Just hanging out with family. Of course, with the extended Wasik clan there were some food adventures too.
Home made Italian sausage, all the way from a hunk-o-pig and little slimy ball of casings to finished, tasty, grilled sausage with onions and peppers. 
Yummy and a lot of fun to make. And, I helped!
Ebelskivers, Molly’s delicious filled pancake dessert treats. She is pretty slick at turning those wonderful morsels. Who thinks of this stuff?
The boys played with the Youth Honors Orchestra here taking advantage of the remarkable natural acoustics of the building. A musty smell hangs in the air, thread bare velvet seats tell of audiences gone by, plaster is cracked and paper and gilding peeling from the walls. A once grand place is loosing the battle with time. Locals are making a valiant effort to find dollars to save it.
Roll the clock ahead about 15 years and throw in some $18 million dollars and today re-enter the Lerner Theatre as it was in 1924. Magnificent, mushroom chandelier and all.
Kent is catching them today! We were supposed to be Walleye fishing but the best
I managed was a very pretty, though not terrible large, stripped bass. Better luck tomorrow, maybe.
A brown pelican 
is hanging out here. They migrate 1000s of miles. This one must have decided enough is enough? Does a pelican in Indiana mean a nasty hurricane season for the east coast or the gulf? Kind of like all black wooly worms and cold winters?
We took a drive by the Mason County 4H camp, the home of Wahama HS Band Camp while Kent was in school. Three nicely maintained sheet metal buildings and the old bunkhouse barn all nestled in a narrow valley of neatly mowed fields. 
Nothing is lined off this time of year but otherwise it is much as he remembers it. It is a bit rustic I’d say and certainly would have kept them focused on the task at hand. There is nothing else around but a little country store that is about a mile out the only road through the valley.
A bit different accommodation wise than Gettysburg College where James Buchanan HS had band camp back in my day but our stories of hard work and pride are not much different. Good times had by all (most of the time…initiation night was a bit shaky!).
That was the answer when the announcer was asked how much longer until the tractor pull would begin. It poured down rain just before six, the scheduled starting time. Two tractors made pass after pass after pass with plow and disc attempting to dry out the pulling track. They know what they are doing, eventually (about 1 ½ hours) the sticky mud was transformed to compactable goo and the sixteen-tired compactor started its passes…. back and forth and back and forth, another 45 minutes or so! Ok, we are ready to go. Oh, but tonight it’s “Light to Heavy”. The big tractors go last. Of course, the family we came to see are pulling in the higher weight classes. 
Oh well, maybe I will get the hang of all this before their turn is up.
These are antique tractors (1959 or older) so it’s a lot different than the super tractor pull I saw at the Elkhart Fair. These look like tractors. They sound like tractors. They drive them like tractors with a 3 ½ mph speed limit when they pull. Farmall/McCormick/International Harvester, Allis Chalmers, Oliver, Case, John Deere. Farm equipment that even I can recognize.
It’s getting dark. The lights come on.
The ballet of pull:grade:compact:reposition is getting so its running fairly smoothly.
Until somebody pops the clutch and breaks a shear pin of the pull sled. “That takes at least an hour to repair” we heard. We packed up and went home.
Actually Leo is a place, it’s a small town in rural Ohio. It is also the name given one of the petroglyph creatures at the neighboring historical site. 
It always amazes me when we manage to find and preserve these works by early man. This one exposed rock in the middle of farmland has 30 some identified carvings made by ancient Indians over 1000 years ago. 
It is a bit of a mystery as to what many of them actually depict but its pretty cool that they still survive.
The oldest graduate present at the Alumni Dinner belonged to the class of 1937 (76 years ago). All the respective classes represented were also recognized. The tour of the school prior to the dinner brought back a lot of memories. It was the first meeting for many members of the class of 1973 in 40 years. It was good to see them and visit for a few hours.
The day after the alumni dinner we met for a class reunion. It was great to reminisce and get reacquainted with classmates/friends I had not seen for 40 years. More were able to make it to the reunion than were at the alumni dinner. “White Falcons” returned from CT, FL, OH, MD, MI, PA, VA, and WI for some time together. We shared a somber moment for the 5 (of 92) classmates who have passed away.
While in the area I reconnected with aunts, uncles and cousins, some of which I hadn’t seen in 20+ years. I even tagged along to barbershop quartet practice and had a great time. Another highlight was a haircut by the first barber I can remember. He as been providing haircuts and community news for 65 years.
What a great time!
Stone….change is pretty much imperceptible. Side by side still photos have trouble capturing it. The people….well the years have a bit more of an effect. See for yourself.
These pics are thirty four years apart.
We vacationed here at Natural Bridge/Red River Gorge in 1979 just after we were married. How time flies!
Soaring vertical cliffs jut skyward in stark contrast to the lush green mountainsides. Trails through the steep walled canyons lead through thick forest to all sorts of sandstone formations born of thousands of years of wind and water against the stone. Ancient rivers carried the then towering Appalachians
grain by grain and boulder by boulder and deposited those tiny bits to eventually become this wonderfully carvable sandstone. It is a reminder again that there is some pretty fantastic geology on the East half of the country. It is just a little harder to appreciate than out west since here at Natural Bridge/Red River Gorge, KY 
it is hidden under the blanket of forest cover.
Icky, sticky. It is only May but it is summertime hot and humid here today. The heat ran us back to camp by 2PM. We plan an early start tomorrow to check out a few trails then seek out some air conditioned activity for the heat of the day. One option, the famous Ruth Hunt candy shop…..they make the special chocolate creams for the Derby.
It is called The Worlds Biggest Fish Fry and folks around Paris Tennessee take it pretty seriously. This is their 60th year for the event. 
We were met with a huge line filling a holding maze and wrapping all the way around the “fish tent” before we could get to the featured fare. The line moved fairly quickly and the food was well worth the wait. Tasty, flaky catfish wrapped in a crunchy cornmeal coating….fantastic. The hushpuppies and slaw were great too. I can see why folks might return year after year. I ate more than I should have then opted out of all the spinning, bouncing, and stomach churning rides in their midway. I am not sure that anyone should have an all-you-can-eat dinner and carnival rides at the same venue!
They have outgrown the tent that originally housed the event and moved to an exhibit hall on the fairgrounds. It has a huge outdoor kitchen that we just had to check out….after we ate of course. 
Cooler sized packages of frozen fish fillets were hefted from a truck and dumped into open stock watering troughs (never used for that purpose we assumed) and thawed under running water while stirred with boat oars. The ten second rule was definitely in full force when handling those frozen chunks of fish. They didn’t waste any. 
The fish was bailed out into milk crates to drain a bit then hand breaded by the hundreds in a mostly cornmeal breading. Washtub sized caldrons of hot oil came next. Under the watchful eyes of experienced fryers the coated fillets were transformed into those wonderfully yummy morsels. Light on the inside, crispy on the outside hushpuppies emerged from other similar vats. It is evident that they have done this a time or two.