I have noticed that when the thunder starts up Samantha gets scared, but Buger cat gets wired and attackes us all... Maybe we should limit her coffee intake??



Hurricane Katrina grazed us. The news said that downtown Indy got ~2inches of rain, and Greenwood (closest town to us) got 5inches... Not many people came out of their rigs during the rain. I got to go out with my dog Samantha and my person Kim. We did find one other guy outside, he is from Oregon... Sam was worried that thunder would come with the rain, but it didn't.

One of the things we don't like about our RV is the glass doors on all of the cupboards. You can see everything behind the glass. So we are putting some construction paper on the inside of the glass.



We think it makes the design on the glass look better also.

One of the wierd things about living in Bellevue WA was the lack of bugs. The kids at the elementary school even planted plants that were supposed to attract butterflies, but no butterflies came...



Butterflies are plentiful here

We got to play in yet another great field.

Kim and Suzi decided tonight to visit the War Memorial in downtown Indy. They left us in the truck the whole time.. harrumph... Sam spent a large amount of the time barking at the horse drawn carriages, while I kept my eye on my people... I personally don't get it. Noise and concrete... no tall grass to sniff... at least they took us to our field afterwards... Here is some of what they wanted to see:



One night, after work, Kim said 'I'm taking you a different way.'



I was so shocked to see an incredibly carved monument with larger than life statues and detail that needed much time to take in its entirety.



Well, tonight the air was cool and we made our pilgrimage to the War Memorial that rests in the heart of Indy.



The monument was constructed in the late 1800's and being there, reminds me of walking through Europe, with the painstakingly detailed statues and mist floating in the air from the waterfalls.



We walked around the monument, and admired every angle of the carvings. They all commemorated the soldiers who had died in the wars since the early 1800's.





(above) One side actually shows two dead soldiers lying on the ground, and I have to admit that is the eeriest of all the sculptures. A hand and foot hangs just over the stones and otherwise the dead faces are difficult to see.



At first I thought the eeriest part was the woman I think is the 'angel of death' that looks over the city and has become discolored over time. But up close, she is rather beautiful. On the other side of the monument, there is a theme of victory and of soldiers greeting their wives and families.




We walked around three times, admiring the different levels and views. So much detail, I don't know if anyone could take it all in with one viewing. But I'm very glad we went. You definitely feel dwarfed by the architecture.



Who would have thought this would be in the heart of Indy? It is quite a treasure to find.



The above pic is the very top of the monument The lit up area under the statue is 230ft up and it turns out you can go into it during the daytime.
For more info and better pics than I got you can go to:
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/soldiers.html

We got to take the trike across the street this after noon. When we got home for some strange reason Kim brought a lawn chair inside... Buger seemed to like it though.

Suzi's folks did some research, and found out that our little friend, we call him Jimmy is actually the molten remains of a Cicada.

There is a great pic here:

http://www.cicadamania.com/images/2005/dan-2005-04.html

I had fun reading about them. There is a shrill noise in the trees here. I asked the camp host, and was told locusts. I doubted that, but didn't take it further. Upon reading I found that the male Cicada makes the noise to attract the females. We had heard the sound in Arkansas also when we were there a few years back. But the thing I enjoyed reading the most was the part about eating them. Caution, if you are allergec to shrimp, you may aslo be allergic to Cicadas.

Here is a handy recipe book online if you should choose to try them out... (no, I won't be trying any soon)

http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/pdf/cicada%20recipes.PDF

Samantha says they are delicious. They say they come up around dusk, now I know why Sam always begs to go out at dusk here...

Today we are getting ready to move the 5er. An interesting thing happened, I was taking the tire covers off, and noticed a giant bug! Turned out to just be the shell of a bug.

Each day they take us to a field. This is one of our favorites.



Each day they take us to a field. This is one of our favorites. It is close to home, right across the street... so we go here the most. Part of the reason we like this one so much is that Buggs Bunny lives here. Samantha and I call the bunny Buggs Bunny cause it teases us by showing itself, and then running down it's hole. It is really exciting!




Our field is getting smaller and smaller each day. Looks like they are getting ready to build something?? It is about 1/4 the size of what it was when we arrived at Indy. Funny thing, each day we see progress, but we never see workers... hmmm... aliens moving dirt??? I think they work in the AM when it is cooler since we don't come over till the afternoon.




On the weekends we get to walk over with the trike and Suzi and Kim take turns driving the trike full blast around the pavement. Sam and I love chasing them full bore! Lots of fun. In this shot you can see the firestation we go to if there is a tornado alert. The RV park is on the other side of the Firestation.

We found a great land mark for when we are driving around. If we see this smoke stack in the distance, we know we are close to home.

Suzi has me worried... I think I will live in the 5th wheel FOREVER!! We occasionally dream of what we will live in/ drive in the future... Often Suzi states she wants a newer VW Bug. (I do not care for those) I told her fine, as long as I can put the rack on the roof for my trike. So she is dreaming of colors now... What worries me is I do not like the fake wood panel on some cars. Upon seeing a PT Cruiser with the fake wood paneling, she has decided, she wants it on her bug. (I did manage to talk her out of the racing stripes! whew.. Now she is dreaming up colors to accent her wood paneled Bug w/ a roof rack holding a trike... eek, this is the stuff of nightmares!

8/6/05 Saturday
Today started out pretty mellow. We slept in, and didn't get going until late. We ended up going to Suzi's cousin's. When we got there we met a guy named John. Samantha started barking ferociously and acted scared!! But I, Ginger the Brave Warrior Princess snuck in and sniffed him, giving my lick of approval! Upon seeing that he did not murder or maim me, Samantha cautiously sniffed him, gave him the lick of approval, and let him pet her... It was kind of a role reversal for us. Normally Sam takes all the risks of the first pet from strangers... whew, that is Taxing work!!

Turned out that he happened to be running by their house, and the kids were having a lemonade stand out front, so John stopped for some. He is in the process of running from Newport CA to Newport RI. Makes our little adventure pale in comparison! He is a great guy, and we enjoyed talking to him. Turned out his visit to the lemonade stand turned into a stop for the night. Suzi's cousin and her husband offered him a place to sleep for the night. He has a web page at www.runwillyrun.com. check it out!

We were also entertained by the cartwheeling Sara. :)

Race Fever: When in Rome... with all the racing fanatics in town, we really felt the need for speed...



After working these last four days in a row, I was exhausted. Kim managed to drag me out to get my hair cut because I am looking quite scraggly.

Well, as Kim was getting her hair cut, her hairstylist was complaining that she had tickets to tonight's race but couldn't go. Well it just so happened that she had two tickets available and we jumped on it.

I was so tired, but Kim made me a Chai to go and we headed out on the road. We found parking and the race had already started. It was the small truck racing tonight and our seats were right on the side corner where the sharp turns happen right before the acceleration.

As we stepped out right next to the track, the exhilaration of being so close to the trucks was amazing! The racers sped by at top speed and took my fatigue right with them. After buying some wonderful multi-colored ear plugs, we found seats right up close and could see the trucks move by and accelerate. Since they are so light in the tail, a lot of them would fish tail and one almost wiped out. Fortunately he made it through to the cheers of the crowd.




46, a Chevy truck, (I might add!) was in the lead all the time we were there! 50 almost got by, but got a flat and hit the wall. For awhile I could hear Kim speak as the trucks moved slowly (on the yellow flag) as they waited for the clearance to accelerate.

46 won to the applause of the crowd as he spun brodies and fishtailed down the track. Smoke billowed over the crowds as we hooped and hollered and he stuck his thumb up at us. Our very first paved track race. What fun!

8/5/05 Friday
Ok, let me tell you MY version on what happened Monday! The truck was in the shop for a FULL WEEK!! They would not let Samantha and I ride in the rental car, very often. Something about us shedding, and it being a pain to clean... hrrumph! picky picky picky!!! Don't they realize they need us?? We are great protection, I can lick someone to death with the best of them. Not to mention our duties to make random people smile! I often look over and some unsuspecting soul will look stressed, but when they see Sam or myself they will smile, and let go of some of their stress. It is a public service to take us places!

Then one day, I think you humans refer to it as Monday, She left us yet again, how depressing! Didn't she see the wounded looks both Samantha and I gave her??? Well low and behold, eventually, hours later she arrived back home!! We could not believe our eyes, our truck was back!! Samantha and I were sooooo excited that when she opened the door, rather than bouncing up and down waiting for her to come in so we could whine and lick her like crazy, like we normally do. We shocked her and bolted out the door, bypassing her completely. We had to see the truck for ourselves, we both ran to the door of the truck, jumped up and down a couple of times, then ran back to Kim. We ran back to the truck again before we took the time to listen to her and get back in to the 5er like she had requested. Then we gave her the greeting she has been accustomed to!

It is sooo great to have our truck back. The only place we don't get to go is the store. Something about it being too hot out and frying our brains...

8/5/05 Friday
No exciting weather stuff this week! The big thing about weather this week has been track conditions. The brickyard 400 is this weekend and the RV park is pretty much full.

I got my truck back this past Monday! yippee!! When I went in the cashier told me to take care of the rental first. The rental guys computer was really slow, but he managed to check me out. But that was the last transaction anyone there could make. They could not run the credit card thru their machine, and so I wrote a check, but their tele-check machine also would not work. Since it was an out of state check they refused to just let me take my truck. They were about to give me the rental car back when somebody came up with a number for them to call in to charge my card to them... The phone lines went down!! They used a cell phone to get my card charged... whew... 1.5hrs later I was able to leave! Looking forward to the little how did we do survey...
Looks like they did a good job on the body work. Also I got my dirty truck washed, inside as well as out... There was some stuff on the passenger side dash that we couldn't get off, and it is gone now. 

Spent the rest of the week researching where to go next. Each state has different rules for getting a temp nursing license. We are hoping to be close to the Gulf of Mexico. Suzi's contact at the travel nurse co said there are lots of jobs, but we are being picky!

7/31/05 Sunday



Today was a beautiful day, (mid 80's low humidity) and the people in our group decided it would be a good day to go to the park and have a picnic. Samantha and I were all for it! You see, going bye-bye to us just means one doggie field after another, yes, we have them trained pretty well.

On the way to the park, they spotted picnic tables, grass and trees in a park like setting, but it was an empty office park. They let Sam and I off leash, and started eating their Chinese takeout. One of the containers was dripping, and so I jumped into action, and went under the table to help clean the sauce off of the grass. Well, as I write this there are threats of a bath in my future, cause there is sauce allover my head and ear.




After dinner we went for a little walk around the office park parking lot. It was fun! Then we went for a drive and since it was nice out, we got to hang our heads out the window as we drove. We stopped again to watch the sunset. Sam and I enjoyed the smells at the overgrown field we stopped at, ok, the sky was beautiful, and of course this photo does not do it justice. The sky was pink and purple!