Bridges and Dusty Roads

On Friday, we decided to return to Bridgeton and Rockville to pick up a few food items.  We discovered the strawberry jam and bread from the mill was so worth a second buy.  Then we went to Rockville to pick up spices, kettle corn, and eat lunch.  The old store we like on the square at  Rockville has large bottles of spices for $1.50 and I always restock my cabinet when we come here.  We had ham and beans for lunch with crullers for dessert.  Each town offers something different.  Mansfield is mostly flea market stuff.  Bridgeton is a combination of crafts and flea market stuff.  Rockville on the square is all crafts and homemade items.  The food vendors at Rockville are all church groups and civic groups.  There are no chain food vendors.  It is a great place to get a good, homemade lunch.

This is the Crullers Shack operated by the congregation of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Rockville.  They have had this cruller shack for over 50 years.

After lunch we traveled some rural roads back to the camp.  This picture and the ones below were taken on those roads.

Back at camp we rested and about 6:00 p.m. we burned the last of the wood we had brought.  It was our last campfire of this trip.

Sunset picture.  The trees keep the skies at a minimum but I could tell it was a nice sunset.

Final embers of the fire.

Saturday, we drove to Motezuma which is a small town that participates in the Festival.  The old buildings on main street are nice and like other small towns, the businesses that once occupied these buildings are long closed.

We drove to some covered bridges.  After all that is what the festival is called, "Covered Bridge Festival."  There are 39 covered bridges in Parke County.  Some like this one is no longer useable.  Others like the one below can still be driven through.

More tree-lined rural roads.

The last town we visited was Tangier.  It is known as the "Home of the World Famous Buried Beef."  We have driven by this town many times during the last 16 years we have been coming to the festival but never stopped.  Today we stopped.  What a mistake we have been making by not coming here to have a buried beef sandwich.  They are the best BBQ beef sandwiches we have ever eaten.  If we are ever back here again, we will stop for a sandwich.

Tangier used to have a high school on the spot where the buried beef is made.  The high school has been town down but this marker contains a time capsule of historic materials that was buried in 1916.

The bell from the high school.  Inside the community center which is located on the land the high school sat are pictures of each graduating class of the school.  Most classes contained between 15-20 students.

Here is the sandwich for which we stopped.  It doesn't look like much but it is delicious.  In addition to the sandwich they had sides and homemade pies.  Carol has a rhubarb pie and I had a coconut cream pie.  Both were very good.

This is the pit in which they bury the beef.  There was a young man (he said he was 39) who helps with the preparation of the beef.  It is quite a process.  He told us that his grandfather and his father and brothers began the first buried beef nearly 60 years ago.  It is a family operation and he hopes his son with carry on the tradition of making the buried beef.

The first step is building a fire and letting it burn down to ashes.  Inside the pit the fire reaches a temperature of over 1000 degrees.  Once the fire burns down, it is covered with two inches of sand.  The sand is covered with burlap.  Then the large chunks of beef roast are wrapped in three layers of foil and set in the pit on top of the ash, sand and burlap.  Two men wearing fireman garb for protection from the heat climb into the pit...one of each end and are handed chunks of beef roast to place on top of the heat.  When they can no longer reach far enough form the ends where they are standing to place the meat, they are pulled out and then lowered head first into the pit to place the remaining meat.  Then the meat is covered with more sand and a large metal plate covers the pit to seal in the meat and heat.  This process begins late afternoon and once the pit is sealed it cooks for 12-15 hours.  Then the cover is removed, the meat is brought out of pit, shredded and some is made into BBQ and other is left in its original form.

You could tell that the man who explained the process was very proud of his family and the tradition of the buried beef.

Sand for the pit.

Lumber and wood for the fire.

Metal plate to seal the pit.

Today we spent traveling dusty roads.

The clouds began to roll in during the day.  We got back to camp around 2:30 and by 4:00 the rain began to fall.  We packed up everything outside and put it away for the trip.  It is supposed to rain all day tomorrow and we won't have rain soaked chairs, etc to pack away on Monday when we leave.  So far tonight it has been raining.  I am so glad to have a motorhome in which to stay dry.  Camping in a tent in the rain is no fun.  Over the last 50+ years of camping we have spent many rainy nights in a tent.  We have done the time and now we stay dry in a motorhome.

Mansfield and Bridgeton

Wednesday we arrived at Mansfield a little after nine.  Mansfield is separated into two sections:  one with vendors below the hill and the more vendors on  top of the hill.  Last year there weren't many vendors on the hill and our friend Shane told us it was the same this year; therefore, we decided that we would stay below the hill.  We walked each row of vendors and the Big Tent,  crossed the bridge, and checked out the rest of the vendors.  We ate on this other side of the bridge.  Mansfield has turned into nearly 95 percent flea market stuff or as our friend Shane would say, "Stuff from China and Temu."  We agree but it was a good way to spend a morning.  We will probably go to Bridgeton at least three times but Mansfield only once.

Traditionally, I must take a picture of the Historic Marshall Arch.

We saw this horse and carriage with an Amish man waiting to turn into the road.  We have not seen many Amish on the road or fields but have seen plenty of them running shops and stores in Bridgeton.

Our car is second from the right on the front row of the parking lot.  We have never parked that close to the festival.  Our feet appreciated the closeness of the parking spot.

I saw this sign in Mansfield and got a good laugh.

After lunch we drove some rural roads back to our campsite.  The next few pictures were taken along that drive.  The leaves have finally began to turn.

This camper moved across the way from our campsite.  It looks like a vintage camper.  Notice the old wagon wheel they have put in front of the camper wheel to add to the charm.

Today (Thursday) we returned to Bridgeton.  This farmer was stirring up quite a dust storm.  It is very dry here just like Central Illinois.  We have been here eleven days with no rain.  That has never happened in the 16 years we have been coming here.  Usually, we would have a day or two that it rained.

Today was a big day in spending for us  Every year we see telescoping flag poles for sale and pass them by but today we decided we would buy one for our front yard.  We can hardly wait to get it home and installed in our front yard.  We purchased a light for the top so the flag can fly 24-hours a day.  We have enlisted Jason to help us install it.  We walked the main street in Bridgeton all the way to the end where the old school house is.  We ate lunch and then returned to pick up the flagpole.  The guy guaranteed that it would fit in our car if we put the back seat down...it did.  As Carol was walking with the flagpole, a man sitting on the edge of the bridge asked us about the flagpole and the cost of it.  In the conversation, we told him that Carol was  80.  He said that he is 62....wow, we would have guessed him to be closer to our age!!  Anyway, we walked on a bit and he caught up with us and asked if he could carry the flagpole for us to our car.  Carol gladly handed it to him to carry.  He carried it to the car and helped Carol put it into the car.  There are still some nice people in this world and this man is proof of that.

We drove more rural roads back to Rockville.  The next pictures were taken on these roads.  It seems like the leaves have changed overnight.

Our final stop of the day was the car wash in Rockville.  All the rock and dusty roads we have driven the last few days have left their mark on the car and Carol could take it no longer.  

We arrived back at camp around 2:30 and relaxed the rest of the afternoon.  After supper we took a walk around this side of the campground.  My walking app was very happy with me today because I walked 11,156 steps or 4.4 miles.  I am sure we will both sleep well tonight.  It has been a nice day.  We saw so much beauty in God's natural world and He blessed us with beautiful weather to match the natural beauty.