Pre July 2022 Posts

All of the posts we made before July 2022.

Greensburg Indiana’s unique tower tree

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In the early 1870’s in the then small town of Greensburg, Indiana, some citizens noticed some odd greenery on the roof of the Decatur County Courthouse Tower. As the years went on, the green tree seemed to thrive as it grew. Local officials began to be concerned that the tree could cause structural damage to the apex roof of the tower. Legend says that in 1888 a steeplejack was hired to “trim the tree”. He was said to have found not one, but two individual Large Tooth Aspen trees growing quite nicely on the roof.

Decatur County Courthouse and Clock Tower

Word spread rapidly that Greensburg had two trees growing out of the courthouse clock tower roof. The tree drops leaves seasonally like all deciduous trees. Mystery surrounds the origin of the first Aspen seed that sprouted in the roof. Large Tooth Aspens are not native to Central Indiana. Thus history and legend began to grow around this Indiana town.  For over 130 years trees have sprouted, grown and perished in a cycle that continues to this day. No, the tree you see today is not 130 years old. But Greensburg remains a National Treasure for its oddity known as the famous Tower Tree.

Greensburg is on I-74 between Indianapolis, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio. Oh, and by the way, do you know how the tree gets water?  Answer: From the spring in the clock.   (cue rimshot)

Birds we saw back in May 2021

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It’s still pretty cold here in Indiana. Let us reminisce about our backyard birdwatching last spring.

Red-Headed Woodpecker

Pair of Grosbeaks

Flicker enjoying suet

Pair of Cowbirds

Chipping Sparrow

The short video is of a female Pileated Woodpecker. We did have a pair show up several times during May and June. This is when they are feeding their young in the nest. We named them “Woody” and “Wilma”.

Gemstone necklace for sale on our Roadtirement Vintage Etsy Store

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It has been a while since we have posted about one of our listings on our online Etsy Store, Roadtirement Vintage. This post will feature one of the necklaces that Maj handcrafted.


From the listing description: “Offered is a 24 inch hand made beaded necklace. The stone beads I used include lava rock, agates, tiger’s eye, lots of flat circular green turquoise and a large single faceted agate. Also used were ornamental metal barrel beads and various wood beads. There is a loop and bead clasping system shown in the photos. The porous lava rock beads can also be used as essential oil diffusing.”

The listing for this unique necklace (complete with many more photos) can be found here. We invite you to take a look at our Roadtirement Vintage Etsy Store. There are more hand crafted necklaces, other small antiques and unique items. You might find something you can’t live without!

Buck Creek Winery case club

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Yes, we enjoy a good glass of wine. One of our favorite wineries when we are not traveling is the Buck Creek Winery, southeast of Indianapolis off of I-74 Exit 99. They offer a “buy it by the case” club that gives you very nice savings. (A case of wine is 12 of the 750ml bottles.) After buying a case in January or February at 15% off, any other cases that year are a full 20% off. This is a substantial saving that adds up over the course of a year.

When the owners see us come in they recognize us right off and ask if we want our usual case. Kind of like the old TV show Cheers. Remember it’s “Where everybody knows your name”. We like this place.

Casino on an apparent slow day

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It was another frigid cold Saturday in Central Indiana. After a trip to a local winery we noticed that there weren’t many cars at the Indiana Grand Casino. We thought let’s drive around a bit.

Street level view of the Casino, Main Entrance behind the large sign

Apparently there was some construction ongoing as there was equipment around the entrance and Valet Parking was closed. We drove into the parking garage. There were a decent amount of cars on the first two levels. By the time we got to the open top level, there were less than a handful of vehicles.

Few cars in the open air parking lot. This view is from the top level of the parking garage.

View of the empty race track from the garage roof. Racing will start again in April

We chose to not park and go into the casino. It’s a miserable and cold day. With the Omicron covid still a threat it did not seem like a wise thing to partake of today. We’ll just head back home and enjoy a glass of wine.

The Bears of Blue River statue

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Charles Major was a lawyer and author from Shelbyville, Indiana, a small town near Indianapolis. Major wrote several novels, including his second book, The Bears of Blue River. A statue of the book’s hero and main character, Balsar Brent, was commissioned in 1927. The statue used to be in front of a now demolished elementary school, but recently was placed within the town square, recently reworked.

Statue in front of school, circa 1950’s

Newly relocated place of honor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The statue still sported the festive Santa hats when we got the pictures. The new town square construction has provided a lovely place for folks to relax and enjoy the seating, and when the weather warms, surely events will be planned.

Detail of bronze plaque

Close up of Balsar and his cubs

 

 

 

 

 

The book “Bears of Blue River” is a staple of Hoosier school kids, and has been since it was published in 1901. It is a very exciting read, complete with harrowing adventures, exciting chases and a plethora of encounters with 1820’s wild animals on the then Indiana frontier. I remember it well…