Back Country Roads

After being cooped up in the house all week I suggested to my dear Hubby that we take a drive.  He asked me where I wanted to go, then with a twinkle in his eye like a little kid he blurts out ICE CREAM!!!  I told him sure but I was thinking more along the lines of just grabbing the camera and hitting the back roads.  So off we go. . .

We come across this driveway with a fence that just disappears over the hill.

Old wooden bridge that leads back into the fields.

Old farms in the distance.

We took a couple of dirt roads that took us deeper into the country side.

And saw lots of corn fields.

We even came across the old dairy farm that dear Hubby use to work at.

Saw lots of cows out grazing.

We came across this cute little barn with a cow on the roof.

We even came across one of my many favorites ... Squirrel Creek, which is a little Amish store that I frequent quite often.

This next pic is about the extent of the woods that you find around here...

Ok we have a little more woods than that around here, but with all the corn fields and soybeans here I have to joke around about the amount of trees when we do finally see them.  After growing up in Northern Wisconsin where you have a tree every 5 inches, you start to miss the woods.

We came into this little town called Stockdale and Don showed me the old mill that's in town.

We went up the road a little bit to Roann to see the covered bridge.  The bridge was built in 1877 and crosses the Eel River. 

Then dear Hubby asked me if I wanted to drive across it, I kind of looked at him out of the corner of my eye and all I could think about was the old movie with Chevy Chase where the moving truck is going across an old covered bridge like this and the tires of the truck falls through the boards.  I believe the movie was Funny Farm. 
This next pic looks like we are flying across the bridge but we were really only doing about 2 mph. 

After the mill and bridge tours it was starting to get too dark to take anymore pics so we decided to head home.  We never did make it to get ice cream, but we put almost 50 miles on!  I guess ice cream will have to be another trip!

Until next time . . .
Sara

75th Annual Reunion!

Yesterday I was invited to a family reunion on my husband's side of the family.  It was the 75th Annual Strong Family Reunion!

 Every year for the past 75 years his family has been getting together.  The surprising part of it was that my father-in-law, his sister, my husband and his brother are the last of the family that carry the "Strong" name.  Now I know why my mother-in-law is always asking if we are planning on having kids!

Anyways, the party was very nice, and it was great meeting some "new" family members.

This next picture is of a cousin and his mother, I believe her name was Marge and his was Steve.  Marge has attended 74 out of the 75 reunions.  The only one that she missed was I believe last years and it was because her daughter was getting married.

 



We exchanged phone numbers and addresses with a few of the family members and we look forward to meeting up with them again in the near future.

After leaving the reunion we took a short drive over to the Strong Cemetery to visit and pay our respects to the family members that are no longer here on earth with us.  Aunt MaryBeth explained to me that the cemetery was named after the Strong family because they had donated the land to the town for a place to lay loved ones to rest.  In honor of the donation they named it after the family.

So like I said in yesterdays post, I have busy busy busy traveling the last few weeks.  Unfortunately, we will be missing the Donner Family Reunion this coming weekend.  Anyone who knows their history has heard about the Donner Party, who went West in search of new lives and got stranded in the Rocky Mountains.  Well . . . we are direct descendants of the brothers that had come from Germany.  One stayed in the East and the rest went West.  I am proud to say that I am part of the Donner Party History!  That will have to be another post lol!

Anyways, I am home again and looking forward to getting a little rest from the vehicles!

Until next time . . .

Sara

Back Home Again ...

I feel like its been forever since I have posted last.  I guess that's because I have been a traveling fool the last few weeks.  Back on July 9th, dear Hubby and I took a road trip back home to Northern Wisconsin to see my family.  We left around 3:00am so didn't get much for pictures until we hit the Wisconsin border.  It turned soooo foggy that you could hardly see a 1/4 mi up the road.

The fog did make for some pretty sunrise pictures though . . .

We finally got to Mom and Dad's place around 1:00pm and found Mom on the lawn mower.  Sam pulled in a little while later and kicked Mom off the lawn mower long enough to write his name in the yard.  The picture didn't turn out the best but if you look close you can see the "AM"

He was pretty proud of his work . . .

Sam's girlfriend Ashley showed up after she got off of work to come visit Don and I and to let us know how much she has missed us.

We had a family fun day at the lake with lots of games played and stories told, swimming and cooking out.  I believe the final head count was somewhere around 67 people that showed up which is just a fraction of the family.  I would post the pics from the lake but Mom already uploaded my pics and posted them on her blog. 

Like every vacation it's never long enough and the time flies by too fast.  But it was so nice getting home and sleeping in my own bed again.  But I sure wasn't expecting the weather to change so much along the way south.  When we left WI it was a comfortable 76, by time we got down around the Chicago area it had heated up drastically around 97 and some heavy rain which lasted about 15 min.  The next few days we had 98, 99, and 97.  It was so hot out that you didn't even hear the birds chirping during the day. 

One thing I was thankful for was that my lilies waited until I got home before they opened up.  I was unsure on what kind they were so I didn't want to miss the blooms.

I did notice today that I have a couple yellow roses on my rose bush but I haven't taken any pics yet.  Maybe tomorrow . . .

Until next time . . .
Sara

Every family has a hilarious child ... my family has many!

My sister Staci ...

My husband Don ...

My youngest niece Bailey ...

 My brother Sam and my brother-in-law Paul ...

 

My brother-in-law Bill ...

My brother Sam ...

Don and his brother Bill ...

My cousin Andy ...

Don and I with "Where's Waldo" in the background ...

What kind of hilarious kids have your family been blessed with?

Until next time ...
Sara

 

Fireworks on the 4th!

I was playing around a little bit with my camera during the fireworks so some of the pics didn't quite turn out but I think they still look cool and have character.

The fireworks here in Akron sure are a lot better than back home.  They lasted about 25 min which is about 20 min longer than up north lol.  Last year I was soooo disappointed, I sat outside about 15 min before the fireworks were suppose to start.  The whole time I felt like I was about to be carried off by mosquitoes.  I decided that I was going to run into the house real quick and change out of my shorts and put on a pair of pants.  While inside I could hear the fireworks starting so I was hurrying so I wouldn't miss the beginning.  I was inside not even 5 min and when I got back outside I MISSED IT!!!!  Are you KIDDING ME????  I got chewed to pieces, I was about airborne from mosquitoes and for what??? Some itchy bites and no fireworks!!!!  Truly disappointed in Park Falls.  We put on a better show ourselves when we went to Texas a few years ago for a visit over the 4th.  We had 2 straight hours of the big boomers that you see here in the photos, not the sparklers and bottle rockets that you normally see around.  So you can understand my disappointment in Park Falls when they couldn't even put on a 5 min show.

Thank you Akron for restoring my fireworks faith ... I'm like a little kid watching them ooohhhhing and aaahhhhing, hoping the next one will be better than the last one, and Akron didn't disappoint.  I just wish the battery on my camera would have lasted until the grand finale (I forgot to charge it today ... oops).

Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July and got to enjoy the fireworks wherever you are!

Until next time ...
Sara