Flatheadlake Scuttlebutt by Jos'e

"On-Line Copy #36 January 2006"

"Somers Montana"

{"We have a Brand-New year ahead of us"}

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"Part one of Two"
"Of a short story of another of my Mom's adventures"
As written by her.

In memory of my dearest Mother
"Martha Ellsworth"

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(The first of two parts of)
"To California to visit"

( By Martha Ellsworth)

      “ To California to Visit ” “Sept. 1930 ” We had been married over four years, which was spent partly in Kansas and Colorado.   My Family had moved to California about the time I was married.   When our second son Joe was five months old, my mother in law, my two little sons & I went to California to visit my Mom, Dad and brothers & sisters, we drove a nineteen twenty seven Model “T” Ford Coupe.   After learning to drive the car, I had driven wherever I needed to go around where we lived and knew how to repair flat tires by myself, they say Fools go where Angels fear to tread.   Maybe it wasn't quite that bad but I had a lot to enter into my book of experiences.   We carried food and something to cook in, over a campfire, also plenty of blankets as it was late in September and we did not have a heater in the car.
   The sun was shining as we left Delta Colorado early one morning to be on our way.   I had never been very far west of the country we lived in, but had no fear but that we would get along alright.   My husband did not have time to overhaul the car for the trip, but when I had trouble I had always managed to fix it or find someone to help me, it seamed to be running alright any way.
   The main roads were quite rough in many places but the weather had been dry so far and we were used to traveling over them and they all seemed to be pretty much alike.   When we stopped for gas in Grand Junction, the attendant had a fuzzy part poodle dog he wanted to give away and Mom was crazy about dogs, so we had another passenger, no one traveled over thirty miles an hour in those days and the dog wanted to ride inside the front fender next to the engine, that was good for the inside of the car was filled, there was sort of a perch up behind the seat where we put a pad and my oldest son Kenneth, now three years old could lay up there and go to sleep when he got tired.
   Mom baby Joe and I fit in the seat comfortably.   Not being able to travel very fast gave us time to see what the country looked like as we went along, but it wasn’t a good idea to keep your eyes off the road for very long.   We had been warned not to make camp in dry washes as a cloud burst far above you could send a wall of water down all at once and wash you away.   We saw a number of these places in the adobe areas we passed through.   We started out with three good tires and two not so good, somehow the bad one on the wheel would only carry us about fifty miles, then go flat, we would stop and change it for the one on the spare rack then go another fifty miles or so and it to would go flat.   This meant we would have to stop and patch both of them, I would put one back on the wheel and the other in the spare rack, and repeat the process, this happened all the way out to California.
   One time in Utah we were stopped to fix the tires and some Mexican men came along who were trapping Coyotes, they helped me, then showed us three live Coyotes in the truck, with their mouths tied shut with wire so they couldn’t bite, they said they had to take them away from the trap line to kill them, or it would not be possible to catch any more.   If the time to fix the tires happened at meal time, Mom would gather dry brush beside the road for a fire and fix us something to eat while I fixed the tires.   We usually put our blankets on the ground some where a little way off the road to sleep.   We passed through the coal mining tows of Price and Helper Utah before we climbed up over Soldier Summit, then dropped down into the valley where Provo is.   The beauty of this fertile valley with all the farms was fascinating, then we went on through Salt Lake City, we stopped to view the Temple and Tabernacle and stayed all night in a cabin there.
   The road followed near the Great Salt Lake as we left the city and traveled on West, the blue water twinkled in the sunlight as the wind made little waves.   We traveled for miles it seamed through the salt flats, it had rained as there was water standing on top of them, it was white with yellowish places where it had gotten dirty.   Wendover Utah is almost on the state line of Utah and Nevada, we stopped a little way out of town to fix our supper and I found the water pump on the engine was leaking.   We carried a five gallon can of water on the side of the car, but after we got going we had to stop to fill the radiator so often it was soon used up and we were going up hill and the motor got hot so we had to stop and it was getting dark, we sat there beside the road and wondered what to do, at last a big car came along and stopped to help us.
   The man said he didn’t have water enough to do any good but he would tie us on behind and pull our car to the next place where we could get help.   Believe me that is one ride I will never forget, it must have been about thirty miles and the road was graveled and like a wash-board, if your car had power enough and you drove fast it would not seem so rough, they said and he did! I think he had a radio turned on and didn’t look back or stop till he came to a place called Oasis, it shook the spring lose in the front of the Ford and the axel slipped to one side till I could not steer it as the tire was against the fender.   When we got to the edge of town he stopped and untied us, we were very thankful to be where we could fix the car and I offered to pay him, but our thanks was all he would accept. The cabins here were all in use but there was an old building without windows or doors they said we were welcome to stay the rest of the night in.   We put our blankets on the floor and got some rest.   The next morning while Mom watched the children and cooked breakfast on a little cook stove that sat in the yard, I put the jack under the lowest place on the motor and raised the weight of the car off of the front wheels, I took the spring out and found the little bolt that fastened the leaves of the spring together was gone.   I went up to where there was a repair place and they sold me a used bolt for fifteen cents that would fit and I fastened it back together, then put the front axel back where it should be and got it all back together. Now this was fixed but we still had the water pump to find out about.   Someone told me to loosen the nut that held the packing and put soft rope inside covered with cup grease and tighten it back up, it was around the shaft that drove the pump, I had the material and did what I was told and it stopped the leak. We got the radiator filled also the water can, you had to buy water here as they had to haul it in. About noon we were all loaded up again and ready to start on our way.
   Miles upon miles of road stretched out ahead all through Nevada, every time you came over the top of a rise you could see the road most always straight ahead going over the top of the one you could see in the distance.   About the only problem we had the rest of the way was with those two tires, that continued the same way until I was used to it.   We wanted to go by Lake Tahoe where one of my sisters lived, so we turned down to go to Carson City out of Reno and went up the grade over the mountain not far out of the Capitol City.   It was here I noticed the pale gray color of the decomposed granite, I had always found the color of dirt in the high mountains of Colorado to be either black or red and this seemed so white.   When we got to the lake it was beautiful and a blue color and clear.   Not many peopled lived at Bijou Where my sister Adah and her family lived in a log cabin, it was not hard to find them as everyone knew each other, their place was near a big meadow and only about Ľ mile to the lake with a shallow sandy beach.   We stayed a few days to visit and rest a bit and early one morning we were ready to go on to where our folks lived in Petaluma California, still two hundred miles away.

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( NOTICE )

The information and directions about the " 2006 " Ellsworth reunion, can be viewed on my Niece Wendy Butler's sight at the address below.
http://www.zplace2b.com/
Just drop down and on the left side you will see "Family and Friends Pages", you will find it listed their, Come join us
.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX      January 2006, time sure has a way of slipping past.    We are starting to get used to the winter weather now with all the snow and rain .  There is not too much exciting to talk about this month we have not been anywhere out of town since the last issue and have no plans to go till spring,Laurie has been busy taking down our Christmas tree and packing all the trimmings for next year, she has started a bit of spring cleaning in her spare time.
  I have been counting birds again now since we started feeding again last month, there are quite a few however not as many dropping by as there were at this time last year. I finished the "Bug Boxes" for some of our great grand kids, they were fun to build also I rebuilt some storage racks for CD"s I had built a couple of years ago, part of the racks were made to hold " Zip" disks and since we don't use the Zip disk any more I widened them out to hold the standard CD.
  Our daughter Lisa is in Israel right now, she flew over there to visit Haifa as well as some relatives, she should be home again in a week or so.  Our son Martin visited China last month and said he had a great time there.
   Brother Ken and wife Jan are back in Bahia De-Kino Mexico where their little mission is for those people, they handed out around 500 Christmas shoe boxes for the children this Christmas season as well as cloths and shoes for many.

      Be sure and drop by if you are in our neighborhood, until next time
"Have a Great Day".

Joe and Laurie Ellsworth

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     Left click any of the thumbnails below to view the photo at full size.
     click the (Back) button on your browser to return to this page.


"Bug houses for some Great Grand kids" "Jason and Marie DeMelo w/ Dog Bailey, grandkids living in Vancouver BC." "Shoveling Snow, at Steve & Cheryl's home in Carson City Nevada".


"Mare and Foal by my Grandmother Orma Addleman." "Temperature at Christmas {05}." "Friend Frank Anderson w/ some Family and his Belgian team"

"A look at some of the weather we are having."

December brought even more days of snow, even though it does not seem to be gaining any depth, it is melting in between storms it seems just enough to stay only a few inchs or so deep. Christmas was a joy and we had a fine time with meals that I'm sure will have put on weight! that will take a lot of biking in the spring to remove, (Smile)
We are sorry to see all the heavy weather that the coast in California seems to be having, also the fires that are burning in the middle of our country, we sure hope they are able to get them under control soon.

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We have enjoyed having you come to visit us here on the net and
hope you have enjoyed your time here. We would like to hear from you
if you are so inclined! So with an old country "Thanks" it's bye till next time.
( Joe and Laurie Ellsworth )

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"View our Last Issue" "Our Past Issues"

"Left click the next line to view paintings"
"A place to view Paintings by Jos's"

Another way to view this page is to visit:
"zplace2b.com"and click on the text link on the lower left side marked "Jose's Place" ".

Which is owned and maintained by my niece, "Wendy Butler".

{"We have a Brand-New year ahead of us"}

In memory of my dearest Mother"Martha Ellsworth"

"To California to visit"

( NOTICE )

The information and directions about the " 2006 " Ellsworth reunion, can be viewed on my Niece Wendy Butler's sight at the address below.http://www.zplace2b.com/Just drop down and on the left side you will see "Family and Friends Pages", you will find it listed their, Come join us

Another way to view this page is to visit: "zplace2b.com"and click on the text link on the lower left side marked "Jose's Place" ". Which is owned and maintained by my niece, "Wendy Butler".

In memory of my dearest Mother
"Martha Ellsworth"

The information and directions about the " 2006 " Ellsworth reunion, can be viewed on my Niece Wendy Butler's sight at the address below.
http://www.zplace2b.com/
Just drop down and on the left side you will see "Family and Friends Pages", you will find it listed their, Come join us

Another way to view this page is to visit:
"zplace2b.com"and click on the text link on the lower left side marked "Jose's Place" ".

Which is owned and maintained by my niece, "Wendy Butler".