The pond tour is over
Well all the pond tour is over and I have to say it was more enjoyable then I had thought. After 4 or 5 weeks of heavy work on Saturday we participated in the North Iowa Pond Tour.
It started at 9am Saturday and 2 people came early and sat out front. They were volunteers and their job was to make sure people who arrived had tickets or they could sell tickets if necessary. They could only stay till noon and then Ruth/Cassidy took over. It is my understanding that many crossword puzzles were completed before the end which was at 4pm that day.
Mike and I were assigned the title of HOST, so we had to sit out back and answer any questions that came up. As it turned out, the arrival of all, was spaced out enough that Mike enjoyed the honor of doing most of the talking. He stated that he didn't like to do it all, but if you sat back and watched that was not a true. As soon as someone new arrived, he either was out of the chair, or he moved from one group to the other. I just sat back and enjoyed watching him talk about his pond.
On Sunday everyone who hosted a site, met at the park in town and had a picnic lunch. Then we all took the same tour so as we could see how everyone did things. What amazed me was the wide choices to be had, plus at a few locations how amazing their yards looked. What I mean by that is you would pull up to a home and from the street side, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Then you go around back, and it was like walking into a different location. Some people had huge back yards, and they would be covered with flowers, Some of course would be smaller yards, but again they had flowers and landscaping that just amazed you.
In fact the last location had the most unusual item. His pond was nice and his yard was well groomed, but what you noticed when you pulled up was the miniature train tracks, switches and such. He had built 3 different levels around his house for this train to travel on. In fact he had BUILT a whole room onto his house, so he could back the train into the house to store over the winter. By the way this outside train was large enough to allow kids to ride on it. The tracks were about 10 inches apart and he had hand built the small timbers and such. He wheeled tons of rock all around and used a hand impact drill to pound everything down. He did everything a real railroad would do but at a smaller scale. While there, 3 or 4 children would ride around the yard on the train. blowing the horn.
After the tour outside, he invited everyone inside the new room to see the rest of his hobby. There he had a room that was about 36ft by 15 ft, and it was totally dedicated to model trains. That was one guy who was dedicated to his hobby.
We will be traveling for a few days now, so nothing new may show up. Hope to be back next weekend.
Later
PS: DID YOU know
• The most-purchased item at Office Depot is a 1.69 oz. bag of plain M&M's.
It started at 9am Saturday and 2 people came early and sat out front. They were volunteers and their job was to make sure people who arrived had tickets or they could sell tickets if necessary. They could only stay till noon and then Ruth/Cassidy took over. It is my understanding that many crossword puzzles were completed before the end which was at 4pm that day.
Mike and I were assigned the title of HOST, so we had to sit out back and answer any questions that came up. As it turned out, the arrival of all, was spaced out enough that Mike enjoyed the honor of doing most of the talking. He stated that he didn't like to do it all, but if you sat back and watched that was not a true. As soon as someone new arrived, he either was out of the chair, or he moved from one group to the other. I just sat back and enjoyed watching him talk about his pond.
On Sunday everyone who hosted a site, met at the park in town and had a picnic lunch. Then we all took the same tour so as we could see how everyone did things. What amazed me was the wide choices to be had, plus at a few locations how amazing their yards looked. What I mean by that is you would pull up to a home and from the street side, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Then you go around back, and it was like walking into a different location. Some people had huge back yards, and they would be covered with flowers, Some of course would be smaller yards, but again they had flowers and landscaping that just amazed you.
In fact the last location had the most unusual item. His pond was nice and his yard was well groomed, but what you noticed when you pulled up was the miniature train tracks, switches and such. He had built 3 different levels around his house for this train to travel on. In fact he had BUILT a whole room onto his house, so he could back the train into the house to store over the winter. By the way this outside train was large enough to allow kids to ride on it. The tracks were about 10 inches apart and he had hand built the small timbers and such. He wheeled tons of rock all around and used a hand impact drill to pound everything down. He did everything a real railroad would do but at a smaller scale. While there, 3 or 4 children would ride around the yard on the train. blowing the horn.
After the tour outside, he invited everyone inside the new room to see the rest of his hobby. There he had a room that was about 36ft by 15 ft, and it was totally dedicated to model trains. That was one guy who was dedicated to his hobby.
We will be traveling for a few days now, so nothing new may show up. Hope to be back next weekend.
Later
PS: DID YOU know
• The most-purchased item at Office Depot is a 1.69 oz. bag of plain M&M's.
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