This was to have published prior to my “On To The Lake” post last week but somehow when saving this one, I lost a bunch of it. So enjoy a moment back in time courtesy of this olelongrooffan.
So here is this olelongrooffan on An Unexpected Road Trip Adventure the first week in July, 2015 in the Ozark Mountain region of the ShoMe State and heading out to the whole reason I am on this Unexpected Road Trip Adventure, BabySisterJoan’s 3rd of July party. I am confident my fellow Hoons are wondering what the hell this snowy picture of an M38A1 towing a single axle trailer full of baled hay out on Haven Lee Farm, Halltown edition, circa 1970 or 71 with BigBrotherBob driving that A1, thejeepjunkie waving at the photographer and this olelongrooffan holding onto the top of that stack of hay for dear life has to do with anything here in the Hooniverse? Well, my fellow Hoons, if any of all ya’all are interested in discovering that bit of trivia, a jump would be in order at this point in time.


As has been mentioned previously relating my exploits here in the Ozarks, a whole dadgummed bunch of rain has been falling from the sky. Record amounts so it seems. Well, one day recently after a gully washer, my BabySisterJoan sent a bunch of her brothers this image of the very same trailer that now resides on her farmette after that trailer had been caught up in one of those gully washers. It ended up down in the creek out front of her home and she felt she needed to share it with us all.
And I am glad she did. Why? Cuz my brother Bus_Plunge had this to say about that trailer:
HEY! My father in law and I built this trailer. It is based on the axle to the trailer that dad and Phil Hutsler built when they were partners in Shrewsbury, MO. They lived on Devonshire. This is the trailer that Mom ran into in the 1958 Chevy and put a hole in the trunk. She alleged that someone tried to break into the trunk and steal whatever valuables were in there. Bob and Tom,(edit-BigBrotherBob and thehorsefarmer) foreshadowing their respective careers, wondered how the size of the hole in the trunk matched exact the width of the trailer tow hitch. AND… AND….the fact that the trailer was ‘ass-ended’ ….which means that the block the winder was on was hit and the trailer reared back and landed on it’s ass with the hitch in the air…..you can see it now boys, yes I know you can. You deduced that Mother had backed out of the garage and, without gauging distance or, most likely, forgetting the trailer was in the NW corner of the drive, Mother backed that 1958 Chevrolet Biscayne into it. Incidentally, the same Biscayne that Bob and I drove Granny and MOO (our paternal and maternal grandmothers) while pulling this same trailer to Springfield where I had a flat at about Diamond, MO and Bob invoked the “if you run out of gas while you’re driving you go after the gas” rule to apply to flat tires. I argued, unsuccessfully, on the “Oldest son is responsible for safe operation of said vehicle”….the spare was fucking spare was flat man….I was promptly overruled. I grabbed the spare, threw out my thumb, and immediately a dump truck stopped. I threw the tire in the bed and climbed aboard. Fuck you Bob! To which my aging BigBrotherBob promptly replied via email…“Thanks for the memories now I’m going back to sleep.”

So upon arriving at BabySisterJoan’s place up there near Highlandville, yeah this olelongrooffan can’t make names like this up, one of the first sightings I had was of this old trailer, less its wood slat sides but gaining an aluminum or stainless base. That trailer was later utilized in toting a whole damn bunch of fireworks down into that valley for our later amusement. Once again, this olelongrooffan was cheered by the fact that a classic belonging of TheGentlemanFarmer’s was still being put to good use. Yeah, he used to brag upon the balance of the trailer that Bus_Plunge and his father in law built for him.

So after spotting that cool old trailer of my pops, I commenced to getting the First Class Tour Treatment of Her Home by BabySisterJoan. One of the sweetest things she showed this olelongrooffan a a memory of my pops she had gathered of his time at The Mirror. Yeah, he was the founding editor of the Roman Catholic Newspaper for southern Missouri and had quite an established career at it.
Something this olelongrooffan can only hope to achieve in my limited time remaining on this planet.

BabySisterJoan also shared with me her work station there on her farmette. I couldn’t help but notice this was my pops old library table desk as well as his comfortable old desk chair. And that gorgeous woman in the photograph to the right in this image. Joan’s daughter who, without a doubt, will be seen in some publication before we know it.

So this olelongrooffan took my leave of BabySisterJoan to let her get back to socializing with all of her party goers and decided to have a look around the valley that is the front yard of her farmette. She has a cool old tool shed that is filled with some of pop’s old woodworking equipment and the usual assortment of yard grooming impliments. Also to check out her own standing rainwater pond in the foreground. And see that big piece of plastic off to the left? That my fellow Hoons is a Slip n Slide, Ozarks style.

And this here is the brook that runs between Joan’s pad and Highway H to Highlandville. I am standing on an old concrete bridge, much like that one out on Haven Lee Farm, Halltown Edition, where I smashed up that old Dodge truck so many moons ago. The only thing keeping my longerroof from becoming amphibious is that small cable barely seen in the above image.

And looking down stream on the other side of that bridge. See that line of debris near the top of the bank on the right? That is how high the water was during that flash flood. It must have been 8 or 9 vertical feet that the water line had risen. Also, a palletized bonfire just waiting to happen.

And as I looked back toward the house, I spotted a couple of familiar bodies playing around on that Slip n Slide so I meandered over to watch those girls play in the water.

It turns out that NotSoLilJim’s better half….wait for it….LilMom, of course, had brought half of their family out to Aunt Joan’s party to not eat dinner but to play on that Slip n Slide until near exhaustion set in.

But let me tell you my fellow Hoons, the look of enjoyment on the faces of those two beauties was worth the trip to the Ozarks for this olelongrooffan.

All the while under the watchful eye of LilMom, seated in that Adrondack chair and Aunt Sis standing beside her. Now that name, Aunt Sis, is not one this olelongrooffan bestowed upon her. Nosiree. I am proud of the fact that while LilMom calls her sister, “Sis,” her daughters, taking a chapter from this olelongrooffan’s book, christened Sis as Aunt Sis, and like theKid, she will be Aunt Sis for the rest of her life.
A quick digression. Aunt Sis works at the same business as does fellow Hoon Marcal. Recently Marcal needed to acquire something from Aunt Sis’s department and chatted it up with her. Well, Aunt Sis, who apparently Hoons along with us, recognized his name, stalked him on that book about your face and the next time they spoke, she asked him if he knew this olelongrooffan. Bus_Plunge laughingly related this story to me and we both got a chuckle out of it. I can’t wait to actually meet Marcal and get his take on that experience.

So after having a braut and some tater salad, this olelongrooffan figured I probably needed to get over and socialize with some party goers I wasn’t actually related to so that BabySisterJoan’s friends would have something to laugh about once I left. As I was sitting there chatting it up, one woman commented on my camera and asked if I was a photographer. I laughed and said no, I just bought this when I thought I had some money and use it to capture images to post on a blog I am involved in. She asked where I was from and I told her Florida and it took me three days to get here. She laughed and said she liked to travel to a state, then do the state and that she had done Alabama recently. I made no comment to this churchgoing woman about her doing the state but after she mentioned she had seen the biggest ball of twine, I had to chime in and inquire if she had seen the birthplace of Helen Keller? No? How about the crash site of Patsy Cline’s airplane? Also no. This olelongrooffan felt pretty good about my adventures at that point. Anyway, she asked if she could check out my camera and she gathered this image of BabySisterJoan’s other half, I’ll call him thefireplacedude. He had spent the entire time I was at that party cooking up some grub for all of our enjoyment and was getting ready to pass along the torch, so to speak.

He came over and chatted it up with us and commented his duties had been completed and “Where the hell is the tequila?” Nuff said.

Shortly thereafter the palletized bonfire was lit up….

And the fireworks commenced.

All in all an enjoyable time had out at BabySisterJoan and thefireplacedude’s place, even if there wasn’t much car related stuff going on.
Stayed Hooned as My Unexpected Adventure is getting shorter by the day.
Image Copyright Hooniverse 2015/longrooffan