This year's adventure was the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County, Indiana. We arrived on Thursday, Oct. 9, and rendezvoused at the Wilkins Mill Guest House, which we had rented for the weekend.

As usual, we ate well:

• Thursday evening dinner was roast beef sandwiches assembled by the Bowers and Bill.
• Molly and Al made Friday breakfast special with scrambled eggs with vegetables.
• Bob and Ann treated us to Texas chili "like Lyndon Johnson used to make" with corn bread for Friday dinner
• Julie's offering for Saturday morning was oat porridge.
• Kathy brought out her grill for pork tenderloin and grilled vegetables Saturday evening.
• Sunday breakfast was fruit and leftover pastries from earlier breakfasts.
• Al and Gail brought snacks, not that we needed them.

We ate most breakfasts at a table in the main room of the guesthouse. We ate dinners at a table on the back porch.

Here are Bob, Ann, Kathy, and Maija looking a little weary.

Al and Molly Reko brought their very-well-behaved dog Melody and Al's accordian. Al plays with Finn Hall, a group of musicians who play music of the Finnish-American communities from the 1800s to the mid 19th century. Al's playing and singing can also be heard on a Smithsonian Folkways record, Deeper Polka.

In this picture Molly and Al are sitting in the main room of the guesthouse. The owners have the house filled with lots of things. There are pictures hung on the walls. There's a organ behind Molly that no one could figure out how to operate. The kitchen was so filled with various paraphenalia so that it was hard to find any workspace.

Friday morning we went into Rockville and all, except Molly and Al, took a bus tour of a sample of the Covered Bridges. Our first stop was the Narrows Bridge, which was built over Sugar Creek in 1882. We learned that the reason for building covered bridges was to protect the structure of the bridge from the weather, not to provide people and horses with shelter. The bridges in Parke County were generally suspended from arches cut from large poplar trees. The entrances to the bridges resembled barn doors so as not to stress out the horses entering them.

Ann, Gail, Bob, and Bill standing in front of the Narrows Bridge.

Saturday morning we passed though the traffic jams entering Rockville and headed south to see the historic Bridgeton Mill. The miller explained the history of the mill and how he was working to restore it to a healthy and productive status. We learned that in the past wheat had been repeatedly passed through the roller mill until little was left except starch and then bleach was added to that to form bleached flour. The miller's motto: Choose white bread and soon be dead; eat whole wheat and stay on your feet.

Here are Gail, Ann, and Bob at the mill. Lots of other people there too.

While most went searching for the Ernie Pyle Memorial and Museum, the Bowers and the Holms headed for the deeply shaded gorges of Turkey Run State Park.

We had beautiful sunny weather the entire time, even on Sunday as we prepared to leave. Here is the entire clan on that final morning in the back yard of the Guesthouse. You can see the bridge through the leaves. Left to right: Al Holm, Maija, Al Reko, Julie, Bill with Melody, Gail, Kathy, Molly, Ann, Lolly, Bob Zink, and Bob Bower.