COVID-19

Historic 1837 college

/ Roadtirementvintage / 11 Comments

Behind the Catholic Basilica in Vincennes, Indiana is a small red brick building. The information plaque on the wall describes Saint Gabriel’s college that was started by the Eudist Fathers in 1837.

You can see a bit of our RV on the far right

Information plaque

Original stone wall visible

The Eudist Fathers were founded in the 1643 in France. and the group is still active today promoting missionary work and education. This old college was one of several historic places we found during our first real RV trip since February since we have been isolated due to that deadly virus. It is always fun to stand in front of an old historic structure and imagine what it was like back when it was built.

Stay safe while your travel, friends, but go ahead and travel safely!

Impressive monument

/ Roadtirementvintage / 13 Comments

Sher

While Sher and I were driving around Vincennes looking for interesting things, we spotted the steeple of a large church.  We parked, got out and went up to one of the historical information signs. Then we looked to the right and wow, there was a huge structure that looked like a monument you’d see in Washington, D.C.

What we were seeing was the George Rogers Clark Memorial. The monument honors the 1779 victory of General George Rogers Clark over the British at Fort Sackville, on the Wabash River in what is now Vincennes. This was a hugely successful campaign during the Revolutionary War and led to the United States claiming the Northwest Territory from Britain.

Detail of the monument inscription

Francis Vigo, with the Wabash River behind

 

 

 

 

The State of Indiana built the monument in 1933 and President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated it in 1936. The site was turned over the the National Park service in 1966, and the NPS runs it to this day, along with a Visitor’s Center and other parts of the historic park. There is a lovely “River Walk” paved path along the banks of the Wabash River, which is the boundary with Illinois.

It was a hot day, however in the shade it was comfortable. We saw a few people out, most without masks, but no problem keeping safe distances. We really enjoyed finding this impressive piece of Indiana and American history!

Stay safe while your travel, friends, but go ahead and travel!

 

Cautiously getting back to traveling

/ Roadtirementvintage / 26 Comments

I guess we had had enough of the isolation, staying at home, watching the RV sitting in the driveway and general boredom. We decided that we would venture out for a short duration trip to see what the world was like in person. Sher and I knew we could not just take off without preparation. I’m in the age and underlying health issues related group. Neither of us want to get the virus. We wanted little or no physical contact with either things and/or of course people.

Preparing the RV

We had plenty of fresh water, the gray and black water tanks were empty.  We planned our daily menus, and had more than enough food and drink on board, so there was no need to go to a store. And of course we started with a full gas tank. The RV had not been used other than a couple of day trips since we got back from Texas in February (Before COVID seems like years ago…) so we dusted the inside, put up a new shower curtain, and added a new bedspread and loaded supplies.

Roadtirement back on the road

The RV Park

We found an RV Park about 10 miles north of Vincennes, Indiana, our first destination. They accepted Passport America for half price camping. That was good. But how to interact with the office? I did not want to have to go into it. I called and the park owner completely understood my wanting a “no contact” payment. No problem, they had a mail slot at the office, great for depositing our check. The park layout also was great, as there was plenty of room between sites.

Yep, that’s us being COVID tourists

Sightseeing

We were out and about mid week, thus avoiding what might have been large crowds on the weekends. As it turned out, there were very few people around where we walked about. We saw very few people wearing masks, which is now mandatory in Indiana. Social distancing was not really a problem, as there were only a couple of times where we moved away from nearby pedestrians.

In conclusion

We so enjoyed getting back on the road and staying in an RV Park. Sher and I both had a great time seeing the historic sites and monuments in Vincennes and then in French Lick on the second day. We do not yet feel safe going into for example any restaurants , wineries or antique shops. The frustrating part was seeing some places open and not feeling safe going in.  But, we had our own bathroom, food, and our house on wheels made for a very safe  “No Contact” outing. We’ll add some posts about the neat stuff we saw, complete with pictures soon.

Been on a break from blogging

/ Roadtirementvintage / 19 Comments

We have been taking a break from blogging for a while. Indiana is now in what they are calling Phase 4.5, in other words, things started to open up for Phase 4 and then oops! the COVID case numbers began to rise again. Thus, stop, call it stage 4.5 and hope for the best. The best didn’t happen, and now Indiana is under a mandatory mask order statewide. Indianapolis has dropped entertainment venues to 25% capacity and I think Indy bars are closed again.

Here’s some pictures from our yard:

The mint is blooming

Shells displayed on an old stump

The sage is doing well

Basil, foreground and Oregano

 

 

 

Anyway, we are still “isolating” by not going anywhere where there is the chance of catching this virus. I have underlying health issues. We have been out in the RV a couple of times, but no interaction with others.  As we are not going to any shows or festivals this year, we’ve been going through our inventory and listing items on our Etsy Store online. Click here on our Roadtirement Vintage Store to see what we have recently listed for sale.

Stay safe, Keep healthy, Things will get better!

Wow! Look at that thing grow

/ Roadtirementvintage / 10 Comments

Here’s a photographic update from Roadtirement’s vegetable garden:

Cucumber July 9th

Same one, July 14th

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It will soon be time to pick this cucumber. There are more starting to grow on the vines, so we’ll have more cucumbers as the summer goes on. With the COVID-19 surging in some areas of the country, we don’t know when it will be safe to travel again.

Don’t mess up now! Stay safe and Be smart!

Three herbs and a rock

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This is Oregano

Here is the Sage

This is Sweet Basil

And here’s the rock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures from our herb and flower garden. Also one of many rocks in the garden. Look closely at the rock shot, there is another herb, Chives, that is blurry in the background. Landscaping this little piece of of our property, tending it and watching things grow has been one way we have kept busy during our isolation during this pesky COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately the virus still marches on.

Quick, look over here

/ Roadtirementvintage / 6 Comments

Well, I guess you don’t have to look quickly at all. But have a look at our Roadtirement green beans and lettuce.

Green beans

Lettuce

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the COVID-19 shutdowns, stay at home orders and our desire to not catch this virus, Sher and I and our son decided that this year we’d  try growing some different vegetables in our garden plot. We also increased the size of our garden. So far we have harvested lettuce three times for use on sandwiches. Yummy! And as you can see, the green beans have put on flowers and getting ready for the beans to grow.

Watching the BLM and other protests

/ Roadtirementvintage / 8 Comments

We have been  watching the live coverage by mostly free lance journalists of the protests occurring all over the United States.

The YouTube video embedded below is from JacobSnakeUp’s channel with archived live coverage of protests. This one displays several different streams at once from different media folks, and is coverage from yesterday, June 27th. He streams these live just about every night. We would not have known that protests are still going on to such a degree had we not found his live stream.