We left Horseshoe Lakes Campground in Clinton, IN at 11:45 am on Sunday, October 24. We generally prefer to travel on Mondays, but the campground closed for the season on Sunday. It was raining as we hooked up Thor. We headed out with Acey’s mileage at 78,585.2 – Thor has 93,647 and we have put 1,479 miles on our bicycles since we started out in April 2020. It took us nearly 6 hours to go the 171 miles to Indian Lakes! It rained the whole time, and as we neared indianapolis, we passed by some accidents. In several places a car was off in the ditch – on both sides of I-70. A semi may have braked too hard – the back of its trailer slid way off the road. A car slammed into the back of a flatbed carrying a wide load – didn’t look like a lot of damage to the truck, but the airbag went off in the car and it was in bad shape. A tractor trailer ran into the back of another that was carrying white vans – and smashed one of the vans pretty good. They were mostly off to the side, but traffic had to go to one lane to get around them. Our drive was like a demolition derby, but fortunately we did not see any of the accidents happen! We were held up in traffic for a couple of hours – so Linda made lunch while Jim inched along the interstate. Nice to have a kitchen and bathroom at our disposal! We soon got to the major cause of the problem – 3 semi-trailers were involved in a terrible wreck on westbound side of I-70.
We later found an article about this wreck that killed one driver and another was injured – read about it here.
We had planned to stop at Camping World to get new wipers, but traffic was so bad, we went straight on to the campground, arriving about 5:30. That evening, and overnight, the wind howled and it rained – and continued on thru Monday. After lunch on Monday, we drove into Indianapolis to Camping World to pick up the wipers for Acey. On the way, we stopped at a truck stop, thinking maybe they might have them, but the longest blades they carried were 22″ – we need 26″ blades. Tractors have a much shorter windshield than motorhomes – look at that next time you are out and about on a highway! We stopped at Camping World and then at Costco to fill up Thor and headed back to Batesville, still raining off and on!
We stopped at Aldi for some goceries – one thing we need is saltines – theirs are just 79 cents – but the last several Aldis we have been to have been out of stock. Interestingly, their crunchy peanut butter seems to be available now; we had been looking for that for many months, beginning in California last year. We settled for a jar of Jiff – just not the same – the “Peanut Delight” brand from Aldi is PACKED with chunks of peanuts!
Jim got the new wipers installed later on Monday.
Walking around the park, we are finally seeing a bit more color in the leaves!
Tuesday after lunch we went for a drive – first to Greensburg to see the “World famous” Tower Tree. We had seen a billboard about it on our drive in on Sunday and it piqued our curiosity.
Read about the history of the Tower Tree here!
We walked around the courthouse and saw a tree giving its all to show fall colors!
On an opposing corner was a lovely Presbyterian church
There had been an Upper Room Museum in Greensburg, but due to Covid and the age of the collectors, they closed the museum. So we headed to Metamora to see the Whitewater Canal. The Grist Mill is open Wednesday-Sunday – so we were unable to go in since it is Tuesday.
We walked along the canal – the water was obviously very high due to all the rainfall here. A family of ducks were enjoying the muddy water!
These ducks preferred the shore…
During the last three weekends in October, (Friday and Saturday nights) Metamora really gets into the Halloween spirit with a “Haunted Village” event. Since we were here on a Tuesday afternoon, the place really was a ghost town (LOL) Nothing was open, but we walked around and saw some of the locals waiting anxiously for Friday night.
As we continued walking along the canal, we saw something unusual – you have heard the expression “water under the bridge” right? Well this is water OVER the bridge!
Since the canal was so high due to the recent rainfall, some of the water ran over the sides of the bridge and into the creek below.
Draft animals used to pull the canal boats by walking on a towpath alongside the canal – not sure what happened at the water bridge! Canal boat tours on the Ben Franklin used to be run here – but that seems to be closed down now – COVID?!
We walked back thru the little village where everything seemed to be closed. Linda liked the name of this shop.
On Wednesday, Jim had made an appointment at Discount Tires to have the tires rotated on Thor. One of the closest place seemed to be in Hamilton, Ohio – and there was a bike trail nearby. So, after the tires were rotated, we headed to the Great Miami River Trail. It was a nice paved trail with no road crossings.
There were a couple of dams on the river – so boats cannot go very far on this section of the river.
It was a cool day – 48F and only warmed up to 51F! We rode nearly 13 miles.
After breakfast on Thursday, we were going to take a walk around the campground, but after we unloaded the bikes off Thor (to cover them up in anticipation of even MORE rain) it began to rain again.
It rained all day – so we did some cleaning and 2 loads of laundry and had a relaxing rest of the day.
More rain was expected later on Friday, so we got out early and went for a walk around the campground after breakfast. The Fall colors are near peak, so they say.
And the rain came after we had lunch. Jim worked on changing out more of the outlets. He got one changed but needed some parts for the next ones – so we headed out to get them. After stopping at the hardware store, we drove on to Greensburg to the new nano brewery there. Tree City Brew Co just opened last month. They had a nice selection of craft brew on tap, and we enjoyed a couple of pints!
Anne’s Hefeweizen Alma’s Stout
We headed back to Acey for dinner. MORE rain expected again tonight and tomorrow. So on Saturday JIm worked on changing some more outlets. The brown outlets that were installed at the factory are not UL approved – and have caused fires in some RVs – they seem inadequate, so Jim has been working on changing them since April. He has found loose wires and unconnected grounds – Yikes! Jim has found 32 outlets in Acey and had changed 27 so far.
In addition, the old brown outlets make it harder to see where to plug in – especially in low light.
Saturday evening we went out for dinner at The Sherman – a German restaurant in Batesville.
The food was delicious – we had no room for dessert.
Linda had the George’s Sauerbraten – German roast with warm German potato salad and braised red cabbage YUM!! Jim enjoyed the Best Wurt Platter Ever – German sausage trio, sauerkraut, warm German potato salad and a mustard trio.
Prost! We both had a pint of German Dunkel with our dinner!
Sunday morning, as usual, we tuned into YouTube to worship virtually with our home church – Stephens Valley Church in Nashville and saw last week’s service. Pastor Jim preached on Romans 8:28-30 (You can see just the sermon here.)
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What a great promise! Our Sunday School class is still going thru Genesis and these verses call to mind the story of Joseph and how his brothers mistreated him yet he ended up second in command in Egypt and saved many lives thru the famine – what man meant for evil, God used for good! We may not understand God’s plan when things don’t seem to go the way we think they should – but, as believers, we need to trust God will see us thru. We Zoomed with our Sunday School class and had lunch. We will be at church next week, so we may need to catch up and see today’s service before then!
We drove into Batesville and took walk around the reservoir. No rain in the forecast today – finally! More pretty Fall colors on display!
We saw some fish in the water – and some turtles sunning themselves.
As we got back to the car, this squirrel was taking a nut to store up for the winter
Batesville has a huge facility here to make caskets. Actually several facilities!
Hillrom also has a large presence here – they make hospital beds and other medical equipment.
We got back to Acey and started to make preparations for our move tomorrow. We are heading to Northern Kentucky and hope to visit the Ark Encounter and maybe the Creation Museum.
After dinner we Zoomed with the family – its always fun to catch up with everyone! Our family is spread out over the US – in Oregon, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee – and wherever we are!
Monday morning it was a cool 48F as we got packed up and headed out at 10:50 on Monday November 1. We need to head south soon to get to warmer weather!
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Nice pictures! We have a tree growing in our gutter. Do you think we should put up a historic marker? 🙂
Good question! Hmmm, who do you call about that?!
Super! You have documented the heart of the country this year and ties that we can retrace to contentment and service to mankind. Thank you for images of peace and routine, more than what we see on the daily news. May America bless God for the generations he has given us…. may there be more to come!
Amen to all that Linda! Thanks for commenting – hope to see you soon when we are in Nashville!
Beautiful fall colors in your pictures! I miss Aldi foods so much! They’re in the Denver area but nothing here in northern Colorado yet.
We had been Aldi shoppers for several years in Nashville and ae glad to find they have stores scattered over many states. You just can’t beat their prices and there are several items we really like there. Maybe you’ll get one someday?!
Well, that wreck was really a bad one !!!! Happy you make it through with no troubles and that you had enough GAS !! Your pictures are beautiful, would like to set up my rocker chair on one of the banks and just sit and enjoy the views. All is well here, at least today. We had a God thing work for us. Remember Jeri and Bob Melton?? We met them at Christ Pres. They were at our house one night and noticed that we really needed a chair lift for our stairs. Long story—-bottom line, she worked for about 2 years to get a chair lift for us from her friend who moved and wanted to sell one. We agreed on price, but had to deal with realtor, then friend died, now dealing with estate, in the end of all the back and forth, mainly on Jeri’s part, we got a chair lift for free. We did pay for it to be taken out of the house and put into ours. We had a price from one company for 5,000. Praise God. Floyd named the chair Charlie. He talks to it every morning and every night. Guess that is what happens when you are home bound. You all be careful out there. Blessings, Patty
Well Patty, its great to hear from you again! We are thankful for safe travels with 65feet of vehicles as we move ondown the road! We average about 7MPG, but have a 125 gallon tank, so running out of gas shouldn’t be a problem. Great news about “Charlie” I bet he is a big help!
You are fortunate to be traveling with a very “handy” man!
You got that right! Even a brand new coach will have problems… it’s definitely a good thing Jim can fix most of the issues we run into. Just like a house – or a car – there’s bound to be maintenance or improvements that can be done.
If one had to get trapped in a traffic jam, what better way to go than in Acey. You were prepared. That old electrical outlet was definitely packed tight. With all the improvement you’ve made, Acey may qualify for being a current model, futuristic or just simply one-of-a-kind.
Thanks for posting.
Yep! Nice to have a kitchen and bathroom on board! These outlets seem to be what they use in most RVs – maybe they are faster and cheaper to install is our guess. Acey is a 2009 model – so after 12 years, we think it a good idea to change the outlets.
I really enjoy walking on the towpaths along canals – it hadn’t really been on my radar for fun walking places until I stumbled upon a really cool canal and towpath just outside Washington DC, then I started to seek them out and found more good ones. They have such an interesting, although somewhat short-lived, history once the trains started running. And they always make me think of the grade-school song we used to sing “I had a mule and her name was Sal – 15 miles on the Erie Canal…” 😀