Pre July 2022 Posts

All of the posts we made before July 2022.

Magnificent Welte Orchestrion music machines at Zaharakos

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We recently enjoyed some fabulous ice cream sundaes at the opulent and historic Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor and Museum in Columbus, Indiana. In addition to the antique soda fountains and cabinets filled with vintage flavor jars, there are several beautiful Welte Orchestrion automatic music machines displayed.

Welte Orchestrion, left. This was during our April 2021 visit.

Welte machines have a long and detailed history. Note that the term Orchestrion was coined by Welte in the 1850’s. Some refer to these types of automatic music machines as orchestrations.

Fully functional, coin operated

Play list

Large and fancy, see the clock on top?

We have been to Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor and Museum twice now. Here are the links to our posts about each visit. The April 2021 post has photos of lots of the vintage things in the shop. Our visit a couple of days ago will make you want to visit and have a hot fudge sundae.

 

“Large Arch” public art in Columbus Indiana

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Columbus, Indiana is noted for its architecture and public art displays. One of the most impressive art pieces is a huge bronze creation titled Large Arch. It was installed in 1971, and was a gift from the J. Irwin Miller family to the library. It is located on the plaza outside of the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library. (J. Irwin Miller founded the Cummins Corporation.)

Library is the brick building in the left background

The following description is from a Wikipedia article: “Large Arch is an abstract bronze sculpture of an arch created by Henry Moore, an English artist. The shape of the sculpture suggests human hip and leg bones, while the negative space on the interior of the arch suggests an abstracted human torso with head. It is 19 feet 6 inches tall. The width of the sculpture at its base is 12 feet 3 inches wide, but is 13 feet 9 inches at its widest at the top. While the sculpture is hollow, it weighs approximately 11,000 lb (5,000 kg).”

This massive sculpture will certainly catch your eye. In the warmer weather people do enjoy the plaza next to the library.

 

An afternoon decadent treat

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Today was one of those days where you think that you ought to be doing something. About mid afternoon we both said almost simultaneously “Let’s get an ice cream!” Sher and I often think of ideas at the same time. I suggested that we go to Columbus, Indiana and visit the Zaharakos vintage Ice Cream Parlor for the second time. You can read about our visit last April here.

Single scoop butter pecan, hot fudge, whipped cream and cherry

Two scoops butter pecan, hot fudge, whipped cream and cherry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the drive to Zaharakos we discussed what we were going to order when we got to the Parlor. Hmmm… When we were there before we ordered lunch and said we’d be back for ice cream. Today was that day.

Ready to dive into those hot fudge sundaes!

What delicious sundaes we enjoyed! The butter pecan ice cream was the best I have ever tasted, and Sher agreed. The hot fudge was hot, not like some places. There was also a ton of the hot fudge, as it completely covered the bottom and sides of our dishes. This ice cream parlor was founded in 1900. The place is really an ice cream museum. There are many old soda fountains and several cases filled with the old flavor jars. In addition, there are several old mechanical “orchestra” machines.

Drive thru pick up lunch today

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This Omicron variant is everywhere, it seems. Tagged as super easy to catch we decided that instead of going out today we’d get pasta at the drive up window after ordering online.

Spaghetti and meatballs w/melted cheese and a breadstick

We had not had Fazoli’s in a while. Given that we had a BOGO special this was an easy decision to make. The drive through is only about 10 minutes away, so it was easy to get our order quickly. The portion sizes are quite large, and we had plenty left for a full meal at a later time. We didn’t have to cook, got a good meal for a good price, and did not have to get out among the public. Win-win-win.

Colorful sunrise and some reminiscing

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This morning was quite frigid, with temps in the high teens resulting in a hard freeze. Today will be cold, period. Mid thirties is the best we can hope for this afternoon.

Pretty sky outside our front door this morning

A nearly perfect contrail cut across the sky

It is hard to believe that it is actually 2022. Sher and I were chatting yesterday how back when we were younger the year 2000 seemed so far in the future that it was hard to imagine. The epic movie  2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968, and my did the year 2001 seem impossibly far away. And yet here we are.

Remember when you’d always mess up and write the wrong year on the checks you filled out the first week of January? Heck the only check I write each year is to pay the county property taxes. And then there were roaming charges you had to look out for. For crying out loud, I used to have an eight person party line in the mid seventies! Enough of this, I feel old enough.

Stay safe out there friends. Have a good January!

Those pesky New Year’s resolutions

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“Last year’s resolution was to lose 20 pounds by Christmas. Only 30 pounds to go.“ —Anonymous

Well it is time, so they say, for the making of New Year resolutions. You know, you think of something in your life you want to alter or improve upon, and thus the list is created. Just about anything can be made into a resolution, thus requiring a change of some kind. How about you? Any resolutions for 2022 you’d like to share? We won’t check up on your results later on, we promise!

We always have a ball on the road!

We sure want to travel more this year in our RV motorhome. We do miss the comfort and enjoyment of traveling together. It is a quick trip by air for sure, but in the RV you can see so much more. With the threat of the COVID still very much in play, by using our RV we have our own on board facilities. No public restrooms for us thankfully! In addition we can cook on board if we do not feel comfortable at restaurants.

“A new year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.” —Unknown

A wet start to 2022

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Rain falling, dripping off the Christmas lights

We are starting 2022 off with a drab and wet day here in central Indiana. It’s been raining all morning and the rain continues as this post is written. We’ve had about a half inch of precipitation since early this morning. It’s suppose to stop later this afternoon, then colder temps move in.

We usually take down the Christmas decorations before New Years Day. Too much crummy weather has kept us from taking down the outside lights yet. It is not fun nor really safe to mess with the ladder when it’s raining!

The temperatures are going to drop overnight tonight. We could easily see snowfall tomorrow morning when we wake up! Oh well, it is January. Hopefully your weather is not bad for the start of New Year 2022.

Roadtirement’s 2021 was one to remember

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January 2021 was the start of the second year of the pandemic. Now  we’re 12 months later and pandemic is still a word we see daily. Sigh…

January 2021 saw us waiting for COVID vaccines to become available for people our age. We did get our first dose of the COVID vaccine in February. With the pandemic raging, we did not go out much. Safer to stay close to home, enjoying our backyard and the occasional trip to a winery or brewery. We did discover the fun of working on those thousand piece jig saw puzzles!

Backyard bird watching

One of our sons got married in August in Columbus, Ohio. That was a fun party! All of our kids and grandkids were able to attend, the first time in a while when we all got together. We did decide that after we were fully vaccinated we would fly out to Seattle and down to Austin to see our long distant families. So we were off to Seattle for 3 weeks followed by a 3 week trip to Austin.

We did have most enjoyable times while we traveled and stayed with our families. Lots of neat restaurants, wineries, breweries and other local attractions. We did not use our RV for these trips not wanting to be on the road for that long a time. All in all, 2021 was a strange year. Hopefully 2022 will see less COVID problems. Maybe we’ll be able to get some more RV travel in!

Have a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2022

 

 

Indy’s Circle of Lights celebration

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Monument Circle, the “center” of downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, is a large traffic circle with the Soldiers & Sailors Monument standing in the center. Each year the monument is turned into an impressive display of Christmas lights. It has been dubbed by some as being the “World’s Largest Christmas Tree”.

Photo courtesy Indiana War Memorial Foundation

Each November the Indiana Brotherhood of Electrical Workers IBEW 481 decorate the Soldiers & Sailors Monument with 52 garland strands with 4,784 LED lights, strung from the top of the Monument to its base. The Monument will continue to be surrounded by 26 larger-than-life toy soldiers and sailors and 26 peppermint sticks.

Last year the pandemic forced the lighting of the monument and fireworks to be on TV only.  This year folks viewed the celebration in person. The celebration started with a talent show on the circle. The lighting of the nearly 5000 colorful LED bulbs signals the beginning of the Christmas Season in the Hoosier State.