June 28

All and all it was a great day! The weather was good, only in the 80’s, no rain. It rained most of the night, was pouring when we went to bed and things were pretty soggy out this morning. Since we have no shore water here and didn’t fill our tank I was reduced to taking my shower in the “communal” shower. I’d done it before, but just like being in my own space. I hate loading up my “stuff” and walking around in front of total strangers in my pajamas. There were 4 small stalls (which was OK since my own shower in the RV is rather small) with a tiny dressing area. The stall I picked had numerous mosquitoes buzzing about and I had my very own frog. Lucky me! The water was tricky. No regular hot and cold handles. One push button and what came out is what you got. It only lasted 5 seconds or so, so of course you had to continually push it. I was very fast washing my face because I couldn’t see the button!

Since we slept in, and I made the Sunday breakfast on Monday, turkey sausage, 
eggs, toast and fruit, it took longer to get assembled and on the road. We both had a couple of phone calls to make. Bill had to call State Farm about the truck tailgate and I had to call the Dr about a bill and my homeowners insurance. Got that out of the way and we were ready to go. We had a nice day touring Parke County, IN and 9 of its covered bridges. Most were in need of a fresh coat of paint, but it was so neat to see so many in one day. I had ordered a map of the driving tours to see them. There were 4 routes with 39 total but we would have needed to get an early start to cover them all. The one is neatest as it was the newest. Rebuilt in 2005 after an arsonist burned the original one over 100 years old. Some you could drive through and I made Bill go back and forth so I could video and some are along side a new bridge and you park and walk through. One had a resident kitty that someone leaves food for. It’s really a nice breath of nostalgia and something we never get to see in Florida.

We also made our last stop in Bridgeton where we toured the oldest continually running mill in IN, Bridgeton Mill. They only grind on weekends in the summer so we missed that. Bill did a lot of question asking and the current owner was great. He told about the history in the area as well as the history of the mill and how he makes the many kinds of corn meal, flours, grits, etc. I wish I could have bought more, but we only have so much space and we haven’t even hit the Amish country yet! Although, we did see 2 buggies today in Rockville and a young man getting an ice cream at the mill.

We had lunch in Rockville at a saloon styled place. The food was good, the service was slow. Bill surprised me by getting a grilled chicken sandwich and I had a philly cheese steak. It was so good, especially since I never have them. We shared an order of onion rings. They were good but not as good as the fried dill pickles we had the other day. Then our special treat since I’m not doing much baking and dessert making this trip was a single scoop of hand dipped ice cream. I had praline and he had chocolate peanut butter cup. Double yummy!

We topped off the fuel on the way home and after walking Xena Bill washed the splatters of mud off the truck. He wasn’t too happy that we had to go on some gravel roads. Oh well, it was part of the adventure. He also vacuumed up a bunch of pet hair from in the truck. Should be OK now til we get home. Hair was flying all over! I got the grill out and grilled steaks for tonight and chicken for maybe tomorrow night, potatoes for tonight and made salads. I used our last home grown tomato that I brought. Surely they will be dried up and done when we get home. Am using our last cucumber too. Since he worked so hard on the truck I cleaned up the grill and put it all away. He said he’d do the daily dishes, so that was nice. I sat out and read for a while then trudged back to the communal shower, picking a different stall as froggy was still dwelling in the one I had this morning. It should be a quick get away in the morning since we only have electric to put away and I can put the inside in travel condition while Bill showers. We had a nice walk with Xena tonight after dinner too. She loves just lying out on the grass and watching the kids and people go by. One more day here would have been perfect for just relaxing! Oh well, I think we will do more of that come September!