(As usual, click on pictures for larger view)
Ugalde's Restaurant
Water Tower at Grissom Aeroplex
We picked up U.S. 24 at Peru and rode west past Logansport to Monticello, where I turned north. We rode north to Buffalo, IN and then west to Monon, IN. After asking several people where the railroad museum was (I should have looked it up on the internet before hand) we rode north out of Monon 1-1/2 miles to the Whistlestop Restaurant and Railroad Museum.
As soon as the guys saw a restaurant they went inside, ( I was hoping we would take a tour of the museum first), so I followed them into the restaurant.
Here's a link to the restaurant: http://www.mononconnection.com/
After we sit down we noticed the trains running above our heads:
(Movie I shot of the trains in the Whistlestop Restaurant)
After the waitress took our order, we noticed Billy acting strangely. He could not get hold of anything and looked strange. Merle said to me, "There's something wrong with Billy!". I agree with him, and asked Billy to smile. He did, but on the right side of his face only, not the left side. I'd read that was a sign of stroke, so I asked the waitress to call 911. She did, and since one of the waitresses was an E.M.T., she took care of Billy until the ambulance from Monticello arrived. The E.M.T.s from the Mono Fire Department arrived before the ambulance, so they looked after Billy, also. The ambulance arrived, they tested his blood gulose, which was very low, put him in the ambulance and started an I.V. The ambulance attendants got his blood gulose level back up, but said there was more than that wrong with him, so they took him to I.U. Health Arnett Hospital in Lafayette, IN.
The rest of us decided to ride home, as we couldn't do anything more. I called Billy's wife after I got home, and told her what had happened, and where Billy was. She had her brother take her over to Lafayette to visit Billy. Merle drove me back over to Monon, Saturday evening, and I drove Billy's T-REX back to my house where I garaged it until Sunday afternoon.
Sunday morning Kate Niverson told me that Billy was doing better and could swallow (which he couldn't do Saturday), knew where he was, and his condition. He only mumbles, and can't speak well. Kate said he will go through 30 days of inpatient therapy to get all his motor functions back. Merle drove out to my house, Sunday afternoon, and followed me as I drove Billy's T-REX back over to Kate and Billy's house, and put it in their garage. Kate gave us an update while we were there, and said mostly what she had told me before, Billy is getting better. Hopefully, Billy will be back traveling with us in no time!
I rode 186 miles-very hot, near 90 degrees, little wind. At first, we thought Billy had gotten too hot in his T-Rex, but that was not the case, as it turned out.
Five of us rode today, Jack McClain, John Nave, Merle Combs, Billy Niverson, and myself.
P.S. I wasn't going to post this until Billy is completely "out of the woods", but he's much better, and I thought some who read this blog would want to know what happened to him.
