Family Pictures

I can't believe it has taken so long to get pictures of all of us. This is my aunt Faye, her granddaughter standing by me, my sister Linda on my right and my sister Margaret. We have been eating shrimp and catfish at the Catfish Hole. They have the THE best hush puppies and slaw.

Here we are eating again! This is an early (2 weeks) Thanksgiving dinner, Margaret makes the dressing and gravy, Linda makes the mashed potatoes and cheese/broccoli (however you spell it) and my talent is eating.
I told John we need to leave before I weigh 200 lbs and he weighs 150 lbs.

This is Linda's husband and their home where we gathered.
We have had a great time. Survived the doctors visits, dentists (John lost a crown - was replaced w/o any trouble and eye doctor. John did have a little accident. He was going to the dentist to have the crown replaced and whacked the top of his head on the slide as he was turning the water off. He came to the door w/blood streaming down his face, we got it stopped mostly, and he rushed off. The dentist looked at it and said you should put a couple of stitches in that and he offered to do it. John declined and came home.
That was mostly our excitement. That and eating ....
We are leaving Friday and going to Ok City for a couple of days to visit friends. Then I guess we will head southeast to Florida. We have reservations at Orlando for the 10 of Dec for 3 weeks, then move to Miami for the month of Jan. On our way to Florida will stop at Abita Springs (ROD), then move to Bioloxi to a CC resort Martin Lake. We were going to our sons, before we went into Orlando, but he and his wife are going to Hawaii. Darn shouldn't told him when we were coming! JUST kidding ....

Going to the Doctor

This is what happens when you go to the doctor ..... you get sick. We had our check-ups on Wednesday of last week and the girl that took Johns blood was really bad. We didn't not realize that until John went to the allergist. The girl that took his blood there commented on how bad it looked.
So the next day his arm started swelling and back he went to the doctor. The doctor said the only thing he was concerned about was infection, so gave him a script. John talked to him about a pneumonia shot and the doc said he should get one, also the flu shot was talked about. That was given to him also and this is why he is in his chair asleep, feeling bad.
That shot about killed him. His arm really ached and he felt as if he had the flu. He said "Remind me next year NOT to get a flu shot". And he wonders why I never want one.
Today he is feeling better. That is about all our excitment for the week. We were disappointed in his allergy findings. They didn't show (on the tests that were given) that he was allergic to anything. So back to the drawing board. He does have another appt. in 2 weeks, I might discuss giving him some more test.
The weather is nice here (not shorts weather) suppose to get down to freezing tonight. Hopefully I will have some pictues of our families next time.

Saying Good-Bye

I can't believe it is time to say goodbye. Bill and Marilyn are turning the corner in the rv park here in Siloam Springs.

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We have had such a good time traveling the country together. We started in St.Clair, MI about the middle of July and have traveled, MI. Wisconsin, Minn., N.Dakota, S.Dakota, Colorado, N.Mexico, Texas (passed thru), OK. and AR. It is now Oct. 13 and they are heading on to Florida. Will probably be there about the first of NOV. We have seen and done a lot of interesting things. Played cards about everynight. Tuesday night was the last night and the men won. That made us even and we (the women) decided that was a great place to stop.

These are my favorite pictures of us, so thought I would share them.
Looking forward to our next trip together, whenever and where ever that will be.

Ok. City Memorial

The bombing of the federal building happened April 19, 1995. They have a wonderful memorial in place and we went there today. First is the reflection pool, it is very shallow and gently flows with no ripple. The gate at the end says 9:01. That represents the innocence of the city before the attack.

There are 168 chairs that symbolize the lives lost. Notice the small chairs. Each has a name on them and are arranged in 9 rows(representing the 9 floors).

The tree is called The Survivor Tree, a 90 year old elm. Where the chairs are is where the federal building was and the truck was in front. So the tree took quite a blast. The curved wall around the chair says: "To the courageous and caring who responded from near and far, we offer our eternal gratitude."

At the other end of the reflection pool the time says 9:03. That is when the blast occured. The memorial is very sad, but very comforting also. We went thru the museum and it has a time line from when it first occured. All the tv coverage, radio etc. It has a lot of recordings from the survivors telling their stories, also from the rescuers telling their stories. Very moving .... it feels as if you are reliving it again.
If you are near at all it is well worth the time to go by and see it.

NIGHT GLOWDEO

This is the last of the fireworks, that was a lucky break for me to catch. I thought it turned out great.

This is Thursday night and all the balloons inflate, then sit there and when prompted light up their burners. It is quite impressive

I got these out of order as you can guess. But caught Tweety Bird just as they fired the burner

This has been just the best fun. Today, Saturday ,it was too windy for them to inflate. The decision was made about 6:30 not to fly. As you may have heard, one pilot was killed and his co-pilot injured yesterday. The wind drove them into some power lines and the basket caught fire. Very tragic.
Now this afternoon the rain has come, so our balloon fest is probably over. It has been worth every penny to come and witness this whole thing. We leave tomorrow morning for AR. , so won't post for awhile, unless something exciting happens.

CHAINSAW CARVINGS

I have never been much impressed when I've heard chain saw carvings. Probably because of some of the work I've seen along the road. John and I walked down thru the venders and came to the end of the row and here were the artists. I use artist because they were very good. It started at 4 pm on Friday and ended Saturday at 6. You can see they started with a big stump of Ca.redwood. (It was a tree that had been blown down)

It is absolutely fasinating what they do with that piece of wood. You can see one bear, but on the opposite side of him is another, w/a balloon on top of him. What they are clinging to is a cactis.

This one is a old sad Indian with a peace pipe in his hand and a horses head curved around his shoulder and an eagle sitting at his feet.

Can you imagine, Ghandi? I wish you could see the glasses. I could not figure out what he was carving and when I went back the next day, there it was. GREAT FUN!

MY FAVORITE BALLOONS

How can you not smile when you see this

The Wells Fargo is pretty awsome

Orient Express took quite awhile to fill, was one of the last ones to lift off

This one really stood out, loved it
If another picture comes with this bunch, it is regular ballons doing a mass asscension to fly over the field and try to drop markers closest to poles

ALBQ BALLOON FIESTA

Here is the day we came in and walked down and looked on the field where the balloons would take off. Couldn't believe how empty it was. Even the venders are closed from 11 until 4 or 5.

This is about 6:30, imagine all the people standing there watching the filling of the balloons. There are places around town to catch a shuttle bus. We were sitting w/our coffee about 6 watching all the activity. I guess people get up around 4 or so to go to the mall or where ever and catch the bus to get here so early.

As you can see the inflating is coming along and is just beautiful.

In the next section I will show you my favorites. See the Wells Fargo balloon coming up in the left hand side of the picture? This is the only balloon show where the public can go and be near the balloons as they are being aired up. We will do that in the morning I think. ENJOY!

SANDIA PEAK TRAM RIDE

Now is it my fault that the ticket line (to purchase tickets for the tram ride) was 30 minutes from where they are standing. In my figuring out our time line, I allowed at least an hour and half for the tram. Then we would go by where the balloon park is (we move in the 8th), and then John wanted to stop by the Cummins place, THEN we go eat. Now how simple is that? Except everyone and their dog decided to go the the tram THIS day. So John, Marilyn, and Bill are cheerfulee standing in line to get our tickets. (I'm on my way to the gift shop)

Truthfully I was disappointed in the ride and scenery. But I'll show you the best. Albq is about 52oo feet and the start of the tram is 6559 feet. This was taken about 8000 feet.

The face of the mountain was really pretty, the picture is a little dim because of the tinted windows.

This is Albq from the top, which is 10,378 feet. Unless you were lucky and got by a window there was no way you could see anything except sky. The cars carry 50 people and it was like cattle cars the way they herded you in and out. Anyway it is a total of 2.7 miles long and takes 15 minutes.
It was a little hazy this day, probably tomorrow it will be beautiful as a storm has and is moving thru and sunshine tomorrow .... cleaner air!
Did I mention when we got here there was a Super Wal-Mart and Sams about 20 miles from us? We thought we had died and gone to heaven. Cheyenne, Wy was the last ones we went to, however long that has been (seems like a year)

ROCKS AND MORE ROCKS!

I titled this session so you would know that this is mostly rocks. These were taken on the road from Chama to Albq. Some of the most unusual designs, especially in the shade.

I especially loved where you could see the different layers of the rocks ....

Our rv park is about 20 miles east of Albq, probably elevation is 6000. So much for wanting lower elevation. At least we aren't in the trees. Anyway this storm came up quite aways from us, isn't it pretty? If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can see that the rain is not reaching the ground. There is a word for that, but I can't think of it right now.
We are going to ride the tram today, so get ready for more rocks!

SURPRISE AT OUR RV PARK

Along about 8:30 in the morning you can walk to the back of our rv park and see the train. We did not ride the train, this year maybe some other time when we pass thru. But I think it was just as much fun to sit there and listen for the whistle and then all of a sudden here it comes. Of course it is not enviromentally correct, but who cares our here in the middle of no where.

It has several passengers cars and one open one. Looks like they were having fun AND it was a beautiful day.

Well guess who pulled into our rv park today! It is Mitch and Barb whom we joined up with in Minn. and all went to the races. They are with a caravan traveling thru this part of the country. They will stay here a couple of days and then we will see them again in Albq. (you know I can't spell that!) I think we will all go in on the 8th.

This is a mule tail deer that likes to wander in our park. There is a younger one that hangs around also, hope all those deer hunters that are in town don't see them.!
I think that has you all all caught up so will post from Albq.