Week 53 -- Our Bench

Our bench became a seat for smokers outside Old Main.

     Some of you may remember that Bill and Cheryl's first date at Eastern Illinois University in September of 1966 was on a small bench by a flower bed on the quad just south of Old Main.
     We met in an English class that met at 5 p.m. When Bill first asked Cheryl out for a Saturday date, she said she had to go home because it was her sister's birthday.
     Oh, OK. The next weekend Bill again asked Cheryl for a date but she said she had to go home because it was her sister's birthday?!?
     He didn't know that Cheryl's sister Jean's birthday is Sept. 10 and her sister Karen's birthday is Sept. 16.
     But when she got back to campus Sunday evening, Cheryl called Bill. We went for a walk and wound up on the small concrete bench by the flowers on the quad and talked and kissed.
     We met on that bench quite a few times during our freshman year.
     It has always been our bench.
     Our bench always has been special to us, even when it was replaced several years ago and put outside an Old Main door as a place for EIU employees to smoke during their breaks! That was disappointing but at least our bench was still in use. But in the summer of 2013, while jogging through campus, Bill noticed our bench was gone.
     Worried that it was being discarded, we made a few phone calls and were told the bench would be returned.  A new concrete base had been laid and once the base was ready, the bench would be back. We kept watching, but the bench never came back.
     More phone calls.
     Finally, we were told by the manager of the Building and Grounds Department that the bench had been damaged when it was removed and would not be used again. It was in a discard heap in the woods behind the EIU baseball field.
     "You can have it," we were told. But one look at it showed the damage.

Our bench was broken and in a discard heap in fall 2013.

     Fortunately, Wendell Adams of Adams Memorials thought he could fix it. In late October one of his employees went to EIU and with help from Building and Grounds employee Greg Lee it was hauled away.
     A part of the bench had broken away and one leg had snapped off when our bench was originally moved for the concrete base upgrade.
     Adams was busy in late fall and with winter coming on, we were in no hurry to get our bench. But we wanted to save it, if possible, and bring it home with us.
     The Charleston weather finally turned nice in mid-April and our bench was ready for delivery. Adams Memorials did a fantastic job of restoring it.

Adams Memorials used a crane to deliver our bench.

      A couple Adams' employees brought our bench on a truck with a small crane to unload it and then used a dolly to take it deep into our back yard by the fire pit.
     And there it sits -- our bench. It's there for us anytime we want to sit on it or just look at it from the dining room window.
     Various people at EIU and at Adams thought there had to be something really meaningful connected with that bench. You can imagine what they asked us!
    Yes, they all asked!
     But our bench is just where two 18-year-old kids away from home for the first time got to know each other. It's where 45 years of marriage, three children, six grandchildren and so many shared memories got their start on a warm September Sunday evening.
     We've never forgotten it. And now the "three of us" are back together.

Our bench where it belongs -- at our house.

Week 52 -- Go to a Cubs' Game

It was cool but sunny at Wrigley.

Brando at statue of Grandpa's favorite Cub.

Cubs owner Tom Ricketts signs Jordan's baseball.

    It only took us 2 1/2 years to get to Week 52 of our "Retirement Adventures"! Actually, every week has been an adventure -- mostly good!!
     This summer, Bill participated in the Charleston Recreation Department's "Walk to Wellness" program. If you walk or run at least 67 miles a month, you qualify for prizes in drawings. This year I won a women's coin purse(?) and, at the end of the program, won tickets to the Cubs' final home game of the year.

Brando and Jordan's autographed balls.

Cubs fans with new hats (see first photo pre-game).

        Heather agreed (reluctantly) to let Brando and Jordan go to the game with Grandma and Grandpa on a school day (Wednesday, Sept. 25) as it was the final game of the season at Wrigley Field.
      It was a beautiful day, about 75 degrees, meaning it was cool in the shade of the grandstands. Our tickets were upper deck front section down the left field line which made for a nice view of the action.
     This was Brando and Jordan's third Cub game and our favorites had not won either of the first two. This time the Cubs faced Pittsburgh and the Pirates had won the first two games of the series. In the game we attended, Jake Arrieta was pitching against the Pirates' top winning pitcher, Francisco Liriano. Chances of the boys seeing their first win were not good!
     Because it was the final home game of the season, Cubs officials went through the stands handing out autographed baseballs to kids. Jordan got a ball signed by Darwin Barney and Brando got a Jeff Samardzija ball.
     The game went quickly and with the score tied 1-1 in the sixth, Cubs "slugger" Darnell McDonald belted a three-run homer off Liriano and, despite a nervous ninth-inning, the Cubs won 4-2, and we all got to dance to "Go Cubs Go."
     The boys went down to the dugout hoping to get post-game autographs but no players came back out. Disappointed, we headed through the stadium concourse to the exit when we spotted Cubs owner Tom Ricketts talking to some fans. The boys went up and asked him to sign their Barney and Samardsija baseballs, and he did. We even told him of our common "Omaha connection," which, I'm sure, he enjoyed!
     All in all, it was a good day -- beautiful weather, Brando and Jordan got to skip school, Cubs win, new baseball hats (even Grandpa got a vintage 1950s Cubs hat), autographed balls -- just as a trip to Wrigley should be.
     To top it off, Grandpa got stopped for speeding just after getting off Interstate 57 back here almost to Charleston. But the Coles County Sheriffs Deputy just gave us a warning, instead of a ticket. Maybe he's a Cubs fan and saw our Cubs hats!? A good ending to a great day!

Week 51 - Trip to Bozeman, MT, to see the Arizona Lairs

Cheryl adds a bit of color to the Badlands.

     We are very late in writing this one, but it was such a wonderful trip that we have to write about it -- our trip to Bozeman, Montana, where Patrick and his family spent four months while Patrick did a special detail in familiar territory.
     We took about 10 days in mid- to late June to drive the 1,600 or so miles. We were able to spend the first night in Omaha with David's family, so that was an extra bonus on this trip.
     Then it was off through South Dakota, which seems to go on forever. We stopped at Badlands National Park, near Wall, rather than go to the drug store! There is a really nice loop highway through the park that takes you by many of the top spots. We didn't linger long in any one spot

 because of signs warning us to "Beware of rattlesnakes!"

They have Power Rangers in Bozeman!!

      Yes sir! And off we went to Bozeman. When we arrived at Patrick and Jess's apartment in Bozeman, we were greeted by a Power Ranger, who we were later told actually was Redick!
     We all took Rowen and Redick fishing. They caught several fish in a short time but didn't especially like baiting the hooks or taking the fish off the hook afterwards. But they caught several and we tossed them all back in.
     The next day it was off to Yellowstone National Park -- buffalo, elk, bears, geysers and just an unbelievable amount

Rowen was serious about fishing, and landed several!

of  gorgeous scenery. Wow! What a beautiful place. How lucky we Americans are that 100-plus years ago

The hot springs flow behind Cheryl, Redick and Patrick.

 some of our leaders had the foresight to create this national park, and that led to others. It was one spectacular sight after another for two days.
     Old Faithful doesn't erupt every hour nowadays. It's about once every three hours but rangers can predict within 20 minutes when it will erupt. They were 2 minutes off with their prediction when we were there.
     After the first day at the park, when a half dozen buffalo strolled over to see what we were having for a picnic, we spent the night at a resort called Chico Hot Springs. The pool has a huge hot tub fed by natural hot springs that are as hot as any man-made hot tub. The springs also help make the water in the large swimming pool warmer than

Old Faithful -- need we say more?

 usual. The boys loved it, and so did we.

Redick and Patrick at Chico Hot Springs.

The next day we stopped at the gas station where Patrick worked in the late 1990s when he spent a summer working at Yellowstone and fell in love with the West. Yellowstone could do that to you!

The gas station at Mammoth Hot Springs.

      After a second day at Yellowstone, we headed back to Bozeman. Patrick showed us his office and took us up into one of the national forests that office cares for. In the Gallatin National Forest, we hiked up to Palisades Falls, another gorgeous area.
     Patrick and Jess had a "date night" one evening while Rowen and Redick spent the night with us at the hotel. We swam, watched some kids shows on TV, ate pizza, read books and had a good time with the boys we had not seen in about a year and a-half. Lots of fun.
     Patrick and Jess got the strange idea that these meat-and-potato Midwesterners would like to eat raw fish!?! They took us to a sushi restaurant in Bozeman. Actually, it wasn't bad. It definitely was different. Cheryl enjoyed it more than Bill, who was looking for a way to stop by a DQ to get a double hamburger.

 

Patrick and family at Upper Yellowstone Falls.

There's a lot of sushi yet to eat on Bill's plate.

     Before our fun trip ended, we got to see Rowen's final T-ball game of the season. That's always a treat to watch the little guys and girls play ball without really caring who wins or loses, but they love chasing after the ball and trying to be the one to fire it  back in, even if they are rolling in the grass while the runner circles the bases.
     Our trip ended too soon and we headed back to the flat cornfields of Illinois, but first we stopped at           Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Supposedly, it's the core of an ancient volcano. It just juts out of the ground 867 feet and actually is almost a mile above sea level. We both were impressed and spent more time walking the trail around the base than we had intended.
     All in all, a fun and educational trip while getting the chance to see the Arizona Lairs in an environment very different from where they live in Fredonia!

Devil's Tower was pretty impressive.

Week 50 -- Home Improvement Project

Jordan enjoyed tearing off the old screens.

     The heading says "Week 50" and it would be accurate if we had done this project in 2011, when we first retired, or even early in 2012.
     After saying for two years that we were going to re-screen our back porch, we finally did it in August 2013!!
     With Brando and Juan in Costa Rica and Colombia for 3 weeks, Grandson Jordan spent days at our house while his Mama was working. He enjoyed kicking out the old screens and pulling them off.
     We decided to do it up right. We took off all the old trim holding the old screens in place. We then power washed all the dirt, spider webs and mold off the old porch before trying to paint. Then came the big job -- putting in a new ceiling fan.

Before painting, we power washed the wood frame.

      A friend put one on our porch years ago but humidity wilted the blades and it no longer worked. We had bought one for, like, 10 bucks at a charity silent auction awhile back, and me, with no electrical skills or ability to follow the incomplete instructions, tackled the job. Cheryl stopped painting and took Jordan to the library or somewhere so I could curse without young ears near by.
     God must have been with me because when I was finished trying to match colored wires and insert the right amount of screws into available holes, the fan worked!! Yeah!!

The master handyman nears the end of the project.

      Jordan and one of his friends went with me to Home Depot to buy screen and molding for trim. We measured and the boys actually cut the molding in half (from 16 feet lengths to 8 feet lengths) so we could hault them in Juan's van.
     We painted, cut screen and used the staple gun to hang the screen. They say you are supposed to measure twice and cut once, but I thought I would try the opposite with some 2x4 boards at the bottom of the screen panels. We had to cut twice because I only measured once. It was a minor delay?!
     Eventually, we finished with just one or two boards of any length left over. Cheryl washed down the concrete floor and, voila, we had a much more comfortable back porch minus flying insects,

Cheryl is a lady of leisure on our 'new' back porch.

butterflies and wayward birds.
     It was so nice that on Saturday we even ate lunch on the porch. We are looking forward to spending more time on the porch this fall and again next spring.
     But, take a good look at these photos because we will never, ever re-screen this porch or hang another ceiling fan again.

Week 49 -- California Road Trip

     Friends Terry and Barb Perkins recently sold their Charleston  house

Yes, we followed old Route 66.

to move back to Southern California where they grew up. But, they wanted someone to drive one of their cars to their new home.
     Road Trip!!!
     Cheryl and I took off in Barb's Ford Fusion for the 1,900-plus
mile trip to Hemet, Calif., about 8 a.m. Thursday, May 30. We mostly
went on Interstates 40 and 44 through Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona before going on a California state highway to the Perkins' house.
     But, what a trip! First, we had thunderstorm and tornado warnings in

Found a nice coffee shop in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Bill planned to study the map until he saw this rest stop sign

Joplin, Mo. Skies were pitch black and we got through Joplin about 15 minutes before the storm struck. We had more tornado warnings near Oklahoma City, just days after the big storm in suburban Moore, Okla. With Dick and Debbie McKay's daughter, Mandy, living in Oklahoma City, she texted us the storm's location and got us through, again, about 15 minutes before the big storm hit. The next day, Friday, that area again was hit by tornado with several deaths.
     Our biggest problem in Oklahoma is that we ran though two tollway stops WITHOUT paying!
     Two unmanned booths required exact change and we didn't have it. Alarms sounded at both booths but we went on our way, owing the State of Oklahoma $1.50!!! When we got to Barb and Terry's we went online and found out how to pay the tolls and already have mailed them a check for the big amount.
     There is a lot you can see on this route. There is Albuquerque, N.M., with a tram going up the mountain for a beautiful view. There's the Grand Canyon plus the Grand Canyon Skywalk and the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
     We did none of those things because our driving days were too full. The clear-glass skywalk is about 1.5 hours off the interstate and the Indian tribe charges about $100 a
 person to go on the skywalk.
     We spent the second night of our trip in Flagstaff, Ariz., a pretty college town with a historic downtown area. We found a nice bar next to our hotel the first night and, after some directions from Patrick, went to
 the downtown the next morning and found a

Cheryl, Barb and Terry at San Juan Capistrano.

neat little coffee shop called Late for the Train (next to the tracks) for breakfast.
     That was Saturday morning and we were anxious to get to California. Once we crossed the border into Southern California, we both were surprised -- no heavy traffic, no overpopulated cities, no orange trees, no movie stars.
     For the first 120 miles, we saw nothing but desolate desert. No trees. Just dirt, sand, cacti, rocks and weeds. Not even many cars and no cell service.
     The road was two-lane, extremely hilly -- like riding in a small boat through very choppy water -- just up and down, up and down.
     Finally, we reached civilization, a few small towns with lots of Joshua trees; and then we saw the Southern California we were expecting -- eight lane highway, lots of traffic and cities lumped together where it was hard to tell where one left off and another began.
     We reached Barb and Terry's late Saturday afternoon, had a nice dinner and relaxed. On Sunday, we drove a couple hours to beautiful San Diego. We went to a shopping/dining section called Seaport Village, right on the coast. We spent a couple hours going through cute shops and enjoying the waters and had lunch.
     Then, we got in the car and drove up the Pacific Coast highway for a couple hours, through Oceanside (home of my former newspaper corporation), LaJolla, San Onofre and other beach cities made famous in a Beach Boys' song.
     We stopped at San Juan Capistrano, where there is a Spanish mission first built in 1776. Swallows come back to this mission every March 19, build mud nests and stay until October when they fly farther south for the winter. They have done this for as long as people (Native Americans) have been in that area.
     Much of the old mission still exists. Barb, Terry, Cheryl and I really enjoyed exploring the old mission made famous by the 1950s song, "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano."
     We drove back to Hemet and left Monday morning for the Palm Springs Airport, on Sonny Bono Parkway and Kirk Douglas Drive and past Bob Hope Avenue. We had collected a couple hundred bottles of shampoo and conditioner from hotels for our Rotary Club's project of donating them to the veterans hospital in Danville, Ill., and to nursing homes and domestic violence shelters. But the airport security would not allow me to take them on the plane. They gave me a sandwich baggie that could hold about 15 and dumped the rest in the trash! Oh well.
     Had a nice flight home and Heather picked us up at the Indianapolis airport and got home about midnight.
It was a fast trip to California -- left Thursday and got home Monday night in time to go to work on Tuesday.
     But we have rested a week and now are getting ready to drive to Bozeman, Montana this Thursday for another three-day drive. Boy, Cheryl and I are really testing our compatibility with these three-day drives cooped up in the car with each other for 11 hours a day!!

Week 48 - " Research Family History - Part 3"

Bill and Jim by John & Bonny tombs.

     The question we left you with in Week 39's "Excellent Adventure" was: Which of John Sevier's wives is the Sevier half of our family descended from -- first wife Sarah or second wife Bonny Kate?
     The answer? Neither.
     We are not direct descendants of John Sevier. He was our great-great-great-great uncle. We are descended from John Sevier's younger brother, Abraham.
     We borrowed Grandma Lair's Sevier Family History Book recently and looked up the family tree. Grandma Lair, of course, was born Margaret Sevier. We all have heard much about John Sevier, Indian fighter, hero of the Revolutionary War Battle of King's Mountain, governor of the Lost State of Franklin and first governor of the State of Tennessee. But, who was Abraham?
     He was no slouch. In fact, none of those early Seviers were slouches. Valentine Sevier, emigrated 
from England about 1740, according to the Sevier Family History Book. He and his wife, Joanna, had seven children. John was the oldest, born in 1745 in Virginia. Abraham was the sixth, born in 1760.
     Abraham did serve during the Revolutionary War. In 1778, he was listed as a spy, under the command of older brother, Capt. Robert Sevier, who later died during the Battle of King's Mountain in 1780. In all, Abraham served about three years. He and his wife, Mary, had 10 children. Child No. 6 was a son, Valentine Smith Sevier, born in Carter County, Tenn.
     Valentine Smith Sevier's family, at some point, emigrated to Morgan County, Ill., and settled in Waverly.
He and his wife, Elizabeth, had nine children. Child No. 4 was a son, Ananias Davidson Sevier, also born in Tennessee, in 1825, but who moved to Waverly with the family.
     Like many Seviers, Ananias served in the military -- in the Mexican War with Company G of the First Illinois Foot Volunteers, mustered in at Alton in 1846. He was in the Battle of Buena Vista, Mexico, in February 1847 and was in several other Mexican areas before being discharged in June 1847. Ananias and his wife, Cornelia, had 13 children, including a son, Nathan, born in 1856, who was our great-grandfather.

John Sevier climbed Clingman's Dome.

     Nathan and his wife, Eliza, had 12 children. Child No. 9 was our grandfather, Valentine Sevier, born May 22, 1894, in Waverly. He married Maude Brown in 1919 in Jacksonville, was a barber and barber instructor at the Illinois School for the Deaf. He died Sept. 16, 1946, just a few weeks before brother Jim was born.
     While I was somewhat surprised we are not direct descendants of John Sevier, we are still related. Instead of an "Uncle John from Germany," as we used to play as kids, we have an "Uncle John from Tennessee."
     The Seviers were real pioneers and hardy people. They had lots of kids!! John had 18 children -- 10 by his first wife, Sarah, and eight by Bonny Kate. Sarah died shortly after the 10th child was born.
     John fought 35 battles with Indians and won all 35. In one battle, he was chasing the Indians through what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He climbed to the top of Clingman's Dome to get a better view of where the Indian villages were. Cheryl, Jim, Sharon and I drove up, then walked the last half-mile to the top of Clingman's Dome during brother John's birthday retreat in Sevierville, Tenn., last fall.
     John Sevier's brother, Valentine, born just after John, was the first Sevier to venture into Tennessee. He was a friend of Daniel Boone and fought in several Revolutionary War battles, including King's Mountain.

But we are still Sevier descendants!      

     Valentine had troubles with Indians, though. He and his wife, Naomi, had 14 children. Five of his children, two sons-in-law and a grandchild all were killed by Indians. Another son died on board a ship after serving in the War of 1812 and in the Battle of New Orleans.
     So that's what I now know about our Sevier family roots, thanks to the Sevier Family History Book.
     Now we need to find out more about the Lairs of Kentucky!

Week 47 - A family of Cardinals living at a Cub's house

Christmas Wreath

      OK, I know this isn't exactly an "excellent adventure" and Bill and I should probably think about doing something a little more exciting, but we spent almost a month watching a family of Cardinals hatch and grow in a wreath directly outside our front door.  As you can see, the wreath is a Christmas wreath that I had started to take down when I saw a nest on the very top  next to the eave of the roof.  The nest was protected from wind and rain, but every time we walked out the door or the paperboy came

 or we looked out the door to check on the nest, Mama Cardinal would fly away and leave her babies to the dastardly deeds that we were undoubtedly planning    So at those times, I would set out bird feed or take pictures of the progress they were making.  It was fun to watch the eggs hatch one at a time and turn into little pink blobs with white fuzz.  I would enlarge the pictures to try to make out a beak or a foot, but the five little blobs looked like just that...blobs.