{"id":14642,"date":"2019-08-20T22:14:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T22:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/?p=14642"},"modified":"2019-08-14T19:51:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T19:51:38","slug":"mission-cross-some-items-off-the-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/?p=14642","title":{"rendered":"Mission: Cross Some Items off “The List”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fall came, and I decided that I needed to get the T@b out for another trip in calendar year 2018. I checked out my list of things I had to put on The List<\/strong> for “next time.” I decided to aim for Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and see what else might fill in along the way.\"\"<\/a>Hmm…Just how close to Chicago do I want to get? I mean, if that is the most logical thing to do, I will<\/em> drive the Interstates to get around Chicago. I towed Flo the Airstream on I-94 through<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Chicago once. Once<\/em>. That was enough to persuade me of the wisdom of avoiding it – especially with a trailer in tow.<\/p>\n

Since the trip is 13 hours at a minimum, I decided to take the\u00a0Indiana route and ,stop for the night at the Cracker Barrel near Effingham.\"\"<\/a>I love the welcome Cracker Barrel extends to us “nomads.” I have to admit, though, that their definition of “comfort food” is not mine. I was thrilled to find this bowl of beans on the menu. Beans are more my speed. I hope they leave it on the menu, because it is going to be my “go-to” dinner when I stop at Cracker Barrels to spend the night.<\/p>\n

I got going early-ish in the morning and headed west on I-70. I stopped to take a break at this rest area near, Marshall, Illinois. (Never pass up a restroom!)\"\"<\/a>What do you know? Cumberland!<\/p>\n

It was a decent rest area. While stretching my legs, I spied this bridge and decided to check it out.\"\"<\/a>It turns out that it is what is left of the Fancher Pony Truss Bridge.<\/p>\n

The Trout brothers, Hiram and Everett, were born in the area and the operated a machine shop in Shelbyville, Illinois in the late 1800s. They invented and patented this design for a pony truss bridge.<\/p>\n

“What is a pony truss bridge?” I can hear you screaming this at your screen. Well, I imagine you know what a truss is on a bridge, right?<\/p>\n

Well, in case your education on bridges was lacking, according to my Preferred Source<\/a>, a truss is: “an assembly of beams or other elements that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that “consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assemblage as a whole behaves a a single object.”<\/p>\n

Essentially, it is material fastened together into a bunch of triangles that work together to hold up the bridge.\"\"<\/a>I’m sure you’ve seen bridges like this before…\"\"<\/a>and this.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
My beloved Peace Bridge is also a truss bridge, albeit a bit fancier than the previous ones. I am sure I drove my folks nuts asking them why it had that hump on top. They told me that it held the bridge up. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the concept that something on top could hold\u00a0something up. Why wasn’t it underneath?<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>It took teaching shapes by building with toothpicks and marshmallows that I finally got it. (Personally, I preferred building with toothpicks and gumdrops<\/em>, but I didn’t have a photo of one of those activities in my files.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Okay, so that’s what a truss is. So what is a pony truss?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
A pony truss is a short truss that doesn’t connect overhead, like the other examples I showed you. That explains (to me, at least) why they call short walls in houses “pony walls.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Anyway, our friends, the Trout Brothers, built about 150 of these bridges between 1892 and 1897. That’s about 30 bridges a year! They must have been churning them out at a rate of a bridge about every week and a half.<\/p>\n

According to the sign that was at the bridge, what makes these bridges unique is that they used round pipe in construction, instead of the usual rivet-connected channel plates and angle iron. I guess that’s why they were awarded a patent on the bridge.<\/p>\n

This bridge was in use for 88 years, from 1895 until 1983. It was reduced in width from 15 feet to 8 feet and moved 70 miles to this location for preservation.<\/p>\n

And that’s all I have to say about that.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>The reasons for the stop having been satisfied, I set out again. My next destination was Jefferson City, Missouri. But first, I had to go through St. Louis.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
It was raining. (I hate rain!) The traffic was dreadful, thanks to construction. At least the stop-and-go traffic gave me the opportunity to snap this water-logged photo of the Arch. (I’ve been there before, so it is not on The List.)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My purpose in visiting Jefferson City was to see the capitol. I booked a site in the closest campground I could find. I pulled in and signed their two page (TWO PAGE!) list of rules and they gave me my site for the next two nights.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If they need a two page list of rules, they must have some rowdy customers at times. At this time of year, though, the campground was largely empty. I settled in for the night and got ready to visit the capitol on the morrow.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Stay turned!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fall came, and I decided that I needed to get the T@b out for another trip in calendar year 2018. I checked out my list of things I had to put on The List for “next time.” I decided to aim for Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and see what else might fill … Continue reading Mission: Cross Some Items off “The List”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1364,1359,1360,1361,1363,1356,1362],"class_list":["post-14642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arch","tag-cracker-barrel","tag-cumberland-road-rest-area","tag-fancher-pony-truss-bridge","tag-st-louis","tag-the-peace-bridge","tag-trout-brothers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14642"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14687,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14642\/revisions\/14687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}