Mother Jones

Mary Harris Jones "Mother Jones" is not a name that many of you have ever heard , but she was one of the most famous women of the first half of 20th century. I originally heard about her when I did a little research on the publication named after her, Mother Jones magazine.











Her burial place and memorial is just off the "mother road" (old route66) in Mt. Olive, Il.

She was called "The most dangerous women in America". Not because she was a gangster mama, but because she was a union organizer.













Every coal miner, union worker, and American owe a great deal to this small (about 5ft.) fireball lady. After losing her hustand and children to Yellow Fever
and then everything she owned in the great Chicago fire, she sent on a crusade to make America a better place for all workers.

Brooks Catsup

We took some time off and did a little roaming around last week and took a picture of the worlds largest catsup bottle. It was built as a water tower for the company that produced Brooks Catsup.

You can check out the official web sight here.
http://www.catsupbottle.com/

We were heading to Litchfield, Illinois for a family visit but took the indirect route there and back. An 800 mile round trip turned into 1500 miles with our sightseeing.

A few more posts about our trip will follow when I have time and energy.

Bail Out

Can I apply for a bailout?

Two years ago, I bought a 2006 Dodge 3/4 ton diesel truck. It is now worth less than I gave for it.

That's life, you say!

Wait a minute, my truck being worth less is dragging down the prices on all the 2006 Dodge trucks.

My truck is not going to be repossessed because I could afford it. Those that could not afford their trucks will have them repossessed. Do I care, NO!

Do I want my tax dollars bailing them out, HELL NO!

About three years ago while on vacation, I wrote about the wind farm we spotted in Iowa.
http://1948model.blogspot.com/2006/06/windmill-farm.html
We have a new plant in Little Rock (a short distance from the dairy) that makes the blades for windmills. How cool is that!















As always, you can click on my pictures to make them larger.

Here's your sign!

Look just below the American flag














and you will see "your sign".

Lucky Me

Some times my good fortune even surprises me.



We still own our motorhome and it is sitting in the driveway until the time I am willing to sell it. The a/c plastic cover has become brittle over the years and is missing chunks that have broken and blown away. Not a very pretty site. A new cover costs about $125. A new cover would only help the a/c and motorhome cosmetically and I have had a hard time justifying purchasing one.

As you can see in the picture, the cover is held on by 4 studs that protrude through the top and 4 cap nuts and washers secure it.



I found a used one in great shape. No, not "I found one" used that I could buy at a reasonable price but "I found one", period!



It was sitting on the concrete retaining wall that separates our frontage road from the interstate. One had lost it.



I can only guess that the rv had been to the rv dealership (about a mile up the frontage road) and after working on the a/c, they failed to replace the retaining nuts. Someone must have found it after it had blown off and placed it on the retaining wall.



A lot of things had to fall into place for this to happen because these covers are very fragile and just falling from the top of the rv (10ft-13ft) should have destroyed it. Not counting another vehicle could have ran over it.

Viewing Another Direction

From my drivers seat I get to look down on some amazing sights, some that are hard to report on a family friendly blog.

Saturday the amazing views came from looking up instead of down. My Saturday run has me circling the Jacksonville Air Force Base and they were having a open house military air base show.

The airbase is the home of the C-130 cargo planes and we see them flying in formation almost every day.








For the "airshow", the Navy Blue Angels were brought in to perform. While I did not go to the show, I had a great seat for the show as they made their turns just over my truck as they made their way back to pass over the crowds at the airbase.














If you have never had a chance to see the Blue Angels, you are missing a show that will make you shutter with patriotism.