We got away from the KY Horse Park a little later than we had wanted, stopped and filled up the fuel tank and hit the road.

It was down I75 through Kentucky into Tennessee picking up I40 and then south on I26. We are currently at Hendersonville, NC in the Apple Valley Travel Park. It was a real nice drive thru the mountains on the interstate highway. It is quick crooked and has a 50 mph limit in several areas.

As you would expect there was a lot of traffic, especially big trucks, many hauling logs from the surrounding areas to the saw mill. The mountains are beautiful, much different than the mountains out west. In a few weeks the mountains in this area will be beautiful with their fall colors in full dress.

Tomorrow we will head on south to South Carolina and our campground for a few days.

Our photos are from the HTC rally, Mens power chair races, Womens power chair races and a group enjoying some heat from the propane heaters in the shelter.

We spent Sunday night near Brodhead, WI. It rained a lot during the night. Monday morning it was raining and blowing quite hard as a storm was passing through the area.

I fought the wind and rain all morning so we stayed on the big roads with at least two lanes going our way so I could stay in one lane or the other and sometime the middle as the wind was in the 30 to 50mph range, a real fight.

We finally got to White River Campground about 7pm after a really hard day of driving. Evelyn drove during the afternoon so I could rest.

Tuesday was spent getting things sorted out for a new power wheelchair. You would not believe all that is available that you have to choose from or eliminate as not needed in your particular situation. Hopefully it will be ready to finish up and pick up by the middle of October. Only time will tell.

We finally got away after noon today after doing the laundry, grocery shopping and other chores that needed to be done, Hooked up the van and headed south,

The weather was not good with showers off and on from about Shelbyville, IN to south of Cincinnati. We are currently at the Kentucky Horse Park just north of Lexington, KY. Tomorrow we will head on south toward S. Carolina.

The photos are of the rally attenders at the Saturday night dinner with the business meeting following.

HTC Rally

It has been a busy week since we arrived at the Vista Royalle Campground. The Handicapped Travel Club national rally was not to start until Wednesday afternoon, however one member, Roland Winters needed to be in New Jersey for his 50th graduation party and celebration, so he came in on Sunday and left Tuesday morning.

We wanted to visit with Roland and his family before they headed on to New Jersey. They are from Surprise, AZ and are a long way from home.

The opening ceremonies were Wednesday afternoon and closing with a very nice dinner and the annual business meeting on Saturday evening. Coffee and donuts on Sunday morning and our final good byes was the final activity.

We did a few new things, one was a horse race where you have 6 jockeys and there are a number of squares for each horse. You place your bets on the horse and then someone rolls the dice. What ever numbers come up that horse advances one square until there is a winner and you cash in your winning chip for money. It was a fun event and hopefully we will get to do it again.

The photos are of the pavilion where we met as well as the motor homes and trailers that came from all over the country to be in attendance. There were units as far away as California and Oregon and as far south as Florida and as far east as Massachusetts and lots of places in between. We had a total of 16 units and 4 that were in motels. It was a very nice turnout for a rally in the central part of the country.

This morning we traveled the short distance to Bancroft, WI and the Vista Royalle Campground. This is a really large campground with most of it being in a pine forest except the area where the units of the HTC will be located.

There are a few already here with others coming in tomorrow and Tuesday. All should be here by Wednesday.

Yesterday we toured the Circus World Museum in Barraboo, WI. It has photographs and billings from circuses all over the world. Over the years there have been many circuses of various sizes that toured all over the world at
one time or another.

Many went out of business or joined with another or several others over the years until there was only a few, the largest being the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The Ringling brothers were five brothers of nine children that all worked in and with the circus. They each had definite jobs and all were good at what they did.

There are dozens of wagons with all of their elaborate decorations and beautiful paint. Hundreds of elaborate costumes that all were hand made for each individual performer.

The wagons vary in size and design depending on what animals they housed. Some have two compartments with doors on each end to let the animals pass from one area to another.

In the Big Top the cages were rolled in and the animals would be released into the ring and the trainer would do his thing with the animals and then they would return to their cage and it would be rolled away and another put in its place and the show would go on.

Tomorrow there will be more photos from the museum of the beautiful floats and wagons.

Devil's Lake State Park

Did I mention that we did not bring the van with us on this trip. We are only going to attend the HTC rally and then back to Indiana. So, where ever we go we have to drive the motor home.

This morning we got things ready to travel about 1 mile to Devil's Lake state Park. This lake sits down in a hole surrounded by mountains of granite stone. It had been eroded over the eons by water and freezing weather breaking the stones into smaller stones, some as small as gravel and others are as large as a house. There are lots of hiking trails as well as good fishing in the lake.

We traveled most of the roads around the park and lake. some are quite steep and curvy but we made it. A much easier drive in the van, but it was not available.

Later we drove the short distance to Barraboo, WI, the circus capitol of the world. It was the home of the Ringling brothers as well as the winter home for the circus.

We got to tour many of the buildings on the campus and see a lot of the wagons and other equipment, some being refurbished in their facility that takes them back to the condition they were when used in the circus. During the summer months there is a circus you can attend daily at the facility. One of the photographs was of about 1000 employees that worked for and in the circus. The other 200+ were attending the animals and other things necessary for the daily operation. It took about 100 rail cars to haul the circus with 4 wagons to the train car.

It was a most interesting day with all that we were able to see and do.

Tomorrow we will be off to Bancroft and the rally.

Another good day of travel. We left our campground about 10 this morning and headed up I39 to Madison, WI and took sr 19 west and picked up US 12. I39 was pretty rough but they were working on it in several spots so it can be blacktopped which is a much better road than concrete.

We are at the Wheeler campground about 1 mile from Devils Lake state park. We will be here tonight and tomorrow night as we can not get into our space at the rally campground until Sunday. Then we will be set for the rally.

On the way up we were beginning to see some of the corn being harvested as well as some soy beans. Many fields are still green but they will ripen quickly with the shorter cooler days and nights.

We will go visit Devils Lake state park tomorrow and maybe go to Barraboo to see the Circus Museum as that is the circus capitol of the world. Winter headquarters of the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Baily circus.

The photo is of a Bobcat that cousin John killed in his back yard after it had killed a wild goose that was feeding.

Back on the road

Well, we are back on the road. we left the White River campground about 9:30 this morning. Headed west to Cicero and then south on sr19 to Noblesville.

At the south edge of Cicero we were stopped for road construction. They were doing a chip and seal on the highway. They had finished the north bound lane and had oiled the south bound lane and had it closed from Cicero to the light at 206th street. So, we had to wait for the traffic north bound to come the 2.5 miles before we could go south on the wrong side of the road. We had to wait about 15 minutes before we could get under way.

We finally got to Noblesville and headed west on sr32 thru Westfield and on to Lebanon. It is interesting to see that it is all built up with various business, etc. from Noblesville to Westfield. Mostly farm fields from Westfield to Lebanon. On across sr 32 to I74 and west to Danville, IL and on to Bloomington where we are at a nice campground.

Normally we would boondock at a local Wal-mart but as usual, it is supposed to get down to 40 degrees tonight, a bit cool without electricity for some heat.

All summer it was to hot to go without electricity and a/c, so we made good use of our Passport America membership and usually only pay $10 to $15 a night which is not to bad for a nice place to park with electricity.

The photos are from our trip to Kentucky, the narrow bridge across the Ohio river and some barge traffic on the river. The bridge is just wide enough to pass a semi or another rv without knocking off any mirrors. Really a driving challenge.

It is on north toward Wisconsin tomorrow.

It has been some time since I wrote a blog. We have been busy with traveling, a couple of hamfests and lots of visiting.

One of our hamfests was in Joplin, MO. We took one afternoon to tour the part of the town that was destroyed by a tornado.

The photos are of only a small portion of the devestation from this huge storm. Much of the major debris has been removed, but there were bus loads of volunteers that were picking up small pieces of debris and hauling it to the curb in wheelborrows to be picked up and disposed of.

It is obvious that many of the homes were just blown away leaving only the foundations. Many of the trees only have the trunk and large limbs remaining and they are beginnning to leaf out again.

We traveled to Northeast Arkansas for a visit and then on to western Kentucky for a visit with cousins and then to Cloverdale, IN for a visit with our only remaining aunt and then to Indianapolis for a reunion with family.

We then traveled to Strawtown, IN and the White River campground for a couple of weeks before leaving for the Handicapped Travel Club national rally in Bancroft , WI.

We will be having some work done on the motor home, change oil and lube and new spark plugs and treat the roof, just normal maintenance items that need to be done.

Then, after returning to Indiana for a day or two, we will be off to South Carolina to visit Evelyn's son, grand daughters and great grand children.

We then will head west for the winter.