Festivals, Chicago sights, and daily life

This is our yard during a recent thunder storm. It's been raining often here, so everything is growing well but the ground is saturated. Enough for a while!

Cody's Farm, and the Marengo Strawberry Festival was held recently just a few miles from the campground. It rained before we finished picking strawberries and we got soaked! We're kind of thinking that it was worth it anyway.

Lots of nice, red berries. They are jam now.

A Sunday trip to Iowa was in order a week ago to attend the International Woodcarvers Congress.

Lots of good and interesting wood carvings on display.

This is the Best of Show carving. Our friends in Minnesota should appreciate this.

Detail of a wood spirit carving in cedar.

This week, we took the Metra into Chicago for a day trip.

Pat, Barb & Mike Clark, fellow workers at KOA, and their granddaughter, Olivia.

We rode the Chicago Water Taxi from the train station to Michigan Avenue.

Lots of activity on the river. It's a major tourist attraction.

Walking along Michigan Avenue.

A "little lunch", Chicago-style pizza.

We could only eat two slices, each.

Dave and Pat at the Cloud Gate, more commonly known as "the Bean".

The Bean.

Reflections on the underside of the bean.

Dave and Pat at Buckingham Fountain.

Mike, Barb, and Olivia.

At entrance to Taste of Chicago.

 

Very unique interactive fountain in Millenium Park. Images are projected inside the fountain and change every few minutes.

OK. That should catch us up for a couple of weeks. Check back often for more additions.

Harvard (Illinois) Milk Days

We do what we can do in the time available to us, and as weather permits. It's been a rainy spring in northern Illinois. The Harvard Milk Days festival has been going on, as an annual event, for many, many, years. It would seem the small town of Harvard is doing everything right to make for an attractive, and well-attended festival. Like the most successful of festivals, it is a three-day event and this year that proved to be a really good thing because of the many rainy days we have had.

It's all about the cows, of course. You can't have the type of milk we are accustomed to without cows. It was great to see these 4-Hers with their well-groomed cows.

These cows don't look good all by themselves. It takes a lot of TLC and hand grooming by their owners to make them look show-ready.

Here's Pat with an older John Deere tractor. It's a 1937 model, which is even older than I am.

And here she is with a new John Deere. This one is much larger, and much, much more expensive.

And here's Dave with a new, state-of-the-art John Deere combine. For what this machine costs you can buy a pretty nice house, a new car, a pickup truck and an RV.

Daughter Angel and her girls, Erika and Sabrina, came with us to Milk Days.

Here's Erika on the Giant Slide.

Angel and Sabrina riding the Tornado.

By the way, it rained before the afternoon was over, but not before we had some fun.

Memorial Day

While many of you enjoyed a three-day holiday we were working most of the weekend. The campground was busy and there was a lot to be done. We did, however, get Monday off and since one day was not enough to go very far or do very much we went back to the Illinois Railway Museum for the Memorial Day, World War II re-enactment event. It was a good show. Above is the wagon ride with some w/e campers.

All the displays and props were from the WWII era. This is a 1941 Chevy, beautifully restored - probably better than it was originally. Cookies were served in the depot - they were oatmeal sweetened with molasses, typical of recipes during the war years when sugar was not available.

Me in a 1945 Jeep along with two Allied (American) soldier/actors.

A German soldier (actor) displaying a Schmeisser MP-40 machine pistol.

Pat riding "coach" in a restored c.1930's railroad car.

Battle re-enactment in the railway yard. Allies won.

Annie with her new "do" and Memorial Day scarf.

That's all for today.

A visit to the Illinois Railroad Museum

Our current location is at Union, Illinois, about 30 miles east of Rockford/60+ miles north of Chicago. Union is the home of the Illinois Railroad Museum - and it is special, especially if you are a railroad buff. We spent about 4 hours at the museum on Sunday. Sure to go back because it is only 5 miles from the campground and we weren't able to see all of it in one visit.

One of several trains in service during our visit. The rides are not long, but even once around the museum property is nearly a mile.

East Union did not exist until the museum created it. The station house, however, is from Union. It was moved to the museum site and restored.

Not all trains are open for inspection every day. They alternate which are open so you can see something different each time you come. Pat never did get lunch.

In addition to trains, there are also street cars. This is an electric streetcar that runs around the grounds every few minutes. Small crowd when we were on it.

One of the events of the day was a pulling demo by a local dog club. These are pretty huge dogs, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, weighing right at around 100 pounds. They can pull up to 5000 pounds! I think we discovered a whole, new subculture we were never aware of before.

The car beside us is a work cart used by track workers. It's powered by a small gasoline engine, has a clutch, gear shift, etc. Some railroad buffs collect these, restore them, and then travel around the country to meet other collectors and run their carts on outings on tracks that are made available to them.

We'll be seeing other things, and going other places as the summer progresses. Look back often.

We're easy to find, and we'll be in Union until mid-September. Let us hear from you.

Settled in for the summer

We got busy and it's been nearly three weeks since the last entry. Our summer home is at Chicago NW KOA near Union, Illinois. We've been at work for two weeks, although the campground doesn't open for another week. The weather is getting better - still some cool nights, and sometimes cool days, but overall it's getting better and warmer. The included photos are from the past few weeks, just to bring you up to date.

Just so you all know, Union is just east of Rockford IL, so that puts us close to Angel for the summer. It's about 6 hours to Steve's, and going the other way, it's about 6 hours to Saint Paul and/or Rochester.

Steve has a large backyard, and the dogs really enjoyed running in it.

Back of Steve's house. Pat and Malwina doing some yard work.

Malwina playing with Molly.

Mel's Olivia with some of her toys. Mel and her girls came to Steve's while we were there.

Girls all packed in the van for the trip.

Takes a lot of "stuff" for a bunch of kids.

Front portion of Chicago NW KOA.

Mini Golf with our site just beyond it.

Our yard and home for the summer. Come see us!

Makin' our way through Illinois

We've made it as far north as Mascoutah, Illinois, home of Scott Air Force Base and our son, Steve. Don't want to dwell on the weather, but we are really missing Texas, and the bluebonnets and sunshine, a lot. Well, summer is coming to the midwest, at least we can hope.
So far we've made a trip to St. Louis to visit the Arch, and there is a Blues hockey game tonight that Pat, Steve, Jason, and Daniel will attend. Oh yes, Melanie, Jason and their four girls are here for a few days, and they brought Angel's Sabrina along as well.

First, here's one of the things to miss from Texas. All of our friends there are so level-headed and conservative. Gotta love 'em.

I'm sure you can see what I mean.

Sunrise on Benbrook Lake near Fort Worth. Army Corps of Engineers Holiday Park.

Melanie and Olivia.

Our group waiting to get into the Arch in St. Louis.

Elevator car to the top of the arch.

What the arch headquarters is really named.

Pat and Steve looking at a carved wall display in the museum.

Photo op at the arch.

The Arch as seen from the Metro Station one block north.

Can't visit downtown St. Louis and not see Union Station!

The daily Fudge Show at Union Station.

Getting our pennies pressed into souvenirs. Grandpa Dave, Melanie, Meghan, Bailey, and Sabrina.

Catching the Metro back to Scott AFB.

Eastern end of the Metro Line is at Scott AFB.

We'll be moving on from Mascoutah by the end of this week. Stay tuned.

On The Road Again

It's our first day on the road to the northland and, I gotta tall ya, after only 350 miles we're missing the Gulf Coast - a lot. Landed in Waco TX and set up for the night. It's in the 40's with a strong NW wind blowing. Not at all springlike. Had to get out of the shorts and t-shirt attire and into some much warmer clothes. And in spite of being cloudy and for a short time rainy it was still a scenic drive. The foliage is coming out in the new tones of spring that happen only once a year. Wildflowers are in bloom with a whole rainbow of colors. Texas is beautiful in the spring. But, we know we're heading straight back into winter, and unless the planet is sliding into a new ice age it too shall pass and summer will be back as it always is. The sooner the better.

We'll be seeing you - some sooner than others.