Photos
A Bison-tennial statue in Decatur County
Indiana’s Statehood Bicentennial was celebrated in 2016. The remnants of that celebration can be seen all over the state in the form of 5 feet tall fiberglass bisons. The in.gov website states: “Indiana Association of United Ways was the proud sponsor of the statewide Bison-tennial Public Art Project. This legacy project helped celebrate Indiana’s 200th birthday by decorating and displaying 5-foot-tall fiberglass bison with an end goal of at least one – if not a herd – of bison on display in each of Indiana’s 92 counties.”
Courthouse with Tower Tree in background
This side says DECATUR
This side says COUNTY
This Bison-tennial beast has scenes from Decatur County painted on the hide. Most of the ones in counties around the state have some depictions of local places, schools or attractions. We’ve seen a few of these colorfully decorated statues around the state, as each of the 92 counties received one or more to custom decorate. This one we found at the center of Greensburg on the Decatur County Courthouse grounds, and is pictured above with its information sign. Note that the header photo show the bison in the raw as they were delivered back in 2016.
Call 911 that tree is on fire
Sycamore on fire on backside
Today was the first day in about a week when the sun was out and the temperature was above freezing. We were driving on a road next to a city park when our son noticed what looked like smoke coming from the tree line at the edge of the park. Not thinking much of it, we drove on, and saw lots of geese on the river past the park. But, we all kept taking about that smoke we saw. We circled back around and drove into the park where the small column of smoke still billowed.
Our son walked over to the tree line and found that an old sycamore tree was in fact on fire! I walked over to the tree and saw actual flames and several square feet of charred trunk surface. We called the Fire Department Admin office who directed us to call 911. We did.
Lots of equipment for one tree
Well, a few minutes later here came one of the city’s large aerial ladder trucks. Two firefighters got out of the truck, one with a water extinguisher and went to our smoking tree. Long story short, they determined that the tree was hollow, and the “blaze” no doubt started by homeless people. Two other trees in this park had also had evidence of a fire started at the base.
They kind of knocked down the embers on the charred trunk. The Street Department was called. Those two fellows said they were ok if they let it burn, and eventually it would fall into the river. The Fire Department agreed. So there is now an old hollow sycamore tree slowly burning on the edge of a city park. Hope the city is right and it will fall towards the river instead of into the park.
Greensburg Indiana’s unique tower tree
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)
Gemstone necklace for sale on our Roadtirement Vintage Etsy Store
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
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.
Frozen solid
The old wheelbarrow has acted as a raised firepit. Filled with rainwater, the fire wood had provided a perch for squirrels to use for drinking. Now after two days that never reached above 20 degrees, we have the result pictured.
Magnificent Welte Orchestrion music machines at Zaharakos
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.
An afternoon decadent treat
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.
Roadtirement’s 2021 was one to remember
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
Roadtirement 