Family Reunion

 Cary with his Uncle Richard, the youngest of the six siblings..

 Tom and Donna (Tom is one of Joe's sons, Joe was the oldest sibling) hosted the gathering at what was once Joe's farm. A wonderful place for a crowd.

Sue Ann (far left) is one of Cary's cousins. I remember most of the names, but will spare the details for the most part! Marilyn, our host for several days is wearing the tropical brown blouse.

John is next to his sister Sue Ann. John is Marilyn's husband, the other part of our host for those days.

Paul is in the center of the picture, another cousin. His mom is at the far right, Shirley. Donna, the owner of the home, is next to her.

Wearing his Packer stuff didn't help the game! Peter, another cousin, is in the blue shirt next to Cary.

Jill is wearing a Steelers jersey! Wow!

Look at all the goodies!

Just some of the guests

Shirley, Peter and Richard

Sheila

Al got there a little late after working most of the day.

 Inside the barn

Tom and Cort decide to join the festivities.

But first Cort had to learn all about silos. I am pretty sure Richard gave Cary a lesson earlier in the week.

Vince didn't feel steady enough to go to the reunion, so Marilyn snapped our photo the next morning before we pulled out of the driveway. What a wonderful visit with everyone. Thanks so much to our greats hosts. I am really going to have to hit the gym double time when I get home.

More From Sheboygan

 Cary has a picture with him that was taken when he was four. In it he is holding a little car. It was taken at this location; we recreated it here. Sort of!

Cary's dad did tile work. In the basement of the Sheboygan house, Sheila noticed this post with odds and ends of tile..something their dad did in in Tucson house, so we all believe this is his handiwork!

 We took some time to stroll around the lake (and tell ourselves we were working off some of the zillions of calories consumed by the wonderful cooks in the Birenbaum family)!

Stay tuned for the family reunion, an absolutely wonderful experience!

More of Our Wisconsin Visit

Here is Cary in front of the house that his parents built in 1946 when his dad got out of the service. His folks dug out the basement using a Rickenbacker car! The current owner, Tim, was thrilled to see Cary's pictures and invite us into the house. He was also excited to show us his Corvette in the garage and share his pictures of his other Corvette! A very nice guy.

We were able to meet up with friends, Skip and Donna who are also in Wisconsin, also in a cousin's yard for awhile! Lunch at Gosse's in Sheboygan.

 The town of Plymouth has some wonderful murals so we took a walking tour and got lots of pictures.

Of course, there was also a great car, a 1958 Chevy station wagon, in this case.

Later that day we met  Bobby and Kathy at their house in Sheboygan. Bobby's dad taught Cary's dad the tile business. We went out for Meixcan food then took a tour of town. I think Bob's tile company put granite and/or tile in every business in the area! Cary moved from Sheboygan in 1951 but he and Bobby had a great time remembering all the fun things they did as very young kids back in the day--including seeing Gene Autry at the Armory with his horses, Champion and Little Champ!

Catching Up On Our Last Week, Part 1

 We arrived at John and Marilyn's on September 4th. They have a gorgeous big pear tree, so I thought it very appropriate that the four "Peartrees" pose in front of it.

This print is what the family farm looked like way back--I do not remember the date.

Cary's Uncle Vince is 92 and still cuts his own grass!

Another picture of the family farm

On Wednesday Marilyn invited Cary's nephew, Andy and his wife and daughter over for brats. Great fun!

I am throwing pictures into the mix as I come across them. These steers belong to another of his cousins, Paul, and they are at his Uncle Richard's farm.

My note says this is a smokehouse!

Iowa and Wisconsin

We stopped here yesterday, always a fun place to browse, and actually passed up the baked goods, chocolates and jams for two fresh tomatoes and peaches a young Amish man was selling.

Cary didn't get a picture of his horse, but this was his wagon. I took him some of my plastic bags, because he didn't have any to give the customers when they bought anything.

We found someone's debit card in the parking lot; I turned it into the lady at the front desk, but she looked clueless about to with it, so I hope the owner gets it back or at least realizes it is missing soon!

And wouldn't you know it--even in the parking lot of the welcome center, Cary found two Model As to photograph!

We are camping in farm country! Soybeans as far as the eye can see! Tuesday morning it was cool enough to turn on the heat in the trailer a little while and wear long sleeves.

Barely September, but we love seeing hints that fall is actually on its way!

And this wonderful place is actually a rest stop along Interstate 80! Many of the rest stops in Iowa are wonderful works of architecture; I especially like this one dedicated to writers. Even the picnic tables have something on them about writing.

America's River, the Mississippi, at Dubuque.

More farmland, around our campground, the Rustic Barn, near Keiler, Wisconsin

Our trailer

We took a walk after supper. A perfect day, Traffic wasn't bad; weather was perfect.

Tomorrow we get to Cary's cousin's home in Random Lake where we will park until the 9th, so don't look for any pictures until after that! I probably will be able to occasionally go in and use Marilyn's computer to check email and (maybe) update the blog, but stay tuned for lots of pictures later!