Introducing Sophia

Robert Burns famously wrote about the plans of mice and men. This little story only supports Burns’ view of the topic.

I’ve introduced you to Megan, my Parabox girl. The “plan” was to get a Parabox boy, Sean, to partner Megan and then to get my first resin girl, probably an Angel of dream.

Then fate intervened as it is wont to do and I had an opportunity to purchase a Volks SDCute doll, the new limited edition Gretel. I’ll let her tell her own story.

Hi everyone. I’m Sophia! Tom told me that my box said “Gretel”.All I can imagine is that it was a cruel joke played on me at the factory. Although I like fairy tales as much as the next girl, as you can see, I’m chic and contemporary and have little or nothing in common with the barefoot ragamuffin in the story.

Tom rescued me from my box and got me dressed but he had great difficulty getting my wig on correctly. The nice lady that won me in the Volks lottery sent him some makeshift head caps and now Tom has my wig all brushed out and I feel like me, the real me, not that Gretel person…

Tom back! Sophia is very different from my Megan. Megan is athletic and outdoorsy. Sophia is artistic and a bit more outgoing. Megan’s favorite musician is Allen Jackson; Sophia’s is Joshua Bell. I was afraid that they might not get along but somehow it’s all working out. Now we’ll see what happens when I throw a boy into the mix.    I’m still planning to get Sean but now I understand better just how ephemeral such plans are….

Tom

Last trip update

Tomorrow we will get home so this will be the last trip update.

Today we had a reasonably short drive so we decided to take a scenic route from Whitefish to Coeur d’Alene. Along the way we stopped at a couple of lakes in the Thompson Lake chain.

Early morning mist rises from Lower Thompson Lake

Lower Thompson Lake

We were driving US Rt 2 which follows the Kootenai River. Along the way we found a park with a trail to Kootenai Falls. It was a 15 min walk to the falls overlook. The river is running quite high so the falls were spectacular.

So tomorrow we will be back home after 23 days on the road and some 7000 miles on the car.

Thank you all for sharing it with us…

Tom

Day-22 Glacier

Carol and I went to Glacier maybe 45 years ago. It was not our best trip. We were camping in a tent and it rained most every day. We spent as much time drying clothing and sleeping bags as sight seeing.

The weather report for today was 50% chance of rain with afternoon clearing. We did have a bit of rain but since we were staying in a nice dry Inn it was less of a bother this time.

Lake MacDonald

MacDonald River

Going to the Sun Road, the main scenic drive through the park closes in the winter and was only reopened a little over a week ago. This was the latest opening on record. There is still a lot of snow in the high country and all of the streams and rivers are running high. Lots of seasonal waterfalls.

An unnamed fall

Glacier N.P. High Country

Tom

Day-21 Grand Falls to Whitefish

We drove Rt 89 from Grand Falls to Rt 2 and then Rt 2 West past Glacier NP and Rt 40 to Whitefish. Early this morning we found this modern grain elevator. I have several photos of old grain elevators but I had never seen a modern facility that caught my eye. The morning sun glinting on these was special

Although Rt 2 does not run through the park it does provide some very nice images of the Rocky Mountains.

West from the continental divide the route follows the Flathead River

We found this seasonal falls just off the road. They may be small but they are gorgeous.

 

Tomorrow we will visit Glacier. We have been here once some 45 years ago. It rained! The forecast for tomorrow is AM showers so we may be visiting the park in the rain yet again…

Tom

Badlands National Park

Today we were driving Westbound on I-90 through South Dakota and on into Wyoming.This route takes us immediately past Badlands N.P. so we decided to revisit it. What I love about the badlands is the contrast between the prairie and the badland wall

I also like the varied plant life of the prairie.  Here is a thistle seed

and a scrub tree trying to survive in a hostile environment.

Finally, a classic Badlands view

When we were driving east the only rain we hit was in Wyoming, West of Laramie. Today, in Wyoming, we hit some rain again. We went through a weather front; a bit of rain, quite a bit of wind and the temperature dropped 12 degrees in 2 miles and 2 minutes.

Old Mills

When we travel one of my preferred subjects is old grist mills. On out way to the festival we stopped at Metamora, IN. Metamora is an old town on the Whitewater Canal. The town has returned to its roots and celebrates its history.

One of the attractions is the old functioning grist mill

While most of the grist mills here in the states are water powered, in Europe many of the early mills were wind driven. In Elkhorn, IA, there is an old Danish windmill which was disassembled, shipped to Iowa and rebuilt on its present site. It too is a fully functional grist mill and very different than any I’ve previously photographed.

Danish windmill, Elkhorn, IA

As a footnote, we are in Chamberlain, SD where we were in triple digit heat yesterday and it is 83 at 7:00AM this morning…

Tom

Festival–4 Bits and Pieces

My intent was to present the winning entries of the Dress a Sasha contest in this update. I had taken photos of all the entries but when Carol and I went back to write down the titles and artists for all the entries they were already dismantling the exhibit (oops)

I believe that these are the 1st and 2nd place winners of the outfits made by contestant division. If I’m wrong about that, my apologies all around. The theme this year was “Children of the White House” Presidential children if you will.

1st place winner:  Ellen “Nell” Grant, daughter of U.S. Grant

2nd place winner: Children of Theodore Roosevelt.

At breakfast Sunday, this girl was wearing her festival outfit.

Saturday night sunset of Springfield.

Festival–3–Children’s Fund Auction

The Sasha community’s annual fund raising auction brought in a bit over $8,000. With the fund matching programs, the charities will realize around $17,000. Here are a few of the items auctioned and the sales amount.

This nice hand knitted sweater and cap for Gregor with coordinating pants brought $120

This original 8x8 oil on canvas artwork was created for and donated to the auction. It realized $120

These three outfits each generated spirited bidding. When the dust finally settled the total proceeds from the three outfits were $570.

Tom

Sasha History

To celebrate the new History of Sasha book the authors treated us to a display of old and rare Sashas. This posting only hits a very few of the highlights.

Sasha Morgenthaler studio dolls

Another set of studio dolls: Very different but all in similar distinctive outfits.

These unique dolls are factory prototypes that were never produced.

Princess Sasha: A late limited edition doll.

Tom

Festival–Day - 1

The biggest news at Festival is that the book is here…
(If you need to ask what book you’ve not been paying attention)

Here is the book along with the model from the book cover.

Some of you may know that my favorite Festival event is Dress a Sasha. This year the theme was white house children. Here are a pair of Coras pretending to be Malia and Sasha Obama. They even have a dog…

Finally, this early Goetz redhead shared our luncheon table. I think she has absolutely stunning eyes.

Tom

Glade Creek Grist Mill

Glade Creek Mill in WV’s Babcock State Park is arguably one of the most picturesque mills in the country. If you have ever seen a photo of an old mill along a small stream there is a very fine chance that it was Glade Creek. Yesterday the light was difficult but it is such a nice site that I’m working through it.

Here is the mill itself.

This is the classic view.

This is a variation on the classic view.

Tom

Playtime for the Sashas

Our poor Sashas have been cooped up in the car since we left home and we won’t be to Festival ‘til Thursday so we thought we’d let them out and play a while at Carol’s aunt’s. This was really fun for them because Francis has a really big yard with trees and fences and…

Here are all three of the girls playing on the footbridge.

Carol found a tree to climb

Cora liked climbing on the fence and Julia offers her a hand up.

Day–5 Iowa to Indiana

Crossing from Iowa into Illinois we crossed the Mississippi River and stopped at the Illinois welcome center. Due to budget problems Illinois has closed all their tourist information offices but from the grounds I got this shot of a tugboat and barges on the river.

Later we stopped at Starved Rock State Park which is on the Illinois River. This boater was out enjoying a beautiful summer day.

Day - 4

If you drive I-80 through Nebraska you’ll see the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument as it is built over the freeway.

We’ve talked about visiting it before but for whatever reason it has never actually done so. This time we did.It’s a pretty impressive experience. When you go in you’re greeted by a costumed greeter who directs you toward the ticket seller. After you obtain your ticket you ride an escalator to the entrance of the exhibits.

Exhibits trace the linking of the coasts, by wagon trains, telegraph, rail, telegraph, pony express, stagecoach and finally the Lincoln Highway which became US 30 and then I-80. All of these took advantage of the Platte River Valley. The lighting of the exhibits was absolutely exquisite making photography easy. The Wagon Train segment covers all of the routes, Oregon Trail, California Trail and Mormon trail.

Diorama of the ill fated Mormon handcart train.

Day–3–Across the Snowy Mountains

Today the plan was to drive I-80 from Rock Springs, WY to Ogallala, NE and find something to do there. Since we had lots of time we stopped at Fort Fred Steele Historic site which is just off I-80 so wouldn’t take too much time.

Reconstructed Schoolhouse behind ruins on Officer’s Row.

On our way out we stopped and talked to the Ranger who suggested we drive WY Rt 130 through the Snowy Mountains and rejoin I-80 at Laramie so we did.

Lake Marie near the summit of the Snowy Mountains. The highway summit is 10,800 ft. Dropping down out of the Snowys we followed the North Fork of the Little Laramie River.

Day 2

Today was a shortish driving day, about 440 miles and a bit over 6 hours. That gave us some free time this afternoon so we took a short side trip through a wind farm.

Then we stopped at Fort Bridger. We rather expected that this being July 4th weekend there would be some sort of re-enactment going on. This was not to be the case but the docent in the general store was in costume.

The little stream which runs through the site was at full flood and many of the paths and fields were flooded. I did get this photo of the officers quarters.