By Georgia Osten
Well, it sure felt like it! All the way to Indiana with the Carnell’s, what a treat! Prior to us getting to Indiana, my daughter sent our shopping lists to E in Bloomington, the turkey, ham from Honey Baked, broccoli, rice, potatoes, pie-makin’ stuff, you name it. We were covered. She even sent a box with our favorite coffees, spices, Tupperware, and other necessary things. Grant was in charge of shopping at the liquor store, which, I think, E ended up doing as well.

The plane ride was a breeze with my daughter & son-in-law. They have traveling down to a science. PawPaw and I were well cared for.

At Indianapolis, we got a fairly large SUV and headed to Bloomington to meet E and help load groceries, then we were off to French Lick Farms, our resort/home for the next 4 ½ days.

Oh, what a lovely place, out in the middle of nowhere! PawPaw built a fire in the fire pit that night and every night we were there. All the stars, and hoot owls and coyote noises. We saw deer the next day on one of our trips around the 80 acres. Here’s a pic or two of us at one of the houses, The Tree House.

The weather remained perfect the entire time we were there, low 40’s in the morning, low 60’s during the day. It didn’t start raining until Saturday night and stayed with us all the way to the airport on Sunday.

Our Thanksgiving meal was everything we’d hoped it to be. We all chipped in at different stages in the kitchen. I got the broccoli, rice, cheese casserole ready when I got up on Thursday morning and my meager little portion of sweet potatoes (I’m the only fan); we also made blueberry muffins before anyone stirred. PawPaw realized he’d forgotten the eggs after he put them in the oven, no problem, took them out of the muffin pan, mixed in the eggs and refilled the pans, they were perfect!

Friday, leisurely wake up, then off to the town of French Lick. What an extremely fun tourist town and the Hotel is grand! West Baden Springs Hotel – to die for!

We shopped, we lunched, and THEN, we hit the Casino! Oh my goodness, I was in heaven! We all went our separate ways, Grant and his Dad to watch the soccer game, Leigh and PawPaw wandered, and I’m not sure what E did? But I found a table and sat down. Lo and behold, I didn’t know what I was playing, I was dealt 7 cards and I guess I beat the dealer, because I won $20 on my $5 dollar bet?? I immediately realized I was in the wrong place (so did the dealer). Anyway, I searched around and found a $15 dollar blackjack table. I grabbed an end seat, pretty close to the dealer, Jeremy, what a doll! I went in with $40 plus the $20 I had just won. I was doing pretty well, I had a good two stacks of $5’s, then my second stack began to dwindle. I promised myself that when I built my second stack back up, I’d call it quits. Well, it replenished itself and kind of carried over to a third stack. So then, I promised myself I’d quit once that stack evened up with the other two. And I did!

The dealer cashed me out at $225! I immediately went over to the cashier and redeemed my cash! Oh happy day, I felt so proud of myself. Then, my grandson, Grant, decided he wanted to play, found himself a seat and I proceeded to grab the seat next to him. Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, I lost $60 of my precious winnings. No way! I made myself leave, netted $125.

All in All, it was the perfect holiday, the perfect hosts and the perfect family! We are truly blessed!

[GO: Nov-29-2022]