Our next stop on this adventure was Elkhart, Indiana at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds for the Grand Design Owners Rally. We gathered with over 200 Grand Design rigs and 450 people for this 4 day event!As you can see, there are rows of them! Amazing to see so many in one place!Here’s an arial shot from a drone one of the attendees showing just one section of all the rigs in attendance!We arrived on Sunday and the rally was to begin Tuesday. At 8:30 Monday morning we awoke to a knock on our door and when we answered there was a GD employee there to install our new 4 step stairs (MUCH easier on the knees!). A full day before the rally started! This truly is an amazing company!There were 4 days of meetings, seminars, speeches by everyone from Don, one of the owners, to the employees who worked the assembly line. We toured the assembly plant and were wined and dined; breakfast, lunch and dinner!As you can see, it was a full house!One night we had a wine , cheese and desert night hosted by Grand Design.
On the last day they assembled everyone in attendance for a “Family” photo shoot in front of the new models they had brought for our viewing.They even had someone with a drone camera to take arial shots! (This is not the drone that shot the earlier picture in this blog)
amish acres tour, dinner and play
One of the fun things we signed up for was this Amish Acres Tour, dinner and play. There were two busloads of GD folks in attendance!We were taken on this interesting tour of the farm in this tractor pulled wagon.Some of the original buildings are still here. They have no electric or indoor plumbing except for a hand pump for water in the kitchen. There are many Amish working farms to this day living this way. Amazing!
Their vegetable gardenA wood fired dehydrator for fruits and vegetables.A wood fired brick oven for baking.And a wood fired smokehouse for meats.I wonder how often they have to replace these wooden shingles on it?`This newspaper is supposed to keep the flies out of the house when you open the door; we’re told it doesn’t really work all that well!The kitchen pumpAn apple corer they still use today.I believe this is an apple peeler they’re still using today.Wood fired stove and oven.Their clothing is all hung on the walls; there are no closets, that would be a waste of space!Very simple bedrooms as well.Their medicine cabinet is in the kitchen.
And of course, the outhouse.
The school bus; everyone only goes to school until 8th grade then they work on the farm.The one room school house.And it’s facilities.This was the dinner house where they served us a family style Amish dinner. They kept bringing us food until we said stop; all delicious too!
The meat market where we purchased meats, cheeses , jams and other homemade items.The playhouse where we saw Plain & Fancy; a great show the typical Amish life when it meets modern civilization.
tour around elkhart area following the heritage trail, seeing the quilt gardens, murals and statues
The first one we encountered was right outside the Elkhart County fairgrounds
Goshen Chamber of Commerce MuralElkhart County Courthouse.
Even Mariachis!They even had statues of American Gothic, the most famous midwestern farmer painting in the world!Amazing detail too!That’s a statue, not a real school girl studying!This one was in front of an Ace Hardware!
Gardener statue trimming the trees!In a park in downtown Elkhart we saw this HUGE rendition of the American Gothic; amazing! Notice Jan next to their suitcase which was taller than her!
They diverted part of this river in 1890 to supply local businesses with cooling water for their plants
There was this tribute to their first responders as well, very nice!
I included this just because I liked the shadows!Lynton Garden is a local “different” Nursery!
They even had ALIENS!We came across this cool bridge built in 1890.
I didn’t take any pictures of the base for obvious reasons, but here is the view we had of Lake Michigan from our campsite. The campsite was minimal, electric only, but worked fine since we were out exploring every day anyway.While in the Chicago area we stayed at the FamCamp at Great Lakes Naval Base where I went to Boot Cap some 50 years ago. The base has changed a bit and for some reason the weather was much nicer in August than it was in November through January! We took the train into Chicago from this station in Great Lakes just across the street from the entrance to the base.We were fortunate to get tickets to see Cirque du Soleil performance Luzia. No cameras were allowed inside, but here’s the outside taken with my phone; it was a fantastic performance!We also visited my nephew Sean and his wife, Julia, in Lake Forest, just down the road a bit from Great Lakes. We had a wonderful evening of dinner and hot tubbing.Another day trip was down to Winnetka where Jan’s mom lived as a child. We got pictures of her mom’s house. It looks in great shape, especially since it was built in the early 1900’s.
And her high school which was walking distance from her house was getting a facelift.
We took the Architectural Boat Tour of Chicago. While waiting to board I saw this really imaginative name of a boat!One of the life boats on our boat tour; capacity 22, seriously?!?
The Willis tower, aka Sears Tower.While on this tour we went under several of these old bridges. I think the only thing holding them together is the rust!Some really beautiful and imaginative architecture styles here!
Many new modern buildings of course but mixed in with the older styles too, very cool!
This was condos with the first few floors being open sided parking garages.
I can’t remember a lot of what our guide told us, but this one he said a young kid told him it looked like a very tall spinning figit!Navy Pier which is now an amusement park with restaurants and shopping.One of the small yachts we saw along the river.Views of the Chicago skyline along our tour.
With all the glass buildings there were some pretty cool reflections!We especially liked this building; it doesn’t look like that narrow base could support such a huge structure!
One of the old cantilever rail bridges no longer being used.With this huge cement block for counterweight.Some cool decorative touches to the older buildings!This one had a map of the rivers; note the red rectangle representing the location of this building along the river!
Interesting downspout, they must have had some extra angled joints to use up!Another old bridge out of service. This one instead of cantilevering went straight up on the two towers at each end.And finally, a cool mural!
views from the top of willis tower
We went up to the Skydeck of Willis Tower, 1353 feet up on the 103rd floor, its 110 stories total! The elevator trip takes 60 seconds; 90 when it’s windy! You had the option of walking out on a tilting glass ledge for a better view; we declined!!Looking up the river and the myriad of train tracks!Those tiny white dots are boats and yachts!
A roof park!This building looks like a football from above!Chicago traffic from a more pleasant view point!
And then there’s this little guy; 1353 feet up on the OUTSIDE of the building!
our visit to the john deere pavillion and harvester works factory
Our campground was in Davenport, Iowa right across the Mississippi River from Moline, Illinois but most of our outings were across the river in Moline. Our first outing was to the John Deere Pavillion Museum in downtown Moline.
As you can see, some of their farm equipment is quite massive!A pretty cool mural outside of the original factory in Moline.John Deere first invention was a plow to be pulled by a horse way back in the early 1800’sOne of his first tractors. I’ll bet it road real smooth with no suspension and those steel wheels! Of course, most of the roads you would encounter back then would be dirt anyway.A more modern version; pneumatic tires even!In the early 1900’s (1910 or so) he invented the first harvester. This timeline shows the progression from then to present day.They also build forestry equipment; here is a machine that cuts the tree, strips it and puts the log on a pile or a truck!
Pretty cushy cab, AC and all!One of their experimental machines; a walking forestry harvester machine. They told us it was never produced because it proved to be too costly to build.
John Deere has made lawn care equipment for years from push behind mowers to all sizes of lawn and small tractors. One of their cooler products; an autonomous lawn mower! It’s like Roomba for your lawn! it just mows on it’s own with no human intervention needed! Unfortunately for now; only available in their European market.
On advice from one of the very helpful docents at the Pavilion, we signed up and took the Harvester Plant tour; really fascinating how they make these giant machines! We saw everything from sheet metal being punched and formed to the finished tractor driving on it’s own power at the end of the line; VERY impressive! Unfortunately but understandable, no cameras were allowed on the tour so I only got outside pictures and in their lobby. The plant has a total of 71 acres under roof!
Due to the size of this cache I need to take a few pictures to show it all to you; massive!A shot of the guts of this beast. I believe they told us it has a 16l diesel motor!
They allowed you to sit in the drivers seat; very high tech! It’s computer controlled with satellite and sensors to keep it perfectly aligned with the crop rows! The driver is pretty much just there to monitor what it’s doing and intervene if there’s a problem!
our mississippi river tour on the channel cat tour boat
This was the Channel Cat tour we took. We left from the John Deere Commons Landing and stayed on until we returned there. You could get off at any of the landings if you wanted.It went under a couple of impressive bridges along the rout; it’s amazing how wide the Mississippi River is!
Some of flora along the banks of the river.A Mississippi River boat.Some of the local residents!One of the casino/hoelsI liked this boat’s name!One of the many stately homes along the river.Some more of the locals!
We stayed at this fabulous state park. It had two small fishing lakes, a lodge, cabins and about 300 campsites. A great place for families and kids.Our campsite was huge as were all of them. Lots of space between sites and lots of open space. The only drawback was no sewer hook-up, but it didn’t matter since we were only there 3 days.
Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park & wildlife safari
The entry to the drive through safari kind of reminded us of Jurassic Park! We kept an eye out for velociraptors!Our first sighting was a herd of Elk lazing under some shade trees.
A couple of Pronghorn Deer.The white pelicans could care less about humans, they walk right up to you. This area was the only place you were allowed to get out of your vehicle.Yes, that is a pond. The local residents didn’t seem to mind the green algae on the water!
Two pelicans deciding who was the Alpha!
They had a white wolf too.and brown bears, who weren’t really interested in getting a good picture!And Bison, including two white Bison; I never knew there was such a thing, we never saw any in Yellowstone or South Dakota and there were thousands of Bison there!The two white Bison.
the sac (strategic air command) aerospace museum
A B1B bomber sits out in front. These things are huge when you see them up close!
The SR71 spy plane, also huge considering it only has a crew of two!
From a straight on shot of the nose you can see how aerodynamic it is with a very small frontal profile!
The Towers, an artwork “sculpture” using ordinary neck ties to depict the twin towers. Amazing when viewed from below!
A rocket powered ejection seat; talk about an E ticket ride!!Interesting to see a cut away of a jet engine1
A beautifully restored B-29, Lucky Lady!
A new exhibit going in all about the Tuskegee Airmen.They even had a piece of the Berlin Wall, very moving!
We had a beautiful spot with lots of trees and grass, right next to our camp hosts.For most of the week we were the only ones on our loop except for the camp hosts!
We did have a CONSTANT visitor; we nicknamed him “Angry Bird” because he kept attacking his reflection in our back windows. I guess he didn’t like his competition!He made quite a mess of our ladder and rear of the camper!We even tried rubber snakes to deter him but to no avail!We had another little visitor in the dumpster! He was there almost every day and at one point had two friends with him. He disappeared on the weekend when the campground was full; I guess he didn’t like all that trash being thrown in around him!The swimming beach on the reservoir was also pretty much empty during the week.
Some of the tent camping/picnic spots right on the water.We took a short hike while there too.
Apparently Jan was already here!A wildflower growing right out of the sandstone.We even saw a beaver’s home!And this little beauty!We turned around when we got to this “bridge”. We didn’t want to fall into black muck!
the prarie trail scenic byway
This was the highlight of the scenic tour; Mushroom Rock. As you see here, most of the trail is dirt roads.
Mushroom Rock; not too impressive after seeing all the Utah National Parks, but pretty cool!A small tree growing out of the rocks.
Some of the locals!
One of the 32 stops. We went by 20 some of the 32 but most were empty fields where something historic used to be! (Kind of like your map to the tree with the turn at the barrel that isn’t there anymore Rocky!)This is what’s left of Farris Ranch!These caves were on the tour, not too impressive other than you wouldn’t expect caves on the prairie.Someone did a little ceiling repair at some point!You can’t really see it but there was very clear cool water flowing into the cave.
Saw this deer along side the road during our tour.
marquette and the kansas motorcycle museum
The closest town to the park was Marquette, about 7 miles away; a cute little town of about 600 or so residents. They had a sign offering free land to anyone wanting to build a home here and live here; any takers?Downtown Marquette.
The Kansas Motorcycle Museum. It was featuring and in tribute to a motorcycle racer named Stan Engdahl, better known as “Stan the Man”.He was 5 time national racing champion.Mural on the side of the building.Some of Stan’s many trophies. Â It brought back some great memories of the years Jan had when her High School boyfriend, Frank, raced.One of his racing Harley Davidsons.A 1948 Indian, one of only two in existence!
A mini crotch rocket!
Interesting 3 wheeler from Sweden!A drag bike; you’d have to have a death wish to get on this thing!
This BMW went around the world; partially by boat or airplane.
A dragster pedal car! Here you go Aneka!A collection of various mopeds and small cycles.Another death trap!And one more!Nice old Harley side car bike.Harleys galore!
Mary told us about this beautiful reservoir not too far from our campground.Beautiful spot!Mary said there was a hiking trail all around the lake. We ended up taking the longer route just above the path she told us about, but it was a beautiful hike too!
We saw these interesting plants along the hike. I’m not sure what they are, but interesting!
day trip to pool table
Just around the bend from our campground was another beautiful spot called Pool Table. I’ll bet these aspens are beautiful in the fall!This might be where it got it’s name; when you get to the top (about 9500 feet) there’s this huge relatively flat meadow.
Pretty wildflowers everywhere.Beautiful views!And a nice view of the Rio Grande River below.We liked it so much we had to bring Bryce, Laura and Reeve up here while they were here.Blowing dandelions!Reeve out sitting in the fieldLaura says when she hiked the Continental Divide years ago she saw these flowers and dubbed them “Toilet Brush” flowers. Kind of fits don’t you think?
We came across this marker; I think Woody was an old fisherman (notice the lure embedded?) that wanted his ashes buried up here. I don’t blame him, it is beautiful!
pagosa springs spa and hot springs
A beautiful hot springs resort. We went there with Bryce, Laura and Reeve and Barb and Zach joined us as well.This is the only picture I took in the spa; Laura and Reeve enjoying the 94 degree family pool!
jeeping the bachelors loop with steve and mary bergman
Steve and Mary came to visit along with her cousin Rex and his wife Lorraine. Steve has a brand new Rubicon (less than 3500 miles) so was testing it out.One of the abandoned mines up there.Fairly nice “road” and sometimes not!We thought this was the road; turns out it’s a dead end ATV trail! That’s Lorraine scoping it out with Steve!Turning around!Another old mine.
While up there we came across this cool mine called “The Last Chance Mine”. It was purchased by the present owner to open it to the public as a museum. The building in this picture is over 100 years old; the current owner spent a lot of time and money restoring it to it’s present condition to use as their gift shop. It seems stable and strong, just not very level; it feels like it’s going to slide down the mountain!Some of the many artifacts he’s found on the property.The old outhouse, notice the sign? Pretty funny!
Rex’s Jeep on the right end; Steve’s next to it; he hasn’t had time to spend big bucks like Rex has!Interesting wood carving, it looks like the current owner.The owners house has this fabulous deck hanging out over the ledge! It’s probably 500-800 feet down! YIKES!!The view from the deck. Â Jan really wanted to hang out with a glass of wine!Artsy view from the parking lot.
The entrance to the mine. It’s no longer being mined, but the current owner did find a vein of Amethyst that he has made into some beautiful silver and Amethyst jewelry he has for sale; Jan resisted!This tour was conducted by an intern from a Colorado mining school. Interestingly, when asked how he picked mining engineering, he said nothing sparked his interest until they mentioned mining and explosives!This was an offshoot that the previous owners never pursued. The explosive holes were bored but never used. They have put dummy fuses in to illustrate how it’s done.
After our day long 17 mile adventure time for libations and food; one of our favorite spots is Kips.Fun day with some really fun friends! (Steve is Almost smiling!)This old 50’s cabin is where they all stayed in South Fork.
great sand dunes national park
Jan and I took a trip over to this Great Sand Dunes National Park. It’s amazing that there are huge dunes in the middle of the mountain and plains here!There’s Medano Creek that comes from the spring runoff from the mountains. This time of year it’s just a trickle and will dry up completely until the next spring.These dunes are HUGE. Notice the dune boarders in the red oval?!? Their boards are similar to snowboards but wider.
This little spot reminded us of “The Tree” we all camped at in the desert near Ocotillo Wells.As viewed from afar; they’re massive dunes!
We stayed at Cottonwood Cove while in Creede. A small park very near Mary and Russell’s cabin.One of the fun things while staying there was seeing their trail ride horses each evening as they came into the pasture that was right next to the campground.
We had other visitors too. This family of 4 Mountain Sheep came a few times in the beginning.On our last evening there we saw 14! The original family must have told the others there was new green grass in the pasture to graze on.
fun times at el pescador (mary & russell’s cabin)
Mary and Russell came down for their week at their cabin along with Mary’s brother Jim, his wife Bev and Joni. We surprised Mary with a Hawaiian theme birthday party!Barb and Zach also came for a few days.
Mary and JimMary’s nephew Ryan and his friend Rion were there as well!Even Russell’s Elk got in the party mood!Bryce, Laura and Reeve visited for a few days too. Here they are in the playhouse in front of the cabin.
On their last day there Jim, Russell, Mary and Joni went kayaking.
Apparently Russell thought Jim was doing a fine job paddling and laid back for the ride!
Last day group shot. Left to right is Gabe with Mary, Jan, Bev, Joni, Russell, Brandt and Jim with Jet. Always fun times at the cabin with good friends!The Three Amigas.
the creede mining museum
If you remember seeing this before in our blog you did. We went there last year but it wasn’t open for the season yet.There were multiple displays with an accompanying audio tour headset. Very interesting learning the old and newer methods of mining; from hammer, pick and shovel to mechanized methods.Preparing the explosives for blasting.
They used air powered engines for the later ore trams; much safer than internal combustion or even electric power.One of the ore carsThe “potty” car!Their lunch room, very sanitary!Dynamite used, note the one decomposing? Apparently it’s VERY unstable at that stage!
The job bosses “bicycle”. According to the tour audio it was the most dangerous piece of equipment they used. Direct drive (pedal forward or back) and no brakes!Warning Signals.Interesting sign, this is where they melt down the ore to get samples for testing.Testing lab equipment.This door was used for the actors when they filmed The Lone Ranger at the Creede mines.And finally this!
Bryce, Laura and ReeveWe stayed at the same campground as last year and luckily got the same spot with this river view.While watching Reeve (Bryce and Laura were at work), Reeve built this fabulous creation!We took Reeve to the Denver Zoo and had a great time! Reeve and GrandJan on the Merry-Go-Round.Reeve and GrandJan on the little train.After a few hours of looking at all the animals Reeve was done!While in Denver we went up to Broomfield to witness Walt’s graduation from college. Afterwards we went to Walt and Carries house for a celebratory lunch.Reeve loved the menagerie of animals at their home! ( 6 dogs, 2 cats, 1 Iguana, 2 horses, Â 2 goats, 2 parakeets and 1 parrot!)
COORS BREWERY TOUR
While staying in Golden we meant to do the tour but never got around to it. So we went back later. Great tour!The copper kettle in the previous picture was one of the original kettles.I didn’t know that Bill Coors was the inventor of the two piece aluminum can!I also had forgotten that Coors and Miller had merged! These are all the brands they represent now.Some of the current copper kettles.
Looking down on the line for Coors Banquet Beer.Their beer making process.
colorado springs
We had a combination Father’s Day and Rich’s 43rd Birthday celebration at Rich’s home. Bryce and family as well as Barb and Zach were there to help in the festivities.The obligatory blowing out of candles!Aneka and Sheba.Zach chilling!While in the Springs we attended a few of Aneka’s training sessions with her newest horse Cruiser.BranPa with Aneka and Cruiser.Aneka and Dolly.
At another of her training sessions she and Cruiser practiced barrel racing. This is one her favorite events; she gets to go FAST!
We left at 6:15PM from their shop in Moab for our 3 hour sunset tour. The “trail” started just minutes from there. I wasn’t sure what to expect but was soon to find out on this ride on the trail named “Hell’s Revenge”!Our tour started going up the ridge of a huge slick rock. The sandstone here is called slick rock but is actually very good for traction even when wet. The trail is easy to follow; just follow the black streak left by many Jeeps and Humvees scaling these rocks!
Our first stop was to look at some fossilized dinosaur prints left in the sandstone.
After this brief stop; onward and upward!
Our guide told us this small puddle left in this stone occurs almost yearly. There is a shrimp that lives in here. In drought years the eggs just lie dormant until spring rains fill it up again and the shrimp will once again inhabit this tiny ecosystem.
Lucky for us our driver wasn’t quite as daring (fool hardy) as this fellow!He made it though; all passengers intact!Our driver was kind enough to take any pictures we wanted to prove we were actually there for this adventure.
We stopped at this spot overlooking the Colorado River far below.As you can see, I didn’t venture too close to the edge!Some did.
At our final destination to view the sunset. Beautiful colors changing before our eyes as the sun set.
When we visited Arches they were doing major road construction so unfortunately we were unable to see many of the sights (and iconic arches) located in Devils Garden, but here are some pics of what we were able to see.The famous Double Arches
This is called ” Ham Rock” because someone thought it looked like a ham.This is probably the most famous arch; Delicate Arch. It’s the one that’s on their license plates. I took this with my 300mm telephoto. You can see how huge it is by the people in the picture. Amazing!
I can’t fathom how that rock stays up there of thousands of years!
