Car trouble strikes.  El Gigante hit some difficulty.  It seems the front wheel bearing got fried.  It is sitting at Nixon’s auto repair as they seek out parts,  should get going this afternoon so we can head to Kansas and Oklahoma.  Last night we did three more beers and only have a touch of Grey Goose left.   It turns out the the fellow Steven had get the car in shape failed to pack the wheel bearings with grease.  Steven’s mechanic tells us he will make good on the repairs.  On to some more interesting stuff.

Coming in from the east we stopped at an old gas station and met Gary who gave us the whole history of the area.  It was an interesting stop, Gary liked to talk and show us his guest book with lots of people from Europe that had been through just the day before.  Gary was neat, but gives new meaning to the term “toothless goober.”

From Gary’s place it was on to Red Oak II which is down the road from Red Oak.  It seems Red Oak was dying so some fellow picked up most of the buildings and moved them to a corn field several miles west.  He keeps adding buildings and is planning to open a tourist trap.  We talked to some fellow who did a lot of the work around there - another interesting character.  The place is quite amazing old buildings and cars scattered around in varying stages of repair.  They have a sherrif’s office with a jail and are building a new restaraunt.  The restaraunt has a nifty bar that they’re building and it is quite impressive.  The whole thing is a sight to see.  I haven’t downloaded the pictures yet, but you can google “Red Oaks + Carthage” and it will come up.   One of the guys that lives there is an artist and ex-hippie (is there such a thing as an ex-hippie?)  He told me that he was the owner of the farm, he started doing art work and got rich so he started the village, he then got a divorce and now he is poor and still has the village.  The fellow that showed us around says little of that was true except the artist part. He is a skilled artist, but he mostly sits around smoking grass and braiding his hair.  Do you know how hard it is to braid your own hair after finishing off two or three doobies?  An amazing feat.  We also watched an old woman, well over 80 we were told.  She was digging in her garden and pulling a cart full of rocks around.  Steven suggested that she could probably kick his ass and the guy showing us around said, “I guarantee you she could kick all of our asses.

Here’s hoping El Gigante (1BIGRD) is done soon.   

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