Steak Night at Mike's

Prior to the upcoming Davis Reunion, my nephew, Mike Davis, and his wife, Michelle, invited us to their home in Fort Wayne for dinner along with other members of his immediate family. Mike cooked steaks on the grill while Michelle prepared other dishes inside in the kitchen.

Of course, my brother, Ron, played the part of Wine Steward and kept all of our glasses full.








Here Mike, Carole and I are enjoying some great steaks at a table on the back deck. As you can see, Mike and I switched to Corona, but Ron continued to take care of Carole.












After dinner, we all relaxed on the back deck and enjoyed spending time with family members we don't get to see very often. Pictured around the table left to right are Michelle, Carolyn (Marge's daughter), Rod (Carolyn's husband), Fred (Marge's son), and Cody (Michelle's son). Marge is in the background.

Great family! Great food! . . . and a great "Steak Night at Mike's".

A Day at Witmer Lake

My sister-in-law, Marge Davis, invited us to her home at Witmer Lake near Wolcottville for the day. My brother, Ron, is staying at Marge's while he is in town from California. While we were there, Walt Guenin, husband of our cousin, Sharon Price, came by to see us. Walt is on the left in this picture, Ron is on the right, taken in Marge's living room. We hadn't seen Walt for some time, so we had a good visit.









Of course, whenever we get together for any purpose, it always involves eating. In the Davis tradition, I was given the job of grilling hamburger steaks while Marge prepared fresh corn-on-the-cob. Between her and Carole, the two of them came up with several other side dishes, relishes, and dips. As usual, Ron was in charge of the wine . . . and he did a good job.


After dinner, we enjoyed more conversation and reminiscing, but needed to return to "The Bus" before dark. As we were leaving, Ron snapped our picture on Marge's front porch to record the event. That's me in the middle hanging on to Marge on the left and Carole on the right.

And so ended "A Day at Witmer Lake".

Visiting Our Roots

My brother, Ron, and my Sister-in-Law, Marge, came to town today and Carole and I went with them to locate and visit the grave sites of some of our Davis ancestors.

We first went to the Parker Cemetery and located the graves of Samuel and Emma Davis, grandparents on our father's side. We never knew them as both had died before either Ron or I were born.

We then went to Greenlawn Cemetery and paid our respects at the graves of our parents, Dwight and Edna Davis. Nearby were the graves of Grant and Orie Tyler, grandparents on our mother's side. Also nearby was the grave of our brother, Robert (Bob).

We then spent time trying to locate the ashes of our oldest brother, Dwight Jr., but could not find the vault. We contacted the cemetery office to no avail, then called Mike Davis, Dwight Jr.'s son, who told us Dwight's ashes had been moved to another cemetery, where we finally found them.


Then we went looking for the house where Grandpa and Grandma Tyler had lived. So much has changed in those neighborhoods that it was difficult to identify the specific house, but we finally did. This is the house on Minor Street where they lived at the time of Grandpa Tyler's death in 1940. They only lived in this house for a short time.










The house I remember best is the one where they had lived the longest on Walnut Street, the house I remember visiting as a kid in the 1930's. There used to be a detached garage on the back of the lot connected to the house by a huge grape arbor, which you walked through like a tunnel to get from the house to the garage. The walkway was all brick.

There were raised railroad tracks behind the garage across an alley so that when a train went by it almost looked like the train was crossing on the roof of the garage.

Wow! This all brings back so many childhood memories.

Johnny Appleseed Campground

This morning we left the Moose Lodge Campground in Goshen, Indiana, and moved "The Bus" the short distance to the Johnny Appleseed Campground in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The campground is located in a City Park along the St. Joseph River just below the dam.

I have fond memories of this park from when I was a kid growing up in Fort Wayne. On the West side of the river, just below the dam, the city had a sandy beach for public swimming in the river. The sand had obviously been hauled in, but the Municipal Beach had a bath house and life guards. We kids used to ride our bikes out here often in the summer to go swimming. However, the city closed this Municipal Beach some time in the 1940's because of the polio scare. Today, only the park remains which includes the campground with hookups for about 30 RVs.

The campground is located in a nice wooded area just across the road from the river in a grove of very tall maples and pines. The campsites are fairly large and there is some grass, but mostly gravel streets wind among the pine needles.


We are in a nice shady spot. We can see the river and the old Municipal Beach area from our site. The only disadvantage here is we only have hookup for water and electricity, no sewer connection. Of course they do have a dump station and we plan to be here only a week, so we'll be OK for that long.

Home in the Country

On our last night in the Goshen area, we were invited to Lee & Loraine Borntrager's "Home in the Country". They have a beautiful place Southeast of Goshen, where they bought an old farm house and completely renovated it, built a barn, and dug a really great pond with an island.

The barn is particularly fascinating. The upper level is a basketball court. Yes, a regulation size basketball court, properly striped and marked, with a regulation lighted scoreboard, and a spectator balcony at each end of the court. This is indeed not your regular barn on the farm.

We enjoyed a fine dinner while Carole and Loraine talked about old times, kids, families, and antiques. After dinner, we had a tour of the barn and pond, then relaxed in their living room. Carole, Loraine, and Lee are shown relaxing below.



It was great to spend our last night in Goshen with enjoyable friends at their "Home in the Country".

Dinner with the Girls

Carole has so many friends and relatives in the Elkhart area, we have a difficult time getting to see everyone, and when we do, it seems that it always involves eating . . . either eating "in" or eating "out". Tonight we were invited to eat "in" at Dianna Jackson's, a long time friend of Carole's. Also present were "Sis" O'Dell, Dianna's mother, who we have known for many tears, and Peggy Hann, a long time friend of Carole's. In fact, both Dianna and Peggy were vacationing with Carole in Florida five years ago when Carole and I met.

Dianna has a beautiful home with a gorgeous backyard in a very secluded setting and a really nice, very large back deck. A great place for a nice, relaxing get-to-gather. And so it was, as we were having a glass of wine and a few munchies on the back deck before dinner. Below, left to right, is Dianna, Carole, Peggy, and "Sis". I was seated in the foreground, except while I was taking the picture.


I had the honor of being the "grill chef" cooking steaks outside on the deck while Dianna prepared the rest of a delicious dinner in the kitchen. We all left the outdoors and went into Dianna's dining room to eat "in". It was a very relaxing and enjoyable evening . . . and it was especially nice to have "Dinner with the Girls".

Carole's Schmuhl Roots

Carole's mother, Regina, was a "Schmuhl", which is a good old German name. Rigina's brother, Carole's Uncle Louis, passed away recently and the Administrator of his estate invited family members to Louis' home on Saturday to select any personal items which they would like to have.

We went to Louis' home today and it was almost like a Schmuhl family reunion. Many Schmuhl family members were there and Carole had the opportunity to see and visit with relatives she sees only occasionally. Carole is pictured below in the left photo looking over old family pictures with her Aunt Jane and Aunt Dee. In the right photo, Carole is shown with her Aunt Iva.

















Carole had a great time with her relatives and we spent much of the day at Louis' home. Carole brought away many old family pictures, which I know she will cherish. We also picked up some DVD's and videos tapes of British comedies, which Carole goes "nuts" over. She will certainly have a good time watching those and, while she does, remembering her Uncle Louis.


After we left Louis' home, we drove to the Rice Cemetery in Elkhart to pay our respects to Carole's Grandmother and Grandfather Schmuhl.

This was a day Carole could review and reflect on her Schmuhl Roots.

Farewell to Brenda

Carole's daughter, Brenda Stafford, is leaving tomorrow morning on a trip to the West Coast to spend some time with her brother, Bruce Krallman, who lives in Marysville, Washington. Today is the last time Carole will see her daughter for a while, so she decided we should all go out for dinner to bid "Farewell to Brenda". We will be back in Kansas by the time Brenda returns from Washington.

We went to Das Dutchmen Essenhaus, an Amish restaurant in Middlebury, Indiana. It's an interesting place to go, with lots of gift shop areas and good home cooking. We invited Brenda's family to join us as in this photo. Left to right is myself, Carole, Aaron Holdread (Brenda's son), Brad Stafford (Brenda's husband), Brenda, Victoria Rodriguez (Aaron's friend), and Edwardo (Victoria's 4-year old son) at the near end of the table.

We enjoyed a nice meal and good family chatter. But most of all, we were able to bid "Farewell to Brenda" and give her a good send-off.

The Old Bag Factory

We went to an area in Goshen called The Old Bag Factory. It's located at the site of a factory that originally produced flour, onion, potato, and other types of cloth and mesh bags. The factory closed in the 1980's and a developer converted the buildings and grounds into a shopping area, which has now become a "destination".



The grounds include very attractive landscaping and beautiful flower gardens as well as several historic buildings, one of which is a "historic" log cabin, and there is a very nice brick walkway between the buildings. The brick is laid between old railroad tracks and forms a very unusual walkway.

















One of the buildings is the original power plant for the bag factory and has an old tall brick chimney still standing.


















Inside the original Old Bag Factory building is a number of very attractive shops and restaurants in an open mall layout. We had lunch at the Trolley Cafe, which was one of Carole's favorites when she lived here. She's pictured below right in the Trolley Cafe.

















We really enjoyed our afternoon at The Old Bag Factory. It's a very attractive and fascinating place . . . a great place to spend a relaxing afternoon.

Tristen

Carole's daughter, Brenda, will be leaving next Sunday for a month-long visit with her brother, Carole's son, Bruce, who lives in Marysville, Washington. So Carole wants to spend as much time as she can with Brenda this week.

Brenda's step-son and his wife live with Brenda and they have a baby, Tristen, who is now nearly a year old. Tristen is a cute baby with lots of blond curly hair.



We will undoubtedly see Tristen several more times when we visit Brenda before she leaves for the West Coast.