Sunday, March 22, 2009

Celebrating My 60th - Family and History

How to spend a 60th birthday? Crying? Laughing? Well I guess the best idea is to just enjoy with family and friends. We arrived in Indianapolis a few days ago. So I did just that. We ate and laughed and celebrated. Krissy made a wonderful trifle of white chocolate and lemon mousse with strawberries. It was scrumptious and we all pigged out!!



Just a few days ago, as we were on our way across country, Jerry asked where I'd like to have a "birthday stop." I remembered that an old favorite place of mine recently received a new and exciting face. So we took a few red highways and had a pleasant two day stopover in French Lick, a small community on highway 56 in the rolling hills of southwestern Indiana.

There you will find the renovated French Lick Springs Resort and West Baden Springs Hotel. My personal history in French Lick dates to planning conventions from the 1970s to the 1990s. But the history of the resorts dates to 1901. French Lick Springs Resort and its neighboring West Baden Hotel were world-class hotels that were very popular destinations in the early 1900s for celebrities and wealthy. Al Capone, Joe Louis, Clark Gable,senators, mayors and many others came on the train to drink the legendary mineral water that cured all ailments or to frequent the casinos that were operating in the valley. The story of these unique hotels is interesting in many ways.
Here's a replica of a 1901 postcard that explains the attraction of the Pluto Spring Water at the French Lick Hotel. (Click on the picture if you'd like to read more.) And the next photo gives an example of
the gold leaf and paintings restored in the hotel's lobby.

The West Baden Hotel has a six-story, 3,000 sq. ft, dome atrium that was the largest in the world until the Houston Astrodome was built in the 60s. Suffice it to say, that as happens in many cases, times changed and these grand old ladies both suffered ups and downs. West Baden's resort went through several owners and in the 80s was shut down completely. We have a shot here of the photo in the hotel's lobby in ruins a few years ago. About three years ago a wealthy Indiana family decided to invest in these historic landmarks. After $500,000,000 in sprucing up they are beautiful once again. And a casino was a part of the additions.


The Spas are welcoming guests for massages, soothing baths, pedicures and wraps. The casino games are flashing and clanking. The restaurants, pools and rooms are all sporting upgrades. But, also, the rocking chairs that were always a popular feature are still gracing the front porch at the French Lick Resort. The 3,000 square foot atrium of the West Baden Hotel that was literally crumbling and in danger of collapsing is once again awesome!






We were welcomed by a manager to park our motorhome in the parking lot just next to the golf course. A perfect spot, quiet and nice view.
The grounds of the hotels are about one mile apart and offer great scenery for a walk. The tours of the facilities are an interesting way to spend about 90 minutes. It was nice to see an oldie looking so fresh as I take this step into my next , and even better, phase of my life.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We wanted to send along one of our favorite Irish thoughts for today:


May those that love us, love us.
And those that don't love us,
may God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn't turn their hearts,
may He turn their ankles.
So we'll know them by
their limping.


As we've traveled the byways in the past few days, we've passed through Shamrock, Texas, Murphy, Oklahoma and today into Sullivan, Missouri. So what's more appropriate than we wish all of you the luck of the Irish and many blessings!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover

Today was a travel day that took us through quite a variety of changing landscapes and weather in Arizona, from the desert in the south, through the beautiful orange cliffs of the Mogollon Rim, to the pine forests near Flagstaff, where it turned a little nasty. -- from sunny 80s to snowy 40s in a few hours.


Another significance of today was that the despicable crook, Bernie Madoff, had his day in court. We often listen to news broadcasts on Sirius as we travel. And today as we heard stories of the victims of this evil man, I began to compare a recent encounter of ours.

While we were spending a few days in Quartzsite having a new amp meter installed, we were situated at the High Jolly BLM campground just north of town. We were watching people one evening when, out of the distance we both caught sight of a large elderly man with a full beard approaching us wearing only shorts, tennis shoes and a Lonesome Dove cowboy hat. And wait. That's not the whole picture. He was missing teeth and had a swarthy tan except for in the white areas where his skin lapped over. He also was wearing a big smile. Oh yeah.....did I mention he was riding an ancient bicycle much too small for his large frame.

Well, we were both thinking something like.."There's another interesting local character. Wonder who he is and where he's going?" Just about that time he turned his bike straight for our rig and promptly knocked at the door. "Oh no, what's he want." We soon heard the story of how his van was stuck in the gully at the back of the campground and could we help with our winch on the Jeep. Oh well, not much else is going on. So why not help out?
Jerry put his derby on and jumped in the Jeep to go look over the situation. There was a small group of campers that seem to have setup long term housekeeping at the very furthest edge of this two-week BLM camping area. I remember seeing them in past years, too. The neighborhood included two old vans, a tiny rickety trailer, a tent, a couple of overstuffed chairs and a teepee made of tree limbs and blue plastic. Well, that's where he found our new friend.

First there was hand shaking and introductions. Really, I couldn't make this up: This man introduced himself as "Grateful Ted." As usually happens, Jerry's derby brought comments and broke the ice. It was an unusual social gathering but a very congenial group.
It turns out that Ted's 30plus-year-old van was in the gully because he was helping a friend setup a lowboy as a musical stage. The lowboy was also in need of rescue, but Ted just wanted help with his van. As they went about coming up with the best method to winch his van out of the gully, they shared other personal information.

Jerry tells him: "We're fulltime rvers, just passing through. We travel the road in our motorhome and spend time in many different spots." Ted responds, "Oh, I'm a gypsy, too!" He also shared that he is a musical performer. "In fact, I'm recording a song next Wednesday in town. Why don't you come on over?" (We won't be in town, but we'll be listening for him on the radio.) By this time Jerry had pulled the van out and Ted was very "grateful." He offered to pay Jerry for his services, but there was no need. We all went back to our lives.

The next morning when I got in the Jeep I noticed a piece of paper stuck under the wiper. Grateful Ted's message follows:
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a note of gratuity
concerning J. R. Hurley...
Namely, that any assistance he may require,
be it $$ or just an ear to listen,
that he be granted that assistance
as promptly as he assisted me,
namely, G. T., a bone headed red neck
who admires the way he wears his hat.
Gratefully,
GR8FL TD
aka Theodore Alvin Slack
(Then he leaves his address and phone number in Oregon)
Call me sometime, J.R. and thanx again, G.T.

As I was saying earlier, isn't it ironic how we many times judge someone such as Sleezeball Madoff to be worthy of our respect because he wears a pinstriped suit and someone like Grateful Ted is unworthy because he wears no suit. So, maybe Ted has made us pause in the future to think "You can't always judge a book by its cover."

Monday, March 9, 2009

Regrouping and Relaxing


After leaving Las Vegas we turned our eyes toward an old favorite spot where we could relax and regroup. It sounded like the thing to do since we had several options in mind for our next destination and hadn't made a final decision. We made our way south about 200 miles.

Here we are at the Midland Road BLM outside Blythe, California, a sparsely visited parking area. This little town has any of the necessary amenities, such as restaurants, groceries, laundry and even free water and dump. But mostly the reason for our stopping here is the peaceful scenery five miles out of town.

But what could we be doing there???? Well, let's see:
-staring at the mountain scenery and enjoying the desert flowers
-gazing at the sunsets
-soaking up the sun
-surfing the Internet
-catching up on cleaning
-solving amp meter issues
-reading
-watching movies
-trying recipes
-taking walks
-practicing jewelry-making (Nancy, that is)
-discussing our travel plans
-talking more about travel plans
- and, just drinking in the deafening silence of this place.


This was time we needed and enjoyed. We even practiced some of the recipes we gathered from friends during our volunteer episode in New Mexico. I cooked up a pot of Borracio Beans. And Jerry made some scrumptious Pico de Gallo. (Thanks George!! ) It was fantastic on our steaks and also on tacos the next day.


Now, after enough regrouping, we're ready to roll again. For a few days we are in Quartzsite, just 25 miles east. Since our amp meter went defunct, we decided to inquire at a local well-respected rv repair service, Discount Solar, about a new meter. Hopefully, that will be a quick fix here in Q.

As soon as we can after that repair, we'll begin moving eastward. We'll be traveling to Indiana first for some medical checkups. Then we begin what we are calling our "Historical Journey." The rest of 2009 we'll be visiting historical sites in the eastern part of the country. See you along the road.