A VISIT TO KEVIN & MARY's

Kevin and Mary hosted the cousin group for dinner and wine tasting. Their house has been home to the Gregoires for many years. Uncle Virgil (dads older brother) with Aunt Mary raised 10 children in this house, including Dan & Kevin who are the current owners of the farm properties. Kevin is also venturing into wine making as we describe below.

First cousins in the tasting room. Peggy, Barb and Kevin from MN with Skip, Bob and Pat from WA.

Kevin and Bev check out the bottling room and discuss plans for a wine making session during a future visit.

After spending suitable time in the tasting room and bottling area, the Gregoires tour Kevin's vineyard and inspect this years fruit, which shows good promise.

MORE FUN "DOWN ON THE FARM"

Each afternoon, we gathered under the apple tree for happy hour. Dan always seemed right at home as host of our social gatherings.

Dan and Marilyn with grandson Thomas, and one of Dan's favorite toys.

One evening, Dan invited some of his neighbors over for a "game feed" some of my favorite menu items included pheasant nuggets and northern pike strips. We gathered in Dan's shop where his favorite activity is restoring old John Deere tractors.

A great way to finish a memorable day. Most of our days down on the farm ended with a few stories at Dan and Marilyns fire pit, out by the grove.

GATHERING AT THE GREGOIRE'S FARM

Dan and Marilyn's home from the back yard, showing off its great potential for more and "bigger" family reunions to come.

Dan, Marilyn and Bev in front of the farm home that has been the gathering place for at least 5 generations of our Gregoire family dating back nearly 100 years.

Dan and Marilyn relax with Bev, Pat & Ed in their back yard / RV park before the family arrives to honor Aunt Rita.

Saturday, June 27th, Rita was joined by the largest gathering of nieces, nephews and spouses since 1962, to celebrate her approaching 90th birthday.

Bob & Cindy, Pat & Ed meet with family members from the Minnesota side of the Gregoire clan.

Cindy, Marilyn, Skip & Bev have a visit with Rita and catch up on many years of Gregoire family history.

Rita and LaVonne share a few moments before serving up the special cake, which was prepared by her grand nieces, using Rita's own "secret recipe".

ABOUT PIPESTONE

Bev & I spent our afternoon learning the history of the red stone pipes, which were carved from the native stone from quarries here in Pipestone. The tradition of the plains indians gathering their stone for the ceremonial pipes goes back over 2000 years. The ceremonial smoking was part of preparation for warfare, trading goods and hostages and ritual dancing as well as medicinal healings. The term "peace pipe" was one that the white guys came up with when we were working out treaty agreements with the tribes as we came west.

Pipestone creek flows through the touring paths of the monument area much as it did when the native people gathered here to collect stone for their pipes.

The walking path through the national monument features, and seeks to preserve many of the plants, trees and grasses native to the great plains.

Entering one of the areas where the quartz has been taken over the past centuries.

Taking a break on our tour through the quarry sites, the temp is 95 and the humidity is 92%, we decided the AZ dry heat is much better. Next we show you around the town.

The Pipestone main street features buildings built between 1880 to 1900. Most of the buildings in this part of town are constructed with native Sioux Quartzite obtained from the quarries just outside of town. The corner building is the Calumet Inn which was finished in 1888 and hailed as the finest hotel in Southwestern Minnesota. It had 80 guest rooms and an elegant dining room, most of its guests traveled to town by passenger train. It has been totally restored and currently has 38 guest rooms, meeting rooms and of course the dining room. Just to the right in the next building is the Pizza Ranch where Bev & I had a great lunch.

This native stone building is the county museum, it was built in 1896 as the City Hall and served the city until 1960.

Another distinctive landmark in Pipestone is the concrete water tower that stands 132 ft high and can be seen from any location in town. This tower served the water dept. from 1921 til 1973. In 1990 it was restored and serves as the center piece of a picnic and park area. It is one of only two concrete water towers known to exist. Tomorrow we move to the farm.

NEW COMPUTER TABLE & OFF TO MINNESOTA

Every project needs a " before" picture and this is how our dining area served a dual purpose as a computer table also.

This view shows our new computer console with the dining table tucked into the center opening, we were pleased how functional this new configuration is working. The Amish craftsman that built our unit, does great work and we are really pleased with the result.

This side of the console gives us four additional drawers for storage with the bottom drawer designed to hold file folders. The extra storage comes in handy when all your worldly possesions are housed in a 40 ft living space.

This side of the computer cabinet houses the lap-top in the upper compartment, my office is located in the 2nd drawer down and the printer fits in the bottom space.

On approach to the Mississippi River bridge at Moline, Bev will try to capture more of these exciting road shots as we cruise about our great country.

Crossing the Mississippi River west bound at Moline, IL. We crossed east bound at St Louis 8 days ago. We arrived in Pipestone, MN this pm (wed) and will checkout some amazing indian history tomorrow, we will advise you if it truly is amazing. We are looking forward to joining Pat & Ed and Bob & Cindy down on the farm on friday.

EXPLORING NORTHERN INDIANA

We drove north to Elkhart and stopped by to visit the rv heritage museum, they had some great displays of the early motorhomes and trailers dating back to the early 1920s. I got so busy enjoying the displays that I neglected to get more pictures to share with you.

Elkhart is also the home of the largest indoor farmers market in the USA. We stopped by and Bev found some country touches for the motorhome as well as some special sausage and maple syrup for our sunday breakfast.

Nappanee's community theme highlights the slower pace of life found in this area.

The Amish people use our medical facilities and prescription services just as we do, however they have no medical insurance of any kind. All medical services are paid by the individual family or by the local Amish community if necessary. They pay all taxes that are due, but take no monetary support from the local or federal government; no welfare, social security or medicare. So don't blame them for the recession!

The horse and buggy accomodations are available at almost every retail store in town, including the shaded tiedowns at the supermarket.

Our Fathers Day adventure was highlighted by a tour of Amish Acres which is an 80 acre restored farm dating back to an 1839 land grant to one of the first Amish families to settle in northern Indiana. Our visit included a documentary program on the history of the Amish movement, a wagon ride tour, and a guided walking tour of the property. Our touring activities were followed by a "Threshers Dinner" which was a wonderful collection of everthing that ever was served down on the farm.

Bev was the first passenger at the boarding gate for the tractor-wagon tour of the 80 acre farm site. The riding tour was about 45 minutes and gave us a glimpse of life on the farm in the late 1800s, Amish style.

I was very impressed by the laid back, simple lifestyle of the Amish people, so I tried on the traditional headgear. I don't know if my look is authentic enough to merit an invitation for membership

Bev was very interested in the display of hand made quilts, these are quilted by the local Amish women to help supplement the family farm income. These quilts on display sell for over $600, which seemed high to me until I learned the quilters have over 800 hours of work in each piece.

We paid a visit to a one-room schoolhouse that was used from the 1890s at a location less than a mile away from its current site at Amish Acres. It has been restored and used for interpretation programs for visiting school groups. This school housed grades 1 thru 8, and its only enviromental control system is the wood burning stove in the background. It is also interesting to note that the restrooms are out the blue door to the outhouse behind the school.

Bev takes a break during our walking tour of the main farm buildings, this swing is located on the threshing floor of the main barn. The barn was built in 1876 from hand-hewed timbers cut on this farm.

We finished our tour of Amish Acres by stopping by the meat and cheese shop. The shop is a log house, built in the 1860s on a farm ten miles east of Nappanee it was relocated and restored to represent one of the earliest butcher shops in Nappanee. Bev bought a round of garlic tomato cheese which we will taste next week at the Gregoire Family farm in Marshall MN.

CASA GRANDE to NAPPANEE

Departing Casa Grande we passed by Picacho Peak on our way to Tuscon and points east. It is a very distinct landmark along I-10 and was the site of the only Civil War battle to take place in Arizona. It felt so good to be back on the road again and we really enjoyed the sights along the way.

Bev had a chance to spend a few hours in her birth state, the trip across Oklahoma was beautiful as they have had abundant rainfall this spring and the trees and grasses were really green.

Dixie & BJ love the rest stops, and yesterday they took great pride in having the chance to pee in 3 different states in one day! Oklahoma, Missouri & Illinois.

We spent our 3 nights on the road sleeping over with America's truckers, its a quick, easy and cheap way to get off the road and rest. We ate breakfast at this Flying J and paid $6.99 for each meal (not bad) and $3.78 for each cup of coffee (BAD). So we will be serving coffee in the motor home in the future.

This was our introduction to rush hour traffic in Napanee, Indiana. Quite a change of pace to the life style that we have been accustomed.

The Dutch Star arriving at its home of origin. We will be exploring Amish country for the next few days and having our computer cabinet installed on monday. Our trip from Casa Grande was 1945 miles, making it our longest rv trip yet.