What a great Sat.
Another 'Expedition Day' for daughter and I, plus grandma this time.
Started at the cabin with a leaf pile.
Daughter did not get much out of that.
She needed her cousins to show her how it is done.
With dad's bad knee's, it sure wasn't coming from me.
She did however enjoy the new swing we hung on the porch.
A gift from grandpa.
After a few height adjustments, it got a lot of use that first time.
We also broke out an old guitar and she did her best to keep the crowd entertained with renditions of 'Country Roads' and 'Witch Doctor'.
After the cabin we went for an adventure drive.
First passing this old Century Farm which will require some exploration at a later date.
The purpose of this 'expediton' was to scout out a restaurant we had been told about that now occupies an old church, and serves breakfast.
This was suppose to be located in the town of Bellflower.
Bellflower is a small rural farm town.
Lots of church's and a store.
It is in many ways a sad little town, probably quite typical of small farm communities in Americas rural areas.
The town has many old homes, but most were in terrible repair, even the ones being lived in.
And even the new modular homes (trailers?) looked tired and run down already.
We did find an old church that housed a restaurant.
I am glad, till I can investigate further, that we chose to eat at a favorite place before we placed our hopes on this one. Although I am willing to try it sometime, it did not, on the outside, seem the kind of place I wanted to take a five year old, a grandma and a dad with bad knee's to without exploring first.
Outwardly it appears tavern like and duct taped together. Will check it out with a group of bikers someday. (Joy! Was this the place?)
The little town did boast a couple of well kept church's, and to be fair, a few nice old houses.
We stopped in the towns city park/school playground for our picnic.
It was so windy, (oh windy was it?) that it blew our butter away before we could spread it.
Grandma held tightly to her sandwich.
The towns elementary school.
Neat old building.
And the grocery/hardware store, still very much in use, along side the small post office.
This church seemed to be a good example of the town.
Pretty from a distance, but run down up close.
However, they were at least making an effort to save the church. You could tell the roof was in good shape and some foundation work had been done.
I think the top of the spire should be the symbol, at least for now, of all the run down little towns we don't seem to value any more.
Teaching daughter to explore old buildings. One of dad's passions.
The inside. Not to far gone yet.
Outside. Needs paint, but other than one broken window, not in bad shape.
Symbol of our small towns?
I hope not.
On the way home we passed through another small town, Truxton, and this is the post office.
Let's close on a happy note for such a great exploration day. . . .
