Roads Lead to Indy

Hurley Travels currently are in the Indianapolis area. Whenever we come “home” we find open arms and welcoming smiles. The past few weeks delivered more of the same.  There were shared lunches and dinners at favorite restaurants, mother-daughter shopping trips, weenie roasts and pitch-ins, meeting new boyfriends and girlfriends, sharing stories from the road and getting the latest news from everyone.  But the best part is just being with them. Family, that is.  

Here’s a beautiful crew of my family visiting over lunch at the MCL cafeteria near where I grew up on the south side of Indianapolis. In this photo on the left is my cousin Marilyn and my sister Marti, and on the right is my cousin Rosie and aunts Peg and Ruth.  I have to brag on the talents of my two aunts who are extraordinary quilters. They can turn out some masterpieces. These two ladies and our cousins relate to warm childhood memories and are always fun to spend some time with. My sister and I try to plan at least one of these gatherings when I’m in town. Someday maybe we’ll pull together the loads of other family members for a Weber family reunion.  What do you say cousins?!

Another important ingredient in life for a few members of this family is football. Of course, the Colts play a significant role in that drama.  But, for some every game is critical.  For instance, my daughter Krissy has become a little obsessed – in a good way.  She and her friends have their own personal contest to pick the winners each week.  At the end of the season whoever has the most wins is the owner for the year of the trophy at the right. 

But, a slightly different kind of fan is Rio, the smartest border collie in the world. She is absolutely intent on possessing any ball that is in her hemisphere.  She will fetch and return as long as you can throw.  Not only is it the game of fetch, but this obsession with balls includes the ones on television. It can be a baseball, golf ball, basketball, tennis ball, ping pong or football.  She hears the cheering of the crowd and knows that it is time to set her sights on the screen. Her owner, Tim Hurley, says she knows when the weather man finishes his portion of the news and comes running to see the sports. Here she is watching TV in our motorhome while she visits with us for an afternoon. Her eyes follow the ball intently. But she does rest between plays.

And, of course, we have the chance to celebrate family birthdays while in town.  This month is Jenny’s.

I won’t say which one - just 40-something.  We had many laughs at her birthday dinner the other night.  Here with smiles-for-the-camera are Jenny’s friend Joe, her brother Tim, Jamie (Tim’s fiancé and Jenny’s friend) and the beautiful daughter of my hubby, Jenny. 

One of her most treasured gifts that evening came from Tim.  It is a  “fragile (FRA-GEE_LAY) leg lamp” night light.  Anyone reading this that has ever watched “The Christmas Story” will recognize this prized possession .  No need to say anything further. 

Thanks to everyone for making us feel loved.

We wish you good times and safe travels.  Talk to you later.

 

Remembering Our Veterans – November 11

We travel this country -- free to enjoy the splendor of it all.  On Veterans Day we stop to contemplate how we came to have the freedoms that we do.  Since the Revolutionary War our military forces have stepped up to protect the freedoms of every United States citizen. We will never be able to thank them enough.  

Our recent travels held a few reminders of our veterans’ accomplishments. During our trip this summer in Canada and Alaska we traveled the entire 1,422 miles of the Alaska Highway, built in the early 1940s to establish a defensive route to protect the country against attack by Hitler and his allies via Alaska.  It was eye-opening to learn about the situations the soldiers working on the road endured to build a path through the wilderness connecting Alaska to the lower 48. They chopped the way across treacherous terrain to make our lives safer.    There are stories told and markers laid remembering the Alaska Highway workers. Thanks to them, we can explore the area slowing only for the frost heaves that continue to plague the highway crews each spring. As we continued through Alaska we encountered memorials to veterans of all stripes.  They gave us pause to count our blessings. Below are a few examples from our Alaska trip.

If you are a veteran reading this, Jerry and I want to say “Thank You.”  For every veteran, whether still here enjoying our freedoms with us or traveling in the heavens, we appreciate all you did and do.  

Stay safe.  Talk with you later.

Halloween Memories – Traveling through Time

How did you trick or treat?  Jerry and I got to talking about that a few days ago as we noticed the signs of the holiday everywhere.  What we remember is digging up some kind of “costume” around the house, maybe with a purchased mask that didn’t necessarily have any relation to the rest of the outfit.  At our house we had various clothes and masks stored in the cedar chest in the attic.   We would dig them out each year. I do remember especially an ugly rubber devil mask that I never wanted to wear for my evening’s outfit.  I would slip it on to try to scare my younger sister, Linda, if I could.  But she was pretty tough. (Still is!)  Here’s a photo of me and my older sister, Martha.  See what I mean about the potpourri of costumes.

After designing our attire, we would wonder the neighborhood with friends gathering our goodies.  I recall passing others along the way, sharing the news and giving advice on who was giving out the best candy.  And then we would go home and dump our treasures on a piece of newspaper to sort it into stacks, saving the favorites.  There would be rejects, of course, like the popcorn balls.  The leftovers might be traded or offered to parents. 

I can’t remember anybody worrying about bad things in the candy or whether adults were escorting the children from house to house.  Maybe the parents were watching us up and down the street and all I had on my mind was my bag of treats.

It appears that the basic fun of it all has survived, even if some parts of the event are different. There are more organized programs, rather than visiting homes where the kids may not know the occupants. We saw children dressed in their costumes when we were in a restaurant on the night before Halloween. All the wait staff were wearing costumes too.  And today we watched the NFL football fans in some ingenious attire.  It’s a wider celebration all around.

Passing along my family Halloween customs, I sometimes created my daughter’s costumes. One year when my daughter,  Krissy, was about six I made this witch gown from a spare piece of black fabric.  Isn’t she cute?  We used the household broom, found a hat and she selected a store-bought mask.   Now that I look closer, I think this is a Kiss mask.  Oh well, that carries on my non-matching costume tradition.

What kind of costumes did you wear?  Or how did your family/neighborhood get into Halloween?

Hope you had a nice Halloween.  Talk to you later.