A Day Trip in Kansas to See Social Media Friends

We left home about 7:30 in the morning and headed south towards Wichita and then south from there before turning east and arriving at the nice town of Winfield, KS around 10 am or so. First stop was to meet up with fellow HAMB message board member (for hot rodders) to deliver a part to him for his Model T coupe. This is called a Hamb relay and many of us have transferred parts around the country like this for years for free to help each other. Here is Deputy B. Wilts holding the rear window section I had for him from Chaddilac of Oklahoma.

Then it was over a few blocks in this historic downtown area to meet another friend for a late breakfast or brunch. I had selected this meeting place from an internet search.

Mike from Tulsa (another HAMB and Facebook friend) showed up promptly and we went inside to eat and drink some coffee.

Here is Mike with Mrs. PF...

The place was clean and the service was great and soon our food arrived.

After eating we went back outside to the rear parking area and transferred an old 1954 Chevy truck engine from his trailer to mine.

It was fun to see Mike again but time to move on and so we parted company. Before we left this town however, I drove by the address where I knew another Facebook friend named Danny lived. I had never met him in person but we talk quite often on FB and we found him in the yard of his nice neighborhood with his Boxer dog "Ruby."

It was fun to meet him in person and then after a few minutes we bid him farewell and left this nice southern Kansas town but not before taking one last photo at the fairgrounds.

And not too far up the road past the small town of Oxford, KS we stopped at a family farm that had a retail outlet to market the pecans grown from their own groves.

Mrs. PF bought some pecans for baking and we continued west and then north back to the Wichita area and soon arrived at fellow Hamb message board member (and Facebook friend) Model A John's home in the country on several acres. Another Hamb friend named Tom was just leaving as we drove in. Here is John welcoming us to his shop.

John had bought an engine from me and so we quickly unloaded it in his garage next to the hot rod he will be putting it in someday...

He showed me how he was carefully chopping the top on this project which will make it look alot better when finished and I looked around at his collection of oil cans and collectibles.

Then we followed John a few miles down the road to visit at the home of a fellow hot rodder and drag racer friend who I will refer to as the secretive "Mr. J." 

Mr. J is not an internet guy, just a busy bachelor who likes to build hot rods in his garage and not be bothered by folks wanting to buy from his collection of all things cool which are simply not for sale and is also afraid that some folks might try to steal from him if his name and location are made public. I can understand that logic and he was nice enough to let me take photos to share discretely with you.

These photos only show a small portion of the goodies I was lucky enough to see at Mr. J's place and it sure was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon in November.

At this time we headed north back towards home and had agreed to meet our gang of friends at a bar called the Ol Stuga in downtown Lindsborg, KS which is only about 20 miles from our home.

We there to celebrate the birthday of my favorite brother in law Lawrence who is a frequent road trip partner of mine. You can see him on the left in this photo with the gray hair. Let's just say that L is old enough to retire now......if he wanted to that is...

That was a fun way to end a long day and I'm glad we got to spend time with him and our other friends, both local ones and those who we meet thru the internet. 

Thank you for following along and let's do it again soon.

Thanksgiving at the Flats

It was a warm sunny day in late November at the Flats and it was my favorite holiday of the year...Thanksgiving.
A time to give thanks for all the freedoms we have and to share and enjoy this time of fellowship with family and friends. Things got started as the first guests began to arrive before noon. Larry got busy carving the turkey....

Happy hour got under way about noon with wine, beer, soft drinks, cheese and snacks.

My favorite brother in law Lawrence arrived in style in one of his old Chevy pickups...

In addition to the dining room that Mrs. PF had set up and ready for the big meal we had two tables set up on the screened in patio which is just off the kitchen at the back of our house.

The turkey looked golden brown and juicy and we had an old fashioned style ham too. I took this photo of a pan of rolls hot out of the oven...

Our local friend Ron who is a single bachelor joined as he always does and he brought some Indian artifacts that were found near our town. It was like show and tell for adults....

Soon it was 1 pm and time to eat so Lawrence lead the group in prayer like he does every year.

I fixed a plate that included a little of everything.

Everything was very good and so was the conversation. 

We waited about an hour and decided we should have dessert and coffee so we could keep our "strength up." 

Our granddaughter Jamie brought a pumpkin trifle that was just as pretty as her...

There were pies and a cake and someone even brought a store bought cobbler. That's really not allowed here at the Flats....

Things pretty much lasted until 4 pm or so until the guests had mostly left. It sure was a nice day and something to be thankful for.