Indiana! Miles and miles of green – grass, crops, wooded areas. Happy times with family and old friends. A visit to a brand new casino riverboat with a definite Vegas look and feel. Even the rain was enjoyable – whether it was sprinkles, showers, or downright stormy. 

But it is nice to be home – to enjoy the dry heat of the desert instead of the ever-clinging humidity that made our clothes feel damp whether they were on our body or hanging in a motel wardrobe. Back to our own bed and where we can easily find our underwear in the right familiar drawers. 

I don’t miss having a laptop computer that I used to lug along in my travels. I like a vacation away from my desktop, which demands my attention from the time I get up until late when I finally go to bed.   But I was ready to come back to my constant companion and make it start working again! 

We spent a few days in Northern Indiana, visiting the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond. It is a beautiful property with no hints inside that it is “on the water” other than the beautiful view out the windows, of the lake and the many boats in the docks around us. It has one of the best buffets we have come across in our long experience of testing casino buffets. 

We met a few of our frugal friends in the casino, always a pleasure for us. The big joke during our play there was when people asked where we were from. When they found out it was Vegas, they usually laughed and asked if we couldn’t find any good casinos there. 

However, the highpoint of our trip was a reunion I had organized in our old hometown of Indianapolis for Brad’s former work cohorts and his relatives. His extended family tend to gather mainly just for funerals. But after Brad had that 5-minute cardiac arrest episode recently and then miraculously “came back to life,” I vowed that his next family get-together would NOT be a funeral, especially his! His son and daughter agreed that a reunion was a lot more fun than a funeral so they pitched in to help me with the planning. We had no idea who all could come – we are all getting older and many had passed away already, including his two older brothers. But we were amazed by how many showed up – 45 in all, including both of his younger siblings, a brother who lived some distance away and a sister who had just gotten out of the hospital 3 days before. Besides Brad son and daughter, almost all of the grandchildren were there, and all the great-grandchildren as well. There were 2nd and 3rd generation representatives from almost all of his siblings. 

It was a wonderful day celebrating the gift of family and friends. 

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