(7th Post) My time in Angola was extended and for a great surprise celebration! Thankfully Jim shared with me the biggest news and best kept secret of the year, Allison was planning a surprise wedding! Even the groom didn’t know!! Yup! Have to stay for this one!

Allsion and Randy have been together for over 17 years. They are the type of people you meet and immediately become your favorites in many ways.

Extremely busy in their business, their community, and their seaplane community, I was lucky enough to have an evening when Allison and Randy (and of course the dogs!) all came over to my campsite for dinner! Talk of the upcoming weekend with the famous annual floatplane fly in, I could see their passion in everything they did. Randy was excited of the news of many family and friends were coming to the event – he had no idea it was to see the two of them get married!

The day was beautiful, full of chaos and excitement in the air! The seaplane fly in was a weekend of planes coming in from all over the US and some to participate in a wild games of cards where they would fly from one lake to another to gather 5 cards to enter in the nights bonfire best of 5 card poker game!

The local Inn on the lake took on the event as if it was their own. Seaplanes arrived at their water edge, crowds gathered on land and by boats to watch the afternoon sight! There was a variety of float planes, new and old, many different types, flying in and out through out the day. At least 50 float planes came for the weekend.

Sunset was coming and as part of the Fly In tradition, Allison flew Randy and a couple of his friends up for them to parachute down to their runway to kick off the bonfire party. Little did he know another celebration awaited him!

Upon landing Randy was given a note and everyone gathered close as he read it aloud. Allison’s proposal was a simple poem and when he said yes, it’s about time! The crowd roared!

Allsion flew home and changed to meet her partner in the woods. Their friends had secretly created a magical space in the woods next to the runway on their property.

Grandma King was ushered in to play nontraditional wedding music! Chaps the pony and Clara, Allsion’s niece, came down the aisle tossing flower petals, and everyone gathered to watch the most fun, magical, loving ceremony between two amazing people.

No surprise in the amount of love it took to pull all of this off.

It was a true celebration of love for Allison and Randy. As it should be!

(6th Post) Letting Go

September 23, 23

Up to this point, I had been travelling with some of my mother’s ashes. Most of her ashes were laid to rest with my dad in the Mason First United Methodist Church Memorial Garden in April of 2023. However, she wanted some of her ashes released in Oliver Lake in Indiana, where she often called home.

Her fondest childhood memories were there at Lake Oliver. A summer cottage became home for my mom and her brother, sisters, and numerous cousins; it was sanctuary to play, swim, go riding and listen to summer concerts.

After hearing the passing of one of the cousins, mom learned he was going to have his ashes spread over the lake. She thought that was an amazing idea! She was having a good day and was very clear, so I asked her if that was something she would like, to have some of her ashes taken to Oliver Lake. She lit up and with the biggest smile and she said yes! So, I told her I would find a way and make it happen!

Caregiving has its own responsibility, but fulfilling someone else’s final wishes is another level. In carring her ashes with me, gave comfort and a sense of still upholding responsibility yet to deliver on a promise.

My niece Allison offered to take my brothers and I up to Oliver Lake in her float plane. She offered this on a day she was already celebrating a major event in her life, (check out my next post! 😉) I told her we didn’t need to do this on her day, but she was more than happy to do this for us and grandma!

It was a perfect morning, sunshine, cloudless, and the water was still as glass. It was my first time up in a small aircraft, bonus it was a float plane, triple bonus it was with Allison flying!

Between my brother Jim and his daughter Allison, we got a sky guided tour of northern Indiana. Pretty amazing on so many levels!

We finally spotted Lake Oliver and landed in the middle of the small lake. We all got out onto the floats of the plane and Jim did the honor of letting mom go. It was as if she swam away in the current.

A sense of release and letting go came over me as I watched, and we took a moment to say our goodbyes once again.

Letting go to move forward is the hardest thing we learn in our lifetimes. It’s not to forget, it is for our memories to allow them to be eternal.

(5th Post) Pony Paradise

Angola, IN is rich in farmlands, industries, and history. However, I came up here to visit my brother Jim and his daughter Allison and her partner Randy.

Allison owns and operates the Summit Equestrian Center in Fort Wayne, about 20 minutes from where I was staying. The center is a remarkable place for the horses she has rescued, who then become a resource for people and veterans to come and also find help.  It is a nontraditional therapy that is successfully helping people with PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, Anxiety, Depression, Adjustment Trauma, Family Stress, Low motivation, and Grief and loss.

I had the opportunity to help Allison at the barns to prepare the center for an open house on Friday 15^th to meet the mustangs she rescued. Now you would think these wild horses would be hard to deal with and challenging to have around people. Quite the opposite. They came to Allison untamed, worn, and uncared for, and in a short time they became healthy and very trusting of people.

The open house showcased the mustangs and how they will become useful resources for the center in helping people. It was a great turn out for the event and there were even some Summit followers from Mason, MI who came down. (My home town.)

The following day was the Trails to Zero ride. Allison and her veterans rode her horses downtown Fort Wayne to bring awareness to veterans’ suicide rate. Brave Hearts joined Allison’s Carvery and had an additional 13 riders join the trail.

The 20-mile journey ended at the Veteran’s Shrine just outside of Fort Wayne. A beautiful park with a museum, Vietnam wall, and many other monuments for servicemen and service branches. Still under construction is a chapel, which will be a beautiful addition.

My brother Jim and I followed the trailers back to the farm to bring the horses home. I loved how the other animals welcomed their friends home!

An exhausting weekend for the Summit crew and vets, but one that was rewarding for so many.

The Summit Equestrian Center offers free service for our veterans, service members and their families. If you know someone who could benefit from the center’s services, click here for more information or to schedule an appointment.

The center is a 501(c (3) nonprofit organization, if you would like to donate to help the center click here.

They also have their 5^th annual Stock the Barn fundraiser on Nov 10, 2023, click on their Facebook page here for updates.

(4th Post) What’s it like driving a 31ft mobile home in the mountains and 18 wheelers are passing you? Hell everyone is passing you!  You tell yourself it’s just a truck and keep pushing forward!

Headed out from the southern Ohio campground, I noticed one of my back tires looked a little low. When I stopped for gas, I attempted to fill the tire, but since the position of the nozzle made it difficult to attach the air hose, I decided to push on and hope to find a service station that could help me or with prayers and faith to not worry; it’s all going to be ok.

I did arrive in Angola, Indiana safe and sound and began setting up camp, which means pushing a series of buttons to automatically have the slide outs move and the stabilizers bars retract into place. I know, I’m really roughing it!

This time though the stabilizer system was not working correctly and after 3 or 4 attempts, I asked the park manager for help as he was passing by. He crawled under the camper and pulled on the problem stabilizer bar and down it came without an issue. Instead of coming out from under the camper the manager asked for my phone, which I handed to him. He took a picture and came out from under the rig and showed me my inside dually tire. It had blown on the way here. I was taken back to how lucky & blessed I was to have arrived safely. Never underestimate the power of prayer.

Happy Acres Campground is full of happy campers! It amazes me how helpful and hopeful people are who live in or are just vacationing on weekends in campgrounds.

I was getting the awning out – the one item that isn’t automatic, and at 5’3” it’s a little challenging! Batman and Robin came to help! Seasonal full-time campers, Robin and her husband Bill saw I needed a little help and came over to proceed to open the awning. The park had given them their nicknames, and they certainly came to my rescue!

Mom always said whenever a plane flew over it was Jim…damn if she wasn’t right this time!

Angola, IN