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Why the engine?  My Dad was raised near a railroad station where his Dad, Edwin W Seger, was a railway agent for SooLine.  They have long since gone out of business but they were pretty much the major railroad in upper Michigan for many years.  I heard many stories about his time living on/near the railroad.  This was on display as we were on our way up to Perkins to visit Cousin Kathy and Jim J.

JIm and Betty have a really nice spread up in the middle of a forrest area.  

 

This was a low lying area with a lot of swampy land.  He's done it up very nicely and it looks great.

 

More of his property with another small lake.  Very picturesque.  He spends several hours mowing his "lawn" every week.  Of course, they get their fair share of snow during the winter.

 

After a nice dinner with Cousin Kathy, Ed, Jim J and Betty, I managed to get a photo of Jim and Betty.  

 

After dinner, Cousin Kathy, Ed, Arlene and I went out to the old Seger Homestead.  This is the dairy farm that Fred, Nell and family occupied for many years.  About 350 acres here, I posted the pictures my Dad took back in 1959 in an earlier post.   

 

Kathy and me on the front steps. 

Well, we tried to recreate it...sort of.  Same place...58 years later.  Kathy is in about the same place and so am I.  Only a whole bunch more years older.  So is the house.  I'm the one in front on the right.  Kathy is the redhead on the 2nd step.  My mom is in the middle, 2nd step.  My Dad took the picture.

 

We snooped around the house and found the back door open.  The house is abandoned during the summer.  I understand it's used as a deer hunting cabin during the winter and it's rented out.  Talking to Cousin Kathy,  most of the homes that used to have families in them are abandoned or demolished.  The area has been bought by a large conglomerate and is mostly farmed commercially.  This is the living room.  Kathy said the carpet looks the same as when they lived in the house.

 

My Dad used to live in this house when he was young, close to 100 years ago.  That's hard to believe.  I have no idea how old the house is.  Cousin Kathy lived here also.

 

It has an upstairs with a couple of rooms.

 

Off to the right used to be a barn and the dairy barn for the cows and everything else.

 

This was where the garage was for the snowplow and vehicles.  It gets pretty cold in the UP so there had to be a place to keep things a bit warm.

 

Here's what it used to look like.  That building in the upper picture is not the original.

 

Back side of the farm house.  That's our family's Pontiac with the red stripe. I spent a few hours in the back of that car.  Especially on this trip.   

 

Hasn't changed much in 60 years, has it?

 

The original pad, where the garage once stood, is still there but I need to tell you, it is not in too good of shape, the winters have not been kind to it.  

 

One last look at the many acres that at one time used to be the Seger Family Farm and we took off for the Escanaba River just a short drive to the West.  Interesting thing is, this is so far up North that this is almost 9:30 at night and the sun is still up.  And it's mid-July!

 

A shot down the river in 1959.

 

A shot down the same river nearly 60 years later in almost the same place.  

 

Did have some really nice wildflowers along the riverbanks.  As the sun went down, we made our way back to Escanaba for an evening's rest and preparation for the next day.  I still wanted to go out to the old Nahma Junction where my Dad was raised and lived a good portion his young life.  But, that is another day's adventure.

My dad spent some time in this farmhouse, as best I can figure. He left from here to go to California and find his "fortune".  Here he met my mom, married and had me.  the rest is history, or so the story goes.  There's a lot more to the story but that will suffice for now, won't it?