Sunbelt, part 2

On the way back from the junkyard, we ran across some guys in a orchard harvesting pecans, so we stopped to watch for a while. I think this is when TH got the idea he'd buy a bunch to take home with him.


This little contraption is used to shake the trees so the nuts will fall to the ground to be picked up some other specialty contraptions which I will post pictures of later.

After all of our ramblings around Wednesday morning, we decided to go grab a bit of lunch. TC recommended this little BBQ place in Moultrie where he and Uncle Gene had eaten the night before. I was all for this as I love nothing better than sampling BBQ. I was not dissapointed. These folks have a sliced pork that is unreal and three very different sauces to go with it. A hot, a mild and a sweet sauce (I brought home a pint of sweet and a pint of hot sauce, it was that good).

By this time I was ready to head to the expo. TC, TH and Uncle Gene wanted to ride around a bit more, so they dropped MH and I off at the back gate so that I could run around and find a few people. I procured a map showing where all of the different exhibitors were set up and headed off in search of my wick applicator, but not before cruising through the antique tractor area to see what-all was there this year.


This lovely little McCormick-Deering had trees growing through it before the current owner found it and brought it back to near original condition


I'm not a big Deere fan, but it is neat to see an orchard tractor still dressed in it's original sheet metal. From what I understand, the first time someone had to work on one they took all the sheet metal off and promptly ran over it with the tractor...numerous times.

I found the gentleman with my applicator, which he had indeed remembered to bring and learned he was doing a rather brisk business with the stock he'd brought with him. It seems that everybody in the Southeast had Johnsongrass problems this year.

MH was getting bored by this time, but that changed pretty quick when he found a guy selling bows and arrows made out of PVC pipe. I didn't think that TH would care, so I told him to go ahead and get one if he was sure his mother wouldn't mind. We got out away from everybody so that he could try it out and he learned it's not as easy as it looks on TV. I'm no great shakes with a bow, but I showed him how to use it and pretty soon he was actually able to hit what he was aiming at with it. I wasn't too concerned about him hurting himself or anyone else because his "arrows" had the old fashioned pencil eraser heads (plus that bow isn't exactly what I'd want to go hunting Wooly Mammoth with). I bought a new pair of work boots (saved about forty bucks) and put all but one of his arrows in my boot box so that he wouldn't lose him. After admonishing him not to shoot anybody with the damn thing, we went on our way.

Which reminds me, I asked the little heathen whether he was tring to be a wild injun or one of Henry V's bowmen at Agincourt and he asked me "what's an Agincourt?" So we sat on a bench and he got a quick lesson in medieval military history. I would take this opportunity to complain about our education system, but the boy is only nine or ten, so it's not like this is something he's had to study before. And by the way, after learning about the English longbowmen whaling the tar out of the frogs, he decided he'd rather be one of Henry's happy few than be a wild injun.

I headed over to the Agco tent to see if any of their marketing people where there, but unfortunately it turned out to be mostly sales reps.

Our ride arrived to pick us up around 5 and we went back to the BBQ pit to eat once again (I told you it was good BBQ). It was slightly less crowded than it had been at lunchtime, but there were still quite a few people there. MH plays ball, so the first thing he noticed were several large photos on the wall of a young man in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform. It turns out that the husband of the lady who owns the place played ball back in the sixties. Uncle Gene remembered him when she told us his name (I've never heard of him, but then, I don't follow baseball). So that was sort of a neat thing. I keep trying to remember the fellows name, but my mind blanked out on me. I tried looking it up on the web, only to find that there were several baseball players from Moultrie over the years and I think two of them played for the Pirates. Rankin' Rob probably knows off the top of his head who I'm talking about (for that matter, he's probably eaten at the BBQ Pit too).

And this concludes part two, I'll see what I can do about part three tomorrow night.