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Ronald welcomed us to Indiana
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We've heard the jokes - and it's for real!
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Sentry geese at the Columbus Woods 'n' Waters RV Park
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75% of the Pierson family on our couch
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Luther & Al discuss something - perhaps their waistlines
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Linda trying to start a fire with Brian's birthday gizmo
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The Pierson cat named Puppet
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Laura fiddling with a loose tooth . . .
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Brian can be captivated by almost any TV program
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Garden wagons at our Saturday nite dinner place
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Yellow flowers (We know, Bob - lilies)
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Fuchsias and some other flowers
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Luther and Al standing vigil outside the restrooms
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Linda got more dressed up than the rest of us
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A flower garden
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A noisy little guy in the garden
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Another part of the farm garden at the dinner place
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Judy (on the left) setting up to harp at First Presbyterian, Columbus, IN
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Warming up and tuning before church
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Judy played two pieces of special music for the 9AM service.
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Brian and Al and Scrabble. The game was called on account of dinner.
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Pearl is the Pierson dog, complete with multi-color eyes and usually perpetual motion.
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Puppet in repose
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Laura and Tim Irwin, Linda's dad
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That's Linda's brother Brian (AKA "Big B"), his girlfriend Michelle, and Luther's Mom Betty Pierson
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Laura taking dinner beverage orders
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Everybody but Judy at the table
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Every dishwasher needs a pre-wash cycle . . .
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Laura and Brian juggling (we think)
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Betty and Pearl
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Al & Laura
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Part of our tour group inside Mammoth Cave
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The cave was an active salt petre mine during the war of 1812
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The young American army had no other source for making gunpowder
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A surprising amount of the mining gear is still there, including these wooden pipelines
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When the mining petered out, the tourist biz started - 19th century graffiti
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Mammoth Cave is supposedly the largest in the world.
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It's one of about 300 caves in that part of Kentucky.
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A park ranger explaining how to hold a lantern
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The Great Onyx Cave is not electrified - and not onyx, either
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This cave was specifically sought out and opened as a tourist attraction.
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Once Mammoth Cave started drawing tours, farmers realized where the real money was.
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They started actively looking for caves to exploit.
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This one was found in the early 1900s.
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When National Parks bought it in 1961, it was closed to tours.
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Tours were resumed in the mid-80's, and strictly limited"
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Two tours a day with a maximum of 40 people each
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That's a cave cricket. We were excited about it - the cricket didn't seem to care
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This formation is called the Nativity Scene
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The points of "light" are quartz crystals reflecting the flashlight
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The calcite deposits are most impressive.
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Nobody's quite sure how these formations grow
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How does water drip in all those directions - this one is "The Witch's Finger"
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Maybe rocks never learned about gravity
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The call this column the Butter Churn
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The Onyx cave is much more intimate than Mammoth Cave
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And Mammoth doesn't have many of these formations
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The cave is still wet, and the formations are still dripping"
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Couple hundred thousand years, you won't recognize the place
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It's truly amazing what Mother Nature and God can create when nobody's looking
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It's said it takes 10,000 years to deposit a cubic inch of that stuff
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The tortoise wasn't at all impressed by all the tourists
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They had transmission trouble, but it's still a neat car"
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Assembling one of the folding bikes
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Judy takes a test drive
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Al too
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Folded bike, Judy, and unfolded bike
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That's the Pierson cat named "P.K.", which stands for "Psycho Kitty"
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Luther examines the folding bike
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And then gives it a test drive
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Brian has to check it out
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As does Laura
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And finally Linda
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Judy went to a PEO meeting with Linda
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Another sunset
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Statue at entrance to National Air Force Museum
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The backup for the first A-bomb dropped on Japan (it's inert now)
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A duplicate of the second A-Bomb dropped on Japan (also now inert)
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There is way more stuff here than you can ever see in one day
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There are lots of nose-art examples
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Some planes are shown in "realistic" settings
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There are planes from every era of flight
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Most have been carefully restored or rebuilt
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More nose art
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The elevator that got FDR and his wheelchair into his Air Force 1
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Luther was fascinated by the plane that brought JFK's body back to Washington from Dallas
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You just gotta wave from a perch like that. Note cell phone on Al's belt, before it went missing
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Brian fills the whole doorway of FDR's Air Force 1
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An executive jet used by several presidents
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That's the Eisenhower plane
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And that's the Truman plane
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One hanger was devoted entirely to presidential aircraft
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It was fascinating to see how accommodations evolved
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These experimental planes are always fun
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The one on top is the supersonic Valkyrie - only two were ever built, and one crashed
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The wing rotates so the plane can take off vertically
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It's an itty bitty thing . . .
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Looks like a mouse wearing goggles - the "Stiletto"
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If we stayed a week, we'd never see it all
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Those test pilots must have all been midgets.
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Some of the NASA test planes are on display
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An early VTOL jet
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An early stealth test glider
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Lunch in the cafe
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Brian and grand-dad Tim
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Brian scoring points
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It's amazing some of those first world war planes ever flew
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Wonder what that camouflage was supposed to blend with?
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Before the Air Force it was the Army Air Corps.
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Some of these aren't exactly streamlined
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Cute little fella
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Sometimes the engine dictated the plane's design
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These planes are so small
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The paint jobs are so neat
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There are thousands of aircraft in the collection
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You gotta look absolutely everywhere
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Not sure who that was aimed at
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It's all engine
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Desert paint job for the North African campaigns
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A German Rocket plane
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Break time
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One of those remote control jobs you see on the news
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There was a great display of Disney contributions to insignia art
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The behemoth swallows Brian
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There's a bunch of raw power. . . .
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This one fires anti-missile missiles
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There are three huge hangers full of displays plus an annex hanger
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And they have plans to build another
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It's a quasi-official museum
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Which explains how they get things like these
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It's really overload - there's just too much to take in
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So we'll have to stay longer next time :-)
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The official Air Force 50th Anniversary Quilt
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Brian's taking golf lessons.
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Pearl watches the world go by
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Judy's very first pedicure!
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PK relaxes
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Puppet really relaxes
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Pearl stays sort of alert
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Fiddling with the new cell phone
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A visitor to our RV site
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Food time at the Moscow Covered Bridge Festival
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There was this country band . . .
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What a great face. . . .
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Stuff for sale
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More stuff for sale
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Stuff to drink
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A civil war cannon went off every hour more or less on the half hour
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The Civil War encampment - Union Troops
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She shot the muskets off every so often
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Luther and Linda during the clogging
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These kids were more cute than actually clogging
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Ditto
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Judy loves this weathered house
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The covered bridge which justified the festival
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Sitting at the side as the Amish wagon approaches
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That's Laura's pink hat on Al's knee
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Co-dependency
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Laura said "Me Too!"
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She's some kid . . .
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The old guys take a break
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We all kind of camped out in front of the Methodist Church
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Linda's birthday present from us . . .
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Al liked the way she didn't look at his belly . . .
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Are those nests maybe just too coincidental?
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Playing cards on the porch at Cracker Barrel
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Brian and his game boy are virtually inseparable
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Judy in the C.O.L. (cat on lap) position
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A genuine Laura smile to end on