A Day of Variety
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Day 4: September 18, 2026 A Day of Variety Comment via blog |
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On Wednesday, I unnecessarily drove a goodly amount of gravel on the way
to see my uncle. About the time I reached his house, I started hearing a
new noise, and it came and went when I continued on to Harrisonville. I
could see nothing unusual, and everything -- brakes, steering, etc. --
worked just fine. The noise continued on Thursday, and even seemed to get
worse although it also disappeared for extended periods. On Friday, I
called O'Bryan
Auto Repair almost as soon as they opened. I was told to come on in,
and I did. The girl took some pretty complete notes, which she passed on
to a mechanic. He was on the car in less than half an hour. Some time
later he called me out to the car and told me he had not seen or heard
anything unusual at all. He had driven the car at various speeds, made
many left and right turns, and visually looked things over on a rack. He
then went on a ride with me, and I also heard nothing.
In talking about the noise with others in the caravan, an offered possibility was that a rock had lodged somewhere, possibly around a brake, and was rubbing against something from time to time. That theory was now extended to include the rock falling out just before the mechanic touched the car. That's the best explanation I have, and I'm now riding around in a car devoid of mysterious sounds. |
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Getting my car "fixed" made me a little late for the day's first
activity, but I did make it while Phyllis Bitner was greeting the group at
the Miners
Hall Museum in Franklin, MO. I arrived just as she was talking about
her family and others in the mining community playing accordions. Shortly
after she finished, I found that information reinforced. That piston is
associated with a walking drag line that we'll
see more of in the next panel.
I managed to find some Ohio connections for the next two pictures. The first is of a grape masher made in Springfield, OH, and the second is of a plate from a bridge made in Bucyrus, OH. |
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Here's some of the drag line mentioned in the previous panel. This is just
up the road from the museum. In time, the entire drag line will be
assembled here. At one time, it was hoped that might be accomplished this
summer, but moving the thing isn't simply a matter of tossing it in the
bed of your pickup. The project remains very much in process.
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While the mechanic and I were riding around this morning, he suggested a
visit to the big shovel not to far away. I had its location stored in my
GPS, and had previously considered a visit a time or two. Today, I decided
to slip in in during the lunch break. The mechanic had also mentioned a
nearby train museum, and when I saw a sign for it I decided to take a
look.
I really thought it was closed, and was just snapping a few pictures of the external displays when John stepped outside and proved me wrong. The Heartland Railroad Museum has some impressive displays and is certainly worth a stop. |
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The train museum did eat into the lunch break time, which meant I spent a
little less time visiting Big Brutus than I might have otherwise. But the time I
did spend there was more than enough to impress me with its incredible
size.
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I was technically late for our visit to Special Collections at the
Pittsburg State University Library, but Sara had not yet started her
presentation when I arrived. As I often do, I snapped multiple pictures in
hopes of avoiding closed eyes in every shot. Although all three shots were
photo-bombed, here eyes were closed in only two, and only a tiny bit of
the top of here head was clipped in the third.
When we visited the archives during the 2022 JHA Conference, we stayed in the big entry room. This time we went past one of the coolest desks in the world to wander through rows of shelves and boxes. This is a big place. |
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