Lake Loramie Fall Festival...

Many times in this blog I have said that Lake Loramie is one of the best state parks in Ohio.  Well, this was reinforced recently when the park held its Fall Festival featuring antique gas and steam-power machines, and lots of other turn of the century things for visitors to see.  Walking the grounds made me feel like I was back in my childhood as I worked around a lot of the things on display.  Growing up in Zanesville, I lived in the country and most of my friends were farm kids.  We all pitched in and helped around the farms and learned a lot about life, hard work and nature.

 

I used to drive tractors just like these shown above.  In fact, Ms. Prosser had an old John Deeere just like the one above, but not nearly as nice or clean.  And Gene, my best man at our wedding, had one just like the gray Ford.  It too was red and gray and dirty (and the tires weren't nearly that nice).

There were lots of things to see.  For instance, there were guys cutting wood sculptures with chain saws.  The eagle shown here had a "sold" sign on it with a $75 price tag.  Go figure.







And if chain sawed wood sculpture isn't your thing, there were working blacksmiths working the fires.

But probably one of the best things of the day was running into an old friend who used to teach with me in Anna.  He has completed his Masters Degree work in school administration and has taken a job in Troy.  He spends a great deal of his spring-summer-fall weekends camping at Lake Loramie with his wife.Here is a picture of his campgrounds.  Nothing like chili cooking on a wood fire with your dog lying next to it.  I asked him for a list of ingredients and he said he used "a little of this, a little of that, and whatever they happened to throw in before they left the house."  Sure smelled good.

Camping:  The art of getting closer to nature while getting farther away from the nearest cold beverage, hot shower and flush toilet.  (Author Unknown)

Hooah