More December Photos & Videos

 Another video from Lydia's school Christmas program. Sadly I can't include the two best ones because the files are to large. The best ones are the Reindeer Pokey (do the Hookey Pookey), and the Boogie Woogie Reindeer.

On Saturday the 16th Lydia and I had breakfast at Dudley's. It was my turn to pick so we didn't have to go to McDonalds.

 The waitress told her that the toys under the tree were there for kids to use.

Nolan likes to climb on my lap and sit because he can sucker me into show him tractor, combine & cow videos on my phone or tablet.

 We went to Kelsey & Andy's for Christmas morning breakfast. Lydia entertained us wearing her "Beauty and the Beast" outfit.

  Nolan was watching Lydia here but he spent a lot of time playing with his tractors and barn.

 God is good. May He bless you and yours.

Lydia's School Christmas Program

Lydia is on the bottom left. Hadley, the little girl who lives in one of the houses at the top of our driveway is on the top right. They are both in kindergarten, but different classes, and are best friends. They ride the bus home (Lydia gets off the ubs at our house) together.

Snowflake video. I have videos of more of the songs they did. Will post them later. We were sitting clear across the gym from them so I'm pretty shaky when I tried zooming in and out.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.

An Update From Missouri

Today's high is forecast to be 17. Missouri - HOT in the summer and cold in the winter. Maybe not cold for you folks in Coldwater, but think about it, Centertown is as far south from Coldwater as Coldwater is from Grayling. Friday is the only day in the 10 day forecast where the high gets above freezing. PTL for our Hardy wood fired boiler.

November 18th - McDonalds - Lydia's turn to pick the restaurant for our Saturday morning breakfast.

We ran our Hardy wood fired boiler in early November, to burn some trash wood. After several days I noticed some steam coming out around the flue and thought we must have a leak. Fixing the leak meant removing the insulation jacket that surrounds the boiler. After several hours work it became clear that the jacket must be lifted off the top, in one piece.

So, I added a column and removed part of the roof and the end wall.

The wiring that powers the pump and forced draft fan was just a bare wire comiing up out of the ground. While I was doing the work it seemed reasonable to correct that issue. As I dug up the wire I found that it was in conduit below the surface. Why the conduit was terminated below ground I have no idea. I wanted to run the wiring up the new column. In order to not have to splice the wire I had to dig up 4-5 feet of the existing conduit and bend it to point towards the new column. The conduit is under a driveway area, full of rocks. It was a lot of work with a pick and shovel.

After a lot of work it turns out that I couldn't find any leak and it quit "steaming". The only think I can think of is that the seals on the ash and firebox doors are bad. The weather was warm enough that the Hardy was getting enough draft, even with the doors closed, to "overfire" and boil the water. It has a large vent pipe in case that happens. I have no idea why the steam came out where it did, instead of the vent. I bought new door seals but never installed them. It is cold enough now that even if the door seals leak a little the water in the boiler won't get to hot.

During the summer a storm toppled one of the trees in our yard and took the top out of another one. I cleaned up everything that was down and had a tree service company come out to give me an estimate to clean up the broken areas in the tree and to take down a severaltrees along our driveway. One of the trees by the driveway was dead and the other ones had large branches that would take down our power lines if they fell. The tree he is working on was maybe 20' taller before the storm took the top out of it.

Looking at guy in front yard, over the top of our house.

 Trimming along our driveway.

That gets us through November. I will try and get some photos and videos from Lydia's school Christmas program posted soon.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.

A Day With Lydia

Lydia stayed overnight soon after we were back in MO in early October. We "camped out". We roasted hot dogs & marshmallows, and then spent the night in the camper.

The next day we all went sightseeing in Jefferson City. The building on the left is the Lohman building. I can't remember the name of the building on the right. A section of the lower level of it is now the Amtrak station (don't get me started on what a rathole Amtrak is for taxpayers) 😊

 The Lohman building was a general store and hotel. The river used to come near (maybe less than one hundred feet) to the front of both of these buildings. It is now on the other side of the railroad tracks. The building called Jefferson Landing Historic is the Lohman building.

 The Lohman building was a general store and hotel.

 This building also used to be a hotel.

 Inside the lower level of the Lohman building is "general store", many paintings and photographs and a small theater.

 Then we walked up to see the fountain. If you look close in the satellite photo you can see a small ellipse on the left side, that is the fountain.

 My great-granddaughter is so cute.

 Looking out at the track and the river from the back of the fountain area.

 The bridge is one of the two bridges entering/exiting Jefferson City from the north.

This stone was presented to the State of Missouri by the Fraternal Order of Eagles on June 28, 1958. It is a wonder that we haven't had some out-of-state nutcase file a lawsuit over it. It is amazing that liberal have become so much smarter than people were 50 years ago. From the 1960's clear back to the founding of our nation we were just to ignorant to understand that it was illegal to display Scripture in public areas. 

I will try to do a little better and get some more photos up in a few days.

God is good, may He bless you and yours. I regularly fail to be the man He would have me be, the one I strive to be, yet every day He forgives me and I can start a new day with a clean slate, once again trying to be more Christlike. None of us will ever achieve that goal here on Earth, but if we all (those of us who call ourselves Christians) worked at it a little harder things here could be so much better.

Sunday - Day 25 & Monday - Day 26

The trip to from Miami, Oklahoma to Branson, Missouri was uneventful. We drove a far amount on old Route 66. The highway from Springfield, Missouri to Branson, Missouri turned out to be one of the most difficult areas to pull a trailer that we encountered, because it was so hilly. The elevation was all below 1,500' but it was up one hill then down. There were no significant level sections at the bottom of most of the hills. My truck shifted out of overdrive more in that 40 miles than it did in any 250 mile drive, at elevations above 5,000 ', out west.

A guy at the campground in Branson guided us to our campsite and positioned us on the campsite. The truck stuck out in the road and I was hurrying to get unhooked so that we didn't block the road more than necessary. The site was the most unlevel, side to side, site we encountered the entire trip, we needed to run the tires on one side up on 1.5" of leveling blocks. Got that done, the truck unhooked and out of the way, the corner jacks down, and told Kathy to put the slide out. It couldn't go all the way out because it would have hit the electrical box. Screwed the corner jacks back up, hooked the truck back up, moved ahead 3" and then repeated the unhooking and set up process. It tested my patience.

All we did that evening was walk over to Montana Mike's for a mediocre, but expensive steak. The next day we walked up and down a fair portion of the Branson main drag. We had an overpriced lunch at a spaghetti place and walked around a little more. I looked over a list of entertainers and the only one whose name I knew was Mickey Gilly. Tickets to see him and another guy were $40 each. Kathy is not a country music fan, and I didn't his act was probably worth $40, so we stayed at the trailer Sunday night. Monday morning we drove further out along the main drag before returning to the campground, hooking back up and heading for Centertown.

I know many people like going to Branson. Kathy & I are not among them. I can honestly say that if someone offered me a limo ride to Branson & provided me with a free nights stay at a hotel, I would not accept. After 5 years in Missouri it was our first trip to Branson. No we can say, been there, done that, and cross it off or list.

During our 26 days on the road we traveled 3,765 miles. Over 3,000 of those miles were pulling the trailer. We were at elevations as high as 9,100'. We had no significant problems. We had excellent weather almost the entire trip. I could easily go back to Canyon Country in Utah again and spend more time there. The 2 nights in Branson were a waste (other than that we won't need to wonder about it). I could have easily spent another week in southern Utah. To bad that it is a minimum 1,300 mile trip to get there.

We averaged 10.3 mpg during the trip. It would have been a little higher but for the biodiesel we had to purchase. My truck does not like biodiesel. We filled up once with fuel that contained "up to 20% biodiesel" and twice with fuel that contained (up to 5% biodiesel). Fuel mileage was less than 8.5 mpg on those tankfuls. We weren't climbing hills more than normal and we were at elevations less than 5,000' when we got the poor fuel economy.

The least we paid for fuel was $2.399/gal, the most was $2.999/gal. A lot of the big name truck stops had fuel priced at over $3/gal but we managed to find small truck stops or stations where we could get the trailer in and out without a problem. The only oil lost was what I wiped off the stick when I checked it every day. We did get a low coolant light when we left Branson. I poured a cup of distilled water into the overflow reservoir and that seemed to solve the problem. Parked on level here at home there appears to be plenty of fluid in the overflow reservoir. I will have to keep an eye on it to see if maybe the low coolant sensor is bad.

It was a great trip. I was ready to be home for a while. Kathy was REALLY ready to be home by the end of the trip.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

Saturday - Day 24 - Miami, Oklahoma

We spent Friday night in Miami, OK. Saturday morning we went to the Coleman Theater. A young man spent some time with us telling us the history of the theater. We were able to sit in on a program that told more about the theater's history. Then we were turned loose to wander around. No charge, just a box out front where you could leave a donation.

Mr. Coleman and his brother went to Oklahoma in the 1920's to dig wells for a living. While digging a well he hit something other than water. He filled the hole. He, his brother, and a couple of partners then started buying mineral rights. Mr. Coleman & his brother had found lead and zinc deposits. Once they had control of the mineral rights in the area they started mining.

At one point Mr. Coleman's wealth increased by over $14 million a day. It kept on increasing all through the depression years. He was fond of the theater tried to get big name theater groups to come to Miami, OK to perform. They pretty much laughed at him. He told them of a wonder theater they could perform in and finally signed them up to perform on their way through Miami, on Route 66, the following year. A month later he was back in Miami and started plans to build the theater. It was finished 11 months later, at a cost of $600,000, $8.6 million in today's dollars. The theater was the only air conditioned building in the area. The first night he sold out all 1,600 seats at $1/ticket. Obviously grossing $1,600 a night, then paying performers, utilities, maintenance, etc. was not going to make him any money, but he didn't care about making money on it.

After he died his wife, who was half his age and married him after he became rich, had no interest in the theater. She basically leased it out and let it fall into disrepair. Finally, just to get rid of it, she offered to give it to the city. The city planned on tearing it down and making it into a parking lot. Concerned citizens saved it and have since restored it.

There is supposed to be a smaller version of it in Columbia, Missouri. Kathy & I will have to drive up there some day and check it out.

 Photo below taken from the balcony.

 This is the balcony, it is huge.

 Upstairs sitting area.

 Part of the ladies powder room.

 Looking back down into the lobby.

 I couldn't get a decent photo of the chandelier that hangs in the theater. It is magnificent. (The stories of how the pipe organ was located, years after it had been sold, and how they managed find and then restore the chandelier are almost miracles.)

Then it was down the street a half mile to Waylans Ku Ku house for lunch.

 After lunch we headed for Missouri. We drove maybe 30 miles of old Route 66. Yesterday we drove even more of it.

Tonight we are in Branson, Missouri. It is such a major tourist attraction, and we have not been here. We thought that since we were going to drive within 40 miles of it we ought to check it out. So far we see no reason to ever want to come back. Our site at the campground is so unlevel that I had to run the tires on one side of the trailer up on a 3 high stack of leveling blocks. Got the trailer unhooked from the truck and the jacks down at the 4 corners so that we could extend the slide. IT WOULDN'T GO OUT ALL THE WAY BECAUSE OF POST WITH THE POWER CONNECTION! A guy guided us to the campsite and had me pull forward to clear obstructions that would have prevented the slide from extending. He just didn't have me pull far enough ahead. We pulled the jacks back up, hooked the truck back up moved about 4" ahead and then repreated the process of setting things up.

We are walking distance of one of the main drags. We walked over to Montana Mike's for supper. We had to wait about 15 minutes for a table and the what a disappointment. Supper cost 3 times what lunch cost us at Waylan's Ku Ku and I would have traded my steak & baked potato for the steak sandwich and fries from Waylan's. Maybe we will find something tomorrow that makes people flock here. If not, at least we can say, "Been there, did that."

God is good, may He bless you an yours.

Friday - Day 23 - Claremore, OK

Thursday night we stayed in Claremore, OK. Friday morning we went to the Will Rogers Museum. What a great place. The building was beautiful. The information about Will Rogers was even better. He was quite a man, even though he was a Democrat 😊

 This is the wall & ceiling above the statue.

 Below is a replica of Will's study at his home in California.

The place has multiple small theaters where you can watch some of his silent movies. You can also spend a lot of time watching movies of his rope tricks. Other sections have movie shorts of some of his introductions to presidential candidates and even Presidents.

I highly recommend the museum if you are in northeast Oklahoma.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

Thursday - Day 22

Yesterday we drove from Santa Rosa, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas. We arrived in Amarillo and decided to go to a RV museum about 15 miles from the campground where we planned on spending the night. The trip turned out to be a fiasco. We got off at the right exit and the GPS said to turn left and then turn left again. It appeared that if we took an  immediate 2nd left we would be on the ramp to get back on the Interstate going back where we came from. We went by the turn and found that it was actually a frontage road. We had to get back on the Interstate, get off at the same exit again, and this time we did turn on the frontage road. When we got to the place, which was an RV dealership and RV museum, there was absolutely no place we could pull in with our trailer attached.

I had done something earlier in the day that irritated my bad shoulder. It was hurting. Between the bad turns (on my part), no available parking places, and my painful shoulder I said "Enough, time to head back to the campground." Which we did.

This morning we stopped at the "Cadillac Ranch" exhibit. Some "artist" buried a bunch of Cadillacs many years ago. They are out in a hay field. People take cans of spray paint out in the field and paint them. It was a dismal day. It had rained overnight making the area a muddy mess. It was drizzling while we were there.

The amount of trash people left at the site was disgusting.

It was misty.

Didn't need to be a hunter to determine what type of animal left this print.

Later in the day we stopped at a museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. It was GREAT!

 There was LOTS of stuff to see in these buildings. I have a lot of photos. If anyone is interested in seeing more of the museum let me know & I will send you some of the other photos.

Tonight we are at a campground in Oklahoma City.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.