Friday 4-26-24 Popeye Statues Continued, Camping & HIking

Popeye statues adventure continues with Popeye four nephews and more. 

 

 

 Peepeye (2016)

 

 Pupeye (2016)

 

 Poopeye (2016)

 

 Pipeye (2016)

 

 

 Prof. Watasnozzle (2014)

 

 Rough House (2015)

 

 Sea Hag & Bernard (2010)

 

 

 Statue of E.C. Sega as Sherlock

 Toar (2020)

 

It was cool where they decided to put the statues of the Popeye characters. The four nephews statue was at Chester Elementary School, Professor Watasnozzle was at Chester High School, Cole Oyl was at the library and had books he checked out, Popeye was at the visitor center to welcome you to Chester and Harold Ham Gravy was at the courthouse, he was the gentleman who courted Olive Oyl before Popeye. He was at the courthouse because he didn't get any further than courting Olive. The new statues, that were added since our visit in 2017 were  King Blozo (2017), Nana Oyl (2018), Popeye's Pups (2019), Toar (2020), Harold Ham Gravy (2021) and Oscar (2022).

While we were at the Spinach Can Collectibles the lady gave us a brochure on the history of the Opera House. Elzler Crisler Segar started his career as a projectionist at Chester Opera House when "Live" theater had been replaced by silent motion pictures in 1906. He always wanted to be a cartoonist so he took a mail order course, which was funded by his boss at the Opera House. In 1919 he created the comic strip "Thimble Theatre", which made him famous. The "Thimble Theatre" was about the Oyl family, Nana and Cole and their children, Castor and Olive. The adventure of the Oyl family and Olive's early boyfriend, Harold "Ham" Gravy went on for 10 years. Popeye was introduced in 1920 when he was a hired by Castor to pilot a boat in one of their adventure. He was introduced as a "throwaway" character but soon became a focus character. Each character was based on a Chester resident. E.C. Segar died in 1938 of leukemia and his apprentice, Forrest "Bud" Sagendorf took over to keep Popeye alive until 1994 when he died from brain cancer. Several other artists have drawn Popeye over the years but Hy Elsman was selected to carry on the tradition in 1994. Today, Popeye is still the world's most popular cartoon star, with almost 650 cartoons to his credit. If you happen to be near Chester, Ill. I recommend visiting Spinach Can Collectibles. 

 

Spinach Can Collectibles

 

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Camping in Pine Ridge Campground
 

The rain came in last night around 11:00 pm. It didn't rain hard and it only lasted about 45 minutes. In the morning when we woke up it was gone. 

I got up at 7:00 and made orange rolls for breakfast. After eating we got ready to go on a hike. We weren't sure how long we would hike because the trail is in the trees. We ended up hiking 5.5 miles on the Six Bridge Eagle Trail. We picked up the trail at the campground. The hike was very beautiful through the trees, over granite stones, across creeks, over one bridge and up and down hills. The trail was mowed in places and well maintained. As we hiked we saw the lake through the trees. Part of the trail horses are allowed. We saw small sections where they had planed grain such as wheat. These places we hiked on the mowed part around the sections. It was challenging at places where you went up the hill. We were looping back towards the campground, where we saw a statue of a deer. At first glance Larry thought it was real. The deer wasn't the only statue there. The statues were a soldier kneeling at a grave, a couple dressed in red, a cat, a man and Blessed Mary. The statues were very nice. After checking the statues out we continued our hike. We were about a mile from the campground when a gentleman drove up on a four wheeler, he is in charge of the area, we talked to him for awhile. It's hunting season for turkeys and he was trying to locate a hunter who wasn't suppose to be in the park until next week. Here, the hunters have to sign up for a certain week because they limit how many hunters are allowed in the park at a time. Each week in the season it varies. We asked him about the farming areas. He said he plants certain grain for the animals. He explains how he maintains the area. He gets paid through a federal government program and a state government program but mainly by the federal government. It was very interesting to learn about the area and how it's maintained. After saying our good-byes we continued our hike. We hiked all the way to the other side of the lake where the boat ramp is, there was a nice loading and unloading dock and shelter #1. Someone had a party at the shelter because the kids drew on the sidewalk with chalk After resting at the shelter we took the trail back to the campground. It was a very nice hike.

 

Boat ramp and dock on the lake

 

Granite rocks we hiked on

 

A waterfall

 

One of the farm areas

 

Deer and soldier statues

Cat, couple and man statues

 

Statue of the Blessed Mary

Larry resting on the bridge before climbing the hill

We got home just in time for lunch. I heated up a can of soup for lunch.

After lunch I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and the event. The event was Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 38 minutes and 1 second, which put me in 21st place in my group.

At 2:00 the rain came back. It rained on and off for the rest of the day. That was ok because we relaxed with a book. I finished reading The Bookbinder by Pip Williams. It was an excellent book about two sisters growing up during World War I in England and how things were changing. Such as women rights and the divisions of the classes (Gowns and Towns). Gowns were people, who went to college and Towns were people, who worked in the factories. Tomorrow I'll start another book. After finishing the book I played some Sudoku games. 

 

Reading is relaxing

After dinner I walked around for a half hour. By the end of the day I had gotten 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

Shelter #4

A blind for hunting

In the evening we listened to live music for three hours. The gentleman, who sang had a great voice and the music was very good. It started at 7:00 and was over about 10:00. It rained on and off and he kept singing.