Old Tractors and a Skillet Toss

Two weeks ago we went to "Farm Fest" at Hilltop Farm in Suffield, CT. They had a tractor parade (check out the photos below), and a Women's Skillet Toss, among other activities. Okay, so those were the two main attractions for VB. While VB was there she found out why so many of the tobacco fields had been plowed under starting in July - Tobacco fungus took hold. We've had so much rain here in Connecticut this year, it seemed as though April never ended. According to the agricultural specialist, tobacco likes it dry, with a scant amount of rain. And this year was not good at all in that respect. Thus, no tobacco photos this year, except for a few VB posted on flickr from early in the season.

(Below): Photos from Farmfest 2009.














Check out the video VB made of the Women's Skillet Toss. VB's still working on her video making skills. She made this version, then another close up with cropped photos. She then decided she liked this one better, but it took several days (attempts) for it to load onto YouTube properly. VB planned on posting this last week, but due to the circumstances with the video, it's late. And, rather than load up fifty million photos, she thought this was better.

The first woman, in the blue shirt is the yearly winner and she started off well ahead of everyone else. We left before it concluded, but enjoyed watching (and almost getting hit by a flying skillet - twice). The skillets weigh eight pounds each, and each woman had a very distinctive style of throwing. If you watch closely, you can see the skillet flying in almost every photo, and detect which one came flying our way (she's aiming it right at us.)


SKILLET TOSS:

Funkengroovin To An Indian Motocycle Rally

This past Sunday, Hilltop Farm, had "George Hendee Day Motocycle Rally". According to the notification: "Indian riders have a special camaraderie and loyalty. For many years, an Indian rally was held at the Indian Motocycle Museum, which was housed in a former Indian manufacturing facility in Springfield. Many that traveled a long distance would camp at the farm of Russell Longey in Chester, Mass., and travel to the rally in the morning. The museum closed four years ago and the rally stopped, but Russell and his group—the Pioneer Valley Indian Rally—continued the annual gathering. With Russell’s encouragement and assistance, an Indian Motorcycle Rally is now being held on the farm that Hendee built."

We hopped on up the road to take a look at the motorcycles and VB's first time visiting the local farm.

Below: If memory serves VB right, this is a 1945 Indian Motocycle.


(Below 7 photos): All vintage / classic Indians








(Below): Newer Indians.


(Below): A t-Shirt for Sale.


(Below): Indian Motorcycle advertisement.


Some farm photos: Most are self explanatory. Below: The large door where everyone seems to be standing, is the dairy barn. (Cow scene taken by Number One Son.)



The dairy barn (below) is being renovated, and will eventually (they say) be opened to visitors.

NEWS:

When Your Car Stinks, Your Life Stinks, Too

Survey: Food + driving = disaster
"Just how much of a problem is this? Exxon surveyed 1,000 drivers and discovered more than 70 percent eat while driving and 83 percent drink beverages.

The NHTSA study cites these driver distractions as the top reasons for car crashes - and ultimately higher auto insurance rates:

Using a cell phone
Reaching for a moving object
Looking at an object or event outside of the vehicle
Reading
Tweeting
Applying makeup"

G.A.Y. It Up!

TAKING CARE OF HISTORY, ONE CAR AT A TIME
"Today, Hosny claims, it is the only living example of a fully restored 1960 Karmann Gia, an expensive collector’s item abroad. It was spotted under an oily rag, with chicken bones and dead rats inside, left in the garage after its owner passed away and his inheritors had no clue what to do with it." VB previously focused on this car, before meeting Hosny earlier this year. The photos of his Karmann pre-restoration are here.

Porsche and Volkswagen's Nazi Roots

A Fierce Family Feud

Odd duck or rare bird?
"VW's Karmann Ghia a stylish, post-war take on the classic Beetle"

Legendary Volkswagen collection for auction at Turners

AT THE WHEEL: KENNY'S CUSTOM VW

An must see for all Octomom fans
"If so, you either need to get a hobby or, take a road trip to California. More precisely, you need to take a road trip to Pickering Avenue in Whittier, California. Once there, join in with other Octo-mom fans and check out the Gold Mine VW Auto Parts building owned by Ralph and Diva Chase." More and larger photos here: Whittier auto parts store pays tribute to octuplet mother Nadya Suleman and VW car art in Whittier pays homage to 'Octomom'

7 Cars to Drive Before You Die

Car Show Review: VW Wasatch Classic

Ten oddball production Volkswagens

Sixty years (and counting) of the VW Van

Kombi mania

Rolling and roaming in New Zealand by camper van
"Because we're members of the club ourselves, we never considered anything but a VW camper van for exploring New Zealand. Back home, our 1987 Vanagon, Hanz, has taken us from Los Angeles to Maine and back again. And in trips to France, Spain and the Netherlands, we've found that renting VW campers makes even vacations abroad affordable. This was especially true for New Zealand, where, thanks to a favorable exchange rate of 55 cents U.S. to $1 New Zealand, our rental cost just $66 a day."

Seeing Hawaii from a VW camper

For free-spirited trip, try van camping

Van owner jumps on electric band '��wagen'��

Henrietta newlyweds VW-bus their honeymoon
"The park-crazy Wootens — they were married at Letchworth State Park last October — recently returned from a 4½-month honeymoon that would make recreational vehicle owners smile and old hippies tear up.

With their cat “Fink” and dog “Westy” as companions, Kim and Josh camped in 24 states from January to May, traveling in a vintage 1978 VW bus, specifically, a Westfalia conversion pop-up painted lime green and bearing peace symbol stickers."

A Vw Trends Magazine reader takes his 1975 Volkswagen Kombi from the Cape to Cairo, Egypt.
"We were overjoyed to reach Wadi Halfa, near the border with Egypt, until we discovered we had to wait for a cargo barge to take us to Aswan. Nobody could tell us when the barge would arrive, and the only answer we heard was "maybe tomorrow, inshallah (God willing)."

We ended up waiting 12 days in the dry, dusty, anarchic frontier town on the southern shores of Lake Nasser, before our boat arrived to take us to Egypt. A few weeks after we passed that way, the land border between Sudan and Egypt was reopened for the first time in decades.

Getting a car into Egypt is a bureaucratic nightmare, which was compounded for us by the fact that our carnet de passage, the car's customs "passport," was not valid for Egypt. But, with a little creativity on our part, and an inability to read the Roman alphabet on the part of the customs officer, we were allowed into the country on Egyptian customs temporary plates without too much hassle and without paying the 300 percent temporary import duty.

From there to Cairo it was paved roads all the way. We stopped on route to visit Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, and to do some scuba diving on the Red Sea, before finally rolling triumphantly into Cairo's anarchic traffic, having driven for seven months and 15,000 miles since leaving home. What's more, we crossed one of the most difficult continents on the planet without a single breakdown or puncture. The only mechanical failure, apart from a few oil leaks, was a cracked cooling fan, which we had welded up in Ethiopia.

Seeing the Great Pyramids at Giza was a very emotional moment, as it marked the end point of Cape to Cairo for us.

We had made it on a wing and a prayer in an ancient vehicle, and in the face of very many people who told us we would never make it."

Hi-de-Hi glampers
"The term glamorous camping (glamping) arrived on our shores last year, heading straight into the urban dictionary alongside 'chillax' and 'Primani' and will no doubt be followed by the latest buzz words 'Aldirati' and 'stacation'.

But it’s not just tipis and yurts that have achieved glamping status. For the practical glamper, there are VW vans. And before you dismiss the VW van as somewhere you may have lost your virginity one hazy and somewhat forgettable evening in the nineties with a hippy called Moonshine, vwcamperhire.net in The Lake District (winner of the British Travel Awards 2008) offers a team of stylish, charismatic campervans, all affectionately named. In true glamping stylee there’s Billy the Bling Bus who comes complete with digital television and Play Station 2- a strong negotiating tool for the “spirited” child. But for a bit of vintage glamour, there’s simply no other choice than the post war American Airstream Trailers at vintagevacations.co.uk all beautifully restored, with cutesy furnishings and not forgoing modern amenities. Cocktail anyone?"



Forty years ago, when man landed on the moon, VB was at her parent's restaurant in a black neighborhood (as mentioned here.) A lot of folks in the neighborhood thought the moon landing was something concocted by the government, with assistance from Hollywood. In other words, it never happened, and we were being lied to. VB got numerous lectures from disbelieving adults on this subject as the week passed. So, in tribute to those memories, VB presents: Whitey on the moon - gil scott-heron