Willie and I have just returned from a great day at church.  He was pretty excited about getting to go with me and was very good all day.   He waited patiently in the car during church this morning and then got to be in on all the activity for the rest of the day!

 
Being a country church, the old tractor and wagon below provided a fitting escort for the walkers.    Carol Droege was the chairperson for our Walk Committee and Jim Droege provided the "rescue wagon" for walkers who needed a lift back to church!  He also had the coolers of water for us - we greatly appreciated that as the temp warmed up into the 70's during our walk:


The whole Lang family walked - you can see our youngest walker below.   Most of the time she rode in a back pack.   She just had her one year birthday in March.
 



See the Group Picture below.   I think there were about 40 walkers altogether.   Another 3 caught up with us down the road.
 



Willie (below) got LOTS of attention all afternoon.  He especially loves children and befriended little Owen right away! 



This is a great picture below of Tracy.   She rode on the wagon with her Aunt Lil and Uncle
 Charlie.  Her spirit buoyed all of us and she cheered us on.
 



Here we are just starting out.  Gary Hartig drove a truck in front of us with a sign to alert oncoming traffic of the horde of walkers ahead!
 



We had signs posted along the way to help the walkers appreciate the Lippe Tour.   This none marks the place where JJ Mohr and Debbie live.
 



Some walkers did not even know about Earl Schroeder's "landing strip" and were surprised to learn that we have several pilots in our little church!
 



And one of those pilots, Keith McCutchan, came along at just the right time to provide an air escort for us!
 



We even got to watch him land his craft of the fine runway between the rows of last year's corn:
 



And this neighbor of Zion really got into the spirit of our walk.   This is the place that we always admired the huge cactus last year.  When he saw them putting up the sign about his cactus, he asked how much time he had to go retrieve it from the nursery where it had "wintered".   They told him we would be walking along there in about an hour and a half.   When we passed by his house, sure enough, he had gone to the nursery to get it and actually had it planted in the ground, just for us!!    I hope he watches it carefully as it is really a bit too early to be planting a cactus in the ground.   We would not want to be responsible for its being damaged if we have a late freeze :-(




He said he has had the cactus for 15 years so has obviously taken good care of it.   Most of you probably remember when you visit how we always comment about that huge plant which is quite unusual for southern Indiana. 



This was the halfway point, Ford Road down to Upper MT Vernon Road:
 



Willie was a great walker to this point.   He just could not imagine his good fortune of having so many people accompany him.   Usually he and Gramma just walk their daily two miles by themselves along Jackson Road, with the same old sights and smells every day!
 



This was the truck at the head of the pack:
 



Little Austin and Owen had climbed onto the Droege wagon for the return trip.   When they called to Willie, he could not believe his further good fortune and wanted to clamber right up there!    He rode in style on one lap after another for the return trip:
 



We took time along the way to appreciate the many signs that spring has finally come to Posey County:
 



There were lots of little violets peaking thru the grass along the roadside:
 



The trees should really leaf out and become quite green this coming week as we are supposed to have temps approaching 80, just before it starts to rain again!
 



Everybody had a good time - and that is what the activity was all about!
We are doing fine on our total miles.   By the end of the 12th week we should have enough miles not only to have walked TO Jerusalem but also to walk back home!!
 



We had a Treasure Hunt when we returned and walked at least another mile before each team found their treasure: popsicles for all!

Then we had a "White Elephant Walk" which everyone enjoyed.   My kids will be glad to read that I unloaded at least a dozen items that they will not have to take to the thrift store when I am gone!!    Believe it or not, the people who got my stuff all seemed to like it!

Below shows the "healthy" supper that we had prepared.  Everybody was hungry!!
 



Debbie Mohr who was also on our committee had her mother make this huge "punch bowl cake."   It was quite scrumptious considering that it was made of sugar free pudding, angel food cake, lite cool whip, etc.   It was all gone by the end of the meal!



Then we concluded the evening with the monthly contempory service, called Tempo.

  I had recruited Doris and Bill to help; they worked so hard that they probably wonder what the committee would have done without them?!

It was a long day but everyone seemed to have had a good time so it was well worth the effort.   

Love to all.

Ruby Ostermann