We're home

We are back from Kansas!  

I was the one who pushed for this trip.  In fact, I wrote the check to pay for it with Cliff saying he wasn't at all interested in touring the Hesston plant.  "Once you've been through one place that makes farm equipment and tractors, they are all the same."  

Well, I found the John Deere plants interesting after having previously seen the Kinze place, so I thought this one would be interesting in its own way.  

I was wrong this time.  Cliff was right. If we go on another bus trip with the group, I will probably sit and read while those who are interested do the tour.  Don't get me wrong, I find it interesting to see how things are made, but I've seen enough farm-implement manufacturing.  

However, the rest of our activities were great, and I'm glad we went.  The meal at the Mennonite restaurant Tuesday evening was terrific:  Everyone ordered different meals, and we all agreed the food was perfect.  Our motel was the nicest, cleanest one I've ever stayed in, probably because it wasn't very old.

There were 43 of us.  That's part of Cliff on the left, then his brother and wife.  

Our Wednesday tour of the salt mine was so interesting that we took longer than expected to get through; so we had a little time crunch and were behind schedule when it was time to go on to the Cosmosphere:  the guided tour at the latter left me and Cliff wanting more.  The poor lady was very enthusiastic about the place and tried to hit the high spots, but we want to learn more.  Sometime when we visit my sister, who lives only forty miles from there, we will go back on our own.  

There was a 93-year-old woman with us (mother of the guy I used to work with at the orchard) who walked through these places on our tours.  She was worn out at the end of the day, but by george, she made it... frail, skinny little woman who ate like a horse.  There were others my age and older whose knees obviously hurt far more than mine who went every step of the way.  There was a movie at the end of the Cosmosphere tour, and several of us worked hard at just standing up when it was over.  It was obviously a lot harder for some than it was for me, and yet they struggled out of their seats without even a groan.  This left me with a resolve to keep doing things as long as I am able:  If I have to take a pain pill or two, so be it, but I'm not going to sit out the fun stuff unless I absolutely have to.  Our club secretary, who arranged all our activities ahead of time, had been under the impression the salt mine was a ride-through thing; and while a couple of rides were involved, most of it was on foot.  There were motorized chairs for the use of those who really needed them, so that saved the day.  The only thing I would have done different, had I known we would be on our feet so long there, was to have taken my cane-chair.  At the Hesston plant I had a couple of others threaten to steal it.  

It's good for me to have to live with a group of people for a couple of days, but I'm always ready to return to my hermit lifestyle when it's done.  Oh yeah, one little fly in the ointment:  Those of us who went on the trip parked our vehicles at the place where we have our tractor club meetings:  When we got in our car last night, the battery was as dead as a door-nail.  Thank goodness Cliff's brother and wife hadn't gotten too far down the road before we discovered the problem.  They brought us home and took Cliff back to get the car started.

I'm sure by the time another trip is planned, I'll be ready to go again!