August 21
Head out from west of Houston.
We just passed "Wok Inn" Chinese restaurant. Interesting name choice, do you think it is:
A directive
or
A suggestion?
On our way to Temple, a small cloud bursts and temporarily drops the temperature a couple degrees. And in that moment, a little deer chooses to cross the road in front of us as a car comes barreling from the opposite direction. Little deer reaches the halfway point on the road and those tiny little hooves slip, once, twice. Mt SMT slams down the brakes and I suck in a huge breath. The massive brakes on the truck buys little deer a couple seconds and those tiny hooves finally find traction on the third attempt. That tiny tail clears the road as our 7 tons pass through the space those tiny hooves had just occupied.
Little deer is safe, but the drivers and passengers in two vehicles need a while for the adrenaline to drop!
Belton Lake COE Temple, TX
Ellis Lakeside Campground, site 11
Grandma’s
I-80 Lakeside Campground
Blue Ox in Pender NE
All of these are previously visited stops. We are beginning to collect our favorite campgrounds and sites.
30 August 2018
Hawley, MN for WMSTR
Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion
$75 gets us a month of camping and two passes for the show. We are camped out with another thousand or so people, they are nice, but I gotta tell you, there is not much diversity in this area or at this get-together.
Also, my heartburn is back after eating a couple slices of orange and a PBJ sandwich. I haven’t eaten a thing in 9 hours and my chest has been aching all day. I’ve taken another antacid. Heartburn sucks. This is now 3 times in two months.
Friday WMSTER gets underway. The boondocking area has showers, toilets, and trash cans. The mornings are nice and cool, but the evenings are the pits. Campers run their generators all night long (several neighbors START the suckers up at midnight). And the drunks party all night Saturday and Sunday: singing (the same song over and over and over), laughing, and generally irritating the shit out of me. Additionally, everyone starts up their lighter fluid accelerated campfires for cooking and ambiance beginning around 5 pm. The compressing atmosphere of evening adds in the scents of partially combusted fuel and smoke from the show. This off-putting combo gives me headaches.
Mr SMT’s review of the show will be quite different.
I did enjoy the women’s building. I have a Brazilian Embroidery Kit I bought during our July, CO trip, but I got to see some in person at WMSTER. The knitting machine was wonderful to experience and consider, as I cannot figure knitting out. On the other hand, I have no need for regular knitting in southern TX.
Hardanger Embroidery hit my radar two years ago after I bought a small table topper to quilt. The Hardanger examples at WMSTER inspired my imagination. One rectangular piece had diagonal stripes down the body. I wish I’d gotten a photo, but I was too far away and the booth was closed at my visit. I suppose the Hardanger Embroidery display cannot be unexpected. The trip through Minnesota showed a LOT of Norwegian names. Hardanger Embroidery is a counted thread, tone on tone embroidery that spread into Norway sometime in the 1600s.
The show does not allow dogs on the grounds, campground only.
For the most part, I stayed in the campground with the pups, reading and sewing and entertaining the furballs, while Mr SMT attended the show.
Considering how tight the show grounds sit for navigation and the number of visitors, the no dogs on show grounds makes sense. However, you also need to be super cautious in the campgrounds as people drive trucks, tractors, golf carts, 4 wheelers, etc all over the place. And, even though leash requirements are written in the show website, not every pet owner believes in following those rules. So, yes, strange dogs come racing up to you while you are out walking YOUR leashed dogs. Arg! No fights, luckily.
The campgrounds are very uneven, so no kickboxing for me ... I’d be likely to break an ankle. Even yoga is difficult. Our only exercise is walking.
We took a walk to find the dump station before heading out. In a word ... Shudder! It was a muddy mess, so bad that people were parking in the middle of the street to use it. It MAY have been clean mud, but it LOOKED icky. And Mr SMT is super sensitive to the ick factor. I get more laughs from his facial expressions at dump stations than at just about any other opportunity.
WMSTR 2018
Kira graciously agreed to go to the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion, conducted annually on Labor Day weekend, starting on the respective Friday. WMSTR is located in Rollag, MN. Many folks refer to WMSTR as “Rollag”.
Disclaimer: At WMSTR, everything is subject to change, Ha!
What IS WMSTR?
So, the locals pronounce the WMSTR as whim-stir or whim-staah. It is a very large collection of operational steam and gasoline/diesel fuel engines, stationary/mobile, that were used for farming, factory power trains, electrical power generation, water pumping, railroading, oil/gas production, earth moving and logging. There is also additional equipment that was used to support all of these activities. Several hundred tractors are present, which are the main elements in the daily “Parade of Power”. There are also a few operating models and many miniature scale versions of most of the above equipment. In addition, there are operational pioneer and farm settings that depict the buildings and lifestyle tasks for the respective periods. Many horse and mule powered devices. The time range/period is about the mid 1700s to the 1970s. They also host a different (invitational) subject, theme, each year - this year’s subject “Homebuilt Creations.”
See this:
What was the % of homebuilt vs manufactured equipment?
About 10% versus 80%. The other 10% would fall under the heavily modified title, and, therefore, combines the two.
What is unique about this show/exhibit?
No vendors allowed and all workers are volunteers.
All WMSTR derived profits get folded back into the operations.
Almost all of the equipment is in running order and it is operated during the show.
The attendees and workers are well behaved and sober people. This show is great for kids with proper supervision by their parents/guardians. Supervision and safety awareness is important because their are many machines here that have the potential to maim or kill. Safety and safeguards are high, but one still must be aware and vigilant at all times.
WMSTR works to make the show grounds accessible, they provide people transporter trailers for all visitors, and tour guides and special, handicapped transport for those over 60 and for those that cannot ambulate, around the grounds. However, the campgrounds do not appear to have ADA toilets or showers (from our memories).
What is on your “must see” list at WMSTR?
All of the large engines.
The saw mills.
Many are the last of their kind, and unique to this show.
Do not be in a hurry, it really is a time machine to the past.
If you like mechanical things or devices, then you owe it to yourself to at least go to WMSTR one time.
If people like the aspects of this show, then what other shows might they like to attend?
The expo shows at Coolspring Power Museum in Coolspring, PA (October).
Manitoba Threshermen's Reunion & Stampede (July), near Austin, Manitoba.
CAMPING AT WMSTR
We actually saw at least two dozen or more other truck campers at this event. Also, in regards to all RVs, tents, vehicles and campers, there are units of every size, type, and vintage, spread over about five large pastures. Estimated at about 800 units total. Make sure that you take plenty of large leveling blocks for your RV, because almost everything is on a hill slope.
We used all the blocks we had and also dug holes for the tires on the uphill side, in order to get level. The camping area is humongous, spread out over several forested areas and grass fields/pastures. No problem getting space. Finding something near level, challenging. Maybe, ~1K people had arrived by Thursday early evening. As people arrive, chaos reigns as the parade of trailers conquers the inclined plane. Also, a grand chorus of electrical generators sing their song and perfume the air with their sweet exhaust during daylight.
For our objectives, the primary goal was to attend the show on FRIDAY. The last time I attended, in 2011, Saturday was chaos with too many people. So, this time we stayed in the campground Thursday night through Monday afternoon. We would have stayed Monday night, but we feared getting stuck in a quagmire of wheel rutted mud due to forecasted precipitation. When it rains here, and it did, the many vehicles running through the campgrounds churn the soil into some deeply serious, slippery mud.
Camping is $35 to camp + $20 showpass/person ($75 total, for us two adults, no charge for dogs), so that is a good deal for the camping alone. You can arrive on Monday. Theoretically, one can camp until the 1st of October per this fee.
As an attendee, one can enter the show grounds at 06:00am-ish on Friday morning. Things do not really start to get going until about 08:00am.
Friday and Monday population at the show was reasonable. Saturday and Sunday were challenging with major crowds, and folks moving around in people clouds. Transporters get full, so wear your hiking shoes. Carry a bottle of water, and drink water steadily throughout the day.
It is difficult to see everything at WMSTR in one day. It is most interesting from my perspective because you can hang out with the equipment operators and they will explain in detail, how things work. In most cases, their historical knowledge is very good.
They serve some good basic food at WMSTR for the traditional meal times.The food is reasonably priced. There is little to nothing for vegetarians or vegans. A little more in the salads, vegetables and fruits departments would go a long way in providing healthier fare. Also, I think it would help to increase sales. But, I liked some of it anyway. I think it is mostly done by local churches. Fund raisers.
The information on where to enter, gate specifically, the WMSTR grounds to camp, was not provided in that context anywhere in the WMSTR website. This information is very important to know when you are in a large RV, or towing a vehicle on a tow bar and cannot reverse. Outside of the WMSTR grounds, a driver might have to travel a long distance in order to turn around.
ENTRANCE GATE TO WMSTR FOR CAMPING AND VEHICLES OVER 8 FEET IN HEIGHT
27488 102nd Ave S, Hawley, MN 56549
New for 2018, showers and flush toilets for campers. Wonderful and much appreciated. They saw very heavy usage. Our thanks and gratitude to the folks that kept up with cleaning these facilities. An endless chore of washing away mud.
The WMSTR sanitary dump station was a gross muddy, wheel rutted, quagmire and wet standing water mess, and we elected to bypass it and legally dump elsewhere.
There is no telling what septic critters were in that water around the dump station. This was one of very few negatives about the entire WMSTR experience. WMSTR leadership needs to make this a priority in regards to establishing a two lane sanitary dump station with large concrete pads at correct assistive angles, proper drainage, fresh flush water supply, and sufficient space for large RVs to utilize.
Rollag WMSTR videos on YouTube from 2011.
Not much has changed in machines/exhibits.
There are more earth moving machines.
I might add to that later.
This will take you there:
There are a few videos from other locations also.
I am WHJ58 on YouTube.
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