Category Archives: Event

Rembrandt at the Taft

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There is currently an exhibit at the Taft Museum of Art called “Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White“. I’m not very knowledgeable about art, but I thought the black and white part of that might not really be necessary. I would not call any of the few pieces of art I connect with the Dutch Master overly colorful. Yes, the fellow at the center of his most famous painting, The Night Watch, has a reddish sash and another fellow is wearing a reddish hat and uniform, but neither is particularly bright, and they are essentially the only splashes of color in the entire scene.

There is, as advertised, even less color in the works in this exhibit. It is made up of monochrome prints from etchings. The etchings are often rather small, and they can be quite detailed. Loaner magnifying glasses are available near the entrance to help make that detail visible. Also near the entrance is a timeline that places Rembrandt’s life (1606-1669) within the context of world events and other artists. The man had quite the impact. Bright colors, it seems, aren’t really necessary.

There are 49 prints from Rembrandt etchings on display, and, as noted and as can be seen, most are just a few inches in size. The cost of materials and a desire for portability were both reasons for this. Rembrandt made several self-portraits during his career, but this one from 1633 is said to be the first he signed and dated.

Since I know even less about etching than I do about almost every other art form, I found this display quite helpful. It seems the artist etches into a waxy layer applied to a copper plate, then acid does the etching into the metal.

In addition to the 49 Rembrandt etchings, the exhibit includes nine etchings he inspired others to create. One of those inspired was James Whistler, who, as we see here, used his niece as a model in addition to his more famous mother.

Admission to the Taft Museum of Art includes access to all permanent galleries, as well as this traveling exhibit of etchings from the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. Here is one of several connections between the two. This 1651 etching of Clement de Jonghe is cited as an example of Rembrant’s mastery of light and shadow and of his use of people’s expressions and gestures. The 1633 Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair is an even better example of Rembrandt’s use of these.

“Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White” is here through May 17, 2026.

Happy (Actual) Imbolc

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Ten years ago, I wished everyone a Happy Imbolc for the first time. In 2023, I reused that post to wish you all Happy Imbolc Again. I’m doing it once more, and this time, it’s for real.

In 2024’s Happy Imbolc (Again/Exact/Maybe) post, I wrote about Imbolc being the instant that marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, but in the end admitted that it was almost certainly originally seen as a day, and that that is pretty much how it is seen today. Furthermore, almost all Imbolc celebrants have surrendered to the arbitrariness of man-made calendars and tied the holiday to February 1, regardless of the sun’s position. Ask the internet when Imbolc 2026 is, and the most common answer you get will be February 1, although the actual solstice-equinox midpoint occurs on the third. Defining the holiday as sundown on the first until sundown on the second seems quite popular.

The last time February 1 fell on a Sunday was 2015, which was a year before I knew Imbolc existed. With that one year of ignorance as an excuse, I can say with sincerity that this is the first time in my personally recorded history that the widely recognized day of Imbolc coincides with the weekly publication of this blog. Happy Imbolc and Groundhog Day Eve to all.

ADDENDUM Feb 1, 2016: Almost as soon as this was posted, I realized that “actual” was the wrong word to use in the title. February 1 is more accurately called official Imbolc. Actual Imbolc is February 3.

Merry Solstice to All

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Today is the day of the Winter Solstice. Four hours and three minutes from now, at 10:03 AM EST, the sun will be as far from Earth as it ever gets, and the sunlit portion of our days will start becoming longer. I believe that the first time the mention of Winter Solstice appeared on this website was in 2014, when I attended an event at Serpent Mound one day before departing on my Christmas Escape Run and included it in the journal for the trip.

It next appeared in 2019 in a blog post on the day following the Solstice. 2019 was the first year I attended the sunrise gathering at Fort Ancient. The image at right is of a poster I bought that day. It is from a painting by Mary Louise Holt depicting what a Solstice sunrise might have been like back when the Hopewell ran the place we call Fort Ancient.

This blog is published every week on Sunday. That 2014 Serpent Mound Solstice event was on a Sunday, but Solstice wasn’t even mentioned in the day’s blog post. Instead, the post described a quartet of museum visits I had made the preceding week. It is here.

Today is the first time the Winter Solstice has fallen on a Sunday since 2014. I obviously can’t actually report on it since it hasn’t happened yet, and I really don’t have any new thoughts on the event in general since that 2019 blog post: A Cosmic Reason for the Season. I have copied and reused that post twice (2020 and 2021) with new introductions added. This post’s opening image shows what things might have looked like 2000 years ago. The pictures at left show what things actually did look like six years ago.

I hope to post photos of a gathering today at a different mound in the journal of the trip just begun.

A Night at the Museum

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The American Sign Museum held a little party on Thursday to celebrate its quarter-century of existence. Things got underway at 5:00, which was a bit before sunset, but by the time I exited the museum and took this photo, it was full-on nighttime. I’m sure it was no accident that the members-only party coincided with an open-to-the-public Glow in the Dark event, with the external signs powered on and looking glorious in the darkness.

But first things first. After picking up a beverage in the party area, I stepped back into the museum’s Main Street to check out progress on the Frisch’s Mainliner sign. While there, museum founder Tod Swormstedt stopped to say hi, and our chat included pointing out some sign updates. Holes in the airplane body that originally held lights but were epoxied over when the lights were removed have once again been cleared, and stainless steel panels that had been more or less destroyed over the years by alterations have been remade and reinstalled. It is going to be very interesting to watch this restoration unfold.

Anyone who has visited an old school service station or workshop is familiar with collections of cups and jars holding assorted nuts, bolts, and screws gruelingly assembled from past projects and other sources. Although not officially on display, here is the American Sign Museum’s version of that seen through the currently clear windows of Loomis Camera.

The Society for Commercial Archeology offers a monthly Zoom presentation on a variety of interesting subjects. It started during the stay-at-home days of the COVID pandemic and has continued. The most recent presentation was from Andrew and Kelsey McClellan on their book The Golden Era of Sign Design. The McClellans were part of the team that saved this Ward’s Bakery sign, and its discovery and preservation were part of their presentation. I naturally sought it out on this, my first museum visit after the Zoom event. A recording of the presentation can be viewed here.

I probably should have mentioned earlier that the museum’s name for this event was Clink! and the invitation was to “Join us for cocktails and light bites as we celebrate 25 years of preserving the art and history of American signage.” Formal activities were pretty much confined to truly brief comments from Museum Director David Dupee and Tod, and those comments were pretty much confined to thanking people who made the museum and those 25 years possible.

Clink! had been scheduled around the publication and availability of a book documenting the museum’s history, and that worked out, although the timing was quite close. Those who had preordered could pick up our copies, and copies were also available for purchase. The book looks fantastic (I’ll review it soon), and getting my copy signed by Tod and photographer Natalie Grilli makes it even better.

Glow in the Dark activities included a neon bending demonstration and at least one guided tour of the big sign garden mounted on the south side of the museum building. Touring the garden at night with a guide looked very interesting, and I immediately put it on my list. But right now I have a book to read.

ADDENDUM 8-Dec-2025: The book has been read, reviewed, and recommended: 
Book Review American Sign Museum: Celebrating 25 Years Roberts, Grilli, Kikkert

Subdued Hues

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An advertisement for a steam train in Virginia caught my attention, and the autumn foliage outing it promoted sure looked inviting. However, I couldn’t make any of the train’s scheduled dates work for me. It did get me thinking about autumn rail excursions, though, and I found another steam-powered one that I could fit into my schedule. It was even closer in Ohio. However, it only ran on weekends, and weekend lodging in the area was either unavailable or unaffordable. When I saw that very affordable lodging could be had on Thursdays and that the same route followed by the steam locomotive on weekends was followed by a diesel on Fridays, I decided I could make do with a slightly shallower dive into history. I booked the B&B and the Friday afternoon train.

Rain entered the picture as the outing neared. It started on Wednesday and continued as I headed east on US-50 Thursday morning. I stopped for an excellent breakfast at Sassafras Kitchen & Coffee Bar in Hillsboro, and had a really good burger and some fantastic fries at The Mine Tavern in Nelsonville.

Nelsonville was my destination. I checked into the Tulip Room in the Hyde House, just a couple of blocks from the tavern and not much more than that from the train station. Recent weather predictions had shown the rain ending Thursday night, with Friday being completely dry. I checked one more time before falling asleep and noticed a slight change. My little train ride was scheduled to depart at 1:00 and last for two hours.

The Hocking Valley Scenic Railway station is right next to Rocky Boots headquarters and outlet. I arrived well before departure time and walked over to Rocky Boots to get the picture of the Headless Sheepman that opens this article. It was, after all, Halloween. Note that, although the sky is hardly cloudless, the sun is shining.

All four cars of the train would essentially be full by the time we pulled out, but I was on board early enough to grab photos of them nearly empty. The car with blue seats was built in 1939 for long-distance travel. It was once used on the Cincinnatian, which ran between Cincinnati and Detroit. The other three cars (I rode the middle one) were built in the 1920s and used by commuters in the Chicago area.

Early in the trip, we passed the remaining kilns of the Nelsonville Brick Company. In addition to plain paving bricks, the company made those very popular decorative star bricks. We were also treated to some nice views of the Hocking River. There was no shortage of front and back yards filled with cars in need of attention, but this was the only yard I saw filled with steam engines. Much classier, in my opinion.

The excursion ran almost to Logan, with much of the route actually inside the Wayne National Forest. There were plenty of trees, and some rather scenic views here and there. Red and orange leaves, however, were few and far between.

Railroad employees passed through the cars frequently, helping with windows, seats, and any other issues passengers might have. At the route’s end point, the locomotive moved from one end of the train to the other via a siding. The seats in the commuter cars had reversible backs, and quite a few riders flipped theirs, so they were facing forward as the cars were pulled “backward”. I was not among them.

You may have noticed clouds gathering in some of the previous photographs. No rain fell during the ride or during the short time I was in Nelsonville after it ended. However, by the time we returned to the station, the sky looked like this. As we exited the train, I commented to a lady in line that there had not been much color in the trees along the way. “No,” she said, “not this year. It’s been too dry.” Maybe that’s the reason. I don’t know. If so, the dry spell appears to be over, but any rain now will just knock the leaves from the trees. It won’t make them colorful. 

An Ohio Meeting

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It has been a long time since I attended an Ohio Lincoln Highway League annual meeting. Longer, perhaps, than I realize, as I can find no evidence of attendance since 2014. There seems to almost always be a conflict in my schedule, but not this year. Canton, the meeting’s location, is a little too far away to make the round trip in a day. When I planned an overnight in a nearby town, I discovered that the path there passed quite close to a favorite brewery. With that, I thought my itinerary was set.

However, when I was ready to head out on Friday morning, I realized that there was no need to hurry on expressways, so I swapped I-71 for US-22. That allowed me to stop for breakfast at Kim’s Classic Diner in Sabina. I typically sit at the counter, but was in a booth today and was able to get a shot of an empty counter when the area was briefly empty. I stayed with US-22 to Zanesville, and that let me stop by Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl for some French Vanilla Cherry Chocolate Chunk, which disappeared before I could get a picture. I then headed to that favorite brewery, Wooly Pig Farm, on OH-93. OH-93 is quickly becoming one of my favorite wiggly roads.

President Scott Little presided over the meeting. The league is comprised of three chapters, each of which has more or less monthly meetings throughout the year. This yearly meeting is the only one involving the entire state. Scott is also president of the Western Ohio Chapter and delivered the report of that chapter’s activities for the year.

Mike McNaull, of the Mid-Ohio chapter, and Ed Cannane, of the Eastern Ohio Chapter, delivered reports of their chapter’s activities. All three chapters do some things for their members’ enjoyment and an awful lot to promote and maintain the Lincoln Highway in their areas.

A presentation by someone from the National First Ladies Library and Museum, followed by a visit to the museum, had been planned, but the government shutdown scuttled that. Jim Cassler’s presentation on this summer’s tour of the Lincoln Highway’s middle third was a fine substitution. A tour of the eastern third happened in 2022, and the trilogy will be completed in 2028 during the centennial of the final 1928 realignment and the setting of the concrete markers.

The Saxton McKinley House, home to the library portion of the not-to-be-visited-today National First Ladies Library and Museum, is directly across the street from the meeting site. A visit to the Canton Classic Car Museum, about a block away, would proceed as planned.

One of the museum’s prized possessions is a 1937 armored Studebaker. There are definitely plenty of really cool cars here, but there is more. If a fragile lamp with a single leg is a “major award”, what might this four-limbed illuminator be? 

Possibly one reason I failed to photograph my ice cream at Tom’s was the conversation I had with a couple beside me. They were headed home to Kentucky after a vacation that included a stop for ice cream in Canton, which is where they learned of Tom’s. I reversed the story and stopped in Canton for ice cream at a place I’d learned of at Tom’s. The wooden booths at Taggart’s Ice Cream looked inviting, but I enjoyed my Black Walnut outside.

I was a little disappointed when I realized that the meeting date was the same as the planned nationwide No Kings protests. I would not be able to attend one in my home territory, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that the one in Canton would be taking place later than most, and I could possibly make it. A sizable crowd was already in place when I arrived about half an hour ahead of the scheduled 5:00 start, and it was still growing when I left for home about 5:30. A fellow I spoke with said this was already a bigger turnout than last time.

I’ll close with a reminder of why I was in Canton. I’m pretty sure Mr. Lincoln would be proud of the nation crossing highway with his name on it. I also think he would approve of the sentiments expressed in signs being held in demonstrations all across that same nation, though not necessarily of all of the language.

A River Roots Cruise (Lagniappe)

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The American Roots Festival is not Tall Stacks. It’s similar but not matching. Tall Stacks was a festival that happened six times between 1988 and 2006 on the Ohio River at Cincinnati. Among the reasons given for not reusing the name is a desire to paint the event as something broader than a gathering of riverboats and to associate it with the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary in 2026. Whether or not that painting and association were necessary and/or successful is not my concern. I definitely enjoyed some of the musical offerings at Tall Stacks, but for me, the boats were always the reason for its existence, and that is even more true for me and the Roots Festival. The fact that I was heading out of town when the festival officially began, but not before a day of “advance cruises” took place, has a lot to do with that. A Wednesday cruise on the Steamboat Natchez from New Orleans is my only personal contact with the American Roots Festival.

I arrived downtown well in advance of the scheduled boarding time and slipped across the river into Kentucky to snap a picture that includes five of the nine boats in town for the event. The boat I would shortly be cruising on is at the far right of that picture, plus I grabbed one of it alone.

Back in Ohio, I parked near the public landing and walked to the river for a closer view of the boats. The Belle of Louisville is at the west end of the line. On the way to the landing, I passed the National Steamboat Monument and was happy to hear the whistles blow as I walked through them. That’s not always, or even often, the case.

I actually took photos of all nine boats, and a couple even came out OK. However, with the low sun, most were atrocious, and I’m reserving them for my own entertainment. I spent the remaining shore time taking some close-ups of the Natchez. This trip is something of a homecoming for the calliope on the left. It was built in Cincinnati between 1900 and 1910 by Thomas J. Nichol for the Steamboat Sidney.

A wide variety of cruises is available during the festival. This was a 90-minute “Beignets & Coffee” cruise. During the half hour allotted between boarding and departure, I listened to the excellent onboard Dixieland trio and downed my beignet.

That left me free to roam around once we were underway.

Built in 1975, the Natchez is pretty new for an authentic sternwheeler. She’s not entirely new, however. For example, the engines were in service aboard the Steamboat Clairton from 1925 until 1962, which means they are celebrating their centennial this year.

With breakfast and onboard exploration out of the way, I used the turnaround point as an excuse for an early lunch of jambalaya and Abita Amber. That container was absolutely stuffed with quite tasty jambalaya, which I completely failed to finish before realizing that we were nearing Cincinnati. About half of it came home to nourish me as I wrote this.

Not too long after I capped the jambalaya and stuffed it into my jacket pocket, we passed under the Big Mac Bridge and were soon facing the Roebling Bridge with the Bengals’ and Reds’ stadiums off to our right. Several other visiting riverboats were in motion on the river as we turned around and pulled into the landing.

Back on shore, I paused at the top of the landing to gaze at the Natchez one more time before heading to my car. Cruising up and down the Ohio on a steam-powered sternwheeler can definitely play havoc with one’s sense of time. That’s no doubt why I didn’t question seeing Mr. Clemens heading toward the very river where he got his pilot training half as much as I might have otherwise.

This blog did not exist during the Tall Stacks period. There was, however, an Oddment section with entries not related to road trips. An entry was made for the final Tall Stacks event in 2006. It is here.

Because of my plans to leave town on Thursday, I finished writing this Wednesday for publication as the regular weekly post on Sunday. But it began to bother me that, although there would still be a day of the festival left at that point, at the moment nearly all of it remained. There was at least a small chance that it might be useful to someone if it appeared on Thursday instead of Sunday. So here it is: a blog post published on a normally silent day of the week. I’ll put up a canned post on Sunday, and this will be, as the folks in NOLA say, lagniappe.

More Cars, More Coffee

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There’s a bit of a chain reaction going on here. Last week’s visit to the museum at 4 Speed on 50 was the result of the previous week’s stop for a hamburger at the diner there, and this week’s visit to Horsepower Farm is the direct result of that museum visit. As Steve Ashcraft and I were saying goodbye at the end of my museum tour, we did some name checks on other car collections in the area. As if to demonstrate just how oblivious people can be to attractions in their own neighborhood, Steve mentioned Horsepower Farm, which is less than fifteen miles from my home and which I had never heard of. A check of the Farm’s website revealed that their monthly Cars & Coffee would be taking place on the very next Saturday, so that’s where I headed yesterday morning.

Horsepower Farm came into being as a place for Opie Willis to store his growing car collection. It has become a scenic event center where numerous public events are held, and which can be rented for private events such as weddings and meetings. I believe the first Saturday of every month Cars & Coffee is the only regularly scheduled event open to the public. It is adjacent to a residential area that has lots of these “PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY AND QUIETLY” signs displayed, and I have no doubt that anyone ignoring the signs would not find a very friendly welcome at the farm.

There were signs pointing in both directions for parking, and I didn’t realize that a more proper area for mundane cars like Subaru Foresters was to the left until after I drove past the garages and the main area for cool cars. It’s a very non-judgmental crowd, and no one complained or even looked at me funny. Even so, rather than immediately driving back through the area, I parked at the far end of a large open space and walked back.

I naturally looked over some of the cars parked outside, but cut my walk short to step inside the main building. These are, I assume, some of the cars in Willis’ personal collection.

There are several objets d’art mixed in with the cars. Although it’s out of sequence, this seems like a good place to include a full-length shot of that beautiful stainless steel “Horseplay” in the opening photo.

I did not get a car count, but it was way beyond respectable, and the variety was pretty incredible.

Here are a few of my favorites. I think I did mention variety.

When I walked back to my car, I paused to look a little closer at the Hudson “tribute car” parked near the main building. I found the interior, some of which is explained here, especially interesting. I don’t recall ever hearing of holes for on-the-go tire wear checks, but I did some searching online and learned that it was truly a thing in the early days of NASCAR.

So, even though I had to go to Indiana to learn about it, I now know that one of the best Cars & Coffee gatherings in the area is only about half an hour from my home. You can bet your bippy and your VW roof rack that I’ll be back.

Circus Time

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When I bought my ticket to the 20th Century Circus, I didn’t realize that it would be held on Renaissance Festival grounds. It wasn’t a secret. The banner on their website’s home page says “at the Ohio Renaissance Festival”, but I just wasn’t paying attention. I saw that the circus would happen in Waynesville, and although I know that is the home of the festival, I just did not make the connection. Only on the day of the show, when I went looking for detailed directions, did I realize what should have been obvious.

The big top is placed in the open field just outside the main entrance to Renaissance Village. The festival associated 1572 Roadhouse Bar-B-Q is open a couple of hours prior to show time, and the empty village (the festiva returns in August) is open if you want to roam around. I splurged and bought a Front Row ticket. Premium Seating and General Admission are also available. Premium, it appears, is row two, and general admission is row three. I’m guessing that if more tickets were sold, more rows would be added.

The 20th Century Circus advertises itself as being set in the 1920s, and some audience members were dressed in period outfits. The acts in a 1920s circus are essentially what I’d expect in a circus of any era. The evening got started with some juggling and tightrope walking, aerial acrobatics, and a little clowning around.

It seems quite possible that I haven’t seen a spinning plates act since Ed Sullivan went off the air, but, as I did then, I enjoyed watching the performer run back and forth to try to add plates while maintaining those already spinning. Although it was only for a few seconds, this guy did get plates spinning on all six sticks, but I missed getting a photo.

Balance and acrobatics are central to a variety of circus acts, and there were several impressive demonstrations of both.

As intermission neared, we were treated to a catchy little tune about that circus and carnival staple, cotton candy. Of course, a little popcorn fits in quite nicely, as well.

There was more juggling in the second half, but flaming hatchets replaced the soft balls. I never did get an in-focus shot of the performers on the rotating ladder, but I did better on the lovely song and dance duo.

The hula hoop competition between volunteers from the audience was close, even if it didn’t last too long. I think the winner made it about 1 1/2 revolutions. The other two competitors were tied at zero. Someone stood up when the knife thrower asked for a volunteer, but cooler heads prevailed. The real winner of the hula hoop contest didn’t even joke about risking an audience member interfering with her swirling balls of fire.

This looks kind of like one of the stunts from the first half of the evening but the chairs are a whole lot bigger and so is the distance to the ground when the handstand is performed. Just assembling and disassembling the tower of chairs is rather nerve wracking to watch.

No troupe members and only a few baloons were harmed during the performance. They will be back every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the rest of July and it’s a hoot. The pulled pork (and probably the other stuff) and beer selection at 1572 Roadhouse is pretty good, too.

Herding the Wheel Horses West

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Near the end of last summer, my friend Terry, the Wheel Horse collector, sold a tractor to Bill Throckmorten of Grant King Race Shops, and I rode along to deliver it. Bill is Grant King’s nephew. He and his wife Stephanie currently own the shop. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Wheel Horses were used at the Indianapolis 500 to move race cars in the pits and other areas. There was also a race week event featuring celebrities piloting 33 of the red tractors in a one-lap race known as the Indy 2 1/2. Because of that connection, Bill wanted a Wheel Horse for the museum at what he calls “A Working Race Shop Museum”, and to maybe move a few cars around. There is a pretty good video overview of the shop/museum and the accomplishments of Grant and Bill here.

One of Bill’s accomplishments is the cofounding of Indy Legends. After giving us a tour of that really cool museum, he invited Terry to display some of his Wheel Horses at their next event at Indianapolis Raceway Park. That event was last weekend, June 28-29, and I again got to tag along. I snapped the opening photo from where the Wheel Horses were displayed.

Friday was setup day, followed by an evening reception at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Stephanie Throckmorten made sure we had wristbands for both the reception and access to IRP. Setting up in ninety degrees was pretty exhausting for old guys like us, although Terry dealt with it better than I did. We both took advantage of the showers at Lion’s Club Park, where we were staying, before heading to the reception.

The museum reopened less than three months ago following a year-and-a-half-long closure and $60 million renovation. One of the first areas inside the entrance is a series of simulated garages holding some very significant cars from the speedway’s history. Eddie Rickenbacker drove this 1914 Duesenberg to a tenth-place finish in 1914. Rickenbacker served as IMS President from 1927 to 1945. Jim Clark put this green Lotus on the pole in 1964, but broken suspension meant a 24th-place finish. Parnelli Jones drove the car to 2nd place in 1965. In 1977, Janet Guthrie broke the Indy 500 gender barrier, then drove this Offenhauser-powered Wildcat to a 9th-place finish in 1978.

An attendant at the entrance to the next section assures entry between presentations of a video shown on a wrap-around vertical screen. Scenes from parades, pit activity, flyovers, and race starts are combined with exhaust sounds from real cars in the area to generate a semblance of race day anticipation.

There is a mind-boggling number of cars and artifacts on display in the museum. Of course, I took a ton of pictures, but there is a lot more going on this weekend, so I am really limiting what I’m posting. Here’s a picture of the Marmon Wasp that Ray Harroun drove to victory in that first Indy 500 in 1911, and one of the Borg-Warner Trophy. Although the trophy was first presented in 1936, the winners of every 500 are represented on it. The Marmon and the Borg-Warner appear together in the photo taken from the new mezzanine.

The reception was a first-class affair with hors d’oeuvres, beverages, and opportunities to chat with museum officials and employees. Terry and I missed the first performance by the Indianapolis 500 Gordon Pipers but were there for their second outing as the reception began to slow down. They would also appear at the race track near the end of the day’s activities on Saturday.

This was the beginning of activities on Saturday. Overnight rain had sounded a lot heavier than it actually was, but some drying out was in order nonetheless. We cleared some water from our canopy, then did a little cruising and car spotting while the track was being dried. Terry posed for a picture with a Mac Tools-sponsored racer and his own “Runt Rod” racer. I believe it is the only non-stock Wheel Horse in his fleet.

All of the cars had informative placards beside them when parked, and I learned a lot by reading many of them. Only when I started writing this post did I realize how little I remembered and what a poor job of recording I did. I can tell you absolutely nothing about the gray #9 in the first picture. #20 is a 1911 National as described here. I also have a shot of #7’s descriptive information. That is almost certainly because my interest was piqued by this on its rear end. Its owners have driven most of the Lincoln Highway, and the Model T racer has been on a short stretch of the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania.

The model years I noted ranged from 1911 to 2000. Although I do not know the actual dividing lines, the on-track groups were separated by age, which also meant they were separated by speed. I have even less information to share about these middle-aged race cars than for the older cars in the previous paragraph.

There was ample time to walk around and photograph the many fabulous race cars while they were parked, and if the temperature, the humidity, or my age had been lower, I would certainly have done more of it. Many of the cars were the exact same vehicles that once ran at IMS and other tracks, while some were impressive replicas of famous cars that are probably on display in museums.

Here are a couple of pictures from the campground just before we pulled out Sunday morning. Showers and restrooms are just beyond the picnic shelter. The trailer, which serves as our bedroom, will be filled with Wheel Horses when the day ends.

There was a somewhat surprising amount of interest in the tractors. Some came from people who remembered the days when Wheel Horses roamed the pits at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and some from folks who had heard or read about it. Of course, some came from kids (and adults) who just like little tractors. The tractors were the “half-time show” for both days of the event. At Bill’s request, Terry and I drove them two-by-two through the infield during the lunch break when the track was empty.

That’s Bill Throckmorten chatting with Terry. Bill was incredibly busy throughout the weekend coordinating action on and off the track, but still managed to stop by several times to say hi and see that all was well. On more than one of those stops, he let Terry know he had an invitation to return next year. Whether that happens is very much a maybe. As we pulled out, I commented that this was one of the most fun weekends I’ve ever had, but it was also one that I was very happy to see end. Terry agreed. Age and temperature are factors, and only time, which doesn’t help with the age thing, will tell.

I have previously been involved in herding the Wheel Horses south and east.