Jasper to John Deere country and beyond

Walter holding an indian arrow head, and other interesting articles on train (Trails & Rails)
Niagra from the US side.
Mississippi and local characters
An amazing vehicle

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We arrived a couple of hours late at Buffalo NY state, but Kelly, Jim and Jacob were there waiting for us. Late arrival, curtesy of the 3 hours it took us to get back into the US. Kelly had lived here in Australia with her parents for 3 years, and she went to the same school as my daughter Shannon. Kelly and Jim now have another son, Jason, who we will meet when we visit them later this year. We only had two days in Buffalo, but they were very enjoyable.
We saw the Niagra Falls, but just from the the US side, as we didn't want to risk another lengthy border crossing. Had some good food again, see photo of Walter & I wearing our bibs and eating ribs at Tony Roma's .

It was soon time to leave for Chicago, then Galesburg and on to Milan, one of the Quad cities, where Keith and Michelle, Kelly's parents live. Keith is the head accountant for John Deere, so of course we did lots of John Deere things. Took a tour through the combine harvester plant, it was great, I thoroughly enjoyed it as well as Walter. The plant was spotless, I've certainly never been in a factory anything like it. We saw the assembly from start to finish and the spraypainting, which was really quite amazing, we were fascinated with it all. John Deere are a very family orinentated company, and it is a great place to work.

We `saw the amazing vechicle pictured, while we were out with Michelle one day, and of course Walter had to have a picture of it to show back home, it could be yours for a measley $22,000
US.

Once again we ate at some great places, one was "Sneaky Pete's" on the banks of the Mississippi, you may notice in the photo, that nthere are lots of neckties hanging from the rafters, they have a policy of no formal wear, and if anyone comes in wearing a tie, the waitresses come along with a large pair of shears and cut it off. The food was superb as usual and another interesting little custom that have there is that you drink out of glass jars. It is very popular, so it seems nobody minds these odd little things that they do. One night we had a "cook out", even though it was very cold, we just put on lots of sweaters and rugs, and had our feast, sitting around the fire talking and laughing.

The whole week was filled with laughter, but our rail passes were running low, so we had to move on. On our last morning there, in the field opposite their home, the farmer was picking ( that's what they called reaping) the corn, so we watched, fascinated, as the machine picked the corn, stripped the kernels and tossed out the cob, all this with the husk still attached. We had a great breakfast at an old fashioned diner and then caught the first of several trains to took us to Harper's Ferry, where we stayed at the same B&B as I had back in 97, and they helped make our time there wonderful.

We needed a hire vehicle while we were there, and the only one we could get was an enormous Chevy pick up truck, it felt quite weird just us two old fogey's driving around in it, however it got us to the places we wanted to see, like Gettysburg and Antietum, it's hard to describe just what it was like to be there, standing on those battlefields. We hired a tour guide, they actually take you around in your own vehicle, so it is a lot makes more personal and interesting way to go. Even Walter "enjoyed" if that is the word, for such a place, his time there. Harper's Ferry it's self is such a great place, so our three days there, soon slipped by.

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I am off to Windy Harbour, with my friend Morna, tommorow, so no posts till at least Tuesday, it is such a peaceful place to be, no phones, TV, etc., I have some stitching to do, so wont be bored.

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The biggest liar in the world is "they say"