Finding Ernie Pyle

 This blog will finish out the final few days of our Turkey Run stay.  Every day except Wednesday, we went to one of the three festival towns.  We would usually leave the camp site around 10:00 a.m. and stay at the festival until 1:30 or two.  Of course, we always ate lunch there!  With the exception of Tuesday, it was beautiful weather.  Tuesday was cloudy with a brisk wind blowing but no rain so we were able to enjoy our time there.  We had been seeing signs all around the area advertising the Ernie Pyle Museum in Dana, Indiana.  Every year we drive by the own of Dana and there is a sign about the museum but we never took the time to visit.  This year we decided to change that and go to the museum.

On Wednesday, we drove to Montezuma which is a small town on the Wabash River.   They have a small area of festival related booths but since we have been attending, we have never stopped.  This year we did stop and as per our routine, ate lunch there.  One of their church groups sells crullers which are sweet, deep-fried pastry made by rolling out dough, cutting into strips, deep-frying them, and coating them with sugar....delicious!  Definitely not on my diet but they were delicious!

Finally, after 18 years of driving by Dana, Indiana, without stopping, we stopped!  It was a stop well-worth it.  Ernie Pyle was a well-known newspaper journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about the ordinary American soldier.  Pyle lived among the US serviceman and was free to interview anyone he wanted.  His columns began  with the growing conflict in Europe in 1940; followed the war in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy; he landed with the troops at Omaha Beach in Normandy; and finally in 1945 headed for the Pacific theater where he would be shot by Japanese machine gun.  He proposed that soldiers in combat should get "fight pay," and in 1944 a law known as the Ernie Pyle bill was passed that authorized 50 percent extra pay for combat service.  At the museum, there was several examples of his columns.  One that was extremely powerful was "The Death of Captain Waskow."  The column is an example of his writing style and sensitivity to the life of the US Serviceman. The column can be found with a Google search and is worth the time to read.

This mural on the building was the original advertisement for the Ernie Pyle Museum.  Up until a  few years ago, the museum was under the management of the State of Indiana but cost-cutting caused the state to withdraw management.  Then "Friends of Ernie Pyle" was formed and began a challenging plan to expand and tell his story in a new way.

The museum complex consists of his birth home and two Quonset huts which contains displays relating to Ernie Pyle and WW II.

Ernie's father was a tenant farmer who rented this house from his employer.  The home was originally located in the countryside southwest of Dana and was moved to this location for the museum.

The home was furnished like it would have been in the early 1900's but a few original pieces are on display like this gun that belonged to Ernie's father.

This was Ernie's desk.  He knew at an early age that he did not want to be a farmer.  His interests

 were in writing.  In my imagination, I can see him sitting at this desk in his early days of writing.

The clock on the mantle belonged to his family

This was his father's chair.

A portrait of his dad and mom.  Ernie was an only child.

This was his rocking horse.  Looks good for being over 100 years old.

A picture of Ernie riding his rocking horse.

This is a replica of the memorial the soldiers he wrote about put up to remember the spot where he was killed.

The main street of Dana, Indiana.

A permanent memorial is located on the island of Ie Shima (northwest of Okinawa)

 where Ernie was shot.  This is a replica located at the Ernie Pyle Rest Area located on US Highway 36 in Indiana.  It was a small museum but it did a good job of telling the Ernie Pyle story.  I am thankful the "Friends of Ernie Pyle" have the mission to not let his name be forgotten.  It was said at the museum that because of his column many families of servicemen were able to follow their soldier.  At that time, communication was limited to "V-mail" where some of the words could be blacked out if it was deemed helpful to the enemy.

A bonus was seeing the Wienermobile at the Rockville grocery store.

Old and new means of transportation share the road

We drove more very dusty roads.

After two weeks of driving dusty rural roads, Carol could take it no more.  A visit to a car wash was necessary.

Finally, the last few days, the trees are beginning to turn.

Sunday, our last day and as per tradition, we had breakfast at the Turkey Run Lodge.  When we got back to camp, we packed up and hit the road about 10:00 EDT.    We pulled into the driveway at 11:15 an I immediately began to unpack and do laundry.  It had been a good two weeks.  We were able to relax and rest.  Some afternoons after we had been to the festival, we would sit outside and enjoy the mild weather in God's world.  We were able to let the quiet and calm of nature soothe our hearts and souls.  The last few weeks we have watched Carol's brother suffer with cancer and finally pass away on Thursday before we left on Sunday.  He was a special brother who was present at many important times in our lives.  We will miss him.

More Turkey Run

This blog will be a summary of the last six days.  It has been busy with something different every day.  Thursday, we drove around Rockville to see if progress had been made for the big opening of the Covered Bridge Festival.  It looked like all was ready.  Friday, we drove to Danville, Illinois to visit with Jean, Carol's sister.  We always take her out to lunch and were happy that her son Miles and two of his three grandsons could join us.  We had a nice time eating together and talking.  We had seen Miles and Jean a couple of months ago at Carol's brother Don's home.  At that time, Don was waiting for his surgery.  Now he has passed and our hearts are sad.  Now at 85 Jean is the oldest of the four remaining siblings and Carol is the oldest brother.  Life has a way of changing in an instant.  After lunch we went back to Jean's room and talked some more.  Unfortunately, neither Carol or I brought our phones into her room so I do not have pictures to share.

We left her place around two o'clock and drove to Warrensburg to pick up Keegan and His friend Malaki so they could spend the weekend with us at Turkey Run.  Back to camp around 8:00 p.m.  We played a few games of Old Maid before hitting the sack.

Saturday, we took the boys to Bridgeton.  In Rockville we saw this gray carriage pulled by a gray horse.  I had never seen a gray rig and horse, only black ones.  I don't know if this is something or someone special.

We saw this Trump inflatable.  Of course, there were also lots of Trump flags, shirts, hats, etc.  

We spent nearly three hours at Bridgeton and left about 2:00 p.m.  The line of cars headed into Bridgeton was between 2-3 miles long.  We had never seen such a long line of cars into any of the festival towns.

West central Indiana is just as dry as Central Illinois.  Driving on rock roads makes keeping Carol's car clean an impossibility.

Some of the trees are beginning to turn to fall colors.

Keegan took this picture of the water flowing under the Bridgeton Covered Bridge.  After we left the Festival we went back to camp and spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing cards.  We had a fire that evening so we could have s'mores.

Sunday, we drove to Danville, Indiana to The Mayberry Cafe.  It is traditional that we eat a meal at the cafe.  The guys are posing at Sherriff Taylor's patrol car.

From Danville we drove to Mansfield and spent an hour shopping at the flea market on this side of the river.  We drove back to camp but were unable to have a fire because of the high winds, dry humidity, and general dry conditions.

Monday, we spent the morning hiking some of the canyons in the park.  The boys loved exploring the trails.  The temperatures were only near 60 but the sun was shining so it was a good day to hike.

There are 70 steps from the top to the river and the swinging bridge that crosses Sugar Creek.

  At first Carol said he might not go into the canyon because of the steps but he managed to take them slow and easy and make it to the bottom and later back to the top.  Of course, the boys had no problem with the steps.

The swinging bridge that has to be crossed because all the trails begin on the other side of the bridge

Sugar Creek is very low.  They need some rain here.

Keegan and Malaki on the bridge.

This and several pictures were taken in one of the canyons.

We let Keegan and Malaki hike farther into the canyon and when they returned, they took a rest.

The elder hikers.

To occupy time while the boys hike, we took this selfie.  I don't think it is too bad.

When we got back to camp, we had a fire so we could roast hot dogs and make one final batch of s'mores.  The wind had died down some but it was still windy so we kept track of the fire.  We met Jason at the Burger King in Tuscola to exchange the boys.  I hope they had a good time camping with us.  I took this picture of a silo as we were driving some of the back roads.  In this part of Indiana, a lot of the farms have silos instead of grain bins like farmers in Illinois.

As we were headed east on Route 36 we could see the moon trying to shine through the heavy cloud cover.

This was the view to the south of US 36.  We could see there was a beautiful sunset in the west so when we got to Rockville, we turned around and drove west so we could get some photos of the sunset.

Our reward for turning around and driving west.

This picture and the one below was taken by Keegan at Warrensburg which is about 120 miles west of Rockville....both are of the same sunset and taken
+approximately the same time.

We got back to camp around 8:00 p.m. and rested the rest of the evening.  We put an extra blanket on the bed because the weatherman has issued a frost adversary for the area and an extra blanket would feel good.

Today (Tuesday), we drove back to Bridgeton to finish seeing areas we missed on Saturday.  The wind was blowing and it was cloudy so we called it a day about 1:00 p.m. and came back to camp.  We tried to sit outside but the wind and cool temperatures changed our plans.  Instead, we went inside and napped and read.  We have two small space heaters which keeps the inside of the motorhome toasty warm.  Still no rain so we aren't complaining about wind and cooler temperatures.