Cookout at Mike's

My nephew, Mike Davis, and his wife, Michelle, have entertained some of the immediate family at their home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the night before the Annual Davis Family Reunion for the past several years. This year was no different. On Saturday evening, we left "The Bus" at Big Long Lake and drove the 45 minutes to Mike and Michelle's home for a backyard "Cookout at Mike's".

Michelle set out numerous hors d'oeuvres and munchies including a delicious spinach-artichoke dip. Of course the appetizers were enhanced by a few nice wines.

Mike grilled hamburgers to go with several side dishes Michelle prepared including Saffron Rice, which she made using fresh Saffron. It was interesting to see the deep red-colored saffron turn bright yellow with the addition of hot water, and then color the rice yellow. It was good, too.

Mike's mother, Marge Davis (my sister-in-law) and Mike are shown on the left below conversing on the deck in Mike's backyard. In the right photo below, me, my son, Steve, and Marge are enjoying a glass of wine on the deck in Mike's backyard.

















The food and drinks were good . . . and the company was great (since they were all my relatives, I have to say that).

Late in the evening, we drove back to "The Bus" at Big Long Lake to get a good night's sleep as tomorrow promises to be a busy day with the Davis Family Reunion.

The "Cookout at Mike's" was a big success! Thanks for a pleasant evening, Mike & Michelle.

Eastbound Again

We can stay at home in Kansas only so long . . . although I am certainly speaking only for myself when I say that. Carole is a home-body and would prefer to stay at home rather than travel in "The Bus". Anyway, it was time to fire up "The Bus" again, which we did on Thursday.

We have family reunions in Indiana in August on both my side of the family and Carole's. My son, Steve, elected to ride to Indiana with us, then fly back home after the reunion while Carole and I stay in Indiana for a while. So we were "Eastbound Again" on our way to Northern Indiana . . . with a passenger, Steve.

We stopped overnight at our usual stop at the Moose Lodge in Iowa City, Iowa, where they have a few RV hookups and the members of the Lodge are always so nice to visit. We had dinner and a few drinks in the clubhouse, then walked back to "The Bus" for a good nights sleep.

The next day, we struggled through the rush-hour traffic across South Chicago, but arrived at the lakefront home of my niece, Sue Polly, and her husband, Dean, at about 6:00 PM. Dean and Sue have a nice grassy place for us to park "The Bus" and this will be the location of the Davis Family Reunion on Sunday. So this is also a convenient place for us to park, not to mention the opportunity to spend a little more time with family.

. . . and so ended our journey "Eastbound Again". We are "Back Home in Indiana" ( Carole and I were both born and raised in Indiana), and we are parked for a few days at Big Long Lake in Northern Indiana.

Power & Light Entertainment District

Like many large cities, Kansas City, Missouri, has been struggling for years to reinvigorate their downtown area. They expanded the Convention Center, encouraged new residential development in condos and lofts, constructed a new arena named The Sprint Center, have a huge Performing Arts Center under construction, and have developed an entertainment area called the "Power & Light Entertainment District" (because it's located in the shadow of the Kansas City Power & Light Building).

The city has been fairly successful in getting people back downtown. The Convention Center is busy, the new condos and lofts are selling, the Sprint Center has been very successful in selling out numerous big-name concerts and sporting events, and the Performing Arts Center is creating quite a stir, but the talk-of-the-town is the new downtown "Power & Light District Entertainment".

We have not been to downtown Kansas City, Missouri, for some time, but a nephew from Indiana, Chris Walton, and his wife, Suzanne, recently stopped by to spend a couple of days with us, which gave us an excuse (or a reason) to go check out the new "Power & Light Entertainment District". I was truly awed by this new area even though it is still under development and not all of the venues are open yet.

The Entertainment Center is a large open plaza surrounded by shops and restaurants with an open-air stage at one end. It is located across the street from the Sprint Center and only a couple of blocks from the Performing Arts Center and the Convention Center. The shops appear to be nice upscale shops which should be attractive to a lot of people and the restaurants run the gamut from finger food to delicious-sounding full scale menus in very attractive, well decorated surroundings.
















While we were there, a musical group was setting up and obviously preparing to perform on the open-air stage. From the sound of the speaker system, the quality and volume will enable the audience to hear perfectly in the back row . . . maybe even a block down the street.



We browsed the menus posted beside the entrance to several restaurants and decided to have lunch at the local micro-brewery. Carole and I are pictured on the left below. Carole had a 16 oz glass of German-style beer and I couldn't resist the sampler . . . a glass of all six of the beers made in the micro-brewery. Chris and Suzanne are pictured on the right below discussing the very large selection of items on the menu.

















We all enjoyed a great lunch as well as some fine brews.


The Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs have both been losers for several years now, but I think Kansas City has hit a home run AND scored a touchdown with the new "Power & Light Entertainment District". This will certainly attract people back downtown along with the Sprint Center and the new Performing Arts Center.

Finally . . . a real revitalization of downtown Kansas City, Missouri!

Not Much

I'm sure many of our friends and relatives have been wondering what the "Allegro Wanderer" has been doing since I haven't made a post to the blog for a while. The answer to that question is simply, "Not Much". At least nothing worth blogging about.

We have been at our home in Kansas since returning from the Pittsburg Fourth of July get-together. We had new front tires put on "The Bus" (ouch) and are having repairs evaluated from my encounter with the tree. We are also waiting for a new windshield on the driver's side as it cracked when I turned on the defrosters during the snow storm in Nevada in May.

In the mean time, we have been house cleaning, mowing, trimming trees and just a lot of catch-up things around here, which are not very exciting to blog about. However, we are preparing to get back on the road again to Indiana the end of July. Then we should have something worth while to blog about. So . . . stay tuned!

Update on Carole

Most of you are aware that last year Carole was diagnosed with Wet Macular Degeneration in her left eye, which is blood vessels leaking fluid causing blistering and separation of the retina resulting in a significant loss of vision. The treatment involved a monthly injection of a drug directly into her left eye for four months, July through October, which seemed to stabilize the condition.

We spent the Winter in Texas and Florida, then returned home to Kansas in April to find the condition in her left eye had worsened, so she was given another injection in her left eye. During our recent trip to the West Coast, Carole was referred to a retina specialist in Washington who determined her left eye was stabilized, but her right eye was showing early signs of Wet Macular Degeneration. So he gave her an injection in her right eye instead of her left eye.

When we returned home to Kansas, her doctor examined Cat scans and MRI's of both eyes and determined that they had both stabilized and no treatment was required at this time. She does not need to return for further tests, examinations, treatments, or injections for eight weeks . . . the end of August.

Carole is, of course, very relieved that she did not have to endure another injection into her eye at this time. It has improved her comfort and outlook dramatically. Thank you, God!

Independence Day

As has been customary for the past several years, we spent the Independence Day weekend in Pittsburg, Kansas. My daughter, Becky's, in-laws, Frank and Bonna Crowl, have a second home there with 10 acres . . . all play area. We parked "The Bus" in their driveway and joined Frank and Bonna as well as all of John and Becky's clan of our grand kids, which we refer to as the Brady Bunch, for the holiday weekend.

Unfortunately, the weather was rainy all day Saturday, so we looked on as the grand kids and their friends played board games or spread out on the floor watching movies on the television screen.
















But then on Sunday, the weather cleared up allowing outdoor games of horse shoes, bocce ball, bean bag toss, or Blongoball. John acted as the "Social Director" and set up brackets for tournaments of all the games.
















The grand kids also enjoyed running around on the golf cart and the four-wheeler. Also Frank was busy on the grill cooking 'burgers, hot dogs, and brats for the hungry bunch.

















And, of course, no Fourth of July or Independence Day celebration is complete without fireworks. The grand kids had plenty of fireworks to shoot off and I had a "fireworks" setting on my camera that I had never tried 'till now. It works pretty good!



But most important of all . . . we celebrate the founding of this great Country, our liberties and our freedom, and we offer our heartfelt gratitude to all of the members of the Armed Forces who have kept us safe for over 200 years! Happy "Independence Day".