Tea Time with Melody Q: Coolspring Day 2

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Coolspring Day 2

Tent camping is awesome! It was cool overnight, but not too bad, and the sun shone throughout the day. Warm enough to wear shorts and a tee shirt. Today I’m wearing my Kit movie tee shirt and khaki shorts. (We’ll talk about the movie in a future post. Oh, my DVD is still stuck in our old DVD player.) Back in 2008, before the movie was released, AG ran a promotion where you could get matching girl and doll movie tee shirts—Xyra took advantage of the offer. I get a lot of wear out of mine.

Anyway, back to Coolspring!

We started the day with a big breakfast from Villela Meats in the food court. Eggs, bacon, sausage, home fires, and a pancake…YUM! They have the BEST bacon and sausage. Then it was off to the Power Tech Annex building to set the display posters for the Hvid/oil engine event.

When things were in place Xyra and I went to the Power Tech building to see the 35 hp DeLeVergne Horsnby-Akaroyd engine. [Xyra sometimes calls it the Bruce-Dan. Something about the musician’s and actor’s first names creating a mnemonic to remember the name of the engine.]

This is Xyra’s favorite engine at the museum. (Oops, it’s slipped a spot to #2…behind the Snow.) She says watching the movement and listening to the sounds of the engine working is very soothing. Almost hypnotic. She has a lot of pictures of this one from previous visits.

From the exhibits Power Tech Tour: "This 35 hp engine was actually the Model HA built by DeLaVergne of New York City. It was a licensee of the English Horsby-Akroyd. Built about 1902, it was a low pressure oil engine capable of burning the crude that it pumped. It was used in York Station, a Buckeye Pipeline installation near Zanesville, Ohio. It came to Coolspring in 1969 on the old Reo truck."

It wasn’t running this morning, so we’ll see it again later. This part of the engine is really neat to watch! You’ll see what I mean.

In the very same building is a 175 hp Otto. Can you find me?

It was built in Philadelphia in 1925. This is the only surviving 175 hp Otto, its 4 brothers are gone. The Otto weighs 25 tons and the flywheels are over 9 feet in diameter. It’s purpose was to power a pump to pump water. The Deane water pump is on the left and the engine on the right. When in use, the pump delivered 1.5 million gallons of water daily to Brookeville.

This is the Otto’s exhaust pipe. Impressive, eh?

Then we were off to the Gift Shop! The ladies who work there are lots of fun.

In this corner you can find coffee mugs, yo-yos, pins, mouse pads, tee shirts bedazzled with the museum logo, can cozies, and much more.

If you plan to stay a while there are a couple nice chairs for chatting.

And the sale table is outside. Must check for the bargains. Xyra has a couple of shirts like the ones here.

Then we headed up the little path to see what was happening with the Snow. First you cross a bridge.

Then go up the stairs. And Voila! One huge engine!

Remember yesterday I mentioned the 18 foot flywheels. This is me next to one of them.

This section allows access to one of the pistons.

And this is one of the tools used to work on it.

Back down to the Power Tech Annex where they were working on Tim’s 18hp twin Renfrew. They belted it to the tractor to get it started. It ran for a bit, but needed some adjustments.

Here I am on the tractor. I was told it is a 1939 John Deere H. It has been on the property since before it was a museum. Cool, huh?

I really don’t advise standing on the hood of the tractor. You could get hurt or hurt the tractor.

Since it is still National Iced Tea Month

Ah, yes, we made our own iced tea today! Here is another way to do it.

Fill you cup with water, add the tea bag, and fruit (optional, we had blueberries on hand) and just let it sit. This method requires patience; it’s not fast, but does work and is quite tasty.