Where the Rubber Meets the Road

It was that time. Yes, time to spend some money. We hate spending money. 

The tires on our motorhome are very important. Literally, our lives depend on them. We need to pay close attention to not only the number of miles put on, the inflation, the wear and tear, but also the age of the tires.

Most RV tires do not get used on a regular basis. Not daily like a family car or truck. So the oils and chemicals within the rubber do not get flexed and circulated within the material of the tire itself. That is why tires on RVs tend to kind of dry rot and crack the sidewalls, or rot from the inside, or just "age out". Sometimes it looks like there is plenty of tread left and it looks just fine, but if the tires are too old, they will blow when overheated or over-inflated.  It can be a real hazard. Not only can it cause a possible crash, killing yourself and others around you, but even a blowout underneath an RV can rip out important components like plumbing, wiring, holding tanks etc. We see plenty of tales of woe from other RVers with horrible damage to know that we need to watch our tires carefully.

It is recommended by most tire companies that it is good to replace RV tires after 6 to 7 years of age. Some manufacturers say 10 years. So somewhere in that range it's good to replace them. Before it's too late. 

That's just what we did yesterday.

Our tires are just going on 8 years old, but we really didn't use them much over the last two years due to Covid. It was time to get some new ones. Past time. Steve likes the Toyo Tires and that has been the brand we have been running on our motorhome ever since we got it back in 2006.

Steve called around and checked prices, and it turns out the very best prices are from the same exact place we got the tires from last time. To make matters even more interesting, the tires are $27 LESS for the same exact tire than it was before! Imagine that??? 

We asked for the freshest tires possible and they found some that were made within the last 5 months.

When reading a date code on a tire, it's a 4 digit number stamped on during the manufacturing process. The first two digits are the number of the week, and the last two digits are the last two digits of the year that it was made. So a number date of say 4521 means it was made in the 45th week of 2021.

They had all 6 of them in stock and ready for us, on hold, waiting for a good day for us to drive down there and get them installed.

When we had the grandson over on last Sunday, he helped Steve remove the pretty stainless steel liner and rings and caps from each of the tires as well as the front cover over the spare tire.   The wheels look kinda ugly in the pic below.

We carefully backed it out of it's winter resting spot alongside of the garage, even though we have some ice and snow on that side of the driveway. With me outside on the passenger blind side guiding, and Steve backing up, we were able to get it free of it's snowy berth and parked in the driveway. 

The sun was shining and the pavement was dry. No ice or sleet or salt or wet slush to spray up all over the motorhome. Once we were sure that we were out of the snow, we called the tire place to see if we could arrange to have the tires balanced and mounted and put on the motorhome in the afternoon. They said "Yes!  Come On Down!"

It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon to take a drive. It is 60 miles one way to this tire supplier in Appleton.  We tossed in a few things and our credit card, and hit the road. 

Just look at this happy man as he's driving his motor home again. It's been a long, long winter and it sure feels good to get behind the wheel and fire her up and head on out.  This motorhome is his "old man retirement hobby car" and he loves the chance to get in and take it for a spin. 

The dash heater works quite well, and we were comfortable even though it was only 21° outside. Little Binney nestled into her hidey-hole spot under the dash by my feet on the passenger side. She has a little bed there and she's very happy to go along for a ride. She doesn't know where we're going, she doesn't care. Just as long as she is with us. That's all that matters to her.

Even though it was only 21° out, that intense spring rays of the sun were really warming us up. Can you imagine this, we even saw a motorcycle rider out for a jaunt?? As we got closer down south towards Appleton, they have less snow than we do up in Oconto, but it still was plenty cold. What a die hard motorcycle rider to get out on a sunshiny day in early March. Guess he loves his bike as much as Steve loves his motorhome. 

We arrived a little early at Ray's Tire

 on Bluemound Road in Appleton.

We pulled right up where we were parked last time, 

we are too tall to fit in their work bays. 

Ray's Tire

1121 N. Bluemound Dr.

Appleton, WI 54914

their website:

https://raystire.com/

Here is what we ordered:

Six new Toyo tires,  mounted and balanced and new metal valve stems.

255/70R22.5 H 140/137 Toyo M122 

date codes all less than 6 months old.

Both Harry and Mark jumped into action, even though we were earlier than what we originally agreed upon. Right away they started removing the two passenger rear tires first.

To make their job easier, Steve ran the hydraulic power leveler jacks for them on each section of the motorhome as they worked their way around, one tire at a time.  They were busy removing wheels, removing the tires from the rims, then putting the new tire on the rim, balancing and then mounting it back into place. 

They did one portion at a time and Steve was able to operate the hydraulic jacks for them. That way they didn't have to use their floor jacks or make us worry about them punching through into a holding tank or a storage compartment. We've heard horror stories from other RV people when they've had tires changed....   so this made it really easy for them, plus Steve could supervise their process at the same time. It really helps when having a motorhome worked on to be able to observe what the workers are doing. I know some places don't like that. Or sometimes they throw out the excuse of "their insurance doesn't allow you in the repair area". But when you're talking this big of a rig and this big of investment, we prefer to stay with the rig and observe everything that's being done. In the past, with our other old motorhome, we had a VERY bad experience with what happens when you leave it in the hands of a repair shop unsupervised. We never want to go through that again!

Steve has a little switch panel in this rear compartment to lower and raise the levelers as needed. Or it can be done from inside of the rig on the dash with a duplicate set of switches.

While they had the dually wheels off, Steve was able to examine the hubs and check things over underneath there. Good time to give it a good go-round after it's been sitting all winter.

Steve also inspected each tire as it was mounted onto the rims to make sure that they all had the proper date codes as promised. It's nice that Steve was able to verify everything, because once the tires are on, it's kind of hard to read the codes, especially on the inside dually wheels.

I popped out of the rig for a little while to watch the process and take a few pictures. When they inflate or deflate tires they use this big red iron cage in case something goes wrong. 

They also put the tires on this huge balancing machine.... it is amazing that it can hold up those big heavy tires and spin them perfectly after the guys put on the appropriate weights at each section of the rim. Each tire is balanced to run on the road and not wear the tread in odd spots. 

We also had new metal valve stems put on. This is very important. Rather than the braided ones which can be faulty and leak, especially on the inner duallys. Having metal valve stems is imperative.

They even took the tire off the front spare tire rack for Steve and put one of our used tires in place of the other older spare.

Now by rotating one of these into it's place, we have a pretty reliable spare if need be. Hopefully we never need to use it.

While the guys were busy doing the tire stuff, I made lunch. Before leaving the house, I had grabbed a container of frozen beef minestrone soup, a loaf of bread, some salami and some crackers. I made lunch inside on the stove in the comfort of our motorhome. It felt good to be inside my little motorhome kitchen and cooking again.

The sun was shining in and it was just an absolute beautiful day, even if it was cold. There wasn't any wind blowing so the intensity of the spring rays kept us nice and cozy and warm inside the motor home. I kicked on the big propane furnace for a while to help warm things up. I also went around with my clipboard and made a list of the things that I need to replenish or restock for the upcoming camping season. I like to make lists when I am in the rig, and add to it as I think of things.

I turned on the TV for a while and scanned in the stations. Binney and I spent a while watching This Old House, while the guys were finishing up the tires outside.  We may have even dosed off a bit. 

They were on the final set of dually tires on the back driver's side and I hopped out to take one more picture. They had all 6 tires done, plus the spare swapped over in less than 2 hours total!

When Steve went in to settle up the bill, it was amazing that the tires were actually $27.00 less per tire than what they were the last time we bought them. No increase in labor for all the other stuff either.

Here is what we had done:

6 new Toyo tires

255/70R22.5 H 140/137 Toyo M122 

date codes all less than 6 months old.

$320 each tire 

$18 each to dismount the old ones and mount new ones

$14 each to do each wheel changeover

$28 each to balance each one

$5.50 each for metal valve stems

They purchased 5 tires back from us for $50 each, and we saved the 6th tire as our spare.

They mounted that on our spare rim for free.

Total amount out the door, tax and everything $2,290.41. 

The shop purchased our 5 old tires from us at $50 each. They can resell these tires to truckers that use lowboy units for hauling items at slow speeds or for farmers on equipment out in their field. Because the tread is still pretty good, the tires have less than 15,000 miles on them. That was an additional $250 off our bill!

All in all, the extra savings were great. To top it off, they accepted our American Express card, which gives us an additional 5% cash back on this purchase. So that is a whopping $114 back into our pocket.

The guys had done such a good job, working quickly and efficiently with a smile on their faces. Allowing Steve to monitor every step of the way was greatly appreciated. We were sure to tip each one with a little bit of cash when the job was done, just to show how much we enjoyed working with them. Nowadays, with so many disgruntled workers and lackadaisical efforts, finding two workers like this really made a difference. I guess we don't mind spending quite so much money when we know the job is done correctly.

With new rubber all around, this happy motorhoming man had quite a smile on his face. This is something we have been wanting to do, especially before we plan to take some longer jaunts this summer and into the fall. Just look at that guy. He said the rig feels different and handles better and the tires feel really good. I'm glad he is happy.

As we travelled our 60 miles back home, we had pulled up local diesel prices on the Gasbuddy app. Around the Appleton and Green Bay area it was at $4.09 a gallon! Oh my! As we got closer up to Oconto we managed to top off our tank at the local Shell station for only $3.94 a gallon. That's 15 cents a gallon difference! Steve also had a chance to scrub off the windshield bugs from last fall that have been kind of stuck there all winter long...

As I type up this blog today, local diesel has jumped up to $4.49 a gallon---- holy cow! Are we ever glad we topped off the tank yesterday. Now we're good to go for at least 800 miles on our hundred gallon tank.

We have the motorhome parked in the driveway safe and sound. We didn't put it back in it's little nestled spot alongside of the garage for now. We're hoping some of the sunshine will melt the frozen ice alongside the garage where it had been parked all winter.

Steve put all of the shiny steel wheel liners and trim rings back on...

We used to run a Hopkins N Vision brand tire pressure monitoring system, but all of the sensors went dead over the last 2 years.  The batteries within each sensor are not replaceable. The sensors are pretty pricey to order new ones, especially for 10 tires total. So we are going to invest in a new Tire Minder System with replaceable batteries in the sensors in the next month or so, before we take any trips.  Just waiting to see if it goes on sale. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Want to hear something funny? Well, underneath in the gravel where the motorhome had been parked all winter, it is becoming a big huge KITTY LITTER BOX! 

Seriously!!!

We see stray feral cats from time to time crossing our backyard and sneaking over to that spot on the other side of our garage this winter. Do you want to know why? 

When we put new gravel in our driveway and the parking area, it's small size gravel almost like mini pea gravel. It's called "fines" from the Gravel Pit. It's a soft gravel that easily mushes flat. But you can also easily kick it up with your heel if you try. It's got a consistency of almost like kitty litter. I kid you not. And it seems that the feral cats in our neighborhood think that's a PERFECT spot to come and dig a little hole and do their business! Especially in the winter months when everything else is frozen. This gravel is still soft and diggable.

Now--- you might think that's totally awful and we should do something to get rid of those cats doing their thing in our gravel. But think of the plus side of that? With our motorhome, and our kid's motorhome parked out there, with little bits of kitties droppings buried underneath, do you think we're going to have any mice????  LOL! I think the mice would highly avoid the area because of such a scent to their sensitive little noses. So I guess it's a good thing.

~~~~~~~

Well it's another sunny beautiful day today in Wisconsin. We are up to 30 degrees. The upcoming weekend looks like it's going to be horrible. I see sleety rainy frozen blowing miserable weather so I think it's good to hunker down and hold on tight. 

The kids wanted us to come up to the cabin on Saturday and help install some exterior French doors, but I think the weather is not going to cooperate. We'll see what Sunday looks like.  For now, we will hunker down inside and wait for Spring. 

Has Spring Sprung Yet?

Spring is in the air!!! The sun is shining bright and the temperatures are warming up slowly. We had such a beautiful sunshiny day yesterday. Even though the temperature didn't get above 34 degrees, the rays of the sun are warming us up, increasing in intensity, and starting to melt the snow. That's just fine with us!

Although we can easily get another foot or two of snow during the month of March and even into April. Three years ago, right before we moved into the house, we were dumped with 21 inches in one day in the area. So anything can happen in Wisconsin this time of year. But we will appreciate the sunny days when we get them. 

Yesterday, we did some work in the garage, then we sat out on the front porch for a while in the sunshine. It felt so good to sit in the rocking chairs again and soak up a little vitamin D.  Our friend Roger said I need to be in a bikini to get that vitamin D... LOL Those days are long gone, Roger. 

 

Silly little Binney had to come and lay out on the porch too. She really enjoyed the sunshine and she has a fur coat to protect her from the cold temperatures.  We watched people out walking by the house, and even saw a motorcycle cruise on past! 

Even though it was a little windy from the West, it felt good to sit out on the porch and enjoy this part of our house again. It's been a long winter, and sitting on the front porch is a distant memory from last autumn. After the winds kicked up a little more, we switched sides of the house and sat in the backyard, sheltered in the secluded area by the back patio.

Why where we sitting and resting? 

Because we had just unloaded 15 heavy pieces of sheetrock! It's 1/2" thick, 4' x 10' sheets, which weigh 56 pounds each. But they are attached together as a pair, so that's 112 lbs. Ugh! 

We got them all unloaded and stacked up into the garage. This is the first time in a month that we've even felt like really doing anything physical. After being sick for almost the entire month of February, this was great to get out and stretch our muscles and breathe in some fresh air. It was quite invigorating. Plus we didn't collapse into a fit of coughing and wheezing and crawling back into bed in our jammies.

So what do we need all this sheetrock for? 

Well, this winter, before we got sick, Steve had finished insulating the whole ceiling of our entire garage. It's two stalls wide by two stalls deep so it's 24 ft wide by 40 ft deep. Since he got up all this insulation, it's made a huge difference in the garage temps.  No more cold winds blowing in the open soffit vents or the ridge vent along the roofline.  It can be well below 0 outside, but inside stays in the 20's or so, with no heat source. The Saturn starts right up with no struggling from a cold battery or engine.  It's nice to go out in the garage to get something out of storage, as I have a lot of my fabric inventory out there on shelves for my rug weaving.   We can work on projects with a supplementary propane heater if we want to warm it up, or do a needed car repair (hopefully not). Steve did change the oil in the Saturn the other day, in comfort of a warm garage. 

This sheetrock is only about half of what we need, but our trailer can only haul so much at a time. We will make another trip on another nice day when the pavement is dry to pull the trailer down the road. You definitely don't want wet slushy snowy salty roads when hauling sheetrock on an open trailer.

Three of the sheets are set aside for another inside project. We were going to start doing the beadboard on the walls in the master bathroom, but Steve figured that we should tackle the ceiling first, then work on the walls. 

The 100+ year old bathroom ceiling has some cracked areas where the plaster is uneven and it really should get a whole new layer of sheetrock all of the way across the entire ceiling. It'll be close quarters for working, and we will cut it in pieces out in the garage to bring in and screw up into place. It'll be quite a project, but it's something that we would like to get done before we even begin working on the walls down below. It will mean removing the bathtub for a couple days, but the shower will still be usable, as well as the rest of the bathroom facilities. Good thing we also have a half bath to use during the process too.

The previous owners had done some textured plaster 

and rough repairs

that need to be covered up.

This crack over the shower area is a potential problem

if not taken care of right away.

That will be an upcoming project on our radar.... 

~~~~~~~~

We had a couple little giggly granddaughters over for a sleepover on Friday night. They played together so well and then both finally dropped fast asleep, totally exhausted in the little grandkids room. I didn't even have time to read them a story.

In the morning they both crawled into our big king-size bed and decided to watch old fashioned Tom and Jerry cartoons---- upside down! For some reason, watching it upside down makes it much more hilarious, especially when you are only five and six years old.  See those chins in the air? 

Later on, after a big breakfast, they got their "Green Thumbs"! They earned them by helping me pot some coleus rootings that I had started in the window in the kitchen. They learned how to carefully scoop the dirt in around the roots and pack it down. Here they are showing off their green thumbs. What good helpers.

Of course we had to get in some time at the big Sanna Kangas Finlander Barn Loom. We've been doing a series of "caterpillar rugs" lately and they have been enjoying being the ones to design the rugs. I do the main beating part, and they help with all of the assistant designer work. They pick out each little piece of colorful knit scrap socks (they are left over factory waste from a sock knitting mill in New York). They decide which color should go next, to be inlaid on each row of the rug as we go along.

So far, the last three rugs that we have woven together on the loom have all sold to new customers. This one will go up for sale in my Etsy shop as soon as we finish it up. 

When our daughter and son-in-law came back from a trip to Milwaukee, they had made a pit stop at Trader Joe's for me. The nearest two Trader Joes are 150 or 165 miles away.  These are the two most favorite items of mine. Only available at Trader Joes, and not sold online either. 

Now I am stocked up on more cookie butter and another case of my most favorite wine, Two Buck Chuck White Zinfandel.  Steve loaded up my little wine rack and now I'm good to go for a while.

~~~~~~~

On Sunday, the youngest grandson Clayton came over to spend the day. He wanted to have some jobs to do. He started out with filling all of our bird feeders. The birds are coming back in scores and we have to fill them up every day now. The squirrels are gobbling down all of our suet as well as the woodpeckers, so we are going through two blocks every day of that too.  He knows how to lower the feeders and suet cages to fill them up for us. What a good helper.  The deer wander in at night to clean up anything left behind from the messy birds. 

Clayton helped Grandpa remove the shiny stainless steel decorative rims from the motorhome. We are getting ready to take a jaunt down to Appleton to have our new tires balanced and mounted. We are waiting for a dry pavement day with no salt or slush or snow or ice. The tires are there waiting for us, as soon as the weather cooperates. I will do a separate blog post on that.

Clayton helped cook lunch and made us macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. He likes using the stove and being our little chef. It's good that he learns how to make food, even if it's as simple as boiling noodles and mixing up a box meal. He'll never go hungry. LOL 

For supper, we had some leftovers to eat up from our take out meal the night before. But Clayton made his own dinner. Aldi carries these cute little pizza kits of three crusts and three packets of sauce. So he took out a crust and then he added pepperonis and cheese. Created his own little mini pizza. Just the right size for him. 

~~~~~~~~

Steve got a new toy in the mail yesterday. It's a "surge tank"! Its also called an overflow tank for the radiator that goes on the motorhome. Last fall, right before the end of the camping season, we noticed a crack in our old one. We had replaced it 12 years ago, so we did pretty good getting 12 years worth of pressure out of it before it cracked. Steve sealed it up as best he could with epoxy last fall, but he wanted to replace it with a new one before we start doing any traveling this spring. He found one at a good price and ordered it, which came within three days. It even came with the right pressure pound rated radiator cap. He's like a silly little boy getting presents at Christmas.  Awwwwwww

He grabbed his tools, and went outside in the sunshine yesterday, making a beeline for the motorhome. He quickly removed the old tank and got the new one into place before I could even take a photo of the process!  Mr. Zoom Zoom. 

~~~~~~~~

It is lightly snowing out today with big soft fluffy flights floating down. We aren't supposed to get much, but you never know.   This is Wisconsin, and the time of year when the weather can change in a heartbeat.   Time to get some lunch going, and post this blog. 

Art Deco Artwork

I just got involved in a really funny roundabout story. You know how that happens to me???

And it involves a piece of art deco artwork.... 

AND a loom that I re-tied, restrung, and set up for weaving at the Iron County Museum in Caspian Michigan, years ago when we were there doing our Loomatic Demos during the Ferrous Frolics.....

How do the two connect? 

Well that is a story:

Last night on the Facebook Group for Growing up in Iron County Michigan, someone posted this art deco picture and said it was a piece of artwork they had gotten from a friend, and they're wondering if anybody knew the artist. It had been hanging in the Cloverland Hotel and Bar in Iron River, Michigan before it got torn down in 2008. I recognized it immediately because I'm the one who put the paint on it! 

There were originally four art deco pieces with layers of like plywood or masonite board to give them a 3 dimensional look. They were made by some other artist years ago, and the hotel bar had four of them mounted on the walls. 

But they were all muted tones of tans, beiges and sandy tones and very dim and dull. When Willie Beckman, a friend of my dad's, bought the bar and hotel in the 1970s, he wanted them brightened up to show up better in the darkness of the bar. So he hired my mom and I to get a bunch of acrylic paints and paint over what was there; adding details and brightening them up. Yes, in garish bright 1970s "modern" colors.

So that's what we did. 

Now... almost 50 years later, here is the post from Facebook that this lady ended up with one of them and wanted to know more. She grew up in the area but moved away and lives now down in North Carolina.

I posted last night that I'M THE ONE that added the colorful painting onto it, over the top surfaces of what was already there. My mom and I were in the bar for 3 or 4 days set up with the lights and paints and brushes and we added color and details to all four of them, while they were still of course mounted to the walls. Willie let us drink all of the soda we wanted from behind the bar while we were painting. I think one day he brought us lunch from a local restaurant nearby. 

My mom and I always got into a bunch of crazy things didn't we? We were paid to do it and it was a fun job, besides it was creative and artsy. I think we got $20 per piece, and there were four in total. Easy money back in the 70's.

The owner of the artwork then responded to me privately, on Faecbook Messenger, and we started writing back and forth. She was talking about being an artist herself and doing painting. She wanted to know if I continued on being an artist because I had sent her some other things I had done as a teen in the area.

I had painted a Mexican man leaning back on a cactus taking a seista and a donkey with big baskets on his sides on two big 4x8 wall panels at The Dinner Bell Restaurant in the next block over from the hotel. They had Mexican food there and wanted motifs resembling Mexico painted on the sides of their building each side of the doorway. I wish I had a pic of them after I did those. We went past them every day and never thought to take a picture.  

But Willie, the hotel owner, saw them....  and that is how we got the job to paint the ones in the hotel bar.  

Another teen artistry thing I did was a contest--- I would paint on local business windows for the big U.P Championship Rodeo every year, competing against my mom and Fran Everson. Lol We usually won first second or third places. 

I also painted three big cartoon horses on the barn out at the Pellizaro riding stables and got 30 free horse rides. That's how I ended up helping being a trail guide at the horse stables because after 30 rides, I knew all of the horses and I would help out with big groups that would come on the trails.  I was such a horse nut. I wish I had a pic of the barn I painted, but instead I only got pics of myself with the horses! 

 

Back to the story:

Anyhow, I told her no, I don't paint as much anymore but I am a fiber artist and I do weaving and spinning and quilting. I sent her some pictures of the fiber stuff I do. 

It turns out her mother was an old Finlander weaver in the Iron River area, and she still has rugs from her mother, including a 15 ft long traditional Finlander one. And she said how her mom was a 100% Finlander and she had learned from her grandmother. 

Then----- she said after her mom passed away, her mom's old loom got donated to the Iron County Historical Museum in Caspian, Michigan! 

Guess what? That's the loom that my sister and I helped to restore, restring, and thread up and get it ready to weave for demonstration of a display loom inside of the museum!!!

Now, these photos are from the days before I owned a digital camera, in the early 2000's.  I would video tape with a HUGE VHS camcorder, and then plug it in and play it back on my computer, taking screen shots.  So they are blurry.  But it was the best we could do back then 20 years ago. 

Here is the loom we restored that had belonged to the person I was corresponding with. 

 What a small world!!!!

~~~~~~~

While I was digging around in my files, I came across more photos of our days doing our Loomatic Demos at the Iron County Historical Museum. The yearly festival was called "The Ferrous Frolics" with Ferrous meaning Iron... because the museum was located on an old Iron Mine. Many historic local buildings and even the church were moved to the museum grounds.

   

My sister, I and a few friends called ourselves The Loomatic Workshop.  We would take over the Johnson cabin, and display our wares, set up our looms and spinning wheels and demonstrate for the weekend.  

We were allowed to sell our items, and we dressed up like pioneer women to do our demonstrations.  That is me in my mop cap, at the spinning wheel.

At times throughout the day, the other reenactors would light off a canon!   They also demonstrated black smithing, baking and cooking in one of the cabins and offered horse and carriage rides throughout the grounds. 

My sister Linda was good at hawking our wares,

getting people to buy our handmade items. 

We could set up displays and talked to the visitors about how women made their family's clothing, spun wool for knitting socks and hats, and how hard life was in the cabins during the winters in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Loomatic Lisa weaving by the daylight from the window in the cabin, just like women did all those many years ago. Taking advantage of the daylight and not wasting lamp oil in the darker evening hours.

When the day wore on, it got hot and steamy in the cabin. Loomatic Lisa set up a table loom outside, and our daughter Heather was winding bobbins for her shuttles. 

It was a good time for us to get together, and we did it year after year.

It would sometimes get hot in the cabin, so I set up the spinning wheel outside. It also attracted more visitors to come and see what we were up to. 

I know the pics are blurry, but we sure had fun. We did this for 9 or 10 years, demonstrating and setting up our wares.  We got bigger and bigger and started erecting two big 20x10 canopies in the later years and selling a lot more of our items.  

All things must come to an end.... the museum started putting more advertising and energy to a NEW event called The Rum Rebellion Festival that took place the weekend before the Ferrous Frolics.  More board members were excited about the new event, and more funds were directed to advertising and volunteer help.  As for the poor Ferrous Frolics, the attendance waned and  both the locals and the out of town visitors came to the first event at the museum, and didn't bother to come back for the second.  So we didn't bother to travel that far and set up anymore for such low numbers. 

~~~~~~~~~

Anyhow.... back to the Cloverland Hotel and Bar.  

Through the rest of the discussions on the Facebook group, I learned that later the bar was taken over by new owners (on land contract) who stripped it of the art deco designs, even the huge etched mirror from behind the bar.  Things were tossed in the basement during the remodel.  Later those folks failed at the business, (they even had strippers in there for a while)  and they moved on. The bar was taken back by the previous owners, but the historic things were long gone. The building had not been taken care of and by 2008 it was slated for demolition.  That is when someone somehow managed to get the one piece of artwork for the gal down in North Carolina... right before it was torn down. 

This is how I remembered it back in the 1970's

Sadly, this is all that remains today:

Sigh.