Waking Up Hurley Travels With A Quick Recap

     I didn’t really break up Hurley Travels, it just took a year-long vacation.  (Something close to a quote from The Eagles Reunion Tour, right?)  I’ve had a hiatus to consider how, or whether, this personal corner of the world should carry on.  The decision --- I’m not ready to call it quits at Hurley Travels just yet.  It’s still fun to take a look back in the blog history every now and then, especially since my recollection abilities are just a little fuzzier than they used to be. If you get my drift.  Time for a wake-up call!
     So what’s been happening?  We’ve been busy with living, doing whatever happens to us retired folk.  There are many distractions, from house projects to travel to hobbies to family to family history, or just foolin around.  During this blogging break I did occasionally mull over the moments that I’d want to add to the blog.  Some of those posts are still stuck in my head, I guess.  But don’t worry…there won’t be any novelettes written in these pages. I thought I’d have some fun with a sample of the past year in photos and keep the rhetoric simple. Here goes with the high spots:
     Summer 2015:
     --  The Cleveland Irish Fest with our friends, Mike and Suzanne Flynn, was a super weekend in July of song, reminiscing, tattoos for the ladies, tshirts for the guys and refreshments of our choice.

        ---  Jerry and I went into the farming arena last summer.  Well I guess it was dipping maybe one toe into that arena.  We grew two kinds of tomatoes and two kinds of peppers in containers in our back yard. Actually, the plants produced a good many veggies and they were delicious.  We especially liked the cherry tomatoes’ juicy flavor.  And we could share them since our plant was plentiful.  There was also an added bonus.  Marti did  a fabulous job of canning the peppers and we had spicey treats for a while after.

  

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      Indiana State Fair, August 2015:
     --- Krissy and I had a lot of fun lapping up  all the State Fair offerings.  We visited with horses, pigs, llamas, goats, rabbits and other appropriate animals.  We perused the handmade quilts, clothes and artwork submissions. And it wouldn’t be right if you didn’t visit the farm equipment.   And, of course, we had to try enough fried food to last us another year. 

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   Jerry’s Birthday, September 2:
     ---  It’s always fun for Tim to get his Dad out acting like a kid.  On Jerry’s birthday Tim talked him into taking a spin on one of their ATV’s. These pics remind me of how our roles reverse as we and our children get older.  Jerry made a quick trip around the yard and had us all laughing, of course.

   

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Our Wedding Anniversary, September:
     ---  September 30th was our 15th wedding anniversary.  We decided to explore around home for the day, find totally new places to experience.  In this picture I'm standing outside Mama Irma’s Peruvian Cafe in Fountain Square.  I can’t remember our exact menu choices, but everything was tasty, fresh and fun.  The waiter helped us to get a good sampling for our first Peruvian food.
    Then, with our tummies full, we took a tour of two downtown Indy spots.  The art gallery in an old branch bank was new to us and we saw some interesting local artists’ work.  Then, we also roamed through the Midland Antique Mall for a dose of old treasures.

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November in the Southwest, 2015:
     ---   What can I say about the chance to visit our good friends, Jerry and Dee Thomas and Mary Jo Wallen.  We decided to make this trip to the Southwest by car, taking our time and stopping at a few old favorite places.  Besides, Jerry wanted to see Lucas, Kansas, again – the Grassroots Art Center of the world. (In our minds anyway!)
     We did notice the difference on this trip in hotels rather than in a motorhome, with your own bed and your stuff.  But we found good stopover places, especially our three days in Santa Fe. One very important stop was in Albuquerque, New Mexico to see Mary Jo. We’ve been friends for soooooo long and it’s always good to get some face-to-face time. 
     Then, we arrived at our November spot with Jerry and Dee, and special four-legged buddy, Jaxon, in Congress, Arizona.  We had about three weeks of doing whatever; sometimes just looking at the beautiful desert scenery out our back door.   The evenings were filled with laughing and sharing. Always a treat to have time with these nice people and other special RVing friends there at North Ranch.  I have somehow missplaced the photos from New Mexico-Arizona 2015. So I’m  going to do some flashbacks.  These oldies are fun anyway!  

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   Christmas, 2015

     ---  We enjoyed having family and friends at our home at Christmas time!  Below are a few of those smiles that add joy to this time of year.  First, Granddaughter Caroline with her cousins, Lila, Jude and Ava Chamberlain gathered to create this beautiful moment. 

     ---  Then I'm adding a totally clowning, jiggly pic from the other Christmas event.   Captured below are my nephew Alan with Krissy (adult cousins in the back), and a few of the youngsters in the Niehaus clan. In the front are my sister Linda’s grandchildren:  Eli Marcum, Madison May, Annabelle Marcum and Madelyn Marcum. 

     ---  Lastly for the holiday photos: My sisters and I - Nancy Hurley, Linda May and Marti Fleetwood.   We ate to our hearts content, played cards, shared stories and presents and loved our family time.

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     Caribbean Cruise with My Sis, January, 2016:
     ---  Lin and I took a seven-day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico, Belize City and Roatan, Honduras in January.  Saw beautiful undersea sites snorkeling, road a submarine 100 feet down, and toured the fascinating Mayan Ruins.  The Caribbean Princess food was fantastic and we had a fabulous time on our sisters cruise.  Even played some bingo and musical trivial pursuit on the ship!

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     Sunny February Visits in Florida:
     --- We escaped the cold for a couple of weeks in February.  It was nice to visit Margie (Hurley) in her new home near Orlando. We got to meet her special friend, George and let them show us around their local area.

   Then we made our way west to the gulf coast to see Karen again in Clearwater. We were just in time to help Karen adjust to her retirement. In fact we were there for her first Monday away.  And I think she got into it very quickly!  She's now excited to have more time for biking, walking and movies with her Dad.
This Florida escape had another special ingredient. Jerry escorted all of us ladies wherever we chose to go, to good restaurants, for drinks at waterview spots, to shop in quaint places, listen to music or walk on the beach.   

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March through May, 2016, More Momentos:
    ---   I’ll bring this year-long post to a conclusion  with comments on a pleasant birthday I had in March.  Krissy and Darrell (her special friend) created a fantastic meal of baked Tilapia, asparagus with hollandaise sauce and rice with almonds and served Jerry and I at Krissy's place. There was even a special creamy birthday tart with berries.
  Krissy and I are still enjoying her gift of yoga lessons together.  Mother’s Day and Krissy’s May birthday would be worthy additions to this year’s recap. They all go into our memories vault forever.

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    Well, that’s enough for one helping of Hurley Travels.  I have to go check on Jerry now to see what he might have up his sleeve.  There may be some surprises here in the future.   Hello to everyone from both of us.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by Hurley Travels.

  

  Nancy Hurley

Copyright (c) 2016, Nancy Hurley

Happy Independence Day!

We celebrate our freedoms today and every day. 

What’s Up After Our Winter Travel ?

We did a “study” this winter -- just low key and personal, that is.  A few of our questions are at least partially answered.  Do we want to continue our RVing now that we have another home in Indianapolis? Is the lifestyle still as attractive?  Or are we ready to hang up Ferd’s keys?   

How did we feel about taking to the road again?  Did the traveling still have its attraction? 

Honestly, after the 18 months break in 2011-2012, we easily readjusted to our life in the motorhome last Fall.  Seeing some old friends and traveling to a few new places was very enjoyable.  And missing the ice and snow in the Midwest was a no-brainer!  We had a great time out on the road over the past five months.  Ferd continues to make a nice home for us and is comfortable for traveling.  Leaving the condo seems to have worked out without problems…at least for this winter. 

Results of the study are: We are still feeling fortunate to be able to move around in Ferd at our leisure.   We’ll continue to maintain this two-sided way of living for now. 

So anyway, we are resettled into our little place here in Indianapolis for a while. Unpacking Ferd was not fun, but we survived.  There are many projects on the to-do list for our condo.  One aspect we were considering was a new TV satellite or cable service. Whether we wanted to put the Dish Network TV satellite “on vacation” and get something different for home.  Check that one off! We investigated, evaluated, arranged and overcame the headaches of the process. We not only have a new Uverse modem and DVR, we are enjoying new selections on our Amazon account.  Thanks friends for the input we received this winter from those of you who were way ahead of us on these options. It’s great!

We’re also  busy remembering where everything might be and finding those things that we left undone or developed over the winter.  For instance, the weeds went crazy with all the rain. I’m pulling weeds and planting.  Jerry’s fixing indoor lights and planning a workbench in the garage.  No hurry though. We’re taking it slow.

One of the projects that was on my agenda was to scan, organize and backup computer files, especially the scads of photos that were in storage. I’ll never really finish this little endeavor.  But, I always have fun looking back at the oldies. 

So now, my brain’s busy coming up with other ways to have fun with these old photos. Some of you know I’ve started using these days-gone-by pics to create  cards with a little different wrinkle. Now, I’ve decided to reuse a few as Facebook cover and profile pictures.  I started with one of Jerry and me with Ole Yeller from a few years ago.  You can see it on my FB page. 

But all this scanning has to lead elsewhere, right?

How about we do some time travel to the past here on the blog?!  I’ll dig out one or two old photos each week for a post. Who knows what will pop up!

Since this special lady’s birthday is this weekend, I’ll kick off with Krissy.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Krissy.  Love you lots!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting Hurley Travels.  Stay safe.

Niagara Falls Is Just as Awesome as Ever

Our time at The Falls could have gone either way.  We knew that October might bring cold and rain in upstate New York.  But, we can take it, right? We arrived in Lockport, NY, 20 miles east of Niagara Falls, and found this very accommodating Elks lodge to make our new home place.  Plus, our WeatherBug app said that the next day was to be sunny and 80 degrees. How great is that! In fact, after several delays in our trip, we were feeling fortunate.  We were all set for our Niagara Falls visit. The plan was to take the Maid of the Mist ride that we both wanted to add to our Niagara Falls experiences from our youth. 

Then, the next morning we called to check on a  possible late afternoon reservation for the boat ride.  Wellllllll, no way. The Maid of the Mist and other types of seasonal activities ended yesterday.  LOL.  And so it goes. Can’t be helped.

But wait!  After all was said and done, we couldn’t have asked for a nicer day at the Falls, taking in the powers of nature from several viewpoints.  Actually. we are thinking that we had minimal crowds, more access and less hassles. 

For us, recalling our own individual 40 to 60-year-old impressions of these same sights was a fun ingredient.  Of course, neither one of us have a crisp memory of what or how we saw the various falls…. American, Bridal Veil or Horseshoe Falls….views from Terrapin Point, Observation Deck, Luna Island, Goat Island...  We did some comparing of our separate memories and what the current visit was like.  It seemed there are many more “attractions” than when we were kids.  But, we agreed that the wonder of it all is the same.

We enjoyed the convenience of the trolley that travels around the state park and over to Goat Island. There were no lines of people waiting. We had lots of room on the paths, the park benches and at the railings to take in the amazing natural beauty and the power of it all.  The Observation Deck extending out over the Niagara River, viewing the American Falls, is outstanding just for the feeling of being out there.  In the photo below you can see the deck at the left  jutting out where we enjoyed the experience. 

When we approached Terrapin Point to get a closer view of Horseshoe Falls we got to feel that special spray of the mist emanating from the pounding of 600,000 gallons per second pitching over the 173-foot plunge.  We took extra time to just drink in the sound and feel the spray.

To add to our list of events for the Falls Day, we ventured over to the other side. Crossing the border into  Canada was uneventful as we showed our passports and had no fruits or vegetables or firearms to declare. Although getting back into the U.S. was an hour-long wait, I’d say it was well worth it. The Canadian view is more expansive since the American Falls are in your sights head-on.  It is definitely a fantastic experience there, also.   Each side has strong points. The sound, the Niagara River rapids, the mist and the close up, pure power of it all are on the American side.  While,  the viewing of the spectacular expansive scene all at once is the advantage from Canada. (Below photo)

Even though we were post-season and denied a few of the amenities where we could spend more money, this day-late group of Falls viewers had a gorgeous sunny day of drinking in the sights and sounds to our hearts’ content.  Of course, photos of everyone with the Falls were necessary, including helping each other with snapshots. Then Mother Nature provided a double rainbow to complete the scene.  No complaints from these two tourists.

Now we’ve had our second visit to Niagara Falls, this one together.  Young or old, they are still awesome! 

Twelve Years -- How Could That Be?!

 

Arming Myself…with a little help from my friends

Since my morning walk on July 4 posting on the blog has been an extra difficult challenge.  This photo tells that story.

I broke both my right wrist and my left elbow…just taking a walk in the neighborhood.  Yes, it’s the truth.  Grace, agility, concentration, awareness, lots of ways to describe the areas where I may have lacked in performance that morning. Really though, there was a biiiiiig dip in the sidewalk!  But, we’ll just move on.  Six weeks have passed now since Jerry began doing just about everything you can think of for me.  I’ve progressed to dressing myself and I actually took a shower the other day, since I have more use of the left arm and he wrapped my cast securely in plastic.  These have been some interesting weeks!

But anyway, I am now able to do a little more typing. The left arm is not casted and it feels much better. I can make it through a blog post, slowly….

You would probably think this situation could cause insanity. Yes, it’s really a huge pain not being able to pick up a full cup of coffee or comb your hair.   But, I’ve read books, listened to lots of podcasts and webinars on the iPad, surfed the Internet with one finger and watched more movies than I usually do. Krissy took me to the hair and nail spa.  Getting our toes done and a shorter haircut to assist in the grooming area sure helped raise my spirits. We’ve still had some family visits with grandchildren and at Tim and Jamie’s pool and made it to a family reunion in the past month. My sister, Marti, came to my rescue on typing my family newsletter. I even won the family memories quilt raffle at the reunion. Here we are with Aunt Peg, our quilter extraordinaire.

Actually, since my hubby is such a great caretaker, the moments of frustration or boredom have been at a minimum. He has prepared fantastic meals, served so that I can handle eating small bites with my left hand.   And, he has the cleanup duty, too. When I think about it, I’m pretty lucky. Maybe I’ll stretch this out a little. 

Gardens & Gabbing

We expected a day of more gardens than gabbing, but we got some unexpected results.

My sister and I decided about a month ago that we’d sign up for her church’s bus trip to Cathedral Gardens in Henryville, Indiana, on June 4. Never heard of the place, but the descriptions sounded very nice and we were curious.  Besides, we could have a new experience, since neither one of us had tried the bus trip thing.  

We started off the day with a surprise; being chosen for seats on the overflow, 16-passenger, van that was accompanying the 45-passenger, full-sized motor coach.  Oh well, our fellow passengers were good-natured and we had a jovial driver, so our two-hour trip to Henryville was fine. There was only one tiny hint of a possible glitch when the van almost didn’t start after our restroom stop.  And, the weather was looking gruesome all the way, even though the forecast was only 20% rain.  We remained optimistic.

Well, it happened. As we were just at the end of our tour guide’s intro, it poured and poured and poured, for over an hour.  The informative tour guide ran low on stories about the owner’s life, the planting routines and the origin of the statuary, as we all smiled and kept our sheltered seats.  Meanwhile, the rains were weighing  down many of the blooms.  Regardless, when the rain break did come,  we had an enjoyable tour.  The colors and the spectacle of the gardens were impressive.  My favorite part was probably the expansive lily pads blooming with bright pinks and yellows on the ponds sprinkled with rain drops. With draping willow trees along the edges of the water, those views seemed calming on a mostly-rainy day.  We did have clearings and enjoyed some beautiful blooms as well.   See a few more scenes below: 

Gardens Tour, 4 June 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So, after the rain delay, our 2:30 lunch stop at the KFC in Scottsburg was more than welcomed.  I thought of the times we’ve stopped on the road at a similar restaurant only to see a bus parked outside and drive right on through the parking lot, avoiding the long line of senior citizens.  Well, here I was.  Waiting my turn in that line. But, did I care? Nope. Col. Sanders fare was delightful. Then our group gathered once more at the van. By this time, after the rain delays, walking in the drizzle and our fill of chicken, I think we were all more than ready to go home.

Oh, no.  You guessed it.  Our transportation went lame.  Despite the best efforts of both drivers, there was no getting the van going.  Fifteen of us were stranded in the KFC parking lot until another van could be sent from Indy - 90 miles!  This is what I meant by more gabbing than gardens.  All we could do was make the most of it.  In fact, three of us went next door to Cracker Barrel for coffee, conversation, and a little shopping. Sonny and Marti and I had fun sharing dog pictures, travel stories and hobbies. But, we did miss the singing out in the van, so they told us.

There was more waiting… Until, about four hours after lunch, we saw the other van approaching. The driver could hear us cheering. All in all, instead of 5:00 pm it was closer to 9:00 pm before I was telling Jerry my tale at home.

But, truthfully, the overtime gabbing with folks that wanted to laugh instead of complain wasn’t really that terrible.  We sure will remember this day, for lots of reasons!

May is Here, Life’s In Gear

It’s flying again!  The minutes and days and weeks, that is.  How could it be mid May? Oh well, if our lives didn’t seem to slip away without notice then we’d be bored, right?

Since my last post, about four weeks ago, the outside of our condo has been painted (by others), the shrubs trimmed, flowers and herbs planted (herbs at Krissy’s that is), we’ve had a birthday and Mother’s day.   Well, I guess that’s the end of this post.  Oh yeah, how about building a website, a blog, writing articles, travel to a genealogy conference, doing family research, keeping up on our rving friends’ blogs, lunch with my sister where she volunteers and evening walks through the neighborhood - and more of Jerry continuing his study of the Netflix universe. Now that may be a better summary.

I’ve decided for this post to keep the words to a minimum and tell the story with a few photos.  I’ll try anyway. So here goes:

Tim and Jerry reviewing the Jeep repairs.  We are so happy.  Thanks again, Tim.

 

 

Here’s Jerry getting back to his old self.  The collar is pretty much discarded now.  He’s moving along, although not as fast as he would like.  Not sure of our travels yet. But we have Ferd stored safely and could be ready to go.

 

 

 

This one was too good not to share.  Jamie and Ben on a sunny day on the patio.  What a super Aunt and Nephew!

 

 

 

Jerry and Krissy and I had a nice time celebrating  Krissy’s birthday at her favorite Greek restaurant.  Seems like yesterday when I took that photo that I found to make her card….

 

 

 

Then, for the rest of her day we planted Krissy’s herb garden and flowers.  Emma was also helping.

 

 

 

 

Mother’s Day lunch at Krissy’s was superb.  She made us champagne citrus cocktails, with scrumptious halibut and snap pea salad, topped off with her homemade lemon cake.

I also have a beautiful Mother’s Day begonia from Jenny!  It sets off our front porch perfectly.

How’d I do with the shorter version of the photo post?  I guess I could use some more practice on limiting my words. Next time.

Thanks for reading Hurley Travels.  Stay safe and healthy. 

Indy Adds Super Bowl Gear to the Mix

What happens in the host city in advance of the Super Bowl?  Just thousands of things.  The residents have been learning about planning for parking/transportation, opening temporary entertainment venues, redesigning the downtown traffic patterns and various other preparations through the media for a long while.  Now the changes are actually occurring.  I thought it would be fun to cruise around last week while I was downtown working at my new job. (I’ll talk about that part later.)  I heard that the numerals (XLVI) were going up on Monument Circle and that some of the street closings that we have been hearing of would be started. So, out I went.  I had fun taking detours, making short stops for photos and watching the early developments.   Here’s a ten-days-out peek at the goings on.

 

As I drove west on Market Street toward Monument Circle I could see traffic slowing more than usual.  Half way around I could see a huge X had just been placed by a crane and there was a crowd of about 50 people gathering and a couple of photographers setup to catch the event.  Luckily I saw a spot to pull over, so I jumped out to take a closer look and get a couple of photos.  While I was doing this, the people who had assembled starting walking out toward the X.  I presumed this was for a news photo or a local TV spot.  So, of course, I joined them.  Why not?  Well, as I stood there listening more closely to the conversations and watching the photographer I realized that everyone but me was a part of the same group,  perhaps a company photo for a publicity shot, or some kind of souvenir. At one point a lady asked me if I knew the photographer. Oh well, the only thing to do was stand still and be cool.  Pretty soon, after a lot of cheering, they all walked off in the same direction…back to work I suppose.  So if you hear of a stray person in a corporate promo picture for the Super Bowl, it’s me!

After my crashing-the-photo event I decided to head south, closer to Lucas Oil Stadium, to see how things were playing out for Super Bowl Village that is planned for several blocks of the city’s streets.  As I was zig-zaging through the blocked streets I came across crews changing the direction signs, and stages going up in the middle of the streets.  Anyone traveling in the area will also have these “Bowl Route” signs directing them to the stadium and many of the metro bus stops are “Closed for the Super Bowl.”  I love these humongous banners covering entire sides of buildings which advertise the temporary restaurants, entertainment and gathering spots.

Plans are underway for many types of activities and entertainment, so that everyone who wants to join in can enjoy themselves, even without a ticket to the game. There’s free entertainment planned at the Super Bowl Village and the NFL Experience in the center of Indy. There’s even a beach that was hauled into Victory Field, the home of the Indianapolis Indians baseball team. I’m hearing that there are festivities as far as Lafayette and Louisville also. 

Although the Super Bowl is dominating the conversation for the most part in Indianapolis lately, it is still business as usual in many ways, including at the State House.  The legislature is underway and freedom of speech is in evidence. As I was in the midst of my tour of the city’s preparations, the ‘right to work’ opponents stood vigil with their placards to let their elected officials know how they feel. And many local citizens who aren’t NFL fans and have to contend with the crowds to get to and from their jobs aren’t necessarily looking forward to the hassles.   But, after all, anyone who grew up in this city has some experience with the “Month of May” and will roll with it, as they are accustomed.  All will be calm again soon. Meanwhile, party on!

If you are visiting Indianapolis for the Super Bowl, have a great time. We will be laying low and enjoying it from the suburbs.

Thanks again for stopping by at Hurley Travels.  Stay safe.  See you later.