Trip to Greensburg/Rushville, Indiana

 Unfortunately, my only biological uncle passed away at the end of September. My mom is one of seven, and we have lost both Aunt Patti and now Uncle John.

This picture of Uncle John and Aunt Anne was taken out on our dock during our family reunion in Indian Rocks Beach back before Todd and I were married (which happened a few months after this). My aunts and uncles are CRAZY. 

I had an early flight to Cincinnati, but I was lucky that it wasn't a full flight and I didn't have anyone sitting next to me, whoo hoo!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... THIS happened!  It was a windy day, and a huge tree branch broke off and pierced our roof in the dining room like a javelin.  

It was literally just sticking straight out of the roof.  Thankfully, Todd was home (but not in the dining room!) and was able to get someone out right away and patch it. Of course, it rained that night before they got the patch on, but Todd said we didn't get much rain.

I waited for what felt like FOREVER in the Cincinnati airport for my mom, brother and two aunts to arrive from Tampa.  I waited so long that the Delta baggage claim called me to ask me if I forgot to pick up my bag! We rented a car and I drove us up to Greensburg where we met our family for dinner at Tree City Brewing. This picture looks like a deep meeting of the minds!

Every time we all get together, I always wonder why we don't do it more often!

The boys... Ryan, Adam, JJ and Cory at Tree City Brew Company.

Ok. Sorry for the blurry picture, but it's all I have! At first, I was like... this is most of our family, right?  Not even close.  We are missing 31 members of the Ewbank side - not including five who have passed away. See what a huge, beautiful family you made, Memo and Pepo????  Not pictured: Uncle Dan, Andrew, Nate, Autumn, Danny, Denise, Sara (the younger), Maggie, Bill, Rosie, Grace, Hank, Mike, Cameron, Shannon, Thane, Josh, Adam, Matt, Cierra, Terri, Rob, Alex, Todd, Natalie, Grant, Brie, Greta, James, Hattie, and Uncle Dave!  We're gonna need a bigger table!

After dinner, we all went back to the hotel and partied in Aunt Annie and Uncle Kevin's room - much like we used to do in the 80s and 90s! If I could explain how loud this photo was... total Ewbank chaos!  

In fact, at one point, the phone rang and we all kind of panicked. We were loud, we had music going, perhaps there may have been screaming at some point... and suddenly, the phone rang.  Uncle Kevin shushed all of us and picked up the phone, only to find Ryan on the other end!  Resume loudness, Ewbank family!

After a fun night in the McCrory room, we woke up to a beautiful Saturday.

My brother and a few others went on a hike to check out the Greensburg Town Hall (more on that in a second!), but I wanted to go up to Rushville to "visit" my grandparents. I stopped by my mom and Aunt Sara's room to see if they wanted to join me, and my mom pointed out this fly... she said, "You're know you're in Indiana when you see dead flies around!" 

I drove my mom, Aunt Barbara, Aunt Sara and Aunt Rhonda north to Rushville to see my Ewbank great grandparents - Sadie Farrer and Howard Wescott.  Sadie Farrer Broadhead Ewbank was the first "Farrer" in the family and there has been one person in every generation since then to hold the middle name of Farrer (although my grandfather apparently went by Farrer!).  Natalie doesn't love her middle name, but there is a long history here!

Hi Memo and Pepo. We've all done pretty well without you, just as you knew we would, but we really miss you. 

Rushville is VERY proud of it's most famous son, Wendell Willkie, who was the Republican nominee for President in 1940.  Of course, FDR won that year, but Willkie remained active in politics until he died (young) at 52.  He was actually born in Elwood, but his wife was from Rushville and they had a house here on Harrison Street.

SPEAKING of Willkie's house on North Harrison Street, his house was on the same block as one that my mom and her siblings lived in right around the corner at 331 West 7th Street.

I always LOVED this house, although I've never been in it. Look how pretty the detail is on this house!

We also swung by the house on Jackson Street, which apparently Memo and Pepo lived with 3 or 4 of their kids. I find this wildly hard to believe (even though it's true!) because this house is TINY.  Aunt Barbara said that they didn't even have the addition there on the left side at the time!

Now THIS is the house I remember!  Which is also tiny.  Memo lived here on Morgan Street when I was growing up, after Pepo died. 

Meanwhile, Cory and the McCrory and Brown family went on a hike in Greensburg. All I, a self described flood nerd can think of when I see this picture is "what are the manning's "n" values on this stream?"

The city of Greensburg is somewhat famous for the fact that there is a tree growing on the roof of the county courthouse!  There are actually two mulberry trees growing on the roof, as validated by Purdue University - although the Smithsonian says that they're large toothed aspens.  There have apparently been various trees growing on the roof since the 1870s! 

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Bob O Link liquor store and I was able to find a bottle of Harrison's bourbon, which is one of my favorites!  They don't sell it really outside of Indiana too much, so it was a good score. We also stopped by the gas station for gas station snacks... and I saw this, above. What? Why are these donuts caffeinated??? Was the intense amount of sugar not enough??

We totally raided the gas station for junk food and had a little picnic in the lobby of the hotel before we went over to Lake Santee for Uncle John's celebration of life. Yum!

After our arrival at Lake Santee, Dan, Cory and I started the day off with a (corn!) Busch Light in honor of Uncle John.

Awww, I love all of my cousins and their spouses!  Andy (and Jordan popping up back there like a prairie dog!), Ann, Jann, my brother, my mom and Mark were so nice to indulge in my need for family selfies!

Every table was a Help Yer-Self Table, and there was SO. MUCH. FOOD. I literally ate like, 5 huge cookies.

My cousin Jann's son JJ (Uncle John's daughter and grandson) made this awesome slide show.  There were pictures in there that I had never seen before, including this one which shows Terri, Aunt Patti (her ex husband who shall not be named), Uncle John, my dad, mom, ME, and as you can see cousin Mike Jordan pointing - his parents, John and Margaret Ann Jordan.

This one was taken of my cousins Danny, Mike, Stasi and Uncle John at the house on Morgan Street!

Uncle John, Cory, me, an ashtray full of cigarettes and a Miller Lite can.  That says it all!

Everyone really enjoyed the slide show!

This one was Aunt Rhonda's (errr, ummm) first wedding - Barbara, Sara, Patti, Rhonda, my mom, Annie and John! 💖

Uncle Kevin just doing Uncle Kevin things!

We spotted Ann and Mark's wedding photo with just about all the Ewbank's (at the time) in the picture and we all fondly reminisced about that WILD wedding reception!  

I was doing okay, until we all started to cleanup and I noticed this table in the corner for the first time and then I lost it! 

Awww. Memo, Pepo, Aunt Annie, Uncle John and Aunt Rhonda.

And here's all of them with Memo on Easter, probably the late 1950s? Aunt Barbara is 19 years older than Aunt Rhonda - Memo was staying busy with all of these kiddos!

Someone wrote this and put it on the wall, and it only added to my tears.

And then... the fact that someone put an empty Busch Light can here??? Someone find me some tissues!

Uncle John was named EMS person of the year in 1991 for saving the life of a little girl who was drowning in the lake (he hopped off his boat - he wasn't even working!)

Mark being nice and my brother being, well... my brother.  Apparently the rest of us did not get the plaid lederhosen shirt memo!

Cory, Ann, Aunt Barbara and I said our goodbyes to one of our Jordan cousins, Mike and his wife Janie.  We've already put Janie in for sainthood. Mike is aware and supportive.

And then, at the end of the day, it was just his guitar in the corner. And of course, I was boo hooing all over again.

Lake Santee was very special to Uncle John - and all of us, for all of the family reunions that were held here over the years.

When the get together ended, we had a lot of leftover ice. So we brought it with us to Bryant's Bar and Grill where we all went afterwards for (surprise!) more drinks and some munchies.

I could NOT believe that this little dive bar had Weller 12 year. I've seen this one online for anywhere between $250-$300 a bottle (hey bartender, can I take a selfie with that bottle of Weller?) I am definitely living in the WRONG STATE for my love of bourbon!

There were some games being played at the table while we hung out in this VERY. BLACK. ROOM.

We all kind of joked it looked like a Olan Mills background for some family photos...

So Jann started snapping some pics - this one with her mama!

Cousin selfie - Jann, Cory, Kate, Stasi and Ann.

My mom even went with the Glamour Shots pose with Jordan.

Jann and JJ got some Olan Mills black background selfies as well.

And here we have Jannie and Aunt Rhonda!

And of course, Jann needed one with her brother Jordan!

A "young" girl Ewbank cousins selfie was also mandatory!  We are the three youngest girl cousins on my mom's side. 

Andy and Jordan looking super cute (can we thank Andy for bringing some color to this picture!?)

Me and MY bro!

Two "bros" - or just second cousins, JJ and Ryan.

After dinner at Bryant's, we went back to the hotel - but we young cousins wanted to play a few hands at a card game Adam and Stasi taught us.  I joke about that young part because I'm still pretty certain we were all in bed by 10:30!

In the morning, before we all left for the airport (or to drive home), we swung by a for some breakfast at the Big Boy!

Welcome to the Greensburg Big Boy!

It would NOT be an Indiana meal without a Jell-O product.  Of course I ate some.

After a hearty breakfast (I definitely dipped into the biscuits and gravy, here!) we all said our goodbyes. Sniff sniff.

And then Cory, Mom, Aunt Sara, Aunt Rhonda and I headed back to Cincinnati. On our way there, Cory snapped these pictures of the Duke Energy power plant that sits on the Ohio River.  When we were kids and we would fly up to Cincinnati to see our grandparents, we were always mesmerized by this power plant that we could see from the bridge as we crossed the Ohio River.

Cory snapped a good pic of one of our favorite signs. We also talked about maybe taking our families here for a little mini vacation to southeastern Indiana (both Lawrenceburg and Rushville).  If I write it down here on the blog, then we HAVE to do it!

Lawrenceburg is protected by a big levee system which is only super cool to me now, in my older years.  This levee system consists of 18,300 feet of earthen levee, 8 flood gates, 5 pump stations, and a system of pressure relief wells (and that's direct from the Lawrenceburg Conservancy District website!) 

We finally made it to the airport, and after we all went through security and were walking toward the concourse, Cory spotted the shoe shine chairs. He and my dad used to get their shoes shined here - or wherever it was located in the old building when we were growing up!

We finally made it to the terminal and stopped for some lunch before everyone left (before me) to fly back home. It's always so sad leaving these events, particularly when they are sad events to begin with. We will miss you immensely, Uncle John!

Until next time Greensburg and Rushville - we can't let it be so long before I visit again!