Yard Work & Car Shows

Another weekend recap done on a Wednesday with poor memory recall……

It was another busy couple of days with a lot crammed in them and it really started Thursday evening when I got a wild hair to do a little yard project. Last year we’d planted Hostas from the front steps to the sidewalk. Then I added some of those low intensity ground lights every 8 feet or so and it looked quite nice, but since doing that it’s been a pain in the buttocks keeping the weeds out of there. So I made a trip to Menards after dinner and looked around a bit for some rocks to use as ground cover. Not to disappoint, they had just what I needed in plastic bags for 3 bucks a bag. So I grabbed 6 bags to start with and headed for home. By the time the solar charged ground lights came on I had weeded an area large enough to accommodate all 6 bags of rocks. With the ground lights on and reflecting off the rocks it looked quite nice so I decided Friday night I’d finish the job. We went back up to Menards and purchased another 15 bags of Western Sunrise. (A nice name for a rock I guess….if ya gotta name ‘em). By the time the ground lights came on Friday evening I had completed the little project with a nice thick bed of red rocks from the front steps out to the sidewalk.

Saturday morning dawned clear and warm and found me on my way to Wayland for a car show in the city park. Between the location and the fact it was put on by the local classic car club I had hopes that it would be a well run event and it turned out I was correct.

I got there about 8ish and was car #100 of what turned out to be about a 240 car show. after finding a spot to park I spent some time cleaning and shining, something I’ve been remiss in doing much of this year, and then once the display was set up I grabbed the camera gear and took off to see what there was to see. What there was, was a LOT of real nice cars. Completely the other direction from the Greenville event of a week ago. This was a CAR show. I spent the entire morning shooting frames and before I knew it, it was noon and time for a couple brats, chips and a drink. I also bought a real nice event T-shirt for only 8 bucks! Wow…shades of the ‘70’s!

After lunch I once again grabbed the camera gear, made a second pass and came across some late-comers I hadn’t seen earlier including an awesome yellow Packard all decked out in hot rod gear. Before I knew it, it was 2:00 and time for the awards. Trophies were presented based on a vote taken by the people who filled out the little piece of paper with their top 3 choices listed thereon. After the award ceremonies were completed, everyone headed for their cars and the open road, including myself. To check out all the pics from this show, click HERE.

I got home from the show just about 3:30pm and immediately began packing the van for a trip up to the campsite at Whiskey Creek. Me, Bailey & Mercury were going to do some work around the site and pull another overnighter. After some fiddling around at home and a couple stops on the way….it was almost 6:00pm by the time we got to the campsite and to add to the mix I was having van problems, again, something that I’d just paid 500 bucks to fix a couple months ago. There was also two big trucks parked in the campsite, Trucks that were there to drill a well, finally. It looked to be that they had everything set up and ready to go first thing Monday morning so hopefully by today I've got water in my campsite. Now it's just a matter of getting the electricity hooked up and figuring out how to make the wife happy with a onsite bathroom. I'm working on that one but no brainstorms yet.

So anyhow, I pulled out the lawnmower and set about shortening up those pesky ferns who were trying to reestablish their territory since the last mow job. By the time that little project was complete it was almost 7:30 and so I decided it was time for din din at the lodge. Only problem with that was this time around I was too late for dinner. They’d already shut down the grill for the day. So now, faced with no food in me and no oil to speak of in the van I decided a trip back into town was gonna have to be undertaken. I fired the van up and realized I might not make it back to town based on the current oil pressure readings so I decided to drop in on the Fetts and see if by chance he might have a quart of oil laying around somewhere.

I made the short drive from Meadowview trail to the Fett residence and pulled down the driveway to their trailer to find them in the middle of making dinner and entertaining company. I explained my situation to the Patriarch Fett and he was able to come up with one quart of oil and then told me I was staying there for dinner with them. I put up a feeble protest as I didn’t really want to go all the way to town and what he was cooking smelled good so I went and got Bailey and Mercury from the van and introduced them all around.

A couple hours later, as the light was fading in the sky and my hunger for food and oil had been temporarily satiated, I said thanks and headed back to the campsite to get a fire going before darkness set in all the way.

I bought batteries and propane on the way up North so that I could have light and sound this time around, but alas……..I needed 8 “C” batteries for the radio….I bought 4 and I couldn’t get the lantern to work even with new mantles and a new propane canister so I was still without light and sound. Instead I contented myself with the sounds of an owl not far away and the light from the fire. At some point I closed my eyes for a minute and forgot to open them back up for awhile. when I did the fire was almost completely out and it was dark, real dark. Both dogs were sound asleep at my feet and the stars were shining brightly without having to compete with manmade lights. I sat there for a bit in the dark and then decided it was time to go crawl in the camper and sleep.

The first moments of consciousness next morning were spent with a big grey dogs face staring into mine. I got the impression that he wanted to go outside so I got up and let 'em both out to greet the morning. It was pretty early so I laid back down for a bit longer before getting up to go outside myself. After a couple minutes of wandering around I decided to go up to the lodge and get some breakfast. MarkE was up there acting as chef again and I had a good breakfast by his hand. After breakfast we headed back to camp. Called home to let the wife know that I was going to stick around for awhile and get something done, seeings how i didn't do a damn thing last night. So between 9:00am and noon I drug all the downed limbs out of the area where the dog pen and the gazebo will eventually be and stacked them all in a big pile for the chainsaw to take care of next trip. I didn't get everything done I wanted to, but I did get the area picked up and mowed. Next trip up we'll cut up the wood and rake out the area so that it starts looking like someone's gonna live there.

It's was almost 12:30pm by the time I backed out the driveway and headed for home and about 2:00pm when we got back into town. After unloading the van I grabbed my bride and we went down to Butch's Beach Burrito's for a quick lunch before she had to take off to do her Sunday night Bingo thing. It'd also come to light since I left Saturday that the oldest daughter was coming up later in the day with the grandbabies for a weeklong visit and I was to be ready for her when she arrived. I wanted to go down to Jeannies for the cruise-in for awhile figuring that Jen wouldn't be up this way until later in the evening, but she ended up pulling into the parking lot at Jeannies about 7:00pm so I fired up the '56 and we headed for home. I spent some time playing with Ryan and tried to get some chores done at the same time. By the time the wife got home Ryan was asleep upstairs and the other one, Jason, was snoozing in his chair so I excused myself and came down to the den to sort thru the weekend's worth of pictures........

I'm still sorting thru pictures tonight, but ready to hit the sheets now.......been a busy week already and there's more to come in the days ahead.

NIght.

TC