Makeup Pic-of-the-Week for September, posted in October 2013

Wow!  How time flies!  We are now back in Baja, and I didn’t get all my Pic-of-the-Weeks out.  I will do one once in a while until I get all caught up.  You can always just look at the pictures. 

After being in Bend at the regional Model A meet, we headed to Pendleton to go to the Pendleton Round-Up.  That event is becoming an annual tradition for us.  As usual, we took the road less traveled through Prineville, Mitchel, Kimberly (how many of you know where that town is, or have been there?), and Pilot Rock.  We usually show you our destination points, but this time I thought that I would put in some of the points along the way.  As they say, it is the journey, not the destination that counts.

Near Mitchel

Along the John Day River towards Kimberly

Cathedral Rock on the John Day River

Small section of orchards at Kimberly

Starter home, or would that be an “ender home”?

Upper head waters of the North Fork of the John Day River near Dale.  How many of you know where Dale is?

Getting near Pendleton, This is wheat country with the Blue Mountains in the back ground.

Ok, that is the trip to Pendleton.  I think Oregon is beautiful in the summer!  Maybe the next Pic-of-the-Week (written by Ben) will have the Pendleton Round-up in it.  

Better late than never....
Ben

Model A Meets

Can you imagine seeing over 200 Model A Fords in one place at a time?  We did  twice this summer, when we attended two meets in the USA.  

The first one, in Bend, Oregon, was sponsored by Model A Ford Club of America (MAFCA) and was the Northwest Regional Meet in early September.    Model A’s were made by Ford from 1928 through 1931; Sedans, Pickups, Trucks, Coups, Woodies, Phaetons were all seen at this meet. There were 280 Model A’s registered; people attended from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Nevada, and British Columbia.  Several seminars were held for the attendees, and the ladies participated in an era fashion show.  Tours were mapped out, and you could see Model A’s driving all around town as attendees from as far away as Canada and Australia enjoyed the scenery of Central Oregon.  Thankfully, there was a repair tent when the inevitable happened, and an 80+ year old car wouldn’t go any further!  The simple 4-cylinder engine was usually quickly repaired, and they were out driving again! 

A nicely restored Tow Truck.

 

A Speedster.

 A "Woodie" Station Wagon.

 

A Roadster, with a top that can be lowered.

A sedan, with the owners participating in "Model A Games".  She held the water glass on a tray and kept it from spilling while the driver went over several topes.  

Cars were eligible to be judged for originality, and many won prizes for their hard work of restoring the cars to their original factory condition.  Others, who have modified their cars to run better under current highway conditions, also won prizes for their beautiful cars.  

The second Model A Meet was in Massachusetts, and was the 57^th Annual Model A Ford New England Meet, sponsored by Model A Restorer’s Club of Massachusetts, held in Hyannis, Massachusetts.  This meet had about 250 cars and the attendees were from clubs in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  There were even several from Canada!  Some drove their Model A's over 300 miles to get there!  That involves a lot of back road travel, since top speed is about 45 mph on an original condition car.  Some have been modified to go faster. 

Again, there were tours and fun things to do, a lot of it just admiring the beautifully restored cars, or listening to their distinctive sound as they drove.  The most impressive sight was at the end of a tour drive, when every car was lined up in a field by model type.  

 Part of the 250 cars on tour. We could not get all the detail in with a shot of all the cars. 

 Have you ever seen a Model A Bus?

 A beautiful Roadster.

 This Pickup was the milk delivery truck! 

 This original condition Phaeton was a prize winner, in spite of back firing most the way there!  The man who owns this car was also the head mechanic at the Repair Tent. 

A line up of "Woodie" Station Wagons.  

Based on the evidence of the admiration of this car, many of Henry Ford's dependable Model A's will be on the road for many years to come!  We just wish we could have participated at these meets with our Model A's, which are here in Mexico.  We think they would have been prize winners for sure!

 

Pic-of-the-Week for October 8, 2103

Hola Amigos,

We are back home; arrived safely yesterday afternoon to warm sunshine and a breeze.  Ben managed to get everything unloaded, and we now have piles of boxes here and there around our house!  While he did that, I unpacked our suitcases and got a nice big pile of dirty clothes to take care of today.  

We are sorry if Ben disappointed you with his lack of news in September.  We were VERY busy.  He didn't have time to write, and I didn't have time to upload photos.  In brief, here's what we did in September after that Model A Car show in Bend (I'm sure Ben will fill you in on the details....someday!)
1.  Drove to Pendleton via Prineville and Pilot Rock to attend the Pendleton Roundup.  Met up with cousin Karan Malpass and shared in some fun times with her.
2.  Drove back to Tygh Valley on Sunday after the Roundup, and put the trailer away.... all on Sunday afternoon, then drove to Bend that evening.
3.  Took Sam to the Vet in Bend on Monday because his back problem was worse.  Got him on steroids and more pain meds. 
4.  Tried to organize our stuff a bit, and packed for our trip to Massachusetts.  
5.  On Friday the 20th, took Zoey and drove to Salem, left Sam in Bend to be closer to the Vet, if needed.  We had driven over 5000 miles since the truck's oil change in July, so did it again!  At least they're fast at our favorite shop in Salem.  
6.  On Saturday, dropped Zoey off at our friend's John and Marilyn (who have 2 dachshunds themselves), then drove to Portland to spend the night before we caught our plane.
7.  Flew to Boston on Sunday, met up with our friends who live near there, and proceeded to fast pace sight-see!  Went to Plymouth Rock, saw the Mayflower, toured mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, spent most of a week on Cape Cod, took a ferry to Martha's Vineyard, and attended a Model A Restorer's Regional Meet for New England at Hyannis.  Also visited the John F. Kennedy Library before we caught our return flight on Monday afternoon, and spent Monday night at the same Portland hotel where we left our truck (good idea, huh?)

8.  Picked up Zoey, drove through pouring rain back to Bend on Tuesday,  packed the truck Wednesday morning, and drove to Lakeview Wednesday afternoon!  Phew!  Are you tired yet?  

So, it is GOOD to be home.  I have managed to get a good number of photos loaded from our hectic September, and some for October.  Sorry there are no captions yet, but after we get unpacked I might be able to get to it!

So, here are a few more photos from our trip home.   Above is Bahia Concepcion south of Mulege.

Sam and Zoey are great travelers.  Zoey usually takes advantage of Sam like this!!  Sam was wearing his "Wiggleless"  back brace most of the trip.  

South of Loreto the road crews were doing repairs where water (and rocks and mud) washed over the roads...in quite a few places.  It didn't slow us down too much!

Our big red truck didn't have the issues it did last summer.  Here's a view of the Sea of Cortez south of Loreto (I think!)

Lots of hills and curvy roads.  That's why an 800 mile long peninsula has 1000 miles worth of road to get all the way to our house from the border! 


OK!  Lots more boxes to unpack, and things to do!  Waiting for your reservations to come visit (except around Thanksgiving, when our daughter and her family will be here.)

Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos very happy to back home in Baja!
Harriet, Ben, Wobbly Sam and Zingy Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for September 7, 2013

 The summer travels of the Purkeys continues……  Staying busy! ……

When we stopped in to visit with Jim and Pat in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho they told us that if we returned the weekend of August 31^st, that we could watch hydroplane races from their house.  They have a very nice house, on the edge of the lake that overlooks the lake.  As it turned out the start/finish line for the races was right in front of their house.  We spent 3 days partying with them and watching the races.  The fastest class of hydroplanes is jet powered and reach speeds of about 160 – 170 miles per hour on the oval track.

Jet boat turning the corner

For a video of the racers go here.

There were some people with hydroplanes that were staying in the same RV park that we stayed in so Sunday evening, after all the racing was finished, we were able to take pictures of the hydroplanes there.

It was a fun 3 day weekend with a lot of people and a lot of good eating.  Thank you Jim and Pat for including us!

Monday morning (Labor Day) we headed back to Bend, Oregon.  Tuesday was the start of a Model A Convention that I wanted to attend.  There were lots of people, and many Model A’s there.

Here are just a very few of the cars and trucks.

A Model A tow truck

You know I had to take a picture of a Woody.  We actually got to take a tour of downtown Bend in this beauty, and Zoey rode along too, ears flapping!

A nice delivery truck

One of the games.  The passenger needs to keep from spilling the drink while the driver drives over bumps.

A very nice, and rather rare Model A

A nice roadster

On Thursday afternoon there was a terrific hail storm that went right over where we were staying at my brother’s house.  The hail stones were as large as ¾ of an inch!  The hail broke both roof vents on our travel trailer.  Things got wet inside our trailer, but I was able to find some replacement vents in Bend and buy them and get them installed that evening!  I am very glad I did as it rained some more that night!  (The repair shop in Bend said they could fit it in their shop on September 23rd!!!  Yeah, right!  Good thing Ben is a good fix-it type of guy!)

Hail in the driveway.

One of the vents.  Completely destroyed.

  While here in Bend my brother Kenneth and I went to look at some old mines near Prineville.  I thought that the buildings were in very poor condition for being used as late as the early 1960’s.  These mines were mining cinnabar for making mercury.  The mercury was used mainly by the gold and silver mining industries to separate the gold and silver from the ore.

Mother Load Mine.  The ore processing plant.

I have no idea how all this worked!

The Blue Ridge Mine.  The ore was processed inside these buildings.

The best preserved building.  Looks like a hotel and dance hall to me, but a fellow giving a guided tour to some other people claimed that he lived there as a kid, and that it was their house.  Hummmm.

That is it for this time.  See you at the Pendleton Round Up next week.  

We've started a brand new album for September 2013, for more photos of the races and the hail storm, and gobs of Model A's.

Your "enjoying the warm days and cool nights of Oregon" friends,
Ben, Harriet, Sam (who is a bit gimpy now from squirrel chasing) & Zoey