But first.
Last Sunday was Father's Day, and the boys worked together on a song that James wrote a while back to honor Bill.
The tie on the mike-stand one of Bill's favorites from back in the day.
A beautiful tribute to a wonderful Father.
This week...very busy.
A note from my sister, Tina, letting me know that one of the Easter Egg Chicks that they had named Violet...was most likely a Victor.
But since Roo (their Rooster) already had an established flock of 8 that this little guy will just have his own flock with the younger chicks.
Also took the nice weather to clean up the aftermath of the storm...and "paint-the-roses-red"...well, do the touch up on the faux ivy to make it a bit more imperfect and lifelike.
Browning the vines and some yellow and brownish spots.
Amazed, because three of the poor white lilies that were snowed on...flooded out...and beaten by hail and rain out of a tubful managed to bloom anyway.
And then there was Marshall!
An adventure planned after John realized on his birth certificate it said that he was born in Marshall, Illinois...instead of Terre Haute (...which is where he was raised and all he ever remembered...)
So off we went.
Where we saw our first
sign ever...in West Terre Haute.
"Sorry..Bob...going to be late to work this morning. No, everything is okay...it is those damned turtles, again..."
Yes...apparently we ARE easily amused.
When we got to the Indiana/Illinois border he reminded me to get my passport ready.
"OMG....do you think maybe your Mom swam across the Walbash River with you??? Maybe you're an illegal immigrant!"
Yeah...we are both "not quite right", okay?
About 20 minutes later we arrived at the Marshall/Paris exit.
Pursuing a collective hallucination of one of the oldest and best cafe's in Marshall...The Crossroad Cafe.
...it must be true...it was on the internet...
Instead we got lost.
So lost.
So fucking lost.
The whole GPS
"I got nothin'" lost.
Paved road to gravel roads to this
"OMG...there is GRASS growing down the middle of the gravel road!!!"
Like driving up some farmer's lane.
Then it turned us (another right turn...like some horrible rural NASCAR parody) until it deposited us back out on the paved road where we had started out.
We were laughing hard by this time.
It made the trip!
Eventually we did find Mainstreet Marshall...and it was like stepping back in time.
Although, we did not find The Crossroads Cafe for lunch we did manage to find a similar 1950 diner.
With the BEST BLT Club either of us had ever eaten...
We also found out something interesting from The Locals (...a group of friendly guys..probably farmers...just hanging out at the local cafe spinning tales in the heat of the day...)
Since his birth certificate specified Marshall Illinois...and there was no local hospital (now or back then) he was probably born at home and delivered by one of the 3 local doctors.
"I KNEW it, honey....you WERE born in a barn!!!"
Like one of the locals joked about his nearby friend
"Yep...born in a barn...second stall on your right."
Now with a new mystery to untangle...but full and happy and given directions to Crossroads for the next time we come back (...maybe Fall), we wandered outside to discover Marshall.
The popcorn wagon is actually still used by the Lion's Club!
And a local we took to calling The Tour Guide even showed us this!
Like the World's Biggest Skillet or Ball of Twine it seems that Marshall has
The World's Biggest Gavel
...we'll have to take his word for it...
It was a great adventure, love!!!
