UPDATED MEMORIES
August 6, 2014
Somewhere I have read,
likely on the Internet, that the Agave Americana, often called the
Century Plant is the fastest growing plant in the world when it
starts to bloom and produce seeds. Since I have seen this happen
here in Texas I can well believe that it is true. While the myth is
that it takes a hundred years to bloom in fact it actually only takes
twenty to thirty years on the average with some taking ten and some
fifty years. For ten to fifty years the Agave Americana stores up
energy for its final spurt of growth. The plant lives its whole life
for one purpose, to bloom and produce thousands of seeds and then it
will die. The plants that do this are called monocarpic. After it
has bloomed the stalk dies and then the main part of the plant
follows. It will have produced some cloned seedlings that are called
“pups”. In another ten to fifty years these “pups” will
follow the life cycle of the parent. In 1932 a fifty year old plant
was given to the Bronx Park Botanical Gardens so they could study its
growth. The stalk grew at a rate of an inch an hour till it reached
fifteen foot tall and produced six hundred gray green buds, which
never bloomed. There have been several places that from one to three
of these plants have flowered but in one place in McAllen there are
close to fifty blooming at one time. They are spectacular to say the
least. Some of the stalks have already fallen, and as large as they
are they could be hazardous. These stalks have grown to this height
in between a month and six weeks.
NEARLY FIFTY BLOOMING
AGAVE AMERICANA
IN McALLEN, TEXAS
It is amazing to see a
single Century Plant blooming but to see this many in one place is
beyond description. The main thing to say is that everything is
bigger in Texas. We have admired these particular plants for eight
seasons. By the time we return all of these plants will be dead and
only the pups will be growing. On one hand they will be missed, but
it will be fun to see what comes next.
EACH
BRACT IS COMPOSED OF A
LARGE NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL BLOOMS
Copper
has been used for a decorative metal in sculpture for hundreds if not
thousands of years. When it is first cast it is bright shiny metal
that looks like a new penny. But if it is exposed to the weather it
changes to a beautiful green color, which is called a copper patina.
Under normal conditions this will take seven or more years, less near
the ocean. Many times the copper is treated with chemicals to hurry
this aging process. An example of this natural color that is known
to the whole world is displayed by the Statue of Liberty in New York
City. When France sent the statue to the United States and it was
first erected its color was similar to the pennies that you have in
your pocket. With time the elements caused the color to change to
the green that it is today. I grew up in Kansas, only about seventy
miles from Topeka, the capital. I went to the capital on school
trips and at least once I climbed up into the dome of the capital
building. I have done that also since I retired. Whenever I have
seen the dome of the Kansas capital building it has always been the
dark green copper patina. I have always thought that it was a
beautiful dome. That is until just a few weeks ago when I again
visited Topeka. Over the last few years there has been a major
face-lifting done on the capital building and its dome. The green
patina copper has been removed from the dome and replaced with a new
copper covering that has been treated so that it will not be effected
by the weather. Three hundred thirty two million was spent on the
renovation of the capitol building which included the change of
copper of the dome. I am not sure that the color change has done
anything to improve the looks. To me the green was special. It is
quite a change. At least the statue of the Native American with his
bow firing an arrow towards the north star which was placed up there
in 2002 still has the original green copper patina that it developed
over the years. The statue alone weighs four thousand four hundred
and twenty pounds. Inside the outer dome which can be seen is an
interior dome not visible from the outside. The main part is twelve
foot higher than the the US Capital dome but at fifty foot in
diameter it is roughly half the width.
ORIGINAL
COPPER PATINA DOME
NEW TREATED COPPER DOME
With
our motor home pulling a vehicle behind it is a lot easier for us to
travel along the Interstate highway system rather than going on the
secondary roads even when they might be four lane highways. We make
frequent stops for various reasons and there are many rest area along
the Interstate system that do not exist along the other roads. There
are also many sites that are worth visiting just a few miles off the
highway. Many times we simply ignore the attractions and figure that
we will see them the next time we are in the area. If we do that too
many times there will be things worth seeing that we will never see.
We have stopped a few places this trip that we have passed in the
past. We are never sure that the roads leading to an attraction will
accommodate a vehicle as large as ours. We might have to turn around
in some small parking lot or even get blocked into a place where I
have to disconnect the Jeep in order to turn around. It has not
happened this trip but that has happened in the past.
I
don't know when I first heard of the Jolly Green Giant but as a youth
I know that I was fascinated by him. He was born or created in 1928
to represent a variety of large green peas from which he got his
name. In the beginning he was a puppet who walked around the various
field crops. He was green because that was his favorite color and he
was jolly because he was fun to be around. But children were scared
by him so he was replaced by elves in the commercials. At 3,028
miles Interstate 90 between Boston and Seattle is the longest
Interstate in the USA. When the east and west sections were linked
near Blue Mound, Minnesota a request was made to the Green Giant
Corporation for permission to use their symbol as a 55 foot statue
near the Interstate. Permission was granted with the stipulation
that the funds required would be obtained locally. A request to ten
local businessmen for $5,000 each was made and fulfilled within a
week. That represented nearly half the construction cost. The
statue stands on top a pedestal with a set of stairs so that the
10,000 visitors a year can climb up and stand between his legs.
Every Christmas he sports a red scarf. He has a forty eight inch
smile and wears a size 78 shoe. I looked around to see if Sprout was
there but I could not find him.
THE
JOLLY GREEN GIANT STATUE
IN BLUE EARTH, MINNESOTA
When
I was growing up my sister and I enjoyed music. She would play the
piano and I would sing with her. I really enjoyed doing that. We
shared a lot of church songs and a lot of contemporary music too. I
enjoyed those times very much and even to this day I wish I could go
back and share those singing sessions. One of the songs that we
enjoyed together was Church in the Wildwood. The chorus goes, “Come
to the church by the wildwood.” We would often sing it as, “Come,
come, come, come to the church in the wildwood.” At that time I
did not know that there was an actual church that the song had been
written about. Oddly enough the song was written five years before
the church was built. The song was written by William S. Pitts in
1857 after a stage coach trip to see his fiance. The stagecoach had
stopped near Bradford, Iowa and he wandered the woodlands a bit. He
envisioned a brown church in the area and could not be at peace with
himself until he wrote the song. In 1862 he and his wife moved close
to the area and he discovered that a church was being built in the
exact area that had inspired the song. They were also painting the
church brown because it was the cheapest color that could be bought.
It is interesting to note that the church is called -- 'in the Vale,'
or -- 'in the Wildwood,' or -- 'in the Dale.' With the Internet
highway system thousand of people visit the church and there are many
weddings performed there every year. This happened to be one of
those places where there was only a limited space in which to turn
around. There was a curve in both directions from where we parked.
There was also a fair amount of traffic coming from either direction
plus people who were parked in the parking area and could easily have
blocked our movements. We were fortunate that we only had to wait a
few minutes for no vehicles to be coming from either direction. It
took the parking area, the two traffic lanes and part of the far
shoulder to turn around the motor home and Jeep. This church was
only about three four or five miles away from the Interstate, through
town but on good roads.
THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH IN
THE DALE
NEAR BRADFORD, IOWA
NEAR BRADFORD, IOWA
We
are currently in the Rochester, NY area. The camp in which we are
staying is a combination of RV camp and golf course. A special party
was in the clubhouse at our arrival time. There were so many cars in
the parking lot that the owners were concerned that we would not be
able to get into the camp. They called us and asked that we enter
through the exit only road and they gave us specific instructions of
how to get to the needed location. As we came in there were several
people who looked at us with that look of, “Why are those idiots
bringing in a big motorhome the wrong way and going the wrong way on
one way roads that they should not be on?” In two hours all the
cars were gone.
We
are enjoying our time here in Rochester. We went up to the Rochester
Public Farmers Market. There are many farmers markets that are set
up during the summer. But this one is special to us. It was started
in 1905 and had grown to be huge. There are over a hundred farmers
stalls to buy produce, in addition there are many open air booths
where just about anything you can think of is sold. The people that
come to the market truly represent a cross section of the world.
Many languages can be heard if you listen. The attire worn comes
from anywhere in the world and is very interesting. Parking can be
one of the biggest problems, but with patience a spot will open up.
Then it is a matter of walking the aisles that almost seem endless
along with thousands of people. We go to get vegetables, fruit,
cheese, butter; well the list of what we might get would take more
space than there is left on this page. Suffice it to say that we
always look forward to a visit to the Rochester Public Farm Market.
It is simply a destination any time that we are here. Even in the
middle of winter (which we don't do now) it is a fun place to visit.
Till Later This Is Doug
Of
PEACE
ON THE ROAD
