Stop, and Give Thanks...2019

Nothing more can be said, than back then......jc
http://eggrollings.blogspot.com/2014/11/stop-and-give-thanks.html

It's Been a Long Time

Three and a half months, to be exact.  Since I'm sitting at home, chair bound, with a pinched nerve in my back telling my brain someone is sawing off my left knee with a dull saw; I thought I would catch you up on our paste few months.  

                                It's pretty boring stuff from Sally's point of view.

                               Soon after returning home we met some friends in Louisiana for a reunion lunch.

              Our daughter and son-in-law purchased a camp on a bayou in Louisiana.

 She loves her dogs, fish's with them every day.

 

  I just spent my time enjoying the deck over the Labor Day weekend.

We were on our way to Mountain View, Arkansas to meet some friends.  Stopped along the Arkansas River one night.

We had a good few days enjoying great acoustic music around the square, and carrying on some foolishness.

While on the road we got word that one of my brother-in-laws had passed away so we came home to be with all our family.

A week or so later, we dog set for our kids while they were away for the weekend.  A day in the country is tough on city dogs.

We traveled to Natchez to see the balloons.  Didn't plan on getting involved again, but we did.
Loved every minute of it.

                                                     First flight celebration and initiation,

                                              and a wonderful end of a wonderful day.

We left Natchez for Huntsville, Alabama; and Monte Sano state park to meet with friends for a week.  There were about 13 trailers there, and we had a good time reconnecting with folks we hadn't seen much over the past year.  We spent a lot of time shopping and eating out.  Funny thing is, the only picture I took all week was of a half empty beer glass.  Guess you know what my priorities were.

The last three days there were stormy.  The same storm that wrecked so much havoc from Tennessee northward.  Thankfully we had only high winds and rain.  No damage in the park.

                                                                  Rainy days blues.

                             Back home, my brother and I build a couple of portable buildings.

We took a drive one day looking for some leaf color, but the only color we found was at Mississippi's version of  Bryce Canyon.  It's call Red Canyon.

And this one had another birthday last week.  We drove to Hattiesburg for lunch at one of her favorite restaurants.

I think that's all the boring details of our last few months.  Now, if I can get over this pinched nerve, we can start planning for January....jc
OBTW. Did I tell you I hate the Blogger format.  No matter how I lay it out, it never posts it like I want.  End of gripe...jc

Getting Out of Town

After working ourselves to near death, or so it seemed, for six weeks cleaning up our property after the storm, we needed a break.  We had friends gathering near Cloudcroft, New Mexico; so we decided to join them. We pulled out our driveway on June 29th.  Three nights on the road got us to Cloudcroft on the second day of July.  Thirteen fiberglass trailers in a group campground. We did lots of catching up on each others travels.

We also did lots of eating.  Breakfast became the main meal of the day for all of us. Seems most everyone had a Blackstone grill.  There was bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, and a few other things being prepared each morning.

Sally and Uncle Fred discussing breakfast plans.

Lots of fun with many old friends.  The temperatures ranged between 45 and 75 most every day we were there.  So much of a relief from our hot weather at home.

After nine days in Cloudcroft, we headed for Silver City, New Mexico to visit a friend.  It didn't take long for us to miss Cloudcroft.

I ran into this guy in a restroom along the way.

We found Silver City to be a great little town.  Part senior citizen, part hippie, and part millennial college student.  We visited a local coffee shop each morning with our friend.  We decided that we could get accustomed to living there.

While there I visited the Gila Cliff Dwellings. 

Four hundred year old corn cobs.

From silver City, we made our way to Santa Fe.  We were really lucky and snagged a wonderful site in Black Canyon campground.  Just seven miles from downtown Santa Fe.

We were there for four days, enjoying the cool weather and hiking with friends.  We took a drive to Taos one day.  Visited the town and drove across the Rio Grande Gorge bridge.  No pictures.  We did take a little known road back to Santa Fe that had us entering the gorge, and crossing the Rio Grande on a small bridge at the bottom.  I found that the most enjoyable part of our trip to Taos.

Another day we visited Bandelier National Monument.

Similar to Gila Bend, but a few hundred years older.  The natives dug out homes in the soft rock and cultivated crops in the small valley beneath.

Original art discovered behind a mud wall.

Flash flood debris from such a small creek.

We made a short stop at Heron Lake, near Chama, New Mexico.  The no-see-ums found me as soon as we got there.  I've never itched so much in my life.

North Fork campground near Pagosa Springs made a good stop for a couple of days.

Over Wolf Creek Pass we found ourselves in Del Norte.  They had a wonderful brewery for such a small town.  Definitely worth returning to.

They're both mine, she had wine.

We passed this place in Monte Vista, Colorado.  We stopped there back in 1984 with our kids. A motel build around a drive in theater.  Most rooms have a picture window for watching the movie, complete with a speaker like the ones on the poles.  It's still in operation today.  Brought back some great memories of our first trip out West.

A couple of days latter found us in Oklahoma.  The small town of Pawhuska, to be exact.

Home of the Pioneer Woman Empire.

An amazing story of how one person can bring a dying town back to prosperity.

We made stops in Fayetteville, Arkansas; Cabot, Arkansas; and Memphis. Visiting friends.  We took a short tour of Bentonville, and the Crystal Bridges Museum while in Fayetteville.  Don't miss either one if you're ever in the area.

We arrived home on July 31st.  A month on the road.  We've now re-accustomed ourselves to the heat and humidity.  And, we found a nice surprise when we got home.  We now have some grass where there was bare ground when we left in June.

That's it for now....jc