Gramma's Corner: July 2023

Last year Jim decided we would take Zane on a trip this summer, with his input on places he would like to go. One of those places was the Holiday World amusement Park in Santa Claus, Indiana, so since we wanted to head east, there were other possibilities like visiting Lynette and going to the Classic Green Reunion in Tennessee.

Leaving Sunday afternoon we made our first stop in Hutchinson, Kansas to go see the Cosmosphere the next day.

This is an American Mercury Redstone rocket outside the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS. The Redstone ballistic missile was repurposed to lauch Mercury astronauts into space in the early 1960s.

We spent most of our time reading about the history of the space program, which was very interesting to me and we found that Zane knew most of it already. He was telling us about things, before we read about them. I didn't take any photos inside because the SR71 Blackbird hanging from the ceiling, the lunar module that we looked down on, and the space shuttle where we stood on the wing, were too vast to get decent photos. It was fascinating.

Zane tried out this wind machine with 70 mph tornado winds.

From there we heading toward Missouri and stayed the night in Olathe, Kansas and had supper at Chick-fil-A's because Zane wanted to.

...or rather around part of the country.

I was feeling pretty sorry for myself because 5 days ago I had esophageal dilation, that I wasn't going to mention, but it was so much a part of my days at the time, that I must. This time the dilation was so painful I couldn't eat for two days and then I had liquids and by the time we left, the pain was dulled by taking Tylenol and eating miniscule bites of things, and preferably soft. So, I had soup

for supper that night.

Day 2

Jim and I visited the "Treasures of the Arabia" Steamboat museum two years ago. Jim was fascinated by it, so we visited again. I spent my time reading about westward expansion, while the others looked at the machinery and the stuff that was unearthed.

The following paragraph is from the Arabia website.

The Steamboat Arabia was one of many casualties of the perilous Missouri River—the longest river in the United States that claimed nearly 400 other steamboats over its 2,500-mile course. In September 1856, the Arabia was carrying over 200 tons of cargo intended for general stores and homes in 16 midwestern frontier towns. The steamer was still fully loaded when it hit a tree snag and sank just 6 miles west of Kansas City. Due to erosion, the Missouri River changed course over time, and the Arabia was buried underground for over a century – along with all of its precious cargo. Lying 45 feet deep beneath a Kansas cornfield, the Arabia’s payload was protected from light and oxygen and, thus, was remarkably well preserved.

There are more artifacts being cleaned every day and added to the museum.

We don't like driving all around in big cities even with GPS, so someone directed us to the "City Diner" across the street. It looked like something left over from the 50s, and not updated since.

The food was good and the prices reasonable.

Jim had a port tenderloin sandwich. The pork was three times the size of the bun. I had grits because I went for something easy to eat. I enjoyed them, too.

I hope Zane really likes the omelets, since he had them more than once.

After lunch we went to the LEGO store which was fun, because I like LEGOs, too. We enjoyed looking at all the sets and other things they had for sale. It would have been a lot more fun if we had several hundreds to spend, but we didn't. It was rather a shock after we left the parking garage that we couldn't leave without paying the $11 fee!! We were there for 45 minutes. That was the hourly fee, I'm glad we got out in time.

From there we tootled over to St. Louis and exhausted, we found an exotic pizza place, ordered a half cheese, half sausage pizza and ate it in our hotel room. I was able to eat a whole piece, taking miniscule bites with hot water to wash it down. My throat is finally feeling like I will be back to normal soon.

We left for the Gateway Arch at 8:30 for our 10:00 "ride to the top", planning for rush hour slow spots and construction. It's a good thing we did since we didn't know where to go when we got there. Getting to the parking lot was the easy part and after wandering around awhile under the arch and watching other people, we found our way to the underground entrance where the museum, theater, café, and gift shop ... (I would have liked to spend time in the museum, but this wasn't my trip.)

And ... the "ride to the top" entrance.

Now, that was fun.

When our time came we lined up where we were supposed to and received a number. Each group got a number. Groups being people coming in together so we weren't put with strangers. Then we went to an open place with screens and numbers on the floor, stood on our number and watched a video with highlights from the 50s and 60s. Think MLK, Elvis, psychedelic colors and patterns, cars, and what have you. I wonder how many people standing there remember any of that. I think we were the oldest in the group and WE were hardly around in those years.

Next, we file out, number by number, pausing for them to take a photo, (always looking for money), and then on down some stairs to our number again. We were number 8, which was at the bottom, so we went first.

Here we waited, in front of this door, which was our way into the tram. I couldn't get a very good photo. If you look closely you can see the outline. That 4 ft. indention in the wall before us, which we guessed was the door, opened into a very small space with 5 seats, close enough to bump knees. It was too small to get a picture of, well, of the smalless. Since we've never been, and this was all new, it was fascinating and interesting. (The space is lit, by the way. We weren't riding in darkness.) And, then, the doors close and up we go. The doors of our capsule are glass (or see through anyway, who knows if glass is used anymore) and we were whisked up 600+ feet inside the arch seeing wires, pipes, stairs and whatnot, feeling the shift as the car adjusts to the curve of the arch.

When we stop, the 4 ft. door opens, our "glass" doors open and we sstep out and stand on another flight of stairs, the bottom, since we are number 8, wait until the previous group descends, we ascend (ha, I was just going to use 'go up', but decided to be funny), they get on, and away they go and we are at the top of the arch.

It feels like a room up there. It is carpeted, has information posters, and small windows and a bench sort of thing to lean on to look out the windows. I didn't feel "up in the air" at all.

There's our car!!, if you can see the blue arrow at the right lower corner.

It's hard to realize we were 630' above street level at the apex. After 10 minutes we were set to stand on the stairs in front of our car until the next group coming up got out. We get in and away we went, down. It's 4 minutes up, 3 minutes down. Don't ask me why.

We also watched a video about the building of the arch. I wanted to say film or movie, maybe I fit in the 50s and 60s after all.

We had lunch at the Gateway Café then at the gift shop bought all the things we looked at while we were waiting. I really had fun there and bought more than I usually do.

There's something really neat about this bridge, but I can't remember. And the parking lot really looks like this.

On the road again, to Indiana and Lynette's house where we were warmly welcomed with Calla and broccoli cheese soup.

We left Zane in Indiana to entertain and be entertained with the Troyer's while we went on to Classic Green in Tennessee.

Zane went to Holiday World with Anthony and they did some other things like play video games and miniature golf, and swim, but, I have no photos of that time.

Classic Green, the John Deere Show that started in Grand Island, Nebraska was held in Lebanon, Tennessee this year. It is an every other year event to complement the Gathering of the Green Show in Davenport, IA on the other years. The last Classic Green was in Columbus, OH, and we were there.

I didn't take many photos. There are only so many photos of green tractors I want in my library. "You've seen one you've seen them all." I could get in trouble for that statement. And really, there are a lot, a really lot, of different kinds, and it is interesting, but I'm not into making a photo book of them.

This shirt really says. "I LOVE when MY WIFE lets me work on tractors", or close enough anyway. Jim got a lot of stares, laughs and questions on where to buy one. They bought them two years ago, in Ohio.

This is scale model of a huge 8020, a picture of which is at the bottom of this blog.

This took place at the State Fairgrounds and there were tractors everywhere, inside the many buildings and outside. This year's "features" were D's, Generation II's and 110 lawn tractors. Of course, they welcome all kinds of "classics" restored or not.

It's not the sort of place you can look at everything in one day. We were there parts of two days and the whole of one. One day we sat in on a "seminar" about cotton. It was interesting and would have been more so if I could have heard what they were saying. After awhile I got bored with trying and looked at my phone.

Cotton machine mounted on a 3010

This GP resembles the one Jim's dad had. His had steel wheels.

Friday was our full day at the show. We arrived at 9:10, just before the flag raising. A hush fell over the grounds and people took off their hats while the National Anthem played. Patriotism and honoring the flag is still among tractor enthusiasts. Is it because they are older, more conservative, more respectful? People of all ages come. There are young people who love old tractors and children that are learning to. There are mothers and fathers and grandparents. All here, because Old John Deere Tractors mean something to them or to someone they love. Maybe appreciation for what has gone before helps us appreciate what we have now.

JD 8020

This may be the only one left. There aren't any parts anymore to be found for these.

(I think)