WAY DOWN UPON THE SUANNEE RIVER June 12

Six years ago Jo and I visited Florida’s Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Sate Park. We returned this year so Jo’s sister, Arla ( who is traveling to FL with us), also could enjoy the park.

Stephen Foster, who died in 1864 at the age of 37, wrote over 200 songs in his brief career. He lived in Pennsylvania and was not a Southerner. One classification of the kinds of his music (with an example) are: minstrel songs (Camptown Races), love songs (Beautiful Dreamer), spiritual songs (Hard Times Came Again No More), popular songs (My Old Kentucky Home Good Night) and civil war songs (Was My Brother in the Battle). His lyrics included the words “Black and Darkie” and some were written in the “Darkie’s” dialect. Displays made the point that he did not glorify slavery; rather his lyrics reflected the word useage of the era – 150 years ago. He was one of the first American professional songwriters.

I remember my grandfather, Jay Black, playing the banjo and singing many of Foster’s songs. Jo has similar memories of her father playing them too. What memories do you have of Foster songs? I suspect that our children and grandchildren are not even familiar with his name.

These pictures were taken in my Motorola cell phone's 10 mp camera. This is the first time I have downloaded them to the computer.

  

This carillon tower plays Foster tunes several time a per day. The  Carillon in the 200 ft. tower is noteworthy because  it has 97 bells. The tubular bells vary in weight from 69 to 426 pounds. It was completed in 1958.

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Jo is approaching the main museum building. It has a large collection of unusual pianos as well as original sheet music of Fosters songs.

 

Displays in one end of the building. Several unusual pianos are on display.

 

Dioramas illustrate some of Foster’s songs . This one is on “Way down Upon the Suwannee River. A steamboat moves in he background.

This diorama  is on My Old Kentucky Home. Some of the figures move.

 

This one depicts “Old Black Joe”.

This display explains the tragedy of Foster’s untimely passing.

 

 

Our camping spot for the night – a pullthrough with water and 30 amps plus satellite TV from our rooftop antenna. Spanish moss hangs from most of the tree branches.

COLONA CARNIVAL AND HEADLIGHT COVER CLEANING May 26, 2014

We have been in Quad City suburb Colona IL for a week. Jo has had several visits with her 96 year old mother. The Cooper Clan sisters (Arla, Jo and Barbara) and family members have gotten together for pizza and cards, Tuesday happy hours, and, usually at Jo’s urging, a few meals out. Jo and I also have sampled a few Whitey’s milkshakes, always excellent.

A small carnival appears for the Memorial Day weekend  in Colona every year, and for the first time I attended it, just to reminisce and take pictures. The rides seem much the same as 50 years a ago, as do the games of chance/skill, but I missed the bumper cars.

Pictures are taken in the Canon A1100 IS 12 mp point and shoot camera.

 

I was there at twilight, the time families with young children attended. Ride tickets were $1.00 each, and rides charged between 3 and 5 tickets to ride. Oh, the effects of inflation!

This ride was best suited to the very young. 

And this ride was a scaled down roller coaster.

 

On this one centrifugal force overcomes gravity.

A tamer example  of centrifugal force.

This carnival had no ferris wheel. While this ride at first glance seems close, the passenger cages rotate 360 degrees while the big arm rotates. I would be quick to pass on this one.

 

The object of this one was to throw a ball at the cups and win whatever prize was named in the cup you might knock over.

Here the contestant had the satisfaction of popping a balloon with a dart to win the promised prize.

 

Of course, all sorts of delicacies were available at the food booths.

 

The plastic headlight covers on our Jeep looked like they had cataracts, so I invested in the 3M product kit to remove the clouding and make them clear again. This is the first time for me  to clean the covers. Mike has done two, so he is the old hand with using the kit.

The first picture is the before condition.

 

I used the masking tape in the kit to protect the finish on the body  while successive higher grits on small sanding disks powered by an electric drill were used on the plastic to remove the haze. Mike Williams and I took turns in the grinding/polishing process.

This is the final result we were able to get with all of the sanding disks in the kit. While it is a big improvement, we could gotten it clearer  with more disks.

MISSOURI 4 WHEELING PARK May 18, 2014

Jo’s oldest grandson, Adam, took us 4 wheeling Missouri style in his older Jeep Cherokee (XJ) which has been duly modified as you will see from the pictures. There is little public land in Missouri accessible to 4 wheelers, so private enterprise has stepped in to fill the void. This 4 wheel drive park is about 25 miles from St Clair and covers 600 acres of wooded steep hills with plenty of ravines and a live stream for those who like to play in the mud.

While Jo and I drove to the park in our Jeep Grand Cherokee  we did not run it there. I took about 25 minutes of video from Adam’s Jeep to show some of the trails, including one which Adam could not go up for want of a rear locker. The road deserves a name, but Adam says naming rights go only those who can drive up it.

When we paid our $10.00 per person admission fee the cashier gave us this rough sketch of the roads in the area, color coded for difficulty level. The more challenging roads were named by signs in the field.

As we started, Adam's Jeep was relatively clean. Contrast this view with the ones at the end! It has the venerable Jeep 4.0 L 6 cyl engine, front lockers, more rugged larger tires, a lift kit and torsion bar release for greater articulation.

This road is typical of the easier roads in the park.

This road is named, so it must have a lot of challenges.

And here is the lower part of the Stairway To The Moon.

Ruts like this one are common. I got out here to get shots of the Jeep going up this road.

 

 

Climbing the hill.

And topping out.

This is typical of a lot of the roads – a steep downgrade to a stream or gulley and straight up the steep hill.

 

In competition, rock crawlers are to go up the rock between the small tree  just to left of center and the red painted line on the right.  We saw several spots like this which look impossible but are climbed by the rock crawlers.

Here is the live stream and one of the large rocks to keep the area interesting.

At the end of the 3 hours spent at the park Adam is reattaching the front suspension components while I am just getting in one of the pictures. Note that the rear vision mirror is turned in.

Jo and the now muddy Jeep. Adam was adept in snaking the Jeep through trees and no new marks were made on it.

MOAB 2014 – HIDDEN CANYON AND 3D May 9, 2014

 

On Friday I caught a ride with Doug and Peggy Bogart in their Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon model, duly tricked out by Doug. The road was rated a 3 and the only obstacle making it a 3 was about 100 yards of climbing over rough terrain .Doug thought that I could take the hill in our Grand Cherokee. I had not been on this road before.

There were 13 vehicles on this run, all Jeep Wranglers

It is a good idea to arrive at the gathering place at least 15 minutes before scheduled departure time for socializing (above) and the drivers meeting (below). Our trail leader is at the far left and did a great job. All of the Jeeps had CB radios for communication on the trail.

 

Ritual “airing down” takes place as some wide spot on the trail before the 4 wd needs to be engaged.

The  first stop was at Tusher Tunnel, a natural opening through the rock wall so one can see the valley on the other side.

On the trail to Tusher Tunnel.

 

Our road was the access to some named trails rated 4 and higher. One was Pickle, only a half mile long which takes an hour! Above is the last of several obstacles on Pickle, a near vertical climb.

 

This is just  the approach to the climb in the foregoing picture.

 

For drivers who want to go around obstacles, sometimes there are easier routes or bypasses, as here.

 

Jeepers sometimes go out of their way to find obstacles. Here the crack above can be straddled to make crossing it exciting

 

This lunch spot overlooks Hidden Canyon. We watched other groups of vehicles passing on the roads below.

 

An unobstructed view of Hidden Canyon.

MOAB 2014 – GEMINI CLIFFS RUN WITH THE FMCA 4 WHEELERS May 7, 2014

 

With the delay in Flagstaff, we arrived three days late for the FMCA 4 Wheelers rally in Moab. Our Jeep is suitable for the trails rated 2 and 2 1/2. Fortunately, Gemini Cliffs (2 1/2) was available to run with a group on Wednesday. We had not been on  it before so it was a treat for us.

 

The white Jeep behind us is about to drop over the rock outcropping at the top. That one was typical of many of the obstacles on this run. The trail leader on a pre-run had stacked rocks to make going up over an obstacle like this one easier. We did that one without a hitch.

Gemini Cliffs is also called Hook and Ladder in the guide books of the Moab area. It is southeast of Moab and has its own fine scenic views of the LaSal mountains.

 

We just climbed from the highway below to the plateau here, with a good view of Wilson Arch below.

 

Here was a steep spot with some rocks to climb on the way up. This road is very difficult do drive after a rain.

 

 

The trail leaders usually find very picturesque places to pause for lunch.

 

There were only five vehicles in our run, a nice number.

At the end of the run we dropped down a steep “slick rock” hill about 200 ft. long to go from the plateau down to the highway in the valley. Maybe the next time in the area I can drive up it!

At the end of all runs in the area, it is time to “air up” the tires. Many with tires larger than ours reduce air pressure to 10 lbs. I am not that brave and drop mine to 17 lbs.