Heaven For An Old Farm Kid

Good afternoon,

We're staying in Salina Kansas with a little truck problem that kept us here a day longer than we planned.  So with a good part of an afternoon on my hands a visit to the museum across the road was a no brainer.

It's called the Central Kansas Flywheels Museum and was it ever worth the trip.  You can visit their webpage at http://yesteryearmuseum.com/default.aspx

Bernie and I wandered around the outside exhibits yesterday but today I got to spend some time inside.  For anyone with an agricultural heritage it's an unbelievable exhibit.  To a "City Kid" it's a bunch of old iron and steel that should be melted down for some new I Pods or computer cases.

The highlight of their exhibit is an old old old Reeves steam tractor that dates to the early 1900's and still runs.  They have a show here in the fall where they fire up the Reeves along with other old equipment and actually thrash grain with it.  The pictures don't do it justice but to give you an idea of scale I have to reach as hard as I can to touch the top of the drive wheels.  My grandfather had one of these and although I can't confirm the make, I know it was the same size.  After he homesteaded his land he bought one of these and used it to "break" (the original plowing of the land) his land and the land of many of his neighbours at Birsay Sakatchewan.

The displays cover everything from the old steam tractors, to old switchboards some of us remember in the 40's or 50's.  There are old trucks, a bit of old construction equipment, a fabulous selection of old wash machines, old printing presses, ribbon typewriters that have to date to the 1930's, and it goes on and on.  I'm going to post a few pictures here just for fun.  If you're one of the aforementioned "City Kids" forgive me. 

And finally, two pictures to challenge our grandchildren.



Did you recognize them?  I did, in fact I can remember strapping them on.

For the construction guys that may be here, that "Yellow Iron" is a fully restored Model 22 Cat.  Boy I wanted to fire that baby up - real bad.

You can tell I really enjoyed my visit here, and I hope that one day you may stop in on your way through Salina Kansas.

Tomorrow we head N. again and into Winnipeg in a couple of days.  This trip has been just a great experience, we visited friends, saw some great things, had some fun, got the ________ scared out of us with the tornado, had a bit of truck trouble, but nothing we couldn't handle, met some really neat new people, but most of all we just enjoyed being together.  We are so blessed and so happy to be living our dream.

Thanks for stopping by, stay well, stay HAPPY, and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal & Bernie

General Robert E. Lee, Gruene TX, and a tornado

First of all it’s Easter Sunday – Happy Easter Everyone.

Things have been interesting since our last post and you’re likely wondering what General Robert E. Lee, Gruene TX, and a tornado could possibly have in common.

Well, it goes like this.

We took a day trip to Rio Grande City last Monday for lunch in a great old hotel place we know out there. It has a rather chequered history dating back to the early 1900’s but its fun to visit and the food is great. While we were in Rio Grande City we went to an ex military base and found the home that General Lee used to live in. Unfortunately, due to a renovation we couldn’t get inside. It was nice to stand beside it though. Sort of a way to touch history and of course I took pictures. So here it is folks, the long awaited picture of General Lee’s personal residence.

Then last Wed. we packed it up and left the Rio Grande Valley. It’s hard to leave the valley every year because of friends and how much we love it there. This year we left much later than usual and although it wasn’t nice to say goodbye to our friends it was very nice to get out of the heat. Things are so hot and dry there it really is hard to handle.

The first stop was just N. of San Antonio at New Braunfels where we found the Hill Country RV Resort. It was a very nice clean spot so we hung our hats there for a few days while we explored the area and that’s where Gruene Texas comes into this.

Just a few miles North of San Antonio you’ll find Gruene TX which has history dating back to the late 1800’s. We had a great lunch at a wonderful place called the Gristmill which is actually an old cotton plant. Great food, in a unique dining environment. From there we went to explore the Gruene Dance Hall which was a real treat. It dates back to the 30’s and has been playing and dancing every since. Hank Williams used to play there before he made it big and so did George Strait. It was fun to explore the place. When you get there pictures of Gerry Lee Lewis, John Travolta, and dozens of others who have played or danced there are hanging everywhere. Standing at the same bar, where all of these legends once stood, was kind of neat. Bernie and I were trying to figure out how many beverages have been served at that old bar in the last 80 or 90 years. Considering it holds 800 people we figured it was quite a few.

We walked all over town and found some really unique shops and a great antiques store. A very fun day but the heat took a toll and we headed back to the RV.

Here are a couple of pictures of the dance hall.

Like all good things it had to end and we got back on the road where the above mentioned tornado comes into play. Our plan was an easy ride to Denton north of Fort Worth for a night in a campground we found. After an uneventful trip to Denton things changed kind of fast.

We couldn’t fit into the park at Denton so we decided to go on the Gainsville TX which is only a few miles down the freeway and no problem. We found a nice place to set up and were ready to kick back when all hell broke loose. The weather clouded in and for an hour we stood outside watching a funnel cloud forming overhead. If you’ve ever experienced it you know what I’m talking about. We got ready to move fast if we had to and waited. The hail, fortunately small, was pounding down the lightning was nonstop and this ominous cloud, rotating in a circular motion to the right, hung about a mile West of us drifting our way. We didn’t have TV but the radio said “ALL CAMPERS PACK UP AND MOVE – NOW.” All the while the town tornado sirens were blaring which really isn’t very calming. The storms were moving to the N.E. The radio told us the first twister had touched down just a few miles S.W. of us and that more and worse storms were coming. When we found out the TV show “Storm Chasers” were parked a couple of miles S. of – that was enough, we hit the road. The folks parked beside us went S. to see if they could get in behind the storm line but we decided to go N. to see if we could outrun it. I had absolutely no intention of driving through that line of storms unless I had to.

We did manage to get N. of it but we drove all the way to Oklahoma City to do so. The drive was an experience, with pouring rain, heavy wind, a bit of hail, dark black cloud and lightning that never ended. We certainly didn’t set any speed records but we made it safely to Oklahoma City where we’re going to ride out the rest of this mess. The storms are pretty bad but there are no tornados to deal with. It’s 1pm but it looks like it’s 9pm, the clouds are extremely dark and heavy.

So now you know what General Lee, Gruene TX, and a tornado have in common. Aren’t you glad you stopped in? :-)

More, hopefully from someplace dry, when we can.

Thanks for coming by, stay well, stay safe, and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal & Bernie

San Antonio and North

Greetings from New Braunfels Texas, just North of San Antonio.

After a rather HOT but nice trip from Pharr we arrived in New Braunfels on Wed. for a couple of days of exploring.  It sure was nice to be back behind the wheel of my truck. I parked her in Pharr more than 5 months ago and other than a couple of warm up laps around S. Texas she's seen no action.  "My Way" performed like a champ without a hiccup.  Love those 475 horses kicking in when we come to the hills.

We have been to San Antonio and New Braunfels before but we wanted to come back to have lunch on the famous San Antonio River Walk, http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/ and then spend a day visiting a couple of the wineries we have heard so much about.

Yesterday we were able to spend a couple of hours on the River Walk and exploring downtown San Antonio.  It was all good and of course it was complete after we got hit on for a time share presentation.  We've become pretty good at telling them NO without being rude.  The Alamo, the River Walk, the Missions, are all worth the trip.  If you haven't seen San Antonio as a tourist try to get it on your bucket list.  It's worth the trip.

We found a really nice RV Park here called Hill Country RV Resort.  http://www.hillcountryrvresortnb.com/  Nice clean, safe and freindly place, close to everything.  As a Canadian I appreciated their exit sign.  The owner saw me taking this picture and asked if something was wrong.  She didn't understand why I would bother with a y'all sign.  An American reading this won't understand either but Canadian readers might.

Today we're going to explore a historic town called Gruene, pronounced Green down here.  Apparently it has some interesting history going way way back.  It claims to have the "Oldest" dance hall in Texas dating back to Hank Williams days.  They say he used to play there, and you'll remember he was country "When Country Wasn't Cool."  Splitting the day between Gruene and the wineries should mean we come home exhausted with a smile on our faces.

More later, thanks for stopping by, stay well, be happy, and please do leave a comment when you can.  We love to hear from you

Neal & Bernie

Warmed Up

We're back In Texas with our friends at Tropic Star and enjoying the warmth.

The heat is wonderful, supposed to be just under a hundred F. today and it might get into triple digits on Sunday.  We plan to go to the pool and tough it out.

It's so nice to be back, spending time with friends here and tonight we're off to a dance.  Other than a couple of very awkward dance lessons last fall we haven't really danced for about a year.  Trying to remember all of those moves should be a hoot.  I tend to just go for it and Bernie tends to be a little more concerned with doing it right.  Let's hope she doesn't murder me about half way through the night.  It's going to be fun.

Planning to get back to S. Padre early next week to eat that shrimp I love so much.  Next week we have to get a bit of work done to the truck for the home trip and find a way to wash the RV.  It's hard to do in this heat.

More later, thanks for stopping by, stay well, stay happy, and please leave a comment when you can.