Awake: 5:21am Temp 53 sleep 6+02 sunny overnight @ Nicktown.
K & I walk to 8:00am Mass & then join the KK meeting for over an hr.
After breakfast, we motor to Indiana, PA & visit the Foote Family. Kevin was just finishing his dinner & returning to work. Andrew just woke up from a nap & Matthew & Nathan are ready to go to the Indiana Fair.
About (40) min later, we are on our way; if you arrive before 2:00pm, no charge. After 2:00pm, a charge. The Footes & Kathy attended last year but this will be my 1st time. It’s a rather large operation.
As we enter the grounds, one can’t help but see a lot of farming equipment; new for sale & old for memories. En route to the Fun Land for kids, we met Randy, Mary Ann & Mac; introductions were made with the Footes, then we continued past the 4H club animals, cows, poultry, horses, etc. According to Melissa, this kids’ area was the only building they explored @ the fair last year.
It has a fishing pond (magnetized); a farmers market area where they get a basket in which they collect (1) wooden apple off the tree, (3) eggs from the chicken roost, & (2) potatoes which they have to “dig” out of the potato patch (sawdust box), bring the basket to the sales person where they’re paid & awarded their prize; there were also (2) small pedal tractors that the boys could ride & pull small bales of straw around in a circle; a wooden Holstein cow the kids can “milk:” & other things kids can enjoy. We spend over an hr watching the kids have fun. Before we leave the building, who do we meet? Mary Ann, Randy & Mac who didn’t spend as much time @ Fun Land as we did. However, they did introduce us to another very important destination: the train display.
The boys were pretty excited about walking to see the train display; fortunately for the senior engineers that controlled the tracks & 4 or 5 trains, a rigid fence was between them & the display. We know that the Foote boys are experts @ pushing buttons, levers & moving dials & would have loved to been in control of the controls. The “O” gage track & trains were classic & most prized by their owners. (4 or 5) trains going around a large oval track for @ least (30) min kept those eyes & heads a moving. For the adults, this building also had a mini vacuum cleaner museum; and on the other side of the building, a collection of old tools. Both of these displays were most impressive for what they had and the good condition the items were in plus the items were labeled.
From here, it was only a short walk to the children’s park; there we had some snacks & watched the boys run, jump & climb to release a little pent up energy.
Next, we walked a short distance & with about (60) other people in bleachers, watched the Wild Animal Show with an alligator, a giant snapping turtle, an (10) foot snake, an owl, a parrot, a monkey, and more. It was most interesting as a young woman introduced each animal with a story and/or facts about it & had some of the animals perform tricks. Audience participation was encouraged to hold the huge snake.
K & I had to leave the show before it was over; prior commitments. We say our goodbyes for now, motor to Nicktown, have another snack, change clothes, drive over to the church hall & join Carol, Dave, Gene & Oscar in painting some more of the church hall & pavilion. We brush beige paint over primer for a good (2) hrs & finish the panels we were assigned to just before darkness set in.
We were about to leave when Barry announced that they had replaced the water pump which had failed & the washing of the dishes for the Homecoming Picnic scheduled to be done tonight could proceed. Dish washing is not my forte so I scrambled back to our coach. Kathy stayed & helped; Barry drove her back @ 10:00pm.
Dinner: healthy snacks & popcorn.
We watch some of Hillary’s speech @ the Democratic Convention. Kathy was worn out so….no movie tonight.
Lights out: 12:05am
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