Where have we been? (Pawnee, HH, Rock Springs)

 Well, it’s been a bit but when you are traveling, getting ready to teach online and having kinda blah weather there’s not much to report. 

We stayed at Pawnee State Recreation Area in Lincoln, NE for a couple of days after the winery.  It was a really nice park with a big lake and hiking trails.  However, the weather was wet so the trails were mud.  Dave did some work, I worked more on learning to crochet.   We did get a campfire in one night, but overall very mellow.  Here’s a picture of the lake.  There were alot of birds in the area and some really big robins. 

We then ventured to the Golden Spike Tower.  We were there back in September, but since we found out it was a Harvest Host and we were passing by to get to Utah, we stayed there overnight.  We went back up and watched the trains for almost 2 hours.  We got to see them sort the cars, put trains together by putting sections of the sorted cars together.  The logistics are mind boggling.  Previous blog about Golden Spike was posted September 30, 2024 if you missed it.

Next stop was another Harvest Host, this one in Burns, WY.   The gentleman has a barbecue trailer that he takes to events.  He uses an old fire truck he converted to haul the trailer.  We got to park in his field and feel the wind rock us most of the night.  Does not work like rocking a baby in a cradle.  The gentleman also makes items out of Antelope Antlers that he finds around.  I liked that he found the ones they shed as opposed to killing them.  We bought a cool business card holder and an ice pick.  The ice pick even has markings from the mice that were chewing on the antler before he found it.  Just never know what people do for a hobby.

Things were interesting the next day as we attempted to travel from Burns, WY to Rock Springs, WY.  We got on Interstate 80 and a short way into our drive we saw signs that warned of high winds and extreme chance of blow over.  Campers under 20,000 lbs are not allowed.  Well, that’s us.  So we found the first rest stop and looked up the warnings.  The area we were traveling through was closed to campers.  Time for plan b.  So we found the closest campground, which was in Laramie about 15 miles from where we were.  We were able to get a reservation and were in site, safe and sound by late morning.  The reports were that the winds were 40+ miles an hour with gusts up to 65.  So this day turned into a work day for Dave and laundry and food shopping for me.  Have to go with the flow.  Fortunately the winds died down the next day and we were able to move to Rock Springs. 

We visited two places in Rock Springs, one a coffee shop and the local historical museum.  The coffee shop was in the old railroad station, so had cool architecture and atmosphere.   

These are some interesting things we learned in the museum.

The building that houses the museum was built in 1894 and housed city hall, the police station and the fire station until 1982.  It was empty for a couple of years and then they were able to make it a museum.

Rock Springs was originally established by Union Pacific as a company town to provide coal from the local area for the trains.  Coal mining was the main commodity until the ‘50s when the trains went to diesel.  Now they have trona mines in the area, which is soda ash, which is used in many items such as glass, chemicals, soap, paper, water treatment, baking soda and more.  There was a note that once the coal mining was done Union Pacific thought it would become a ghost town, but the people obviously had a different idea. 

There were pictures of miners and samples of many of their pieces of equipment.  Definitely a hard way to make a living.

This “tool” kind of struck me “funny”.  It’s called a sounding bar and is used by coal miners to tamp on the roof of the mine to ensure that it was safe.  

                                                It’s the big stick across the bottom

Here is the explanation of how the blasting was done:

This is a velocipede, it is used to inspect the railroad tracks. This was peddle powered.

The original jail was intact.  They had several cells, including a padded cell.  

The fire station portion had the early set up of how they knew where a fire was.  I think it was different sounds for different places.  They also had the place they hung hoses to dry.  If they didn’t dry, the rubber on the inside of the hose would rot. 

Dave was able to capture this picture of the train going by on the tracks behind the Rock Springs sign.  

Our next 4 days are going to be spent at a “Hang out” in Coalville, UT with an RV focused u-tube channel couple.  We went to one of their events in October and had lots of fun, so decided to do this one while we could.  

Til next time.  

Harvest Host and On the Road

 Our next overnight was at a Harvest Host Winery, Old Mans Creek Vineyard, in Wellman, IA.  We had a great evening with the owners, Tom and Vicki, and swapping stories.  

Wine making and tasting area

The metal ceiling and beams are part of an old structure on Vicki’s father’s farm

This is where we visited.  Their original intention was to have the whole basement as tasting and wine making area, but due to county regulations, the business can only be 10% of the house.  So this area became the visiting area.

They established the winery in 2005 as a hobby for when they retire.  In 2007 he retired and have run it as a full time hobby.  The land the vineyard is on was originally part of Vicki’s family farm where she grew up.  The original farm was 400+ acres.  When the father passed, they purchased 40 acres for the vineyard. Various family members bought portions of the property as well.  When they purchased it they lived in another town nearby, but eventually they built a house on the property to make it easier to tend the vineyard, to have the winery and for Vicki to be “back home”. 

Some interesting information that we learned.  

Vicki had no running water on the farm growing up.  The first time she had running water was when she went to college.  Didn’t think twice about it cause didn’t know any different.  

Tom was a pharmacist and had owned two stores.  You know, the independent pharmacists that no longer exist.  (O’Neill’s - think of Bernie).  

They started the vineyard with 1,500-1,600 vines.  They had no background, just thought it would be an interesting retirement hobby.  The first year was a dry year, so they had to water the plants.  They did this with a 350 gal water tank and trailer and went plant to plant watering.  They have learned alot over the years.

The first year they had foch, concord and vanessa grapes.  They found that the vanessa were not hardy enough for the IA weather.  Over time they added Edelweiss and Brianna.  These were hardy plants from Minnesota and St. Louis. 

One interesting thing, Dave asked if you could divide the vines to grow the vineyard.  You can do clippings and try to propagate, but you can’t separate plants as they are patented.  Who knew?

There needs to be 12 leaves on a vine to produce a cluster of grapes.

Average year they produce 21,000-28,000 pounds of grapes.  Their best year was 34,000 lbs.  Last year was their worst at 9,000 lbs.  This was due to herbicide drift from a neighboring farm.  There had been some damage previously, but it depends on what crop the farmer grows.  If it is corn, it doesn’t affect them because they spray before it grows.  With beans, they spray once plant is grown, so sprayed higher and hence drift.  The solution as provided by Iowa Agriculture department is send a letter to all the owners around you and spray companies informing them you have a vineyard.  

They were a part of an amateur wine makers club where they learned a lot and shared some equipment, etc.  However, the club disturbed because a good portion of the club started their own wineries.  The local college also offered classes in horticulture and wine making, so that is where Tom gained some expertise.

He told us the story of getting approval to have the winery license.  Had no problem with the federal and state government, but many issues with the county government.  Lots of little things that you can work around, just makes things less efficient.

We learned how they processed the grapes and what grapes they mixed for their various wines. The process for all wines is ferment, clarify, filter and bottle.  All their wines are made dry, then sweetened. That is the only way they can make it consistent is by starting with dry wine (all sugar fermented out) and then adding the same amount of sugar back in for consistency.  They have 4 outlets they sell their wine to, plus those who come to the winery and Harvest Host visitors.  They said Harvest Host has really helped their business as they are off the beat and path and it brings people there.  Last year was their first year as a host and they had 91 campers. 

They like Harvest Host because the winery takes a lot of time, so it gives them a way to “travel” through their visitors.  

Vicki is the one with the taste for wine and she makes all of the decisions on what the blends will be. 

Harvest is in August.   average 1,200-1,500 lbs of grapes.  They use some 1,200-1,500 lbs of grapes for their wines and sell the rest.

12 lbs of grapes equals 1 gallon of juice.

85-90% of juice turns to wine. 

All of their wine is made from their grapes only.

We sat with them sipping wine for about two hours learning all this and swapping our stories about our travels.  This is why we like Harvest Host so much. 

On The Road

As we travelled from the winery to the next stop we passed the Worlds Largest Truck Stop in Walcott, IA.  Of course we stopped in just to see.  They had a museum, which we didn’t have time to tour, and a massive  “store” which had snacks, gifts, a restaurant, a truck parts section as big as a normal truck stop, etc.  On the second level they had a laundry, dentist and chiropractor.  I found this sign with a few trucking facts interesting.

Til next time.

Indiana Dunes National Park

 The first hike we did in the park was over the dunes on a 250 stair boardwalk to Lake Michigan.  The first most striking thing to me was how huge the lake was, as far as you could see and kept going, and the small crested waves crashing to the beach.  Didn’t expect that from a lake.  Also the dunes were very high.  I am used to Jersey dunes that they create to protect the beach.  These are natural dunes that before preserving they would take the sand from to make glass, industrial and fill purposes.  

We learned that there are sections that due to wind creates a bowl which can get deep enough to reach the water table.  This then creates a new habitat for varying plants and animals.  This area is called a panne. 

Our next venture took us to 5 Century of Progress homes that had been moved to the area by a developer to bring interest to this new resort area.  These homes were from the 1933-34 Chicago Worlds Fair.  Four were moved by barge across Lake Michigan and the other by truck.  These homes demonstrated 1933-34 modern architectural design, experimental materials and new technologies such as dishwashers and central air conditioning.  

Here are the pics of the homes and their descriptions.  If you enlarge the description you should be able to read it.  All had great views of Lake Michigan, but the Florida Tropical house and the Experiment in Home Bldg were right on the Lake and had gorgeous views.  The Florida one in particular had huge patios on the top of the house to just look out for miles. 

Our final day (really both days) at Indiana Dunes was windy and chilly, so Dave worked, I did wash.  Then we went to the Lighthouse and walked a little before the wind drove us back to the car.  That was Dave’s work break.  Back to the satellite office, which happened to have a Joanns nearby.  So I got a walk and a nice haul of bargin craft supplies.  

Til next time

RV Museum

 We stayed at the RV, Mobile/Modular Home Museum, a Harvest Host location.  We had lots of fun touring the museum.  We ran out of time the day we arrived, so went back the next day as well before we left.  They had a bunch of RVs, from the beginning of people making their own to campers of the future.  They also had an area about covered wagons, which really was the first RV since people traveled long distances in them, slept in them and kept their goods in them.  The Mobile/Modular home area was interesting as well to see how that progressed and changed over time.  The modular housing part was particularly interesting.  They are basically building a sticks and bricks house in a factory and delivering it.  They say it costs less and has better quality control. 

One thing we did notice about the RVs is though decorations and technology changes, the layouts are still pretty much the same.  You could definitely tell the age of some by their shag carpet and interesting colors.  

Enjoy the pics.

 

This is a 1913 Trailer pulled by a Model T Ford.  We noticed how prevalent wood was for a long time in trailers and couldn’t help think about how much weight that added.  Today it’s all about how light you can make the trailer.

This is a 1916 telescoping apartment.  In my mind, it is the first camper with slide outs.  This was sold for you to put on your truck.  On both sides there was a compartment that slid out while you were parked, one being the kitchen.  This also had warm water for a shower produced by radiator heat from the engine.  

This is a 1916 “pop up”.  It is an example of the very earliest manufactured trailers.  Most trailers at this time were homemade.

This trailer was custom build for Charles Lindbergh

1931 Model AA Ford Housecar.  Notice on the inside it has a wood burning fireplace for heat. 

This is an example of the wood in alot of the early trailers.  It looks like they put a dresser and kitchen sideboard from a home in the trailer.  

The housecar in this picture was custom made by Paramount Studios as an enticement for Mae West to leave Vaudeville and begin to make movies for them.  It was designed as a chauffeur driving lounge.  There was a hot plate stove and icebox so she could have lunch or a spot of tea.  It was used for several years to transport Mae West from home or hotel to the shooting locations. There was a back porch on the vehicle so she could sit on a rocking chair and enjoy the breeze.

1937 Hunt Housecar.  This looked very futuristic to me.

The uniqueness of this trailer is it was made to fit in a house’s garage.

This trailer brought back memories, as did several, as far as the cabinets.  I remember cabinets like that in the house I grew up in.  Also notice the heating unit.

This camper was homemade, an all aluminum motorhome, in 1988.  It was built on a Cadillac Eldorado Chassis which was obvious from the back.  It is a unique sleek design that definitely caught my eye.

We follow several utube camping channels, one being Keep Your Daydream.  They had used this 1984 Wanderlodge in one of their seasons as they travelled Route 66.  The most unique feature of this motorhome is the built in blender (LOL).   The drivers panel was quite elaborate as the camper is a huge bus.  It was cool to see something in person that you watched travel a good part of the country.  

One final fun trailer.  This lady always wanted to live in a log cabin, so she hired someone to paint her trailer to look like a log cabin.  The details were things like, the door looked like a screen door where you saw inside features of a cabin.  There were window boxes under the windows with flowers.  There was the look of an outside chimney up the side of the camper to hide the utility panels.

Well, if you made it this far, you can tell I really enjoyed the museum and it was hard to pick and choose what to show you. 

Til next time.