Take A Two Year Old With You

This certainly has been a busy last ten days. After we left Three Rivers we went on to Sandusky, Ohio. It was perfect timing to get there for Bike Week. There were more motorcycles around for the weekend than you could have shaken a stick at unless it had all the original twigs still on it. The campground that we stayed in had a lot of tents set up by the bikers. We expected to have a lot of loud noise but either we were tired or they were quiet because we never heard anything. A lot of downtown streets were blocked off and there was a lot more traffic than would be normal. But we still had a great weekend.

At Marblehead is a very neat lighthouse on the shore of Lake Erie. It is claimed that it is both the most photographed place on Lake Erie but also in the state of Ohio. I don't know if that claim is true or not but I did my part in keeping it at the top of the list. It was first operated in 1822 and is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation in the Great Lakes. It is sixty-five foot tall and the base is twenty-five foot in diameter and twelve in diameter at the top. Tours to the top are available on summer weekends.


LIGHTHOUSE AT MARBLEHEAD PENINSULA ON THE SHORES OF LAKE ERIE

It was a single days drive from Sandusky, Ohio to Rochester, New York. Since we have been here we have been doing something every day that was not raining. But there was one day that neither Erma nor I even stepped out the door of the motorhome. It was raining all day and we were content to just stay inside. The last time I have stayed in ALL DAY was a couple years ago when I was sick in bed. This was a good day to read and work on the computer.

My daughter wanted to get some plants for her garden and while we were looking for the garden supply store we came across a "You Pick Strawberry" farm. Is it my imagination or do strawberries picked and eaten in the field taste better than those bought in the store? Do they really taste better when they are at the temperature of the field, shaded from the sun and close to the ground, instead of being chilled in the refrigerator? I don't know if there really was a difference or it was purely psychological. Either way I think they tasted better right in the field. I want some more. When we were in Florida there were large fields of strawberries but these fields seemed to be bigger. A greater number of fields in
Florida for positive. There were so many berries on the vines that it only took a couple minutes to pick a quart.


LOADED STRAWBERRY PLANTS IN ROCHESTER NEW YORK

As I have said "Go to the zoo with a six year old." Now I will add go to a Museum of Play with a two year old. Today we went to a "Public Market" as part of the days activities. The public market here in Rochester has been in operation for 104 (or more) years and is serves as an outlet for many area farmers and local businesses. On market days there are thousands of people that come to shop and buy inexpensive farm produce and other sundry items. It is an experience that we have enjoyed summer or winter, every time that we have been in Rochester. As you walk around the hundreds of stalls you will hear a few dozen different languages being spoken, and you will see people from nearly every country of the world. It is fun to go anytime but add a two year old and it has a additional depth of pleasure. After the Market we went to a place called the Strong Museum of Play. They have so many area to children to play and learn that it will be impossible to describe. But let me try some. There is a video arcade, Sesame Street, Victorian House, an operating play grocery store, a radio production studio, a TV station and the list goes on. A child of any age (including 67 years old) could spend hours just doing the different things. There is a toy museum with over 10,000 displays of toys, some over a hundred years old. Somewhere, I did not see it due to time restraints, the "Hall of Fame for Toys." Also within the building there is a butterfly pavilion. Now I don't know how that relates to play and toys, but I really enjoyed it. I would have loved to spend a LOT more time photographing the hundreds of butterflies there. I am sure there was some way of identifying the variety but I never saw it.


MY FAVORITE BUTTERFLY AT THE PAVILION

Make a point of going to a place like that and "Take A Two Year Old" with you. It will increase your pleasure.

Till Later this is Uncle Duck

Shipshewanna

We have spent so much time driving a day and then stopping a day and then going on the next, or driving two days in a row, that when I spend three nights in one place I feel like something is not quite right.

We made it to Three Rivers and saw our line dancing teacher. We had a very enjoyable visit with him. It would have been better except for the fact that my back was acting up for most of the time we were there. We went over to Shipshewanna, MI and went to a flea market. While I will admit that I have not been to the DonWest flea market down at the tip of Texas while it was in full swing, I have been there a bit off season. The one in Shipshewanna has got to be substantially larger. All we did was walk aroung the outside perimeter and I had all the walking I wanted to do. There was so much stuff there that it was hard to believe. In one of the large buildings an auction was being held. I have been to auctions in the past, but nothing like this. I went to an auto auction sometime back where they had three rows of cars being auctioned at the same time. There was a row for each type of car, "The Good," "The Bad," and "The Ugly." Each row had its own auctioneer. But at Shipshewanna there was at least FIVE auctioneers going at the same time and not much space between any of them. I will not try to tell you how the bidders could tell what they were bidding on because I am not sure. I was amazed at the amount of antique merchandise that was up for auction. The place also had another large building in which they held a livestock auction. If I am not mistaken the livestock auction was to be held the next day.


SOMEWHERE IN THIS CROWD IS AT LEAST FIVE ACTIVE AUCTIONEERS

The area around Shipshewanna is Amish or Anabaptist country. It is difficult to determine which order they ascribe to because there beliefs and customs overlap in great degrees. It seems to me that one of the most notable characteristic is their use of horses to provide transportation and farm motive power. When you drive down the road there seems to be horse pulled buggies all over the place. When we went to the flea market there was one ares that was set aside for horse and buggies. There were more horses in that area than I have ever seen in any one place at one time than I have ever seen except at a rodeo. Every one of the horses was pulling a buggy of some description. Before we got out to the flea market we went by a Marathon Service Station. There were several horse and buggies at the hitching rail. Now I have always heard horses referred to as "Hay-burners." But it looks to me like they either run on kerosene or white gas. Those tires don't look like they would take much more air than a bicycle.


AN AMISH FILLING STATION

The first day that we were in Wisconsin Dells we had a loss. Our friend of nineteen and a half years and travel companion for the past four and a half years passed away. It may be a long life for a cat but we were hoping that he would live for a few more years before the end of his time came. In certain respects he picked a good place to die. It was only a few miles to an animal crematorium. So now we will travel with his cremains until we decide what to do with them. There are dozens of times every day that I look and expect to see him. He is and will be missed for a long time to come.

In a day or two from here we should be in a campground close to Rochester, NY where our daughter lives. We will stay there for a while.

Till Later This Is Uncle Duck

Wisconsin Dells

It has been so busy the last few days that it has seemed like a lot longer time than it really has been. We got together with our friends from Bentsen Grove like we planned. The time was too short with all of them of course. But the time was also very pleasant. We set up chairs and talked for a two or three hours. I am amazed that I had enough sense to set up the camera and get a picture that included us all. By the time I am a hundred I may know how to do things right. Of course by then I will be physically unable. No use burning that bridge yet.


A BENTSEN GROVE REUNION IN WISCONSIN

I like trains. It doesn't matter what size the train is, I like it. I think HO and smaller trains are great, garden scale are really neat. All the way up to engines that weigh a hundred tons and the cars that are pulled by it are special. If it is still powered by steam that is a great bonus. The Riverside and Great Northern RR in Wisconsin Dells, WI has a fifteen inch gauge. It has either a steam engine or it can be pulled by a small diesel engine. Its cars are big enough for four children or smallish friendly adults. The tracks follow an old standard gauge right-away for about two miles. It might be three miles actually. They turn the engines around on a hand operated A-frame turn-table exactly the way that some of the old steam engines were turned. There is an original (rebuilt) turn-table in Folsom, CA where a single man could turn a 70,000 pound engine and tender completely around in minute. It was a great place to visit and a fun train to ride.


THE HAND OPERATED A-FRAME TURN-TABLE OF THE R&GN RR

In the afternoon we took a boat tour up the Wisconsin River into the Upper Dells area. The rock formations that we went through were terrific. It was so enjoyable to see the trees right down to the water in some areas and in others the rock cliffs that were probably forty foot above the water. The boat stopped at one place where we walked up a slot canyon a hundred yards. At a couple points there was barely room to pass a person coming the opposite direction. At another point they had a German Shepard Dog jump from the top of one formation to another. The formations were probably fifty foot from base to top and the dog had to jump perhaps twelve foot. It was the location where the very first stop action photograph was ever taken. The photographer had developed a new type of shutter for his camera and he photographed his son making the jump. Someday I would like to go back to the area and take the Lower Dells tour and perhaps the army Duck tour.


SOME OF THE SHORELINE THAT WE SAW FROM THE BOAT.

We didn't stop there the next day we went to the Circus World Museum Baraboo, WI. They have over two hundred circus wagons, mostly restored. These wagons have been collected from all over the country. They have come from barns and shed that were falling down and back lots on peoples farms. Apparently if the circumstances required it, as in a bankruptcy of circus or other problem, the wagons and other paraphernalia of the circus would just be abandoned by the side of the road. Some person might have taken them home used them and stored them perhaps till the barn was falling down and then offered them to the museum. Most of the wagons were used to carry supplies from town to town in addition to providing glamor to the parades. There are numerous buildings at the museum that were built for the circuses that called the town home. They have a one ring circus, animal shows, and other displays too numerous to see in one afternoon. I don't think that I could see it all in less than three days. It might even take longer.


AN ORNATE CIRCUS WAGON

We have traveled on to Utica, IL and spent a couple days here. Last night we had the first rain that was more than a sprinkle that we have seen since some time in October or November. Tomorrow, June 9th, we will go on to Three Rivers, MI. We will spend a couple nights there and see our line dance teacher.

Till Later This is Uncle Duck

Into Wisconsin

After we left St. Joseph we went to Sioux Falls, SD. That was really our only true destination when we headed out of Texas. Of course we have other hopes as to places that we want to go, but Sioux Falls was the only must go to destination. Erma was able to get her license on Saturday morning and that gave us the afternoon to see "sights." Just about fifty miles away in Minnesota was a place that I have wanted to visit for some time.

Pipestone National Monument is a place that the Native American has visited for over 600 years. It was a place that they quarried a fine red sandstone to carve into ceremonial "peace pipes" and other sacred objects. It was a location where all conflict was suspended between all the tribes. One of the tribal chiefs declared that it was a place to put away all war clubs and to hide the scalping knives. It is such a beautiful place that no battles should be fought anyway. While we visited it was so very tranquil and peaceful. The sun and the breeze even seemed to know that it was a place of peace and the temperature was so pleasant with just enough movement of the air so that it was pleasant. There is a 3/4 mile long mile trail that goes through the monument by a stream, a waterfall, the quarries, and an 1838 historical inscription. I could not help but think that today we have taggers that leave their mark on stone and buildings with cans of spray paint. In 1838 the tagging was done with hammer and chisel, thus the initials and names and dates were even more permanent. This is a place that man has left his mark in such a way that it will be there for thousands of years to come. Not only did those of 1838 carve their initials to show they had been there, but on another rock many others did it in later years also.


INSCRIPTIONS FROM 1890 AND OTHER TIMES

On the way back to Sioux Falls I saw the most impressive herd of buffalo that I have ever seen. There was a mixed herd of bulls, cows and calves that were on a ridge a ways from the road. they were silhouetted against the sky. I try to imagine what a thrill it must have been like for a Native American to have seen a sight like that of wild buffalo. I fail to know but I can tell you that it was a thrill to me. I could believe that there would be those who would call it a sacred experience.


A BUFFALO HERD AGAINST THE SKYLINE

When we stopped for the night in Austin, Minnesota it was about three o'clock so we had enough time to go visit the SPAM museum. It may actually be an odd place but it was also a fun place to visit. The make some SPAM products that they do not sell in the USA and others that they only sell in the southwest. I don't know what those products taste like but they said that if we decide that we have to have some they will ship directly from the factory. I like stern wheel paddle boats. We have gone to Cincinnati, Ohio twice to see the Tall Stacks Festival. We did not know then that there was another stern wheeler in Austin. It only runs on the weekends or we would have gone on another paddle boat tour.


THE SPAMTOWN BELLE STERN WHEEL PADDLE BOAT

We have gotten to the Wisconsin Dells this afternoon. We have a place in a very nice campground. There are also a couple of our winter friends from Mission that are coming tomorrow to meet us. The Swansons will stay for a couple days right next to us and the Wymans are coming for the afternoon and part of the evening. We are looking forward to a few good days here.

Till Later This is Uncle Duck