (Thanks to a Pampered Chef pan, you, too, can enjoy a microwave cake! YUM!!!)

While I'm not actually a member of the family, it was so nice to be invited. (Troy's invitation said, "Bring Heather along!") It was also quite touching to feel so included. Troy's aunt Judy even made a special effort to tell me how much they enjoyed me being around. Well, the feeling is definitely mutual. As the number of members of my family continue to dwindle and we spend less and less time gathering together to enjoy one another, I hope that Troy and his family realize how fortunate they are. May we all be so blessed.

Life on the road

We are currently in West Bend, WI at the BMW MOA rally and having a great time. We left on Saturday, July 7th and took two days to mosy our way around Chicago and up through the middle of Illinois. From the reports other people made about the traffic and road construction in the Chicago area, it seems like we made the right choice to avoid it completely.

We've enjoyed some time on the road, some lovely weather and getting to know new friends and reconnect with some past rally friends.

Today is the last day of the rally and we are making sure to take full advantage of it. We've shopped the vendors, eaten ears of corn and scoops of custard to our hearts' content and filled our brains with TONS of new information in the seminars. Right now I am sitting in the communications hub of the rally where they have charging stations for our cell phones and a bank of laptop computers for us to get reconnected with the outside world.

Tomorrow morning, Troy and I will head back to good ol' Indiana and head back to work on Sunday. When we come to these things, it only reinforces how we really need to find some way to figure out how to get other people to pay us to ride. If anyone out there has any ideas, we are more than open to suggestions!

In the meantime, I'm taking lots of pictures and gathering a plethora of great stories with which to amuse you all upon our returns.

Until then, I bid you a fond farewell and look forward to seeing you all soon.

Take care!
Heather

# 64 - Complete a knitting project that I can wear

I finished my second real knitting project. I decided to make a shawl for the knitting project that I can wear. I really like the way it turned out and it wasn't really that hard. I think I did a pretty good job! My favorite part is the fringe! It is sooo fun. It will be great to be able to have it this fall when the temperatures start to drop.

Date Night # 5 - Movies in the Park at City Market

So, after a bit of an hiatus due to weather and our first motorcycle vacation of the summer, there had been nothing to report on Date Nights. But on Friday, June 29, Troy and I saw "Waking Ned Devine" on the patio at the City Market.

During the summer, the city of Indianapolis shows movies for free in various parks all over the city. The events are great for families and people on a budget. The movies are free and there is PLENTY of space for little ones to run around and enjoy themselves.

For our little outting, we packed a picnic of cheese, crackers, meats, a bottle of one of our favorite wines and a couple of chocolate chip cookies for dessert. YUM. We also made sure that we brought a blanket and our camp chairs. We like to do these things right, you know! No picnic would be complete without them.

Usually, we would have simply packed our stuff in a couple of backpacks and walked to the park, but it was a bit overcast and there was a slight chance of rain, so we decided to wimp it out and took my car, but we had VERY good parking kharma and found a spot practically right IN the park! Yeah!

The movie was delightfully strange and Scottish. For the first few minutes I struggled to understand their accents, but, as is usually the case with subtitles, I relaxed into the movie after a few minutes.

It was a lovely evening out in the city and I got to cross off an item on my list too! "See an outdoor production of something." Yeah!

Heather's Segway Experience

Troy's Ride on the Segway