College Visit College Rodeo

September 17 & 18th A two-day auction of classic cars in the Hamilton County town of Williams late last week netted 1.5 million dollars. The proceeds of the car auction from the Hemken Car Museum will benefit the auto restoration and technology program at McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas.Over 60 classic cars including Studebaker, Rolls-Royce, Pontiac, Playboy and more were on the auction block plus plenty of auto parts. Daryl and Ann Hemken opened their car museum in 2000 and closed in 2018. Daryl Hemken died in 2005 while Ann Hemken died last year.

 Jacob attended the car auction with hopes of bringing home an oldie. He spotted an LTD that looked like a cheap fixer upper that he hoped to bid $1,000. It was the bottom of the cars and the last to sell bringing in $6,000. Jake enjoyed seeing the cars and being at the sale with his grandparents in Williams. It also gave him some insight into the McPherson college's Automotive Restorations program leading us to a college visit. I wanted Jake to see what other opportunities are out there. Sometimes it is good to look outside the box. I booked a college visit coordinating with Jayden's home college rodeo the end of October.

  

Jake and I drove to Lincoln Nebraska on a Thursday mid afternoon. We arrived in time to check in and get some supper. Jake picked a Mexican restaurant. The next morning we were on a tight schedule having an appointment in McPherson Kansas at 2. I wanted to squeeze in a museum in the area that Opened at 9AM. That gave us exactly one hour before having to be on the road. I wanted to visit the Farmall museum in Avoca on the way, but found out they closed their doors just two weeks ago. What are the odds? I took Luke 2 years ago on the way back from one of Jayden's college rodeos in Nebraska. It was a great museum and something to see with over 300 tractors squeezed into an indoor museum along with hundreds of toy tractors. The founder/owner died recently and they are selling everything. That makes me sad. On Friday we found a different tractor museum called the Nebraska Tractor Testing Laboratory. It was a little museum with a lab on the UNL campus. After we visited the museum we went to the lab, where the college students were having class. The professor apparently thought Jake was there on a college visit, so we went with it. He asked Jake a lot of questions and showed us around. The lab was old with very little hands on equipment. There were circuits and hydraulics and a few odds and ends. The students were all sitting on their laptops. There were no tractors anywhere in the lab. It was kind of disappointing. It was interesting however to see the tractor outside slowly making laps round and round pulling a train of heavy tractors. The main testing done is to determine pulling power, fuel consumption, efficiency, and work rates. 

We then drove on through Kansas to McPherson college for our college visit. We were greeted by friendly staff and another student was there with his mother. Our guide was a current student in the Automotive Restoration program named Spencer. It didn't take long for the conversation to lead to the Hemken sale. Spencer had been working in Williams with the Hemken's all summer for an internship. He was so excited that Jake had been at the sale and showed Jake the car that he bought at the sale as we were walking on the tour. He kept saying over and over, I cant believe you were there. It was an instant connection. We spent most of the tour in the Automotive Restoration building known as Templeton. We went into lab after lab, shop after shop. It was quite an impressive setup. Just when you thought that was it, there was still more. They had a lab for paint, a lab for upholstery, a lab for sheet metal, a lab for woodworking, a lab for design, a lab for engines, a lab for body work. I was so impressed. We were both just taking it all in. I could envision Jake there and loving it. We returned to the main office where they took us into a board room and talked about applying, tuition, scholarships, and academics. It is a 4 year program with a degree. It is a private college and tuition is really high. They give lots of scholarships and have big donors to help cover some of the tuition. It was a lot to take in. Last we went on a tour of the campus. I think we could have asked for the quick run through because the tour seemed long and lengthy. I was watching my clock and counting the hours of driving and the start of the rodeo. I knew we were going to be pushing it to make the rodeo at Jayden's college. As we drove on to Alva, we talked all about the pros and cons. Jake loved it and was very excited. He said it is exactly what he loves and what he wants to do, restoration of older vehicles. He was hesitant about living in a dorm and being so far from home. I had mixed emotions too. I was so excited and loved the college, the size, the program, the classes, and the possibilities. I just didn't like that he would be so far away, especially for his first year. I did not mention any of my cons to him, so as not to discourage him, in fact I was encouraging him to go for it. We will have a lot of thinking and praying over the next few months. The first step...apply.

The roads from Kansas to Alva where very much backroad. In fact in one area we drove for miles and miles without seeing another vehicle on a paved road with no markings. It felt like being on a paved country road in the middle of nowhere. We were cruising along without a speed limit. I knew we were going to get there right when the rodeo started so we told Jayden we would meet her. We didn't even check into our hotel. We found Jayden and gave big hugs. We were so happy to see her. She was so cute in her rodeo coat and hat. She had to help all weekend with pushing calves for the breakaway. Noah had gone home for the weekend to help with a hunt and didn't want to be around the rodeo. We were all starving and the local BBQ restaurant closed at 8, so we left the rodeo early to get some supper. We knew there was plenty of rodeo over the weekend to watch. While at the rodeo I did see Stacey O., The Jacob's, and we saw Jayden's friends from her first year, Brody and Devin. It kind of makes me sad that she doesn't talk to her guy friends anymore. We ate our BBQ and were the last ones there. It was good to get a nice meal in. We didn't have good food all day. We went back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub awhile. Because Jadyen has her dog and chores, she couldn't stay with us. Our hotel was only a few miles away.

In the morning, she was up in slack in one of the early drags. Slack started at 9 and she was back at the trailer by 9:15. We woke up at the hotel, had a warm breakfast, bundled up and went to watch Jayden run. The arena is indoor, but slightly heated and on the cool side all weekend. Jayden had to be up early, feed horses, hook up her trailer, haul her horse to the rodeo grounds, saddle, and warm her horse up. She was nervous about how Ace would perform. Sometimes he can resist going in the arena and can really be difficult. Jayden knew this was her last college rodeo, a bitter sweet moment. She told me that she had a talking to with Ace. She also prayed. Ace walked into that arena perfect, he ran hard and made a clean run. It looked good and Jayden said it felt good. Ace has made a lot of great runs in his career, but 80% or more of the time, he knocked a barrel, so to have a great run with all barrels up is golden. Ace is 19 and we knew he wasn't going to clock with the top dogs. There is always that hope that just maybe... However there are horses in her tough region that run pro and are serious competitors. It is super hard to compete with that. She was happy and I was happy with his run. He was just a second off the fastest time. After his run, Ace was chill and barely even breathing hard. Jayden thought something was wrong with him as he was taking big heavy breaths and didn't even act out of breath. Jayden didn't want to stick around a minute longer to watch any of the other barrel racers. We left and got some brunch and walked downtown checking out some shops. It was nice just to hang out and spend time together. Jake was a good sport and just along for the ride. He did a lot of the driving and liked getting away from home for a few days. Saturday evening we sat and watched the short-go of the rodeo. It was very exciting to watch the broncs and bulls. They were so rank and they buck right up to the wall along the crowd. We were only a couple rows back and it felt like they were coming right at you and weren't going to stop. Jake doesn't really get into rodeo that much. He was checking his phone more than watching. This trip was to see Jayden at her last college rodeo, her home rodeo, and celebrate her birthday. I gave Jayden her birthday gift and she headed back to her house. She told me one of the most fun times she had in college was last year at this time. She went to a Halloween party where she dressed up and hung out with lots of friends. Having a boyfriend sure has changes the things she does anymore. She doesn't even hang out with friends anymore. 

Sunday we were headed out. I was hoping to spend a little more time with Jayden, go to a church and have a quick lunch before we got on the road back. We saw Jayden a little while at her house before she had to go and help with mandatory rodeo clean up. We gave bye hugs and planned to see Jayden for Thanksgiving. We had some good talks and she is very ready to come home. She knows that she needs to figure out her next step in life and she is excited to come back and live in Iowa for awhile. We saw the coolest clouds on our drive home. It was like ocean waves in the sky, or a quilt of clouds.

While Jake and I were traveling, Luke attended his youth group retreat. It was held at Hidden Acres with all the middle school kids. This was the first retreat since the pandemic. Jayden and Jake had one each spring and fall during their years in youth group. Luke was excited to go and had a good time. His group seems to have the most fun and has great leaders. His leaders happen to be the lead church pastor, and  the lead middle school leader, that may have something to do with it. One evening late, after it was lights out, the boys group with the permission of their leader, went down and enjoyed the hot tub. How cool is that!!? I think that was a highlight. We were gone over Halloween. I never saw a single child in costume or trick or treater. It kind of felt like we missed the holiday completely. As I drove I realized I never even got a pumpkin this year!