Fitting In: Too Many, Too Few

    Fitting in--where? with who (or is it whom)?

   Saturday, we took the light rail to downtown Denver to check out Taste to Colorado.  The festival originated in it's current form in 1985.  We remember attending at some point before 2009 when we moved out of our house and began traveling all year.  

    This visit, we realized we didn't fit in with the crowd that attends such festivals.  We have lived too many years and we have too few (read 0) tattoos.  In other words, almost everyone was under the age of 40 and most had numerous tattoos.  A far cry from the people we see regularly in Arizona in our 55+ resort, or in most RV parks around the country.  Our generation is obviously out of step with modern culture.

    The festival features both music and food.

There were numerous food trucks. This is called The Party Truck.  I don't think they served food but each compartment offers a TV screen and different music.

Many of the restaurants offered outdoor seating.

This water park offered fun for children.

Some of the entertainment went beyond music.

 

We saw murals on buildings.

The Daniels and Fisher building is 325 feet high and when it was built in 1910, it was the tallest building between the Mississippi River and California.  John's senior class sneak included visiting the tower and going to the top.  My class didn't have a senior sneak.  That would have been tough to arrange--there were 308 of us in the class.  John's class had 54 students.

    We didn't take any photos of the tattoo-covered young women and men.  That would have been rude.  But trust me, there were lots of them.

    Waiting for the light rail to return to our apartment.

    Our return trip on the light rail took us by the buildings that once housed Gates Rubber Company.  My dad spent most of his working life there as a cost accountant.  The company offered summer jobs to the children of employees--a form of financial or scholarship assistance.  I worked there two summers.  I rode to work with my dad and he always included me in the morning coffee gathering in the cafeteria before work began.

    Downtown Denver includes several cow sculptures.  I get cows in Colorado--a major cattle ranching economy.  

As we travel around the country, we see many different conversions of Airstream trailers.  This one was one of the food service vehicles at the festival.  Our Airstream is still for travel.  Some day, perhaps someone else will convert it for some other use.

  We did enjoy our walk up and down 16th Street.  And we split a sandwich from the Corner Bakery.  This is the cool tile floor in the bakery.

Gourd Fest--Part 2

There was more to see at the Gourd Festival last Saturday than just the fine artistic creations. There was entertainment, both inside and outside.





Gourds had been used in clever ways around the fairgrounds.







There was a REALLY OLD camper.



You could purchase pattern and how-to books, as well as supplies.







And, of course, there was food. There were lots of choices, but we chose to get some potato ribbon fries. The potato is put on a spindle or drill bit attached to an electric drill, then turned to slice it in a very thin ribbon. The use both white and sweet potatoes.







We split one huge basket to the white potato chips.



As I promised, here are two collages of more of the gourd artistry. You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Amazing What These People Do

Saturday, we attended the 11th annual Weurtz Farm Running of the Gourds Festival at the Pinal County Fairgrounds in Casa Grande. It has been three years since we last visited the festival and we were again amazed at the quality and variety of creations that gourd artists produce. This is the raw materials they start with.









Believe me, I know I couldn't do much with one of these gourds. I have tried. But there are olthers that are much more talented. Just look at these.

Paint and wood burning were used to create this tiger.



Add carving to those techniques and some people can make a beautiful eagle.



Fiber and beads were added to this one.



On this one, they used carving and paint and added metallic items.



These are made special on order. The top face is deeply carved, then paint and fabric and small round heads were added to produce this Spanish-influenced storyteller.



I'm not sure what all was done on these gourds but the artist produced a very different look.



On this one, the artist used carving and fiber and either stones or stone shavings for the accents. (I saw stone shavings for sale in one booth.)



Between the two of us, we have almost 100 photos of what we saw at the festival. Don't worry, I won't post all of them, but I will be showing more of what we saw and did there in future posts.

Apples and More

Yesterday the sun came out and we decided to go to the Apple Festival in Nappanee, a small town about 40 miles from here.  Now in its 38th year, the festival attracted 85,000 visitors last year and is one of the largest festivals in Indiana.  More about the festival in a bit.  On the way there, we stopped at E & S Sales, a bulk food store in Shipshewana.  The store is decorated with old toys and farm implements.  (You can click on the picture to see more detail.)



The store caters to both the local Amish and their English neighbors--anyone who is not Amish.  Most of the food was sold in large quantities and is often packaged in plastic bags, rather then cans or boxes.  This shows just a few examples of what they have for sale.  Fifty pounds of potatoes, anyone? Or some anise stars?



When we arrived at the apple festival, we were able to see the last part of the parade. There were old tractors and horse-drawn wagons.

There was a tractor pulling a steam-driven calliope.



I'm guessing this machine was for harvesting corn. Anyone know for sure?



Since we used to own a funeral home, this matched pair of black horses and hearse was our favorite.



And this was clearly the cutest entry we saw.



Miller Farms was selling mums. They are obviously at their peak right now.



This lawn furniture was equally as colorful.



Have you ever heard of eating elephant ears? I hadn't. But we saw them for sale at the festival, after first spotting them at the flea market. For those of you from the western part of the country, they look like a large-sized sopaipilla or fry bread.



This is a miniature hay baler.



I had seen the cornhole game in campgrounds, but had no idea it was a commercial product. I thought they were homemade. Obviously not.



Read this sign carefully. They don't sell the products that use the new iOs7, they sell food made from apples. That included apple butter, apple bars and this delicious-looking apple strudel.





They also sold pieces of this 7-foot apple pie. The last 1/4 of the pie was on display in a downtown store. Below is a copy of the sign giving more information about the pie.





For 50 cents, you could buy a plain apple to eat.



We saw an owl



and a puppet show.



The downtown streets are decorated with painted apples.





As we drive from town to town here in northern Indiana, we see beautiful farms. Thankfully, those clouds didn't produce any rain yesterday.