THE Trip, THE Encore' :: And We Are Off

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

After some long weeks of prep, doctor and dentist appointments, family gatherings, cleaning, yard work, more prep work, organizing, packing, moving stuff here and there, we were finally all packed up and ready to roll.

First day out we like to leave the house about 1ish, it was later than that. We ran out to the campground about 100 miles from the stickbuilt and pulled in to find some sad, but, not unexpected changes.  The facility is not new any longer and some of the electrical is starting to show the signs of hard use.  It was the same last year.  This year, they no longer staff the office like they used to, and their signs for office hours are far from correct, and the managers were not willing to come down and sell us propane 10 minutes after they closed the office (no closing time posted anywhere).  So, we left them with a weeks household garbage and may consider finding another place to make our first stop out next year.  Sad.  Very sad.  It was the perfect stopping place for us.

Second day, we drove only about 200 miles, give or take, some in the rain, with temps around 40 degrees F, nasty gray skies and a brisk wind. I had on so many layers I could not count them and I was still cold walking the fur kids on potty break stops.  We stopped early in a small campground in southern Indiana.  We were ready to be off the road.  But, today was the day I got to say, I believe THE Trip, THE Encore' is gonna happen, see, Indianapolis in my rear view mirror. OKKK, it is the side view mirror and it is not a photo of downtown, but, it will just have to do!  LOL

Third day, even shorter drive, we end up just north of Nashville, we are off the road very early, we rest.  Much needed rest.  We realize we have fallen back 2 hours, one for daylight savings time, one for Central Time Zone.  The yorkies are not so sure they like this deal, it really throws off their dinner time.

Fourth day will be a Monday, we need to get to the other side of Nashville, that means we will not roll until about 10 AM, wait for the locals to get to work before we venture out on the I roads.  I'll chat about that day's drive soon.

So, after some months of hope and planning,THE Trip, THE Encore' has begun.

We are off and rolling and Indianapolis was last seen in the side view mirrors.  WOOT!





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THE Trip, THE Encore' :: The Proposed Route, Well Part Of It Anyway

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Two years ago Man and I began to realize the dreams of over 30 years, a trip west of I 35 to places like Arizona, Utah, national parks, red landscape, LOTS of red landscape.  I named the escapade "THE Trip".  I never believed it would be realized, too many times we had hoped to go west and each time the trip was thwarted.   My favorite phrase was, "I'll believe it when I see Indianapolis in my rear view mirror!"  Then in November of 2010, I did see Indianapolis in my rear view mirror.  I think I was in disbelief for months.  It was wonderful!  OK, it was beyond wonderful!

We traveled about 15,000 miles, 6,500 of that was towing Tana.  We were on the road 8.5 months.  We met wonderful people, some of whom changed me forever.  We saw wonderful things, stunning, breath taking scenery.  I took something like 25,000 to 30,000 photos, I lost count!  Did I say it was wonderful??  Yep, it was.

Well, I am thrilled to announce we are going to give the west another whirl.  This year we are planning/hoping to go further west.  Some of the bucket list visits are: Oregon, Washington, more of California, Nevada, maybe the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Crater National Park and the goal this time out, Glacier National Park.  Two years ago when we were sorta close to Glacier they still had 90 FEET of snow up there around July 1st.  Yes, that's right, 90 FEET!  Well, hello, how do you think they get glaciers, eh??

We have been doing some planning, which in of itself is a bit weird, as for the last few years, we rarely plan anything, we just sorta blow around in the wind.  We can do that in part because our home has wheels.  No planning is a bit scary and in some ways, strangely, liberating.  We let our Maker be the planner, we just rolled with it.  However, this year, at least at the start of our tour we expect to have friends with us, RVing friends, with a lovely Motorhome and toad (car they tow behind), a border collie, a love of cameras, history, flowers and geocaching (they taught us geocaching).  Yes indeedy, we are going to do part of this trip together.  I am getting so excited!  What a blessing to go traveling around our beautiful USA and then to be able to do so with such good friends is a double blessing, maybe a triple blessing!

Part of the planning was figuring out where to land for the holidays, I need to "nest and rest" over Christmas and New Years.  We decided on Tuscon, our reservations are made already!  Amazing!

Another part of the planning was to decide what to do between now and then.  Man has long wanted to visit Big Bend National Park so that was put on the plan as a "must do".

The bucket list grew and it shaped the first 6 weeks of THE Trip, THE Encore'.  And, thus, a map was born, and here it is.  The proposed route, this is NOT written in stone, just scratched in a bit of dust.

(I do note that there is a bit of an error on this rough outline map, number 8 will not happen!  LOL)

So, God willing and the creek don't rise, starting in just a couple of weeks, we will wave at Indianapolis, Nashville, the Natchez Trace, Jackson Mississippi, New Orleans, Galveston (via Port Bolivar and the free ferry), San Antonio, Big Bend National Park, and Benson Arizona on our way to Tuscon for the holidays.

Between now and then, I have some serious packemup chores to do, and some family to hug.

On the road again - - you know that song.



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THE Trip, A Rerun, The Retrospective

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On July 24, 2011 I ran this verbose retrospective of THE Trip. Now, that I have shared ALL of THE Trip with you, I am rerunning that post.  I just don't think I could express our feelings any better, even months later.

Thank you all for sticking with me on this, THE Trip, or, as some of you would probably like to call it, THE NEVER ENDING Trip!  LOL  So, without any more prose or jabber, here is once again,

THE Trip, The End is Near, The VERY Wordy Retrospective

Yes, 'THE Trip' is almost over, as Man and I are within 120 miles of our stick built home in SE Michigan.

However, I have LOTS of 'THE Trip' posts to write, TONS more photos to share with you my patient and indulgent readers. So, posts will be appearing as fast as I can write and post them, for some time to come. Hope you will stick around to finish 'THE Trip' with me. Still to come, Moab, Arches and Canyonland and more. Bryce, Zion, Capital Reef and more. A couple of day trips from Salt Lake City. Yellowstone, Custer South Dakota and more. Oh, and more flora and fauna to come on the other blog as well, there is this fish I caught jumping in Yellowstone and the bear and - - -

Sadly, the heat wave cooked our visits to Nebraska, Iowa and points east on our way back to SE Michigan. We have long bucket lists of things we would have loved to see in all those places, and just could not do.

We have put about 14,500 miles on Big Butt between departure and arrival back at the stick built. Big Butt performed quite well considering the gas engine, and the fact that Tana is not a light weight type of gal. Which means, I have Tana loaded to the tilt and the tilt weighs a lot! We spent about $1,300.00 on repairs on Big Butt. Man had to fight with mechanics and oil change businesses several times cause they just cannot seem to understand that Big Butt needs 6.5 quarts of oil on a change, and they put in 7 or more and then we fight to get the excess out. The last time they did not even tighten the oil filter correctly and we were L*U*C*K*Y, as we did NOT blow Big Butt's engine when he blew almost a quart of oil out in about 5 miles. Man has been angst filled for days over that one. Of course, this all happened on one of those days that the heat factor ranged from about 105 to 120. If we had been towing, and blown the engine, we could have died on the side of the road in that heat. If that sounds hysterical, it is not meant to, it is reality, this has been killer heat.

In case you did not realize it, I have a page with maps of our trip, here, there are 38 maps in total, including a couple of day trips we made. The maps begin about 100 miles from our stick built home and will end about 120 miles from our home on the way back. The last map will get us to Elkhart Indiana, where we are as I write this post.

I have changed the format of Reflections several times during this 8 month (plus a few days) journey, I currently have only one post showing at a time, hoping that will help load these graphic heavy posts I am writing just a bit faster. I added a weather widget to the right hand column to let you know where we were and what the weather was supposed to be. I will probably discontinue the Weather widget in the next few days.

We left home with 3 fur kids, we return with 2.

We left home with no plans of where we would go or when, except for one, the Rally in Quartzsite. All other plans were, as we have said several, no, many times, written in dust. It is a fun way to live, and can also be a bit disconcerning. I still have a bit of a need to know I have a place to park Tana each night, even if I call a campground only a few hours in advance of our arrival. Even though we boondocked for 15 nights in the desert with our MOC friends at Quartzsite, we have not done any boondocking since. We have not stayed over night in a Walleyworld or Flying J. Its been campgrounds ever since "Q".

We have made lots of changes in other parts of our lives as well. I have a new small digital hard drive for daily, or almost daily backups of files changed on the computer. We purchased a Xoom and 2.5 months later it went back to Costco because it started having issues and because Motorola did not deliver on promises for extra storage and such. Home came an Acer Iconia. It has the extra storage. The Android tablets seem to use the same software and the upgrades are having issues. I love the tablet, but, am still a tad bit agitated with Android. I have not downloaded some of the apps I had on the Xoom, or want because, we have been on the run, busy busy busy, and because I am still not sure we will be keeping the Acer either. Android -- get your act together! We have a new GPS unit as well, and I gotta say, it is mucho easier to use than our old Garmin dinosaur. We love the new GPS, Jack. But, Jack, baby, some of the routing you do is so seriously suspect. Jury is out on keeping you around in our lives Jack.

And, if all these new techy toys to love (?) and learn (I am not a fan of learning curves, sighhhh), are not enough, I also have a new computer. The Baby HP was acting up something awful, while I was in Salt Lake City doing my dream month of research. Man tried hard to keep the Baby going. I took of hundreds, maybe thousands, of photos off the Baby's hard drive. We defragged, got new malware software when we found the AVG pay version was letting all kinds of nasties in, we changed a lot of stuff on the Baby, but, it would still shut down and/or stop functioning on the Internet with no warning. Man and I cobbled my family history data base onto his computer and I took it to the library for several days while he spent ALL day working on the Baby. So, I had to learn a new operating system and new software (RM4) on the fly while I researched. Patched up a bit, I took the Baby HP to the library again, only to come back to Tana one day and found that Man had purchased me a new Toshiba lap top. Now, we had to load software, upgrade software, move data bases, and move 250 gigs of photos and other documents from hard drives and the Baby over to the Toshiba. All the while I was still researching daily at the mecca library. Since SLC we have been running hard and well, there are still files MIA and please, don't ask me about OneNote. We have that so fouled up, it will take HOURS to fix and get running right. I miss my OneNote - - bad! I also grieve, just a little for the Baby HP, it was my dream computer, and I had a strong emotional attachment to it. Man says he is going to buy the Baby a new hard drive, and fix it up for me. The Baby may return - -

Then there are my email accounts, they are a huge mess, I have tried to keep up, really I have. But, they have all blossomed, expanded, exploded. They were never small or skinny, but, now, UGHHH. I won't say I will fix it, but, if possible, I will try. LOL

When we get to the stick built, I am not sure our new(er) Verizon wannabe air card will work, I may not be able to get online to post blogs, read the social network sites or read my email. Of course, I still have that smart phone that posts black photos over at FaceBook all by itself. Ya, I will be able to read the email at least! LOL

Re-entry will call for a lot of cleaning of Tana, you don't even want to know bout Tana's carpets, ewwww. The house still has a room full of things from Man's mother that need to be addressed. There is this bbq grill in the hall way of the house, and Man tells me it cannot go outside till we clean and paint the deck surface. If I have any plants left in my flower beds, I am guessing that they will be of the weed variety. At least the 3 acres of grass have been kept cut. We have no insurance on the cars, don't know if they will start, don't know if the lawnmowers will start. The central air in the house better work or I swear, someone (Man) will be taking me camping! LOL

All in all, it has been quite the experience, this trip of ours. Spend 8 plus months with your significant other and fur kids in less than 400 square feet - - some days were, well, stressful and angst filled. But, we have survived! We have traveled in 9 states we had never visited/rved in before, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska. I have not counted the National Parks, Monuments or Memorials we have visited. We have been overwhelmed by what we have seen, humbled, laughed, cried, hiked, enjoyed and been totally amazed. Oh, and for someone who loves to talk, I have run out of descriptive terms that fit all this wonder. I have overused words such as stunning, amazing, huge, and others. I have taken close to 23,000 photos since mid November last year. Yea, you read that right. Scary, isn't it?

We met blogging friends, we met family and cousins along the way, we met up with MOC friends several times, we went to the "Q" Rally and the Central Plains Rally in Nebraska. We have met the most incredible and interesting people along the way, from the USA and from Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, England and probably some countries I have forgotten. We have shared hikes with visitors from abroad. Let me tell you, the National Parks in the western USA are very popular vacation destinations for people that live all over the world. It's like a little United Nations, listen closely, you shall hear so many languages, and they all sound in awe of what they are seeing too! Mother Nature talks all languages equally.

I know at times my reactions and reports probably have sounded, well, a bit childish. I have felt like a child, with eyes wide open, discovering fresh and new sights daily.

Along our journey we have had a number of mentors, mostly our MOC Rving friends. Ask about routes, about campgrounds, about things to do and see and they respond immediately with sound advice. To them go HUGE thank yous. They are great travel guides. They made our trip so much easier. Have no idea what we would have done with out them. THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU!! And, as always, family and friends have welcomed us into their homes, to share a bit, enjoy a meal together, tell stories and lies and renew and enjoy our relationships, often with little or no warning we are gonna drop by their city and homes. THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU!!

We are limping home, tired from the heat. Tana has some repairs to be done, and there is that carpet cleaning I mentioned before. Big Butt could stand a bath too. Man has been mumbling about this new telie he is putting in Tana and he needs some new wireless headphones, a total necessity for living with each other in less than 400 square feet. I am behind on so many of my research and volunteer projects, I probably will never catch up, but, I'll give it a shot. The list goes on and on, however I refuse to write a to do list, I will get done what I can, and the rest can wait, maybe my heirs will get the unfinished projects to call their own. LOL

It has been a unbelievable 8 months in our lives. 'THE Trip' has been more than we had dared to dream. Thanks for coming along with us, thanks for all the comments on the blog, thanks for being our friends.




Below:  Our travel map after THE Trip.  The map shows the states we have spent at least one night in in Tana.  There is one exception, that being Maryland, who earned it's place on the map due to the National Highway, I 68.  Another long story I need to write down and share, sometime.  And, yes, we have been to Hawaii, but, not as a camping/RV event. And, yes, we have been to Florida, but, not in Tana so far.  And, yes, we have been in many of the NE states, but not in Tana so far.  So far - - -

THE END to THE Trip, Really, THE END!

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THE Trip, The End, The Last Run

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On July 22, 2011 we left the Amana Colonies and started the last legs/days of THE Trip, heading back to SE Michigan.  It was still HOT, and neither Man nor I could stand much more, and so, we called it a done deal and headed Big Butt's nose towards the stick built.

Our first days drive was about 220 miles via I 80, ending near Joilett, Illinois.  One of our "rest" stops this day was at the famous Iowa 80 truck stop.  This is no everyday truck stop, no siree, this is famous, large, big, huge, and the products they sell!  WHOOOEEE.  It is so large they even have 18-wheelers parked inside, several custom painted tractors and at least one full sized (53 feet long) trailer. No, we are not driving a "big rig 18-wheeler", yet we always find some little item or two that solve issues in Big Butt or Tana.  It is a good thing we don't live near here or travel by any more than we do!  We could spend hours and lot$ of dollar$ in this place.

I did not take a lot of photos this travel day, however, I did spy this crop duster and I clicked off 9 shots trying to capture him.  He was flying fast and we were running at about 60 MPH, it was my challenge of the day.

The second day we ended up in one of our fav places, Elkhart Indiana, it was approximate 120 miles, again via I 80, but, we had to go around the Chicago area, which I HATE.  So, we allowed an entire day for that process.  For the most part it was a pretty good ride, not like some previous treks through that area that were nightmares, really horrible nightmares.  We spent 2 nights in Elkhart, just resting, quiet time!

Our last days ride was from Ekhart Indiana to our home in SE Michgan, about a 120 miles.  We crossed the state line into Michigan on one of the back roads as we reluctantly headed home.  (I was reluctant, Man was ready to be home.  That is about normal for us, we accept it, and try to laugh about it.)

We arrived back at the stick built in time to catch my double tiger lilies in full bloom:

Whew!  We made it, thanks for coming along with Man and I on THE Trip.  Tomorrow, I will rerun the retrospective I did last July.  And, yes, we are planning, contemplating, researching, THE Trip, THE Encore.  Stay tuned.




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THE Trip, Amana Colonies Iowa, Day 3

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 21, 2011

Our last day in the Amana Colonies area.   I had spotted Lily Lake during our rides around the country side.  We paid a visit and of course, I took a few photos with Sony and the zoom feature.  I highlighted the lillies on my Flora and Fauna blog back in August of 2011.  We then headed over to the village of Amana.  Our first stop was the Visitors Center, which is a restored corn crib (nicest corn crib I have ever had the pleasure of - - )  You can climb up into the very top, lots of interesting mechanical stuff going on up there, where you can also look out windows, and try to shoot photos through the screens in the windows.  You can see the distortion, but, isn't that a pretty view despite the screen?

On the lower levels of the center there are many beautiful displays of local crafts.

Then, we went shopping, stopping at the Amana Woolen Mill first, we managed to keep our wallets safely tucked away, but, it was hard, very very hard!

We also stopped at the Mill Stream Brewing Company, the Amana Meat Shop and Smokehouse, and the Amana General Store (plus several other stores).  Most of these stores found their way into our wallets in exchange for some tasty treats.  It was a nice ending to our visit to the Amana Colonies and we would enjoy the treats for a week or more.

We are on the very last legs of THE Trip, within days the continuing heat would drive us back to SE Michigan quite quickly.

THE Trip, Amana Colonies Iowa, Day 2

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 20, 2011

Still hot.  H*O*T*.  We manage to stay comfortable by parking as close as possible at our stops and doing a lot of driving around and just looking.

Our ticket to the Amana Heritage Museum was good for the rest of the colony museums as well, we visited 3 more, the Homestead Store Museum, Communal Kitchen, and the Amana Community Church.  These museums are all run under the umbrella of the Amana Heritage Society.  We enjoyed them all, except - -

The Homestead Store Museum.  The society had a huge problem with that building - - mold.  You could smell it when you walked in the door.   Man and I are both rather sensitive to the smell (long story as to why, maybe some day I will share it).  The smell was quite strong.  The presence of mold that smells that strong also presents the possibility of illness and more.  We were led to believe by chatting with the docent on duty, that the society was aware of the problems, but for a variety of reasons, some of which, of course, are money, they were not addressing the problem.  Due to our experience with mold and water damage and our awareness of the health issues surrounding mold, Man and I made a quick retreat out of that building.  We would hope that the situation would be addressed and not left to continue to rot away and grow.  I left very concerned for the docents that were spending hours in that building.

Man and I were on the road for 8.5 months for THE Trip, we were constantly amazed at the quality of the staff at all the museums and parks we visited.  We only had a couple of experiences that were less than 100% wonderful.  I have shared them all, life is not perfect, trips are not perfect (even though this one came pretty darned close) and sometimes docents and staff are a bit testy or snarly.  In this case the particular docent was as sweet as could be, but the management of this society is acting in a irresponsible manner.  Our advice, if you visit Amana, be careful if you visit the Homestead Store Museum, be very, very careful.  We sincerely hope they find the funding to repair the building, they had a nice collection there, would have loved to stay longer - - -

Our next stop was the Amana Community Church (below), also in Homestead, and staffed again, by a lovely docent who knew much and shared much, even her electric fan.  Even with the heat, this stop was well worth it, very enlightening and educational.

As we continued our drive through the villages of Amana colonies, we drove by, but, did not stop at this barn museum, isn't this a beautiful barn?  Yes, I believe that some barns are beautiful, OK, most barns are beautiful.  (I get my barn fetish honestly, comes straight to me from my daddy, ah, another story, someday.)

Our next stop was the Amana Arts Guild, Arts Center, Gallery and Shop, the building had been the school building until about 1871, and the was a communal residence.  I fell in love with the door hardware:

On display, among other artifacts, was a wonderful collection of German language children's picture books.  Here is just one that I just adore, the dog's expression is priceless, don't you think?  Photo taken through glass, has been digitally enhanced for color correction and a bit of sharpness.

Our last stop of the day was another pleasant one, at the Communal Kitchen, where the docent was again, knowledgeable and well spoken.  Is there anything as great as a really good docent to enhance your visit?  Nope!

Part of the kitchen, there were some unique food preparation tools in this collection:

The meals were served in a room such as this one, there would be 3 meals and 2 snacks a day; men sat at a table, women at another; and there was no talking during the meal except for the saying of grace.

We have one more day to experience the Amana Colonies, yes, it will be hot again.  But the day turned out yummy, you'll see - -



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THE Trip, Amana Colonies Iowa

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On July 19, 20 and 21, 2011 we visited the Amana Colonies in Iowa.  It was still so hot it was pretty much unbearable.  The colonies are located in some beautiful Iowa countryside, and had some of the most beautiful farms we have ever seen.

Over the 3 days we spent in the area we visited the 7 "villages" that make up the colonies, East Amana, Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, West Amana, South Amana and Homestead.  The area was settled in the 1850's by a German religious group, the Community of True Inspiration.

In Iowa this group lived a communal type of life style.  The villages are all built close together, about 6 miles or so from Amana.  A village may have contained 40 to 100 houses, there would be a church, school, bakery, dairy, saw mill, fire engine, post office and general store.  There were communal kitchens.  All adults had jobs they were responsible for.  Each town had it's own cemetery, the dead were interred in the order of their death, not by family groups (and, yes, I have photos, and yes, I will share these with you in a Tombstone Tuesday meme post).

A nice summary of the history of the colonies can be found here.

Our first stop was the Amana Heritage Museum in Amana.

This is a well done museum, we spent quite a bit of time learning, ooohhing and ahhhing over the collections, school rooms, toys, holiday decorations, textiles.  There were exhibits describing traditions, marriages, cemeteries, death and funerals.  There was a wash house and woodshed, tools galore, the list was long, extensive, very comprehensive.  I took quite a few photos, will only share a very few here, and some are cropped so as to not give away the placement of the artifacts in the museum.  Some of the staff did not encourage, in fact they forbade photos, they were very concerned about security.  Other staff members did not mention a thing about it, and in fact saw me taking photos and did not discourage.  So, I will give you a bit of flavor and then, you really must visit yourself!

Below, these gloves were beautifully crafted.

Below:  a travelers bag, handmade to carry their belongings while traveling, some were 5 feet long and when full might also serve as a pillow or a bed.  Yes, that date is 1838, amazing isn't it??  We have visited quite a few museums over the years, but, have never seen one of these.

If you can get past the reflections of Man and Moi in the photo below, you will see a prototype of the Radar Range, the signage indicated it was developed just before 1968.  Curious, check out the Wikipedia page.  How many of us remember this?  Did you have one?

After learning and enjoying much at this museum we called it a day, we drove around a bit, and then headed back to camp.  On the 20th, we would venture out again to see the Amana Colonies.  More about that soon.

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THE Trip, Nebraska to Amana Colonies, Iowa,The HEAT Continues

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

After the Nebraska MOC Rally Man and I headed east once more, we are closing in on SE Michigan and home, but, we eek out a few more stops.

We drove about 270 miles on I -80 from Greenwood Nebraska to near Amana Colonies Iowa.  And, if we thought it was HOT in Nebraska, well, it was even more so in Iowa.  In fact, this might have been the hottest day we have ever driven in or experienced.  This was killer heat.  When we stopped for rest breaks we had to take the dogs with us.  One of us would stand outside in the shade, IF we could find a tree, and the other would go into the rest rooms.  I almost burned my leg by simply leaning against the running boards and door frame of Big Butt.  The heat factor was at least 120 degrees F.

Little did we know but, Big Butt was keeping us alive, and we are not sure how. The next morning when we started BB up we lost 1 quart of oil in less than 5 miles.  We realized with a sense of dread and fear that if we had been driving in that 120 heat factor mess that if BB had blown oil, we might not known it until we blew the engine.  The thought of being stranded on the side of the road in that heat really set us back a bit, ok, set us back a LOT!  But, our Maker and Big Butt watched over us and we thank them both.

When we got to our campsite it was 96 to 98 degrees in Tana, it took HOURS and HOURS for the air conditioner to cool the unit down.  I worried about the fur kids in that kind of heat, the boys are both older and have health issues.

Whew, I would be happy to never experience that kind of heat again and we surely thanked our Maker for keeping us safe.

We would spent parts of the next several days visiting the Amana Colonies, before we headed east one more time.

I promised some of you some more Nebraska sunsets, so, here are 3 more photos, all that heat and humidity sure made for some beautiful sunsets.

I liked the first one because of the 2 birds:

Two nights later, watch as we go from orange to orange-red.  First:

I did not digitally edit this one much, just a sharpening the edges type of thing and resizing. Isn't this color amazing??

Hot sunsets for hot days,

HOT!!


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THE Trip, Threshers, The Gals Tools

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

So, I have shared with you the boys toys from the 35th Annual Camp Creek Machinery and Threshing Show.  Now, gals, it is your turn to ooo and ahhh over the antiques.  Some I so love, and others, frankly, I am SOOO glad I don't have to use!  LOL

First, this washing machine reminds me of my grandmother's machine.

This lady had a wonderful collection of old soap boxes, and yes, I recognize some of those boxes.

Here is a washer that I have NO interest in trying out.  According to the sign, this is a 1893 Sunshine Wooden washing machine.  I snooped around a bit in Google Patents looking for something similar, and could not find anything with this wooden 4 legged swisher thingy on the top of this machine.  (How's that for a techy description??)  Oh, yea, after looking at some of those patents, I am so happy with my little Spendide combo washer/dryer!  See image below.

That said, I would sooooo take this display of clothes pins and hang it as a piece of art in my home.

So, ladies, anyone want to travel back and time and try doing your laundry with some of these, mmm, relics??  No???  Really??  Snicker!



*  My Spendide washer/dryer combo in Tana.  See me smile!  WOOT!!

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THE Trip, Threshers, The Boy Toys

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

July 16, 2011, while at the Nebraska MOC Regional Rally one of the local attractions was the 35th Annual Camp Creek Macinery and Threshing Show held in Waverly Nebraska.  You may remember I mentioned that I had no intentions of attending this little local event (which was not SO little, by the way).  But, wires got crossed, confusion reigned in my old heat suffering brain and Man and I found ourselves on the way, ill prepared as we were with no hats and not much water.  DUHHH.  Like I said, I was confused, I won't speak for Man!  LOL

Despite the confusion, we had a blast!  MOC friend turned guide extraordinaire, Jan, shared her wealth of knowledge of all this farm stuff with us.  I don't remember a lot, but, it was fascinating.  I think I enjoyed her telling of the stories almost as much as I did taking almost 100 photos.

Today, the boy toys:

Below this is a 1925 Model T Ford, per the sign.  Let me tell you, all this equipment was very well loved and cared for.  Beautiful to behold!

Below, OK, I am glad we don't have to cool the engines of our modern day vehicles this way:

The ultimate boy toy!  A train!

Jan can tell you about this, all I know is it is a lot of machinery, belts, a sight to behold.

Look at the size of that belt!

Moments after I snapped this photo that belt also snapped.  WOW.  Don't want to be in the way of that, quite dangerous, dudes, you could really get hurt with that!

Next, I'll show you the lady's tools.  You may worship your current household tools when you see this stuff.  I know I do!




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