Aug 17 – Around Dunchurch

As Terry was in charge of the parade through town she headed off early to get everything ready. The rest of us headed back to the fair grounds until the parade started.

The arena had a big display of Dunchurch history.

The rest of the arena had more displays and some booths selling items like honey and birdhouses.

Brad headed down to check out the display of old military equipment.

Then we went out to check out the livestock. Jennie watched from afar.

We all wished we could go in the bouncy castle.

We checked out the book sale at the library. Liz bought some but we have no room so we only have ebooks.

Time for the parade. We waited with anticipation.

One of the Shriner’s motorcycles broke down so it held up the parade for a while.

The theme was a green environment.

This little guy was having a tough time pedaling his float so he got a large round of applause.

Nobody had any idea how this guy fit in with the theme.

They are only allowed to close the highway for 15 minutes. Once it was closed Terry had arranged for someone to walk along the waiting cars and give out some candy.  Even then she said there were some upset people.

Everyone piled into the fair grounds now.

The younger Whitmell generation were running the face painting booth.

We indulged in some sausages, very good french fries, pumpkin pie (very good) and raisin pie (not so good).

After Terry announced the prizes for the parade (every kid got one) there was not much happening for a while. Some of us had not gotten a great nights sleep so we headed back to the house. We heard later that we had missed the log sawing contest where Harvey’s daughter and niece had won their category, beating some of the boys times.

After everything shutdown around 4 and everyone was back we headed off on a tour of the Whitmell Estates.

One of Harvey’s younger brothers is next door and is just getting started on his place. He has a small bunkie and this great screened in porch.

There are lots of paths around the property. To help the visitors there is a sign pointing to the various families.

Lots of old farm equipment.

You never know what you might find in the bushes.

They have a sawmill in the forest where they cut some of the lumber for their houses.

Next was a tour of Harvey’s older brother amazing house.

They sealed in and heated the front porch and the same stonemason worked on the front wall all winter.

 

There was a huge stone wall inside as well and a beautiful winding staircase up to the loft to Ron’s office.

The guys then went to check out the treasures in Harvey’s father’s old barn.

First the main level.

Then down to the basement.

We then headed back to a great chili dinner.

In the evening there was a square dance at the community center. Harvey and Ron were playing in the band.

We couldn’t convince anyone else to go over with us. We listened to the music for a while and watched one square. Jennie wanted to dance but there were not a lot of people there yet as we were kind of early. We eventually headed back to the house to join everyone else at the campfire until we got tired and passed out.

Next time we are definitely going to coerce some of them to go dancing.