Little green people and balloons

Wow.. it has been a busy last few days for Jim, Pat and Thor...

We started out visiting Roswell, New Mexico. If you have never visited Roswell, it is kind of a shock to your senses. The complete town is little green men crazy. Everything, stores, buildings, and all are painted with their ideas of how the "incident" came about.. To prove my comment, here is a picture of the local Wal-Mart...

We stayed at a cute little RV park in Roswell. It was very small, but it was super clean, and the owner was the sweetest young lady, who just wanted to talk, and talk about.. yes... those little green men. She told us about all the spots to visit.. and learn!

After visiting the UFO museum, which was very interesting, we HAD to visit the gift shop. Of course... how could I leave Roswell without key chains, coffee cups, pens, etc, all this little green men on them? then too.. we wanted to pick up little green men car antenna tops, for friends that we had promised.

A real kick was the street lights.. they were little people that covered the lights on the streets.

In case you would like to see them.. a picture follows. It was taken in front of the UFO museum, so guess it is appropriate.

Next was a trip out to the Bottomless Lakes State Park. We had been told that this was a rather interesting place to see, which it was. The Bottomless Lakes are a chain of eight lakes that are actually sinkholes that range from 17 to 90 feet deep. They were formed when circulating water dissolved salt and gypsum deposits to form subterranean caverns. Eventually, the roofs of the caverns collapsed from their own weight. Sinkholes resulted and soon filled with water and formed existing lakes. The park has a lovely RV camping area, along with swimming and places to picnic. One drives though the park, and are able to view the lakes and camping area along the way. The drive consists of a time period of close to 45 minutes. We were able to get out and take pictures, as well as just stay in our truck and enjoy.

One of the high points to our vacation was to be able to attend a event we had been wanting to see for years. It was the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. To say it was a awesome event would be putting it mildly. We were able to camp right on the field that the balloons were launched. No walking long distance, or having to have a shuttle take us to the field for us. Of course, we were packed in like little fish, but hey, who cares. We were in the second row! able to see the balloons from our camper, if we so wished... but that was not for us!! We were awakened at 5:30 in the morning!!! can you picture that? with sounds like you can not imagine.. what is that? Sounds like planes... no, it was the balloons being lighted up with these HUGE flames! Good gosh, it is still dark!! We had to forgo our coffee, grabbed our heavy jackets (it was COLD out there), and headed over to the field. Jim wanted to get pictures of daylight taking off. The pictures are a photographers dream. Over 600 balloons, from 16 countries are entered in the event. The launch field, where you are able to walk among the balloons all being inflated, and taking off, is over 80 acres. ( a lot of walking!!). Jim took pictures and pictures and pictures before the day was over. We, along with lots of other folks were so excited about seeing this awesome event. We will put in some of the pictures we took during the day.. hope you can enjoy them as much as we did.

They informed us that there were over 70,000 here today. I can believe it... What we can't believe is ... we were picked out by a reporter, Charles D. Brunt a Staff writer for the Albuquerque Journal newspaper and his photographer!!

He asked us all about our being at the festival, where we were from, and all. He says it will be in the paper tomorrow.. we will see.. :-) In case you don't believe me, here is a picture of me and the reporter...

The next day we picked up the paper, and lo and behold, there we were! The photographer did a fine job, and the article that was written was very nice too. When we get back home Jim will scan the picture and article and we will put it out so that you can read it too.

Tonight is the fire works. That will probably be a blast too. Guess Jim will have to get out the tripod for his camera for that.

our next adventure will be the RV Rally in Kerrville, Texas. Wow... I can't wait for that too...

Guess we will have to go home to get rested up from all our vacation.. :-) but we are really enjoying ourselves, and feel so thankful the good Lord has given us all this joy ...

Till our next post.. take care, all.... and not to forget.......Walk Softly.....

Pat, Jim and Thor

Indian Nation and tornado alley

Wow... if you like wind, the place for you to visit is Oklahoma!

I have seen windy conditions before, but Oklahoma has everyone beat... hands down. That, and the worse roads you can not imagine Our poor little Thor has been shaken, tossed, and generally just abused from one end of this state to the other. Mr. Jim is going to have to tighten down every bolt in Thor. To make things worse, we took our new bikes along for this trip, and they took a terrible beating too. The other day we had to stop at a bike store, to purchase a new bike rack that would be stronger, and hold the bikes more secure. That emptied our pockets about $300.00!! But, thankfully, the owner liked our "old" one, an bought it from us for $100.00. I say "old", when it was only used a couple of times, which was a difficult pill to swallow. But.. it had to be. The new one holds two bikes individually, not bundled together like the original one. It does not seem to shake and shudder as much as the original one did. Oh well, all in the things you just deal with while on the road.

We stayed at a nice park in Oklahoma, called Terra Star RV Park. When driving in, we noticed a bunker.. yes... a bunker. I told you it was not called "tornado alley" for nothing. But, bless their hearts, they wanted it to look pretty if it HAD to be there. So, it is painted with such pretty pictures. We walked over there, just to look it over, and a couple of men were on the grounds working, and told us "go on in.. it's open. So, me being a curious soul, I drug poor Jim in with me.


Hard to describe, kind of like a long, dark cave. But it had fans, and a long table, where they all played cards while havoc is being played out side. Odd, huh? I asked one of the men, when the last time it was used. He just laughed and said "the other night". Oh dear. I knew the storms were bad down the way, where we were, but guess it must have been worse here. Even the entrance door is painted.. isn't it cute?

With all the rain we have had, we were both starting to feel rather wrinkled. We were just wanting to see SUNSHINE again!! One night it rained and rained... so hard, with winds whipping everything around, and suddenly.. it just stopped! Jim looked out the window, and when I turned around, he was out the door.... with his camera. When looking out, I saw what he was wanting to capture. It was the Largest rainbow!!! we called it a "sherbert rainbow". The colors

were brilliant... and "sherbert" colored!! We wish we could have gotten a better picture.. this just does not capture the size and blinding brilliant color, fully, but it does somewhat. We both

agreed that our Lord really outdid himself with this beautiful display..

Finally... we made it through Oklahoma, and it was on to Texas. It is windy here too!! an HOT.

I am asking myself, why, oh why, did I bring along all these fall clothes? We have been over to the mall a few times, just to get short sleeve shirts, and shorts already. I just can't win!

Today we went to see a "must see" here in Amarillo. It is the famous Cadillac Ranch. It has even been on television. I had to admit.. it is truly "odd". The Cadillacs average 1500 visitors a day. Inspired by Stanley Marsh, a Amarillo legend, famous for his fanciful creations. The Ranch consists of 10 Eldorado Cadillacs, buried nose first in a farm field. It is one of those things you just have to see to believe.

We will be here, in a place called the Oasis RV Park for a few days, and it will be on the road again for Thor, Pat and Jim again. Our next stop will be in Roswell, NM. Have to pick up a few little aliens for car antennas for a family we promised. It is kind of a kinky, weird place... but it has wonderful photo opportunities. Just so odd, you find yourself kind of wondering... do you kind of question.. was there something to this place? Stayed tuned, and we will be writing about it, and sending along some pictures... to make you "kind of wonder" too... ::-)

Till then.. take care .... and as always.... Walk Softly

Jim, Pat and Thor

Rain, rain... go away....

All right,already... enough is enough... I am just about ready to start building our ark!!

There are so many places to go, and so much to see.. but all the rain is making it difficult. Last night the storms were so bad, and fierce, we pulled in our slide out. Rocking and rolling gave a whole different meaning..

In between the rain storms we were able to get a little sight seeing done though.

We found a lovely park to stay in while at West Memphis , Arkansas. It was called Tom Sawyers RV park. Located right on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi river. It was so unusual.... the barges passed right by our camper, only feet away!! They were huge. Watching them navigate the turns in the river was awesome. I kept waking up during the night by these powerful lights they use to navigate, lighting up the camper. Even if one did not notice the lights, you could not ignore the powerful sound of the engines of the barges. They had this low, powerful rumble. I noticed that even the other campers would come out of their rigs and take pictures of these massive machines. The campsite had benches all along the coast line that you could just sit and watch the barges come down the river. It was all and all a site to behold. We really enjoyed our time at this camp site.

Our next stop was Conway, Arkansas. This was a town that gave Harold Lloyd Jenkins his stage name.. Do you know who he was? (Conway Twitty)..

We did not take any pictures to put on the blog from this stop due to the fact we have ones that were taken the last time we were here in our blog. Always such a nice COE park to stay at, we always enjoy it.. even if it does have such a odd name ... Toad Suck Ferry...

It was time to move on... so we traveled all the great distance of 170 miles to another COE park.. Spring Hill COE park. This is right out side of Fort Smith, Arkansas. It is another wonderful park.. and I do use the description of park correctly. It is like camping in the middle of a city park.. lots of space.. it even has a lake behind our camper!! Being in Arkansas is rather uncomfortable for Georgia residents right now though. ( Georgia beat Arkansas the other day). When some folks see our Georgia plates, we have received some not so pleasant looks. Being informed at a gas station that these Arkansas folks take their football very serious, and are right down rabid about it at times.. (sorry about that folks, but we did not have any thing to do about it). Hope they will all get over it pretty soon.. that or we will be in Oklahoma soon!! We are only about 7 miles from the border now..

We are adding a few pictures of our place here in Ft. Smith for you to see..

While here at Ft. Smith, we went over to visit the Fort. It was quite interesting. Inside it was too dark to take pictures though. It had the court rooms and what the stockade was like in the 1800's. It had a hospital and a commissary. Small fort, but very important in its day. Trials were held, and hangings were commissioned here too. I was very interested with how the American Indian was treated and handled by the judge who presided (Judge Isaac Parker).

The gallows were the prisoners were taken to be hung is right outside of the courthouse, and one can go and see just how it looked during that time, if so desired.

The burial grounds for Fort Smith is adjacent to the fort, it was quite impressive, a picture follows..

Tomorrow we will be on our way again. Hopefully, we will be running out of the rain. It will be on to Oklahoma... a new place for us.. we will be happy to be able to put the sticker on our map.. this vacant place has been staring at us for years... hope we will be able to find lots of new places to see so we can share them with you all next time... till then.. take care now..

as always.. don't forget... Walk Softly.....

Jim, Pat and Thor on the move again..

Hi everyone...
Thor wants you to know that we are finally traveling again. and he is EVER so happy.

We pulled out of our driveway the 13th of September. That is a Sunday, and I know that some of our readers are wondering why we would leave on that day.. Well, this is the way we figured...
We have to travel though Atlanta to get anywhere, it seems. If any of you have traveled through the great city, you will remember what horrors await you, especially during work week. There seems to be no "good" time to pass though during the week. Through trial and error, we found Sundays to be the easiest. Hence, the reason for leaving on Sunday. Thankfully, we were through, and on the other side in one hour... wow, unheard of... and we were on our way.. wippee....

Our first night was spent in Talladega. Nothing great to speak of.. but it was a place to rest our frazzled nerves.

Next day, it was on to Mississippi. We found the cutest little RV park, right along the Natchez Trail. This has been one place on our "bucket list" for years. We had passed by again and again on our way to other destinations, always saying "we need to stop by and visit sometime". You know how that is, always meaning to, but never seeming to find the time. So, we decided to make time to stop and at least see part of the trail this trip. It is a lovely place, not too exciting, but a nice, peaceful drive. Rather like driving through a long, long park. Not too much to stop and see though. We have had rain the whole two days we have been here, so that limited our being able to get out and walk the trails. Humidity here in Mississippi is not to be believed! I thought Georgia was bad...All and all, we are glad we were able to stop and see the famous Natchez Trace.

Here is a picture of the cute little RV park we stayed at while here.. I would recommend anyone to stay here while visiting the area. It is reasonable, clean, and run by the nicest people. The lots are not real close to each other, like some, and has full hook ups.














Of course, while being this close to Tupelo, and being a long, die-hard fan of Elvis, you know where I just HAD to drag poor ol' Jim off to see... yep.. the birth place and home of Elvis Presley!
It was so great!!! It had the original house, where he was born, the church that he attended had even been moved here, to the original place, and the very pretty chapel that he had wanted built, for his fans meditation. All was in wonderful condition and taste. It was all in a park like setting, and places to sit, and just take it all in. We both agreed that we enjoyed stopping to see the site. Graceland is wonderful, but we felt that this was more of a "down-home" feeling, that Elvis and his family would have portrayed.
We are adding on some pictures that were taken there, and hope you enjoy seeing the early home of Elvis and his family. The house was built by Vernon Presley for $180.00. of course, this was a long time ago.














































































































It is time to be moving along tomorrow. Our plans are to be right outside of Memphis, and staying at a RV park that overlooks the mighty Mississippi river. I like the name ... Tom Sawyer park... isn't that the neatest thing? Has to be great..

We will be writing again soon, and hope you will be joining us on our journey....

Pat, Jim and Thor...

Our Long-Delayed Journal..

This is a kind of After The Fact Journal. But... as I always say.... better late than never, right?

We spent a few weeks in our favorite place in the world.. The Blue Ridge Mountains recently. Unfortunately, it was kind of cut short my some illness of both Jim and I. Nothing serious, but it put a bug in our plans. We still had a good time, and enjoyed seeing God's great creation, and visiting with good friends.

Fifty percent of the time we were in the mountains, we had to endure rain... and more rain. Have you ever wondered why it is so green in the mountains? Here is a clue... it rains.... a awfully lot!
But... fifty percent was sunshine too! We just kind of learned to run between the raindrops!
With all the rain, you can imagine how the flowers loved it. My favorites this year was the Mountain Laurel. Such a delicate flower! Jim even loved them, and was constantly taking pictures of them. For your enjoyment, we are putting just a few of the pictures we took of them...




Our good and dear friends, Jim and Beth came up to the top of the mountain to spend some time with us. We always look forward to seeing them, and catching up with all our news. Beth's birthday falls on the same month as Jim's... so we celebrated two birthdays during their visit.
Being the good cook that Beth is.. she surprised Jim with a birthday cake. He loved it... his favorite, chocolate. But it had a surprise!!! Trick candles!!! But, Jim being Jim... was not going to let it get the best of him... those poor little candles did not have a chance!


To celebrate, we all went over to the restaurant at Pisgah Inn, and had a wonderful meal. The setting is beautiful. Windows surround the restaurant and there is no a table to be found that does not have a wonderful view of the mountains. Of course, after eating, we all had to go out to the deck and take some pictures to commemorate the occasion...


Springtime and early summer is such a beautiful time to visit the Parkway. Everything is new, and green. The flowers are all blooming along the Parkway like no other time of the year. The new little baby animals are all just making their first appearance, and it is not unusual to see a proud Mother Deer, showing off her new little fawn. Turkey abound like nothing you have seen... we never cease to be amazed by the beauty and wonder of this beautiful place.


As I said, our visit this time was kind of short, but it was a wonderful time.
Our time at home is awfully busy... we are getting ready to set out again on our next adventure . Thor says he is barely being given time to catch his breath. But, he too, is looking forward to our next excursion. We will be heading out to New Mexico!!! Wow, we are looking forward to this SO much! We will be attending the balloon festival in Albuquerque. Both Jim and I have dreamt for years about being able to attend this wonderful event. On the way, we will be going to Roswell, NM.... Do you know about this place? They say aliens landed here!!!! Do you think we might be able to see any of those little green people? You know me... I sure will be looking for them!
After the festival, we will be going to Kerrville, Texas to attend a RV Rally. This will be with the same group of folks that we spent time with last year in Branson, MO. We are looking forward to seeing them all again
This coming trip will have more pictures and writings on our blog than our trip to the Blue Ridge.
This is due to the fact that in the mountains, it is very difficult to have any kind of communications on my computer, and not many places one can find to make contact.
We are hoping you will be tuning in and following us on our next venture... we would love to have you along....

Till then... we leave you with good thoughts and best wishes. And as always... WALK SOFTLY...

BE IT SO EVER HUMBLE...

Home... ah, it is so great...
It is so great, being out, but coming home is wonderful too. Poor lil' Thor.. he is plumb wore out. I think he is glad to be home again too.
We all had a good time.. seeing folks we had not seen for a while, and visiting all our old haunts.
The class reunion was one of the high points, and we have memories that will last us for a long, long time. As usual, we wish we had taken more pictures, seems like one never takes enough of them.
So... now all of us are all looking forward to just resting up.
Now, begins the Big, Big job of breaking down, and getting Thor all ready for winter. This is a MAJOR job. It consists of getting Thor winterized, his coat put on, and wheels all covered. Have you ever tried putting a cover on a big, 13 foot tall object? It is a job that takes hours!! Jim has to crawl on top, and while pulling the cover over Thor, I guide the cover to each side equally. It is really kind of funny to watch, I suppose. I am too busy to see the humor, I'm afraid. But, we want Thor to be all warm and cozy for the winter, until next spring, when we can uncover him for the next trip.
My little washing machine has been going flat out for six hours. At this point, I am sure there is a rainbow over our house. Stacks of ironing await me when this is all done... Times I wonder if I am getting too old for all this... But then, give me six months or so... and I will be all ready to do it all over again... and Thor will be out there, complaining of "itchy tires"... Jim will be saying " the mountains are calling".... and we will all be off and running again...
So... till then, have a wonderful winter, and watch for Lil' Alfie's next adventure....
God bless, all....
Jim, Pat and Thor

Back home in Illinois

Wow.. it seems strange, being back home in Illinois. Things are the same, but different too. Jim had a list all made up.... places to see, folks to see, and our favorite places to eat. Where were we going to find the time for it all? But... we did. It was a week filled with laughs, tears, and fun.
We started it all out with seeing our little ginkgo tree's mommy. For those of you that have followed our travels in the past, this is about the little ginkgo tree that we brought back home from Illinois a few years ago. It has it's own registration and number. He was born in Hampton, Illinois, and his mommy was HUGE. She was cut down a few years ago, moved to the history center in Hampton, which was at this time, carved with the most wonderful scenes. We all feel so proud that our little ginkgo tree comes from this wonderful experiment. So, we felt we just had to go over to the history center to see the history of our little fella. It was most impressive... Here is a picture of the mother tree at the center, and the carvings...


The next day was the "memory walk", which we all had planned for so long. There is kind of a story to this. A group of us all lived in the same area, and attended the same school (Longfellow School). We all, each day, walked through the park, to the bottom of the hill to attend school. Close a fast friendships were developed during these walks through the years, and we have kept in touch throughout the years. We all thought that it would be the perfect time, while we were at the class reunion, to do a "memory walk" while here. There were a few that had passed on, some that were too far away to make it, and a few that were, physically unable to do the walk. So, we gathered together the ones that could, and walked. Boy... we had forgotten how steep the hills here, how far it was.... funny, when we were little ones, we just scampered up and down the hills!


But, we made it... a little winded, but we did... How strange, looking at the school... "didn't it seem bigger?" we all said. They are in the process of tearing and remodeling it, so it won't be the same next year... so it was good timing for us. We all sure enjoyed being together again.... even if we were all older, grayer, heavier...



The reunion was wonderful. There were more there than they had even planned on. It was two days just packed with things and places to go. Really kept us busy. Pat talking (lost my voice), Jim taking pictures. Friday night was pizza night, over 200 were there! Met lots of my classmates husbands and wives. Sat. morning we went over to the high school for a tour. Wow, have things changed!! But, there were still places that it was like I was just there last week. Really a strange feeling, knowing the last time I was there was 50 years ago! Sat. night was the reunion. I would not even know where to start to tell you about that! Just suffice to say, a good time was had by all.

After leaving the quad cities, we headed on out toward Missouri. Had to stop and take a picture of the "World's largest rocking chair". We were following along Route 66 when we came upon it.
It was one of our "unusual pictures" that we run upon every now and then... strange, huh?



The corn fields are all being cut now, and the farmers are really working hard to get it all done.
Since Jim is a John Deere man, we had to, of course take a picture of one in the fields...



Well, we will be off again tomorrow morning, and have to admit, we are looking forward to being home again... Thor says he is even kind of tired....
That's all for now...so, will being saying
see ya.....