2010-11-02

Well, THAT'S Over With…


So now that all the boxes are unpacked, the pictures (mostly) hung, the in-law visits are done, Halloween is done, Gwen's birthday party has been thrown, and October and all it's "B(.)(.)Biness" is over, I suppose it's time to get back to real life, and tell you what's been going on around the here.  So here's a little trip into the time machine, back to the late summer, early fall.

Don't forget your tin-foil hat.

HISTORY-01

This first picture I had to snap in secret.  You know how it is.  You're out in public and you cannot believe what you are seeing.  In this case, it was during the river cruise that Cora and I took with her father when he was in town delivering her stuff.  While on out Lake Michigan cruise, a man sat next to me, wearing those shoes.  Let me correct that: an adult male.  I really have to question the manhood of anyone wearing a pointy toed, cloth slipper in public in the middle of the day.  But, more of an explanation than a defense, he was European.

For Labor Day, we went down to Kewanee, IL for "Hog Days".  It's a classis small town summer-fest.  Carnival, midway, parade, and pork burgers.  Yeah, I'll get to them last.

HOGDAYS-05

The Hog Days parade is a classic.  And now, instead of being 15 miles from my parent's house, it's about 1.5 blocks.  You have to get to the park early to stake out your spot.  The parade is full of local high school marching bands, antique farm equipment, floats, Shriners, fire trucks, and a huge septic truck with "Yesterday's Meals On Wheel" written on the side.

And then there are some of the "novelty" entries.  There is actually someone HOGDAYS-06in that little ambulance, driving along the route.  Now, I'm really not sure what's going on with the guy in the purple Prowler.  I took the picture, because one of my uncle has a purple Prowler.  But I hope he doesn't have a blond wig.

The parade was full of nostalgia for me, and more tractors than Gwen & Cora had ever seen in all the parades in their lives wrapped in one.  But eventually, the parade ended with the horses, and we took off.

The next day, we had a little reception for our marriage for a lot of friends and family that couldn't make it out to Seattle.  On the way home, we saw this sign:

HOGDAYS-04

Nice.  Isn't publicly humiliating a 16 year old girl your definition of "love", too?

After the party, the girls and I headed up to the carnival.

HOGDAYS-03

I shot about 20 pictures while they were on the swings.  This the closest I got to a good picture.

HOGDAYS-02

And then Gwen and I got ready for our ride on the Ferris wheel.

HOGDAYS-01

By the look on Gwen's face, I can only imagine she was having a good time.  I, personally, was just starting to get motion sick when the ride ended.

But I recovered my appetite just in time for one of the great, simple pleasures of life:
 HOGDAYS-07      
The pork burger sandwich. That dude, (well, one that ISN'T half eaten) runs you an entire $1.50.  I had two.  And one of the $3.00 butterfly pork chop sandwiches.  And I relearned a lesson from my youth: the pork burgers are better.

That's some of what's been going on around here.

Catch you up more in a bit.

 

 

-- Pssst… You can take the tin foil hat off.  I was just kidding.

11 comments:

Some Guy said...

Pork burgers sound heavenly. Hogs deserve to be celebrated.

MJenks said...

I miss the midwest's fascination with pork burgers and tenderloins and pork chop sandwiches.

It seems down here that the only way to cook pieces of pig is to smoke it and soak it in vinegar and tomato chunks.

SkylersDad said...

I grew up in a small town, but we didn't have any farms in the mountains. So most of the parade was marching bands, volunteer fire fighters in their trucks, and a vast array of weird old trucks that are not classics, just old.

Cora said...

Seattle's parades always feature pirates. Pirates with floats that actually produce cannon fire. KABOOM!!!!

I heart FFD said...

Mmm...pork burgers. I found out who supplies the pork burgers at Ag Days in my hometown so now I know where to buy them. I'm going to have to make a run for them at Thanksgiving.

Scope said...

There are far too few pork based sandwiches available to the general public. The pork burger and the tenderloin sandwich are two great examples that pig are more than merely "bacon factories".

Now, if McDonald's rolled out a legitimate pork burger instead of the McRib...

J.J. in L.A. said...

Gwen is a girl after my own heart. I love ferris wheels!

And a pork burger? I need a beef fix every once in a while and our town festivals have awesome burgers.

Sassy Britches said...

Do not even get me STARTED on porkburgers. I missed the county fair this year where they sell LEGITIMATE ones (i.e., from the Pork Producers of our county), because of being in Japan, and I was REALLY GRUMPY about it. I have a porkburger dance, I get so excited about it. (It's to the tune of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, just FYI).

Did I mention I love porkburgers?

Anonymous said...

I imagine your life has changed a lot since you got married.But you seem to be enjoying it all.

Anonymous said...

yep its not a real parade without pirates and star wars characters. ;)

Candy's daily Dandy said...

The shoes you speak of here are called Tom's.

I did a whole blog post on thoes puppies and I LOVEEEE mine.it's all about charity and kids in third world countries.

The thing about guys wearing them?
I 100% agree with you...