On the Road Again

We stopped at Cracker Barrel on our way out of town to get something to eat and then it was a long ride to just south of Chicago, IL. When we got up to Indiana we stopped for gas and I just had to take a picture of this beautiful corn field in the sun!! I love seeing the farmer's fields along the way through Indiana and Illinois!

In front of the corn there were bunches of "Queen Ann's Lace" flowers growing! This brought back many happy memories for me of running through the fields as a child and picking huge bouquets of these beautiful and delicate flowers and also of catching butterflies!

Once we filled up with gas at $3.89 a gallon! we were on our way and made a stop for lunch at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant! We just LOVE Ruby Tuesday! Here is what we had for lunch!

Then it was back on the road again and on our way to my Mom's house to spend the night and rest from the trip. She has the cutest little pup and his name is "Skipper". He's just adorable and so smart!! We had fun playing "keep away" with him and his toys.

The next day,I was off to visit with my Sister and my husband was off to Streamwood, IL for the training he had to be a part of. My Sister has three children and a pool and we had tons of fun in her pool and barbecuing each night. She showed me the garden her husband is growing and he has quite the "Green Thumb"! Here are some pictures of their garden! That's a giant sunflower my Sister planted! They have several along the side fence and last year they were HUGE!

Their Tomato Plants

Gourds

Green Beans: they're purple when picked and turn green when cooked!!

We had the zucchini and green beans for supper and they were just delicious! There's nothing like freshly picked vegetables from your garden! Especially if they're shared with family!

Another thing that Illinois has besides their beautiful farm fields is freight trains. I remember sitting many times waiting on the trains to pass by. While we were sitting, I took a couple of pictures out of the car window! Here's the engine:

On another day, my Mom took me to see the house that my Dad and Grandfather built and that we all grew up in. When my Dad passed away in 2001, my Mom had to let the property go and move into a small apartment. The house needed a lot of repairs and the property was just too large for her to keep up on her own any longer. It was a very hard thing for her to do though. It's especially hard now when we look at it and see what the new owners have allowed to become of it. All our memories of growing up are there and the new owners are just letting it go and not taking care of it. They have parked semi-trailer trucks there and let the weeds just grow up everywhere. When my Dad and Mom lived there and my Grandparents lived next door, the property was well cared for, with flowers everywhere! My Mom planted all the trees there and we had Lilac bushes and Lily of the Valley flowersand there were apple trees and grape vines and rose buses and blackberries and raspberries! The grass was always cut and us kids spent many a happy day just roaming the property and riding bikes and playing in the yard. It's heart-breaking to see it in this condition now!

The day before we left, my Mom took me to visit with her Brother, my Uncle Don. He lives about 20 minutes from her and I haven't seen him in many years now. He's losing his eye sight and is "legally blind" although he has a tiny bit of peripheral vision left. I was so happy to see him! He was my favorite Uncle growing up! He served in the Navy when he was a young man and us kids just loved it when he came to visit! He would always play with us and make us laugh and I thought he was the handsomest man ever! We had a very good visit and he gave my mom an album of pictures from their childhood, since he can no longer see them. There were pictures of their Mother, my Grandmother, when she was very young and my Grandfather and all of my Aunts and Uncles on my Mom's side. My Mom was thrilled to have this and even more thrilled that he wanted her to have it. When we got back to my Mom's house, she said she was going to give me the locket that he gave her when she was 15 years old, making this locket to be 63 years old now! My Uncle had just gotten out of the Navy and he brought this home to her! Needless to say, it will always be one of my most treasured gifts from my Mom!! Here's a picture of the locket:

My Uncle Don's picture is on the left side and this was probably taken when he was not much older than a teenager himself! I'm going to try to take the locket to a jeweler and see if it can be restored to the way it used to be. My Mom said it was a tri-color gold-plated locket when it was new. Time has worn it down to where the gold is worn off now and it looks like it's a silver locket now. It needs a new clasp for the chain also.

One afternoon, my Sister and I went shopping and here are a few of the pictures that I took while we were in the store:

One of the other things we did while at my Sister's house was to make handmade jewelry. My Sister and My Neice and I love making jewelry and we spent several hours at her kitchen table doing that. Later on, in another post, I'll post some more of the pictures of our creations!

Here are just a couple for now:

When we left on Monday morning we drove until we reached Indianapolis and stopped to see my other Sister Peggy and her husband that live there. We had lunch with them at Applebees and then we were on our way again. We drove for several hours before stopping to stretch our legs. We went to a Mall and this is the beautiful carousel they had inside:

We made one other stop along the way because we stopped for coffee and across the street there was a concrete statuary business and I wanted to stop and see what they had there. We pass it every time we go to Illinois and have never stopped before but I've always wanted to. This time we had the time to make a stop and I took a few very interesting pictures. I'd love to have this little guy! Unfortunately, we didn't have enough room in the car. Next time maybe we'll have our truck and can buy one or two pieces for our yard!

We arrived back home at about 1:00 a.m. this morning and slept for a few hours before going over to the place where we boarded our "Baby" Sarge. Needless to say he was very happy to be back home again. Here he is, all freshly bathed and with his new toy and bone!