Food and Paintings

I'm just a little behind blogging about my weekend. I didn't report Friday's events until Saturday evening. Now I'm going to combine Saturday and Sunday because they sort of run together in my mind.

Because of SonRise Camp on Friday, I didn't have a chance to get to the gym or do any running, so Saturday morning after breakfast I was out the door and ran on our street. Our no-outlet street has only 20 homes so there is very little traffic early on a Saturday morning. But I must say it was muggy! I don't recall coming back from a run as soaked as I was then.

Ray made a gasoline run to get fuel for the tractor so he could mow, but since the grass was damp he delayed mowing and started pulling weeds in the garden. Some of the weeds are taller than I am! I joined him and we made a good dent but still have work to do.

I spent part of the afternoon preparing a salad and appetizer as my contribution to our neighborhood dinner. Five couples -- all retired but one -- get together about every three months. The theme was Italian last evening and we had a delicious variety of foods to enjoy.

Because of plans for Sunday afternoon, I went to the late church service today. Our guest pastor was the nephew of one of our members and he has only been in the ministry for a year. He serves a congregation near Decatur, IN. He preached on the Gospel reading for today -- the story of the feeding of the 5,000. I hadn't considered this previously, but there are many references in the Bible about eating and feasting. The question posed by the preacher was this "Do we have enough?" The answer is "yes." We have forgiveness, love and salvation -- more than enough because of God's gracious gift of his Son to pay for our sins.

After the service, as part of the congregation's participation in our Pastor's sabbatical through a Lilly grant, a group was headed to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for a docent-led tour of early Christian art. Before we left for the museum we enjoyed a meal from Panda Express in the church Fellowship Hall. I've driven past PE before, but have never eat there. Considering that I didn't have to prepare an entire meal last night or this noon, I couldn't complain.

At the museum we were divided into two groups. I learned a lot about the progression of art styles and art history as the docent led us to various paintings and other art throughout the museum.

We arrived home sometime around 4:00 and Ray decided that he wanted to do some more mowing. He knew he couldn't finish but there would be less to do tomorrow if he spent time mowing today. Unfortunately, the grass catcher which he was using had a major breakdown. He unhooked it and mowed without catching. So tomorrow we'll have to determine if there is a way to repair the damage. Stay tuned!

A day spent at SonRise Camp

For the last 10 years or so, a group from Concordia has been providing a lunch and supper meal at one of the camps sponsored by LDM. SonRise camp is only one of several programs that LDM offers for developmentally handicapped adults. This year LDM was able to hold all camp sessions at their brand new facility in Anderson, IN.

Most often we (Lutheran Women of Concordia or LWML) have elected to serve on Friday. Earlier in the week I had purchased most of the food items needed. Several other women had volunteered to bake brownies and prepare gelatin salads.

I left home and 8 a.m., loaded with all the food items in the back seat and trunk. My first stop was at the IGA to pick up 37 lbs of pork loin. I was pleasantly surprised and gratified to learn that the butcher had been able to give us a price of $2.19/lb. Then I made a quick stop at Kroger for some parsley -- the IGA didn't have any and besides I needed some for Saturday night.

Since the Kroger store is on Washington Street in Plainfield, I drove east on Washington Street to downtown Indianapolis but missed the turn to get on I-70 so kept driving east until I came to Emerson Ave. Finally, I was on my intended route to Anderson. Last summer our group visited the site of the Camp under construction but I had never driven there from home. Fortunately, I saw the sign and arrived at the Camp at 10 a.m. The other ladies arrived about 30 minutes later and we immediately began working to prepare the noon luncheon for about 100 people.

The menu was grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, potato chips, fresh fruit salad and a cookie. The kitchen was brand new with lots of great equipment! Nancy Wilderson, a kitchen volunteer for the week, was extraordinarily helpful and we are grateful for her guidance and expertise.

The camp is air conditioned but the kitchen was very warm mostly, I suppose, because of the heat generated by the ovens and several refrigerators and freezer. We enjoyed a few minutes of relaxation after eating our noon lunch -- we get to eat as soon as the campers are served.

We divided the afternoon tasks -- two people to each dish we were preparing for the evening meal. Edie and Judy prepared the pork loin.

Basting the roasts with a special marinade before baking.

Miriam and Heidi worked on Cranberry-Glazed Carrots

Reading the recipe

Cooking the carrots in really large pans!

Linda and Beverly made au gratin potatoes.

Making a cheese sauce to pour over the potatoes.

When all the initial preparations were completed and the food was cooking, Nancy and one of the young interns gave us a tour of the facility. LDM can be proud and what they have accomplished in providing a clean and handicapped accessible camp and retreat center.

The evening meal menu was roast pork, potato casserole, carrots, gelatin salad with fruit and brownie. While the other ladies were preparing the main dishes, I had the responsibility of dividing the salads and brownies into 100 servings each.

When the meat was finished, several took turns slicing the roasts into serving pieces. The meat tasted as delicious as it looked.

Beverly and Edie slicing - Judy waits for a turn.

We had many compliments on our evening meal. One person said it was the best meal she had in her three weeks at the camp. The menu is the same every Friday but prepared in different ways. That particular comment made all our work very worthwhile.

One nice thing about preparing and serving food at camp, is that a kitchen crew is responsible for doing the dishes! After eating, we gathered up our personal belongings and a few leftovers and were ready to leave at 6 p.m. I was home by 7:15.

Many thanks to the Johnson County Chapter of Thrivent for Lutherans for providing funds to pay for the majority of the expense of providing these two meals.

Was it a rabbit?

Back to the Rec Center this morning for cycling and doing some resistance machines. The Pilates class time was changed in early July but we didn't know that (not having been at the Center since mid-June), so we skipped that today.

When talking to some runners in Sacramento they recommended jumping rope as a way to increase foot speed so this morning I thought I would give it a try. I'm glad no one was video taping me! It took me quite a while before I could make even one revolution. My foot would catch on the rope--I wasn't jumping over it. I persevered and finally was able to get, maybe, 4 or 5 revolutions. My first goal is to be able to jump continuously for 30 seconds. This may take a while, but my ultimate goal would be jumping for two minutes. Besides increasing foot speed, I'm sure jumping will be a great cardio workout too.

I finally inspected the garden closely this noon and realized we had green beans ready for picking. As it was quite warm, I decided to wait until after supper, about 7:30, and conditions were much nicer for picking then.

I suspect a rabbit has been eating the leaves on our sweet potato vines. I have a photo as evidence in case the suspect is ever caught. Several years ago, all our sweet potato vines were eaten in one night -- and that had to be deer. Fortunately, the vines are resilient and they recovered. Since then, we have fenced the garden and even have a 12 inch high fence of chicken wire against the main fence to keep out rabbits. That worked very well last summer, but I suspect they have found a small hole to squeeze through. Or maybe some other creature likes vines too.

Exhibit #1: Ray and Ruth vs. Unknown rabbit

Notice stems with missing leaves -- bitten off!

I rest my case.

Vonnegut Memorial Library

I guess we're back to a routine that was familiar before leaving on our trip. We woke up at 6:30 and were out the door before 7 a.m. It was our first serious exercise in more than a week. The humidity was down and the temperature about 72. Getting out early is one way to see neighbors. Two neighbors were walking their dogs and a third was deadheading her daisies.

By 11 a.m. we were heading downtown to meet Max and Pat Walker. We enjoyed lunch at the Bourbon Street Distillery. I had a blackened Mahi-mahi salad that had oodles of caramelized pecans on the side. And I ate every bit -- it was delicious. We spent time sharing some of our experiences on our trip.

Across the street from Bourbon Street is the newly opened Kurt Vonnegut Library. It's very small with no entry free. Many of Vonnegut's personal belongings were lost in a fire several years ago. Since we listened to some unpublished Vonnegut short stories on the CD "Look at the Birdie" during our trip we were interested in seeing the Library. Taking up one wall, a time line illustrates when many of Vonnegut's writings were publishedl. The time line also lists important world and U.S. events. His personal typewriter and a sampling of books from his own library are also displayed. The Vonnegut Library website has more information about its mission and vision.

Outside the Vonnegut Memorial Library

On our way home we shopped for some supplies needed for Friday's SonRise Camp. Tomorrow we'll head back to the gym A.K.A The Plainfield Recreation and Aquatic Center.

Rain

Last evening our bedroom didn't cool down just as it hasn't since this heat wave began, so I decided to try the couch. I enjoyed a pretty comfortable night but tonight I'll be back in my regular bed. We had a small rainstorm pass through mid-afternoon and the outside temperature has cooled down and the AC is no longer working overtime. We could use more rain but we're thankful for the small amount that fell.

After waking up on the couch, I got dressed and ready to go to church. I haven't seen anyone at Concordia since June 6 except for two (Miriam and Edie) who were at the Peoria convention (June 23-26).

Our guest pastor today was Rev. James Lamb, Executive Director of National Lutherans for Life and obviously his message today related to the sanctity of life. The children could relate to the visual presentation of unborn babies. Rev. Lamb indicated that to say "You're one in a million" should be revised to "You're one in 70 trillion!" Each of us is unique and we can tag ourselves "Handmade by God." We need to recognize that Life is precious to God.

I talked to several people about next Friday when we are serving two meals at SonRise Camp. The group is meeting at 8:45 to carpool to the Camp in Anderson. I'll meet them there. Later in the day I researched some new recipes since the menu has changed a bit this year.

Even though we had a plumber yesterday, Ray still had to buy a small "o" ring today to complete the repair. He had a struggle taking the part off to install the "o" ring, but finally succeeded and finally had a feeling of accomplishment.

I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen putting away groceries, making lunch and preparing ginger syrup for homemade ginger ale. We watched the conclusion of the movie "Midnight Run" with Robert Di Nero that we had recorded quite a while ago but haven't had the time to watch. It is pretty funny with plenty of twists, but has lots of bad language.

Tomorrow should be a busy day and with the cooler weather more comfortable too.

Of Spiders, Toilets & Water Softeners

I don't profess to be a perfect housekeeper. You'll find dust mites floating and windows that need cleaning when you visit. Also, if you've been away for a while or neglected an area, you'll notice little spiders making their nest. After being away for nearly 40 days, there was no doubt I'd find a few spiders and I tackled them today and swept them up. Victory!

One of our toilets was running a little -- you probably have all experienced this from time to time. We had turned off our water before leaving on our trip so this problem became apparent when we returned. Ray played plumber for a little while and finally, he, too, declared Victory!

Then he decided to tackle the water softener. We turned it on the day after we came home and reset the timer. All was working fine. While reading the instruction manual, I noticed a paragraph about annual maintenance and showed it to Ray. Should never have done that. The object of the maintenance is to clean a screen. Sounded like a good idea since we have never cleaned it. Turned out to be a frustrating job. After putting everything back together, the softener began squirting water in places where it wasn't supposed to! What to do, but call a plumber. Fortunately, we were able to someone to come out; otherwise, we wouldn't have had any water for a shower. Moral of the story: It's better not to read instruction manuals.

We hit the century mark!

Many parts of the country frequently have temperatures 100 and above, but it's been 23 years since the official temperature in Indianapolis has been this high. The highest temperature ever was 106 in 1936, the year my parents were married. I just wonder how they coped without air conditioning.

We slept rather late this morning but right after breakfast I backed the car out of the garage and gave it a good scrubbing and even vacuumed the interior. It looks pretty good! I watered a few plants in the front and then spent most of the day indoors. Ray finished mowing the lawn. We made a quick trip to the IGA for a few more items.

Our bedroom doesn't cool off when we have really hot days; in fact, our house is pretty warm tonight. The AC seems to be running continually though. We should have some relief in another 36 hours or so.

Before leaving on our trip, I carried most of my houseplants to the basement and gave them a good watering. Today I began bringing them back upstairs. Maybe they'd rather stay in the cool basement! Most of the plants are looking great. One of the geraniums (actually an outdoor potted plant) doesn't look happy, but it may revive.

I am sleepier tonight than the last several, so until the next time, Good night!

Home Again - Day 4

We were on the road this morning at 8 a.m. (Central) after staying overnight somewhere east of Columbia, MO. The distance we covered today was relatively easy -- only 322 miles and we arrived home at 3:15 this afternoon.

Our entire trip from Sacramento via I-70 took 34 hours driving time, covering 2,176 miles. Since leaving on June 12, we added 6,129 miles to our car's odometer. Our car performed flawlessly. Haven't added up the gas bill yet, but I'm sure it's a going to be a big one.

For the first time in a long time, we were able to use SR 39 after exiting I-70. During the time we were away the construction project that had closed portions of SR 39 since earlier this year was reopened. We stopped at the IGA to stock up on a few groceries. Our trunk and the back seat of our car was packed full of our luggage and topped off with grocery bags as you can see here.

Inside the blue bags are grocery items from the IGA.

First item of business was turning on the A.C. Even though it was in the high 90s outside, the inside of the house was a little bit cooler -- only in the high 80s.
 
Guess what I might be doing tomorrow? Besides some laundry, our car needs a major car wash! Take a look:

What's the best way to get rid of dried on bugs?

Ugh! This is going to take some elbow grease.

After unloading the car, Ray hopped on the tractor and began mowing the lawn. We inspected our two gardens. When we left, I took a photo of Ray doing some last-minute weeding. The sweet corn had just sprouted. Today, the same spot looks like this:

The corn is more than shoulder high,
but there are lots of weeds too.

This view is from the opposite corner:

There are some cantaloupes hiding among the tall weeds.

Our other garden looks like this. There are some green pepper plants hiding among these weeds.

Besides the vegetable gardens, there are other places around the house that need immediate attention. However, the ground is hard because of the recent heat wave. We may need to wait for rain to do some serious weeding. And who wants to work in the heat of the day pulling weeds?

Here's hoping the AC can cool the house so we can have a comfortable night's sleep with no alarm in the morning.

Returning Home - Day 3

We're still headed east on I-70. The big cities are slowing our progress. Yesterday we passed through Denver about 4 p.m. or so and this afternoon Kansas City slowed us down. Tomorrow we'll have to get through St. Louis and after that there shouldn't be any slow areas unless we come upon a construction site.

It certainly is hot. Our car thermometer indicated 102 for long period this afternoon and at one point we read "105." The landscapes today through eastern Colorado, Kansas and now Missouri didn't afford many opportunities for taking photos. We were close to the Harry Truman Presidential Library which would have made an interesting stop -- but we just motored by.

I had some video of Ray and his team mate receiving their gold medals and finally figured how to crop the portion where my fingers covered the lens. (I have to have more practice taking video!) It isn't the best quality and proportions seem a little skewed, but it should give you an idea of the award presentations at the WMA Championships. To see the 30 second video click here.

Returning Home - Days 1 and 2

The last day of the World Masters Athletics Championships was Sunday and it was the day we began our trip back to Indiana. We had spent 21 days in Sacramento and were becoming familiar with the city. The last day or two we didn't even consult our map when heading out.

On Saturday evening Ray made numerous trips from our second floor studio apartment to our car and early Sunday morning there wasn't much left to carry out. This latest episode in our life was over as we closed the door and dropped off the keys at the office.

On our trip west we traveled many hundreds of miles on I-80, a northern route. After consulting a map, we decided that our return to Indiana would be a little different. We noticed that I-70, the route that passes within 5 miles of our house, terminates in western Utah. All we had to do was drive across the state of Nevada on US 50 and we'd be on I-70 about 60 miles east of its terminus.

Sunday morning we began our trek back to Indiana leaving Sacramento at 5:45 a.m.  The temperature was 61 degrees. We drove on I-80 for a short distance passing over the Donner Pass where it was only 44 degrees. Leaving I-80 we began the trek across Nevada and a good part of Utah on U.S. 50.

At some point during the morning, we stopped for a rest break and I started a conversation with a woman in the restroom by asking her if she had just left Sacramento this morning as we had. She was confused at first wondering why I would ask that question and then I pointed out that I saw her wrist band identifying her as an athlete at the WMA Championships. She was on her way to her home in Utah and had competed in discus and had won a bronze in her age bracket. Kind of a small world!

U.S. 50 is a 2-lane highway but traffic or congestion was never a problem. During one stint when I was driving, I passed only one truck in a two-hour period. Occasionally we would meet a car or two coming from the other direction. But no cars passed us. We virtually had the east-bound lane to ourselves. We didn't have to worry about traffic at intersections either -- there are no intersections!

We stopped in the small town of Austin, NV for gas. We found some shade and used our folding chairs to enjoy our picnic lunch and the view.

It's hard to see, but there's a small flower garden
on the left just above the shaded area.

Across the street, I noticed an old abandoned building sitting high on the hill.

Can you see the old structure at the top left of the photol?

At one point, we saw some houses about three miles in the distance. Next to the road that led to the houses were three or four mailboxes. I couldn't help but wonder how often does the post office deliver mail? Where was the nearest post office and how far do they drive to deliver mail to these people? Where do these people get water? Do they have electricity? Much of central Nevada is desolate and isolated.

Later, Ray wondered if we had missed the Women's World Cup Soccer match. I began dialing the radio and we found the broadcast. We had missed the entire first half, but the score was tied: 0-0. We were able to listen to the entire second half and, even though the U.S. didn't win, we were happy for the Japanese women and the people of Japan. Listening to the game helped pass time as we drove what seemed like endless miles.

We lost an hour when entering Utah and the Mountain Time Zone.

By early evening we were nearing Salina, UT where we would connect with I-70. I saw a sign that said there were no services on eastbound I-70 for the next 109 miles! Fortunately, we found a motel and a Denny's restaurant next to the interchange.

The sign was correct. This morning we drove those 109 miles and there were no restaurant, gas stations or motels. It gives me goosebumps thinking about that -- what if we had missed the signs and started out on I-70. We were pretty tired as it was but thinking about driving another 109 miles makes me wonder if we could have made it.

Utah does have many beautiful formations. We stopped to capture several photos.

We entered Colorado with over 400 miles to Denver, but many of the miles were through the rugged and beautiful Rocky Mountains. The western Rockies are drier and not as colorful but the farther east one drives, there are more trees and color to the rocky cliffs. All day yesterday and today, we've been alternating between 5,000 and 7,000 feet in altitude until today when we crossed over the Loveland Pass at 10,000 ft. Temperatures alternated between the 44 at Donner Pass and the high 90s in several places.

At Grand Junction we had our first glimpse of the Colorado River. I-70 follows its course for many, many miles. It's a beautiful stream with white water in some areas and calm waters in others. Rafting is a summer activity for many and we did notice a few flowing west on the Colorado as we drove east.

As we pulled into the parking lot of our motel this evening, we saw a caravan of combines coming down the road. The combines are so wide that they take up more than one lane of the street. Wheat harvest is in full swing and we assume they are traveling north harvesting as they travel.

Tomorrow we'll lose another hour when we enter the Central Time Zone. We should reach home sometime on Wednesday after being gone 39 days.

20K Race Walk

The 20K race walk was held Saturday, July 16, but I didn't have time to complete my post. Now it's Monday morning and we're in Salina, Utah. More on that later, but first let me fill you in on the events of the 20K race walk.

When we left for Land Park, the site of the race walk, the temperature was 58 degrees at 6 a.m. and the skies were overcast. Before coming to Sacramento I had volunteered to help at the race and when arriving at the course was assigned to one of the water stops. There were three stops on the course: one for personal drinks that the racers provide, the second was a Gatorade stop and the third was for water only.

Men and women 60 and above, racing together, made up the first group of racers. The gun sounded about 7 a.m. for them. The second group included men and women 35 to 59. Their race began at 10:15. Two other volunteers and I were responsible for handing out Gatorade during both races. At the end of the first race, the skies cleared and the sun began shining and I finally took off my jacket. Earlier, my fingertips were cold as I filled and handed out cups to the perspiring racers.

Here's a video of the first wave of racers approaching the water stops, approximately 2/3 of the way around the 1.5 K loop course. On this first lap, most did not need water.

After studying the results of the 10K race, Ray realized that he might have a chance for an individual medal as well as a team medal in the 20K. Two of the U.S. top racers in his age division weren't able to participate, leaving the door open for an opportunity to medal. His analysis proved correct and Ray finished 3rd overall in the men's 75-79 age group! His official time was 2 hrs 23 minutes 59 seconds.

Since I was still handing out Gatorade Ray drove to where the awards are presented, but soon returned when he learned they wouldn't be presenting them until a few hours later. Pat Sela, our Australian friend, was racing in the second race, so when he was finished and I was free to leave a short while later, the four of us left to find something for lunch. We made our way to the awards area and thinking that we had an hour or two to wait, the women (Maxine and I) and the men (Ray and Pat) went our separate ways. When we met up a bit later, I was disappointed to learn that Ray already had his bronze medal and I wasn't there to document the occasion. Fortunately, Pat noticed that a friend of the first place finisher was taking photos. Even though they had difficulty because of the language barrier, Semen Tsukrof, from Russia, should be e-mailing photos to us that were taken during the presentation ceremony. It is quite an achievement to win an individual medal so it will be nice to have a photo to document the occasion.

We returned to the awards area for the presentation of the team medals. The third member of the men's 75-79 team had to catch an early plane and wasn't present for the ceremony. Officials were running out of medals -- how could this happen one wonders -- so they asked all team members to return their medals after the official ceremony promising to order more and mail them.

Here's two thirds of the three member 75-79 20K race walk team:

Al DuBois from Milwaukee and Ray

The Star Spangled Banner played after receiving their medals:

Hands raised in victory

Debbie Topham from Michigan also received an individual bronze medal.

Aren't they proud?

Cathy Mayfield, Indianapolis, was on the 10K and 20K team for her age division. She'll be watching her mailbox for her second team medal.

Ray and Cathy

I looked over to the awards stand and saw all the Mexican fans taking photos. So I decided to take a photo of the photographers taking photos! They were cheering for the bronze medalist. Several racers from Mexico took top honors. The younger men racers from Mexico were excellent.

10,000 meter run

This post is all about today's women's 10,000 meter run. Just click off if you aren't interested in the details.

As we headed out to Hughes Stadium, the temperature was 57 and a bit breezy. Thankfully, I had a jacket with me. Given that Sacramento can be very warm in July, we thought that we'd be running in much warmer conditions. The temperature was perfect when the gun went off about 8:01.

We waited just a minute or so for one woman who signed in late. Waiting for the latecomer:

I'm the runner wearing the white cap.

This group included all women 70+. There were women in the 70, 75, 80 and 85 age groups.

Fourteen runners begin the race.

A 10,000 meter run is 25 times around the track. Lap counters shout out the number of laps left which takes away any anxiety about which lap we are on. Besides that, we also wore a timing chip. All this is necessary because the fastest runners are lapping the slowest runners several times -- especially in this race with four age divisions.

The next photo shows the distance between the woman from New Zealand and me. Didn't Ray do a good job of documenting my progress?

I'm slowly catching Jan Fleming of New Zealand who is ahead of me in this photo.

One lap later Ray took the next photo.

Just passed Jan. Our positions didn't change after this.

One more photo and then the results:

Rounding the bend

If you've been paying attention to these photos, you'll notice these races don't attract many fans. Some of the fans in the stands are athletes waiting for the next race or a spouse or close friend. The short races such as 100 to 400 meters dashes are more popular for spectators. But the price is right to watch any of the WMA events -- they are all free!

When submitting my registration, I estimated a finish time of 59 minutes, but I'm happy to report that my official time was 56 minutes and 27 seconds, giving me a 4th place finish of the 8 competitors in my age division. I had no chance for third since the woman from Poland (Zofia Turosz) finished in 54.18 approximately two minutes ahead of me. I don't believe she lapped me but it probably was close.
Joaquina Flores from Portugal was first with an amazing time of 48:08. Xuha Chen from China was second with a time of 50.14.

However, I was lapped by the winner in the next older age group, a woman from France (Denise Leclerc) who finished in 51:18.

Tomorrow is our last race of this competition -- Ray has a grueling 20K race walk. After that we're packing up the car and planning for an early Sunday morning start for the long trip home.

Sutter's Fort

There were no competitions today so we decided to visit Sutter's Fort State Historic Park located in the heart of Sacramento. Sutter established his fort in 1839 and it soon it was flourishing. He hired workers for working in the bakery, grist mill, blanket factory, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop and others.

We arrived at the park minutes before its 10 a.m. opening.

Sutter fortified his fort with a number of 800 lb cannon.

Most of the rooms at the Fort had an audio recording that explained the use of the room and even included comments in Sutter's own words from his written records.

The next photo shows an Immigrant Room where people new to the area could bunk for a short while.

We next met a young man who had lots of interesting information to share. We were surprised at the size of the covered wagon -- much smaller than you would think. Later Conestoga Wagons were larger. He also explained the meaning of "flash in the pan." (See below for the answer.)

Flash in the pan is when the charge in a muzzle loader fires, but the main charge in the barrel of the gun does not fire.

The bakery made three kinds of bread.

 

Breads, hardtack and even cookies were baked in the beehive bakery outside the bakery.

Today, the Fort's kitchen is sometimes used for demonstrations. Today, vegetables were ready and soon would be made into salsa.

Sutter lived in the Fort, but many of his workers lived outside the walls of the Fort. Sutter had many horses and mules, 4,000 cattle and 3,000 sheep. Here's a replica of his office:

Photo taken through the screen that covers the doorway

In order to be safe, everyone had to have a gun. Sutter hired a gunsmith who was kept busy repairing and modifying guns.

Sutter's headquarters was the Central Building, a three story structure located in the middle of the Fort compound.

In the next photo you can see a section of the original walls in the Central Building. The walls were 2-1/2 feet thick. By the late 1850s about all that was left of Sutter's Fort was the Central Building. Most of the rest of the Fort is a reconstruction begun in 1891.

After leaving the Fort we drove to Granite Regional Park for a picnic lunch. Again, we had beautiful weather. After lunch, we walked a short distance to where we had munched on wild blackberries when we first came to this park. We ate some and used our picnic container for the rest of our pickings.

Note our door key (blue) to give you an idea of the size of our picking.

Athlete's Party

We have not always attended the Athletes' Party at the World Championships, but when reading that a dozen restaurants and local wineries were providing the food and that the event was being held in Old Sacramento, we purchased tickets. Yesterday was cool and the evening's prediction was similar.

Fortunately, after driving around for a bit we found a vacant parking space and only had to feed the meter for 90 minutes. After 8 p.m. parking is free. Everyone had to enter through the Railroad Museum (more on that later) and exited to the area where food was served. We were handed a souvenir wine glass and plate and then were free to visit the various tents where food and wine were served. Here's a look before the crowds arrived:

Additional vendors were at other locations on the grounds.

Tables under the main tent were soon taken so we found a stand-up table where it actually was quieter.

Quite a festive occasion

Each restaurant served samples of their food. All the food was delicious and each of went back to the tents to try something different. The plates also doubled as holders for our wine glasses giving us the freedom to hold the plate and glass in one hand allowing us to either pick up food with the other.

A band played music and later the dance floor was very crowded.

The band was quite good but far away so as not to interfere with conversation.

 We saw a number of costumed characters strolling the grounds.

They posed willingly and lots of photos were taken.

Pat and Maxine joined us for the evening -- or did we join them? We had made arrangements to meet them at the entry to the party. Anyway, here's another photo:

The evening was quite cool by Sacramento standards for mid-July helped by breezy conditions. After we had eaten our fill, we were free to visit the Sacramento History Museum and the California State Railroad Museum which had opened their doors for the evening for the benefit of the athletes.

The History Museum had just opened a brand new exhibit on women's suffrage. One of the banners displayed drew lots of attention:

Give her of the fruit
of her hands, and let
her own works praise
her in the gates.

This dress was dated "1910" and had lots of hand work -- really quite beautiful. I was particularly drawn to the dress because my grandparents were married in 1910.

In another area we saw samples of early machinery. This particular piece of agricultural equipment was hanging on the wall and is well preserved.

Where is the other wheel? Is this a planter?

Can you guess what the following item is?

If you guessed rear tractor wheel -- you are correct!

We then returned to the Railroad Museum. If you are ever in Sacramento, you shouldn't miss this one. Besides trains, they have other exhibits beautifully done explaining the advent of railroading in California. I believe this locomotive to be the North Pacific Coast Railroad No. 12  Sonoma built in 1876.

Beautifully restored with a scale model right next to it.

The following photo depicts the hard work that railroading entailed. At this time in our nation's history, all work was done by hand. Not much later, advances in explosives and machinery made the job of building railroads much easier.

I'm not exactly sure about the following photo. Maybe you can imagine what is happening. I'm guessing this is the family quarters above a railroad depot. Wish I had more information to share.

Finally, here's a photo depicting a construction scene in the Sierra Nevada mountains as crews prepare to blast rock for a railroad bed. How dangerous was this? In this era, there were no labor laws and crews worked in very dangerous conditions. There were no regulations on the number of hours the locomotive engineer could work and accidents happened because of sleep deprivation. Every week, a high number of people died working for the railroad.