With Covid-19 we knew this year’s Junk Jaunt was going to be different. For starters, Dennis and Carol weren’t going to be able to come. Dennis’s leukemia flared up again so he had been doing chemo treatments again. They felt his immune system wasn’t up for a trip with lots of other people around. Jamo had a Church retreat on Friday so he and Diane were going to do junk jaunting just on Saturday so they wouldn’t be staying at Mayo’s B&B either.  That left Nancy, Todd, Ken, me and Pam. Yes, at the last minute I decided to bring Pam along so that we could take photos of her visiting different towns and then send them to the girls. And another reason . . .  Todd said he couldn’t believe that he has been in our family for over 30 years and he had never met Pam. It was a win, win idea.

Ken hooked up the canoe trailer to take along with us so we could canoe in Cedar Lake. He also brought the trolling motor and battery so that Todd and Nancy could use them on Tom Mayo’s old boat. With Covid and pulling a trailer, we were limited on where we could stop to check out the junk. At one of the first stops was in Mason City where we found a child’s saddle, which was one of the items on our JJ ‘find’ list. That was exciting!! There were a lot of unusual metal artwork across the street as well.

During the day Pam got her picture taken sitting in the truck on the child’s saddle we bought, checking out a camping area at Davis Creek (one of Ken’s Park stops), Ft Hartsuff State Historical Park (one of my Passport stops and playing at the park in Sargent. All were sent to the girls so they could follow us along on the trip.

We dropped the canoe off at the B&B and drove to Broken Bow. There I found an old enamel pot at a garage sale  and Ken found a cherry pitter at the Custer Count fairgrounds.

Just outside of Broken Bow is the Kinkader Brewery and that’s where we agreed to meet Todd and Nancy for supper. We ate out on the patio which was nice. That’s was the first time we’ve eaten at a restaurant since the pandemic started. I enjoyed the outing.

Saturday morning Pam got her picture taken having breakfast in the farmhouse kitchen and playing the toys there.

We each had a Passport/Park stamp to get in Arnold so we drove over there Saturday morning. The drive we beautiful with long rolling hills and the colors of fall. Along the drive we commented about how many Trump signs we saw on our Junk Jaunt drive and not a single Biden sign. The same was even more true in Arnold.

We were able to get my stamp by driving-by on Main Street and then we drove out to Arnold Lake where we needed to look for Ken’s park emblem. While driving around Arnold Lake, we saw a pickup driving through with large Trump signs flying. We later saw the same truck in town at one of the restaurant.

The Lake was very nice and had some good camping areas. We enjoyed a little walk there to the water’s edge to get the emblem picture.

Ken also took me on a special drive north of Arnold to see some beautiful canyons. Nebraska’s version of the Grand Canyon, just so beautiful. It was difficult to get good pictures so these don’t do it justice.

Done in Arnold so we went back to the B&B to do some fishing. Ken got the boat ready and while he was waiting for the rest of us to come he caught a very nice Bass on his first cast from the shore.

Pam got her picture taken while she was sitting in the canoe. She wasn’t allowed to go out on the water with us because she didn’t have a life jacket. At least that’s what we told the girls. Emma said she would make one for Pam. 🙂

As soon as Todd and Nancy walked down,  we launched them off in the boat to do some fishing. Then we pushed off in the canoe. We caught a lot of very nice sized crappie, a few bluegill and a couple of bass.

Todd and Nancy caught quite a few fish too! We all had a very enjoyable afternoon.

Back at the farmhouse, we had supper and spent the rest of the evening visiting something we haven’t been able to do for awhile.

We headed home Sunday morning with a side trip to Sherman Lake to get another one of Ken’s Park emblems Pam got her picture taken there while she and I were watching all the seagulls.

It was a very good trip!!