July 22, 2009

We have been in Indiana for about a week now. So far, with Char’s brother Bill and his wife Jeanette, we saw the “Daylight”, a Southern Pacific’s Steam locomotive built in 1941. It was on the way east to a railroad convention near Detroit, Michigan and stopped in Michigan City for a couple of hours. The locomotive was too large to fit through the trestle and had to detour around town. The rest of the train, with Southern Pacific executives and dignitaries, was brought from Chicago by a modern diesel locomotive. They reconnected here and continued on to Michigan.

Jeanette, Bill & Char with the famous locomotive in the background.

The crew does lots of cleaning and polishing at every stop.

Letting off steam in preparation for departure from Michigan City.

This is the final car in the train as it leaves town.

The last few days we have been going to the local county fair. It has been many years since we have done this. We have seen some great 4H exhibits and had the opportunity to see some of the people we grew up with. So far our favorite thing has been watching the draft horses - both open class and 4H. It amazes us to watch these youngsters, some perhaps only four foot tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, expertly handling these 1200-2000 pound horses.

Here a young 4Her is showing her horse to the judge.

This is some of the participants in the 4H showmanship of draft horses.

This is the winner of the Open Class 4 hitch team competition.

This man is showing his team of 11-year-old oxen to people on the midway.

This evening we went to dinner with my brother Roger and his wife Judy. After dinner we went for a ride so Grandpa Roger could show his Granddaughter, Natalie, some of the deer in the area. We saw several and a few were very young.

This young deer was enjoying a meal along the roadway.

This youngster was staying close to Mom.

This deer took one last look before disappearing into the woods.

Bill and Jeanette bought us daily passes for the County Fair so we still have three more days of fun, food and lots of walking. We are tired at the end of the day and sleep well each night.