What I am thankful for!

Thanksgiving began as usual with plenty of food. Kay and her family came down from Searcy and Will drove down from Fayetteville. We had a good visit and I learned what FaceTime on my iphone is all about.  (Yes, I got a comment about that butter container on the counter!)

After plenty of food and visiting we convened for the cousin photo. We are so blessed to have these people in our lives.

OK, let's try this one more time.

Flave, Jr., Reid with Lola, Flave, Kay, Jeff and Will

End of an era

About 1986 I enjoyed getting my amateur radio license. I had wires strung all about the yard for an antenna and eventually got this 3 element beam, which literally opened a whole new world to me. DX'ing, or talking to hams (radio operators) in foreign countries, was my hobby. Recently I decided it was time to take down the antenna and tower as, for various reasons, I was no longer using it. I finally found someone who was willing to take it down for the equipment. It helped that he was quite experienced in working on towers and had the right tools.

I guess he just trusted that I did a good job putting up the tower. I was a little nervous to say the least.

He worked with confidence on a windy day. Thank goodness it didn't gust while he was up there.

Piece by piece it came down and is now just a fond memory. I hope the new ham will enjoy it half as much as I did.

73's,

KB5HPH

Singin' with Willie

We are finally on the road again. We travelled all of two hours the first day to Searcy and had a fun visit with my daughter and her family. After a trip to Fox for Leon's family reunion we will head east. We plan to stop in Florence, AL; Lake Sidney Lanier in Georgia; Rock Hill, SC; Charleston, SC; Savannah, Ga; Tybee Island, Ga; and Jekyll Island, GA. After that -- who knows?? We are open to suggestions. You can ride along in the right lane while we mosey down the backroads on our other blog.

Leon has switched to singing "Hear that lonesome whistle" as the trains rolled through town all night long. I heard nothing! The Elks has a nice place for us to park in Searcy with electricity and they even have a swimming pool. We might have to return in the summer.

Little Rock Food Truck Festival

Bicycle shopping led us to Little Rock so we stopped downtown at the Food Truck Festival on Main Street.

The first order of business was to check the progress of the Arkansas - Texas A&M game!

Greg Dee and Leon seem to be happy to have found a vegetarian option!

Philly cheese without the cheese .. think what that could have been with cheese!

There were perhaps 10 food trucks there offering everything from fried snickers to Thai food.

Greg Dee stopped eating long enough to give a KARK weather report. I gave him a four and a one!

I might have bought a hot dog from this lady but we already had used our food tickets and I did not want to go stand in line to buy more.

It is hard to tell but above the Grills on Wheels lettering are 2 tv's. Nice! Overall, I was disappointed with the festival because there was little more than food trucks. It would have been nice to have lots of arts and crafts booths and other forms of entertainment which could have made for a really nice festival. Perhaps things picked up later in the day.

Had Kay been in the office this day she could have joined us, but it was a Saturday!

After a trip to Sherwood the mission was accomplished.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We were quite surprised on our morning walk at Garvan Gardens. They begin decorating for Christmas in mid September. Here comes the fish!

I guess when you decorate the woods you need a large ladder. This is not one that I would want to climb.

Even with the Christmas lights twinkling we had some fall azaleas blooming.

The candy canes are up and many of the little houses. Still there is much to be done.

Arkansas mosquitoes can be quite a reckoning force.

Lovely little summer plants were still blooming and soon I bet the place will be overflowing with mums.

Progress on the bonzai house seems slow but I think it will be worth the wait. Garvan Gardens is just a first class operation and a marvelous place for a morning stroll.

Cruizin' for a Cause

So much starts on facebook these days. While posting on the Remember in Hot Springs site Brad commented how fun it would be to cruize Central like in times past. It grew into a plan and became a benefit. How could the police interfere with a benefit drive?  In the fifties it was quite popular with my group to go around the fountain. By the eighties the traffic got so bad around K-Mart and Burger Chef that the city put a stop to it.

Kay Ekey and group visiting with Brad Lovell in the old K-Mart parking lot.

These girls had a blast and let everyone know they were in the HSHS class of '75.

Always nice to have our sheriff get out and have some fun too. Larry was surprised that I remembered what color his panel truck was when he drove it to Lake Hamilton as a student there.

Folks seemed quite interested in this Cobra.

Yep, this is Arkansas..anything goes!

And around the fountain they went. We chose to drive to the Arlington and sit on the bus bench and watch. Had it not been a Razorback game night and a Friday night of the county fair there probably would have been a much larger crowd.  

I was surprised that nobody put soap in the fountain!! I had my turn long ago and wanted to give others a turn.

 

 Lots more photos on Facebook.

Hot Air Balloon 101

So we were on the way to breakfast and as we passed Cornerstone we spotted Spa Force One and the early morning crew. "Brakes, Leon!" How fun to watch from beginning to end.

I never realized how really small the baskets are!

Good idea! Especially if  you are pilot Mike Hickey.

Things are starting to take shape - it does take a crew.

It is eight stories tall and 58 feet in diameter and has 872 yards of nylon material held together by seven miles of thread.

Up, up and away!  It contains 90,000 cubic feet of air when inflated and can lift 1,980 pounds.

At last .. on to the English Muffin .. I am starving! But what a great way to start the day.

Spa City Blues Society Festival - final night

We enjoyed 4 nights of fabulous blues music. No doubt, it was the best festival yet. Wheatley Plaza is a good location with the Army Navy Hospital in the background.


Leon was quite excited about his dessert while I was enjoying bar-b-q.

 I instantly became a fan of E.C. Kight, aka the Georgia Songbird.

I didn't expect to run into so many cousins but had a nice visit with Greg and Barbara.

Then along came Steve.

Scotty Harris was amazing on saxophone and Roxy joined the group on her viola.



But the highlight, in my opinion, was Greg and Lee Oskar, and the crowd seemed to agree.

So we enjoyed the festival tremendously and got the shirt to prove it!

Getting ready for travel

I ordered a hitch immobilizer from Blue Ox to keep the bicycle rack from bouncing. Tomorrow I will flush the black tank. Not one of my favorite things to do. We are going to be heading for Savannah, Georgia in October. Should be fun.

Goodbye to toys

I said goodbye to my motorcycle and my Hobie Kayak. The motorcycle went to a young man in Springfield, MO and the Kayak went to a gentleman from Tennessee. There was a time when I would have used them but that was long ago. Well on to the next project, maybe another quad or a sail boat, or how far our we from the sea I've always wanted to surf?