More Rain!!

Well, it poured rain last night while we were out to dinner at China Wok. We actually had to wait for a bit for it to slow down when we were ready to leave. We made it back to the Fairgrounds somewhat soggy, but not too bad. And we really enjoyed China Wok. Nick and Greg were right about it being good!!

Charley went to the door prize drawing after we got back from dinner. I stayed in where it was dry. Didn’t win anything, again!!

Last of the Door Prizes and Nick’s Farewell

A lot of the rally attendees will be leaving today if they can get out. Charley is planning to observe and help anyone who gets stuck, if he is needed!

We decided to stay here at the fairgrounds until Monday morning so that we can catch our football games and the race. We will then leave for SC. Planning to spend two nights in Sevierville, TN and then finish the trip to SC on Wednesday. Kids and grandkids here we come!!

Safe travels to all!!

Day 3 Evening Festivities–Gypsy Journal Rally

Well, after another very rainy, dreary day here in Celina it was nice to get out and join the rally crowd for an evening of pizza and then some fun! You will see from the pictures and videos that everyone had a great time, even those who participated in the beauty contest!!

Nick and his New Look

The Beauty Queens

The Winner

One Video of the Winner

Greg and Jan White – 44th Anniversary – Congratulations!!

For a look at all of our pictures from the evening, please click on the link below:

Beauty Contest at Gypsy Journal Rally

Day Two of Gypsy Journal Rally

This is a continuation of our update from yesterday. It was raining pretty heavily at the time we were to go to the door prize/evening entertainment so Charley went alone. He took a few pictures of Nick and the evening’s festivities.

The Crowd and Nick Giving Away Door Prizes

Nick Trying on his Orange Cone Bra

McKinney Washtub Two

First Day of Rally

Charley had to go to the rally sessions alone yesterday. I was down with another migraine. Not sure what is going on here. Haven’t had any of these for a very long time and now all of a sudden they are coming more frequently than ever. Will have to talk to doctor when I go for checkup in October.

There was the welcome, introductions of vendors, one session which Charley did not go to, and door prizes, so I did not miss much. Charley enjoyed himself and continues to run into people he knows through blogs!!

Today Charley and I went to one of the Geeks on Tour sessions on Picasa. We continue to learn more and more about this application and we fully intend to use it more and more. Geeks on Tour certainly knows a lot about it. We have joined their membership and have access to all of their tutorials, on all the subjects they cover for full timers.

Charley is at one of Nick’s sessions right now and then we will be going back for door prizes and the evening entertainment later today.

More later!!

And the Rally Begins

The Gypsy Journal Rally begins this afternoon at 3:00. People will still be arriving and getting registered up until that time I would imagine.

We are really looking forward to seeing how Nick runs his rally and attending a number of the sessions being offered. We are also looking forward to the entertainment planned for the week.

Will post an update after today’s activities.

Just Waiting

We are not doing much because it is raining today and a little cool. Just planning to stay in, watch lots of football and wait patiently for the Gypsy Journal festivities to begin! We expect to see a lot of folks arriving today for early bird check-in.

We tried Facetime with our daughter last night, me using my iPhone4 and she was using her iPad2. This works great and will definitely be replacing SKYPE for us! The quality of the video and sound was 110% better.

We are planning to use Hangouts in Google+ after the kids get Google+ installed. The quality of that one beats SKYPE by leaps and bounds as well.

More later!!

Afternoon Update

When my husband, better known as Charley, decided to "finally" do what I told him to, we were able to get our tri-pod dish to work for our HD channels. And, yes, he knows that I have put this out there for all of you.


Moral of the story - Sometimes "he" is not always right!! I have to admit that most of the time he is right. I have fun with it when he isn't!!

Later!!

Mercer County Fairgrounds–Gypsy Journal Rally

We left Elkhart, IN yesterday around 10:00 and arrived here in Celina, OH at about 1:30. Had a little bit of trouble getting our rig into the site we were given but Charley managed it.

Everything is great except we cannot get our HD channels on our DirecTV satellite that we have installed on our rig. Talked to DirecTV and the trees here are our problem. We can pick up standard channels just fine but the dish is having trouble getting to the satellite that sends the HD channels. Charley is planning to set up our portable, tripod dish today after he picks up some additional wire. We will find a way!! Must have our DirecTV to survive!! Especially since football season is underway and Clemson/Florida State is going to be on!!

We were pretty bushed after working on the satellite for what seemed like hours but we got some rest last night and are ready to go today!!

Safe travels everyone!

Notre Dame and More Amish Country

We drove to South Bend to see the Notre Dame campus today. We did this for our son-in-law who is a big Notre Dame fan. He has not had the opportunity to visit their campus before and we thought he might enjoy some pictures until he can.

The campus is beautiful as our pictures will show.

We then traveled to Shipshewana and had lunch at the Blue Gate Restaurant, another yummy Amish restaurant. We ate family style and Charley got his money’s worth!! I did okay myself. We both brought our desserts home with us.

On our return to Elkhart we traveled through more Amish country and saw more beautiful farms along the way. We never realized how pretty this part of the country was.

Charley is planning to visit the Keystone factory tomorrow afternoon. The rest of our time will be spent preparing to depart on Wednesday morning for Celina, Ohio and the Gypsy Journal Rally.

Notre Dame Campus

The Golden Dome

Amish Country near Shipshewana

Safe travels to everyone!!

Football Weekend

Well, you guessed it, we spent the entire weekend watching football!! How about them Clemson Tigers!! They beat Auburn, the national champion from last year. That alone made the weekend a great one!!

But, as I said, we spent a quiet weekend here at the campground doing pretty much NOTHING other than cooking our meals. Those types of weekends are pretty nice from time to time though, don’t you think?

We are planning to visit South Bend tomorrow (Monday) and see what the Notre Dame campus looks like. Our son-in-law is a big Notre Dame fan so we thought we would get some pictures for him. I imagine that it is a beautiful campus but we will see….

We are also planning to get our 5er all cleaned up and ready to travel again on Wednesday morning. Will be working on that tomorrow and Tuesday.

Safe travels everyone!!

Heritage Trail

We drove the Heritage Trail yesterday and it was a beautiful drive. We saw a lot of Amish communities, the Amish people as well as regular farms along this trail. It is obvious that the farmers and the Amish people take a lot of pride in their homes and land from the neatness and beautiful landscaping in the entire area.

We had lunch at the Das Dutchman Essenhaus Restaurant and visited the bakery there also. Picked up two half pies (German Chocolate and Egg Custard), a fresh baked load of bread and some dill bread (looking forward to trying this one out!). The food at the restaurant was wonderful!!!

There were several shops around the restaurant with lots of interesting items. I especially enjoyed seeing the quilts for sale. We saw one that was over $1200. It was beautiful but it didn’t come home with us!! We also visited Yoder’s Meat & Cheese Company and picked up some steaks and ground beef. We had used all that we brought with us from home on this trip and needed to restock. That freezer we have in our basement is wonderful!!

We took lots of pictures along the Heritage Trail but you will notice that there are not any of the Amish people. They do not believe in being photographed so we honored that. We did get pictures of their horse drawn wagons and some of their horses. You will notice that there are some very large horses and these are used to work in the fields. They look a lot like the Budweiser Clydesdales. The smaller, more slender horses are used to pull their wagons. One of the unique things that we noticed was that a lot (not all)  of these horses were bridled even when just in a pasture. Must have something to do with the fact that they are work horses.

We passed through several towns / communities along this trail and I will try to get the names matched to our pictures below.

I also have included a couple of pictures of the Elkhart Campground. We really like this campground due to the large, level sites and the general location. It is convenient to a lot of shopping and restaurants in Elkhart.

Downtown Bristol

Bonneyville Mill Park – This is Indiana’s oldest continuously operating gristmill. They just recently had the Bonneyville Mill Celebration which is like an old country fair.

Middlebury

Das Dutchman Essenhaus Restaurant and Bakery

The Covered Bridge

Some of the beautiful flowers in Middlebury

Shipshewana to Goshen

The Hitching Posts

The Horses

One of the Farms

We also drove through Nappanee and Wakarusa, two other small towns along the trail and then returned to Elkhart.

Elkhart Campground

I included a lot of our pictures here but, just in case you are interested, here is a link to all of our pictures from the day..

The Heritage Trail and Elkhart Campground