The J6 Journey: Year 5, October 19th-22nd, 2020: Vacation!!!! Without Children!!!! Day 1 of 3

Gah! It's been gloriously silent, and yet boring all day! I had the kids packed and out the door by 10 am so I could "go home and get ready" *wink* *wink* Actually, I thoroughly cleaned up toys and decluttered, vacuumed, took a shower, prepared dinner, went to a doctor's appointment, did a load of laundry, did my Bible study, finished my audio book, and kept up with email. But I was still bored! It's a good thing I had prepared food before I left for the doctor's because I was there for awhile. She always takes great care in listening and had many compliments. We did some bloodwork to check on some things because she's a bit perplexed on the weight loss, too. But my diabetic numbers are well within range so I'm not at all near even pre diabetic. So, we'll see. She couldn't prescribe a blood sugar monitor, but said I could get one over the counter at any pharmacy. And she gave me a referral to behavioral health for the ADD stuff. So, we'll see on that as well.

It was drizzly all day, but it didn't dampen our spirits. I heard the kids played board games with Grandma and Grandpa and then went to a movie called "The War with Grandpa." I guess it's about a grandfather moving in his grandson's home and the grandson, who is in 6th grade, has to give up his bedroom for him. It sounded hilarious. Good call Grandpa Johnson! Tomorrow I believe they are headed for Great Wolf Lodge and then the Ark Encounter since Abishai is still free. We'll be heading to Madison, Indiana and Benaiah will come stay with Socks.

We had mashed potatoes, the rest of the moose roast, and salad for dinner, all in candlight/oil lamp. Our wedding candles to be exact. And then Jared built a fire and we watched one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and one episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, which are the two series that Jared's been watching. The Enterprise was made in the early 2000's but comes before TNG in the Star Trek timeline. In the middle, Grandma texted and said Keturah forget her pj's and Justin wanted his new blue filter glasses. So, I put those in a bag on the handle of the front door. We adults are having fun and don't want to be disturbed, ok? Ok. Let's just say, we need to do this more often. My expectations are fairly high since I've been the one planning it and Jared seems to be ok with that. I'm having fun doing the planning. But I also over plan, so I needed to pull up on the reins today and set some more realistic goals, like let's hit up ONE crafty store, ONE cafe, ONE lunch place and ONE fancy dinner. Oh, and maybe ONE winery. We'll visit the visitor's center first to get some self guided tour maps so maybe we can walk the historical route on Thursday. Most things aren't open on Tuesday, so unless they can tell us where we could go, we might end up at the Clifty Falls Inn's restaurant, lol. That's ok. We'll do what we can do. Here's to hoping!

John Crist, at it again. Goof.

Abishai's prayer last night. Lots of little ears are listening.

Is this enough snacks for 3 kids for 5 days? I hope so!

Packed and ready to go for any adventure!

Our preacher, Dan Hamel, and his wife, Keren, had their second child today, Miss. Advent.

A chilly, drizzly fall day.

Looking pretty good I'd say!

Came home to a serious wet drool spot from the dog. Yes, he drools this much now. And he shouldn't be on the couch!

Not enough shoes here! Is this what empty nesting going to look like? Oh wait, we'll probably have grandbaby shoes in there then. We'll see!

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Ah, decluttered and clean! And no Abishai tornado to mess it up!

Gifts just because.

Ready for a makeshift dinner of leftovers. Trying to save money for other dinners on the road. We had leftover moose roast, smashed potatoes, and salad. It was a good thing I had prepared them all beforehand because I was late coming home from the doctor's office.

Family is always representing. The J6 surrounding the Gramma and Grampa Howell pumpkins. I didn't get big pumpkins this year. I don't think the kids are missing out actually.

Fire and Star Trek after a good meal, and an early bedtime. Time to hit the road tomorrow!

Tuesday - see paper

In just a handful of years, the outer wood of the Ark Encounter has weathered a ton! The kids said they remembered some parts and knew what the new parts were. Abishai I think was a bit hangry and wanted to be done. They didn't bring snacks nor a stroller into the Ark and Gary said it was "packed." Keturah said it wasn't that bad. Busy, but not packed. This is why I always bring a stroller or wagon. It gives us distance between others, a place to hide our snacks and coats, and a place for the whiny 5 year old to ride in.

Abishai's first time at the ark! He liked the animals in the cages.

We ate at both places this week. Boneyard Grill was in North (or modern) Madison and was a greasy pub kind of food, but still good, and I thoroughly enjoyed a fountain cherry Coke! I haven't had one of those in MONTHS. And Red on Main was our first choice on Tuesday, but we had to walk around Historical Madison to wait until they opened. Super expensive but delicious!

In order to retain Jared's interest for a trip like this, I suggested going to a winery or bourbon distillery. So, he had looked up at this one and we were at least able to to into their store. We had missed their tour by 15 minutes, but couldn't stick around for the next tour if we wanted to get to Madison before it shut down for the evening. I think we should have purchased this coffee though!

Quite interesting at $16 per bag whole bean. Jared did purchase three small bottles of hard liquor to add to his collection.

Overcast, sprinkly rain kind of day, but those are grape vines over there across the pond. This place had an apple orchard, pumpkin patch, farm store, winery, and distillery. It must be one of the top places for people to go in this area for apple picking and pumpkin patch. I saw a few families. We ate a picnic lunch there as well. I think it took us almost 2 hrs because we went the back roads. We could have traveled longer on the highway but there was a huge pile up of traffic because of construction.

Nice little setup here.

Jared liked that he could see the barrels and distillation process through the windows.

Grapevines.

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Hm,...we don't know why this somewhat new road needed to be built, but it was nice and colorful!

When we finally got to Madison, we stopped at the Visitor's Center to get info on walking tours for our longer day on Thursday. Then we went to a local coffee shop (like the good millennial that I am!) for my caffeine fix and then across the street to the Galena Garlic Company, which was really all about flavor infused olive oils and loads of expensive spice mixes. But Jared enjoyed it.

Dozens upon dozens of flavors. Here's just a few.

These home made colorful pastas looked gorgeous! I thought Keturah would like at least a photo of them. We didn't buy them though. We did buy 3 bottles of olive oil and one spice packet of uniquely flavored wassail. A lot of the spice mixes had sugar or brown sugar in them, so I skipped all of those for Jared's sake.

They have several locations throughout the midwest. I think their original store is either in Missouri or Illinois.

The coffee shop across from Galena's. Super quiet downtown historic Madison. The tourist season is pretty much passed and it's just a few older folk who don't have kids in school and have to worry about fall break or entertaining them. We aren't that demographic, obviously, so it was a little awkward. And the shops all close around 5 or 6 pm and some are only open Weds-Sun. Kind of sad when you think of how bustling this 200 year old port city was (on the Ohio River). We got an excellcent set of brochures that included what the different styles of architectures were. I didn't memorize them or look for them specifically but this information will hold true for most older Indiana towns. I love seeing the "row" houses that reminded me of New Orleans and of course the housing quarters above the shops. And I didn't see any riff raff either. That's because "modern" Madison is just north of here on the other state east-west highway. Loads more traffic up there. Oh and we traveled through several small Indiana downtowns like this. Yeah for the back roads and getting "lost" and having the time to get "lost."

Huge probably 300 year old tree in front of the Visitor's Center, run by the Indiana State Museum system. The Lanthier Mansion, across the street from this building, was deeded to the State Museum over 100 yrs ago because the original family line couldn't keep up on the maintenance. It's a beautiful well kept site. Again, quiet, and probably not well visited, but still very important in Indiana history because of being on the Ohio River, and Lanthier was a banker who financed the railroad and the building of the town, etc. We toured the mansion on Thursday when the weather was nicer. It was only 65 degrees on Tuesday.

Looking to the west down the Ohio River. Across the river is Kentucky.

Looking east along the Ohio River. Madison is in the southeast corner of Indiana, not too far from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lanthier Mansion in the background with it's huge grand entrance and portico facing the river of course to tell everyone, "Hey, a wealthy person lives here!" George Washington and other prominent people who built residences next to waterways did the exact same thing. The "back" that looks towards the river is actually the fancier entrance. The "carriage" entrance is where everyone enters on the land side of the building.

I love visiting new cafe's and supporting them! This one was ok. It was an almond milk dark chocolate mocha. Burnt my tongue, too.

We passed a lot of time in a store called McWhiggins Wonder Emporium, a toy store filled with vintage and new toys! I could have spent a ton of money in there for Christmas! I love to shop local, even if I can find an item cheaper online. And this owner really cared about her customers and kept checking in on us and welcomed us back two days later. I hope I can support her later on through her website! This store of CHOCK FULL of name brands and so eclectic!

Bwahahaha!

Vintage Breyer brand horses! They are an authorized dealer! I just about freaked out for Keturah's sake!

I almost bought this! It was $30, the same price as the Lego one Keturah wanted. I just might order on online.

They had a ton of these huge stuffed animals! Very well made, too. And they did have everything sorted by type of toy, but they also had this randomness, too. Some might call it cluttered, I just call it, "Fun squeezed into every nook and cranny!"

Yes, one of those trains you could sit in! I think most things in the store were for sale.

$30, but so neat!

$140!!!!

This foal was as big as a real foal!

The store had the cutest set of stuffed planets! Yes, this is Saturn! I love their faces! Just simple sweet eyes and mouths. Adorable!

Pluto, Mars, Venus, the Sun, asteroids, etc. $20-40 each though!

Nearly bought this, too! You don't ever see Colorforms (vinyl reusable "stickers') and definitely not the 80's style My Little Pony sets!

Pricey (see a theme here?) but great for several people in our family.

Nearly bought this, too.

I just watched a little video that one of the owners did about these German made bears. HIGH HIGH quality, all numbered, pretty expensive, but as a collector of teddy bears, I definitely appreciate this vintage style. So beautiful!

Another one of their huge stuffed animals!

Paddington!

And then the randomness continued, lol.

I don't think they have a horse and carriage in the summer months or if someone is being sarcastic or what, but yes, this street would have been lined with things like this.

Not all history is learned through a textbook. Some of the best, lasting facts I've learned while on field trips when I can immerse myself in an area, get a feel for it's history, visit it's landmarks, and then I can place them on the timeline in my head. This is how history comes alive. And it's sad when children and adults are so caught up in the modern world that they miss this. Walking around a town like this (not driving it, walking it) gives you a sense of what it was like to go from the doctor's house to the market to the blacksmith to the docks. It wasn't a huge walk actually. We were tired and I had the wrong shoes on that first day, but the streets were clean and quiet. It's a chance to slow down, breathe in the fresh air, and think about something else besides our "first world problems."

Repurposed building of course, but I can link this to the scene I just heard on my Poldark audiobook where the ladies went to town, put their horses up in the stables for the day, and went shopping.

Modern life for these spoiled munchkins who got to spend two days at Great Wolf Lodge hotel and water park.

Super expensive but super yummy. Just steak and fries. Yup.

Too bad it's fuzzy, but that's pretty much how the "no selfies" guy rolls. He had an awesome bacon burger.

A little rough from walking around in the cold.

Worth waiting for it to open at 5pm for dinner. Oh, and there was no parking fees anywhere. Yeah!

On our way to Clifty Inn. First time staying at a state park facility. Same price as a fancy hotel. Most reviews were really good.

We stayed in the least expensive rooms, but the total was still around $200 for two nights. Breakfast and dinner (and lunch) were extra. We had a view of a gorgeous tree in full color. But everything was clean and as it should be for the price. We didn't try the TV, but there was a DVD player. We liked spreading out on the two beds, leaving our junk on one and sleeping on the other. Our room faced east, yeah!

Microwave and fridge. Jared was able to make tea and coffee with the coffee machine.

Pretty cloudy on day 1.

Basic yet clean. We did hear some kids in the next room or two doors down. It was only a few moments and made us smile because we totally understand. The Inn did have quiet hours and it was quiet for sure.

Trying to facetime with a moving target and everybody on both hotels' wifi's wasn't cutting it. We switched to just the regular phone after a few minutes. Abishai is faster than the wifi!

I didn't plan to walk all of Madison's Main Street the first day and I didn't wear the right shoes, but that's still a lot of steps. My lower back hurt something awful. But after the next two days of wearing the regular tie sneakers, my legs hurt (thanks to the huge inclines in the park) but my back was fine. I love my slip on sneakers, but they will be for quick trips, not all day field trips.

We brought along our anniversary Lego to finally put together. I went slow but I must have had less pieces than Jared because I finished first.

Kind of tricky keeping the four bags of bricks separate. Jared had trouble deciding which color piece to use a couple of times. I still think he is partially color blind.

The Child and The Mandalorian. Now, how do we keep Abishai from destroying them and adding them to his Lego collection? And three days later, yes, he's messed with them quite a bit.