I love this picture

This was taken by my friend James Coburn, at the Live & Learn Conference, with a fish-eye lens. He said make a funny face, and this is the funniest face I know. I LOVE this picture! I look like a hobbit.

Thank you, James!

Up the Down Road

This is a pic of me at the bottom of the entrance to the Blue Ridge Assembly. The BRA is on the side of a mountain. Thus, the entrance is Up Road, and the exit is Down Road.



If you are on a bike or walking, they ask you to use the Down Road, either up or down. It is way less curvy than Up Road. But on a bike, that means the descent is screaming fast, and at the end there's a speed bump! (Reminds me of an old Bill Cosby routine.)



The road is so steep that you feel compelled to put the car in low gear to avoid burning up the brakes. Imagine that on a bike! FUN!



So this day I rode down with Ben and Bryce, did about 15 miles, during which I drafted behind Bryce, who was on a mountian bike! (He does adventure races, and actually had a tow rope attached to his bike! I knew he could smoke me, up, down, or on the flats, even if he was on a tricycle.)



I let them go up the hill without me so I could go to the drugstore in town. When I got back, I snapped this pic, and then commenced to climbing. One mile up. Slowest noted speed: 2.5 mph. I could have walked faster, but I didn't. I pedaled every inch!

Music City

Finally got all the electronics in the same place so I could upload a few pictures.




We stopped at Opry Mills Mall in Nashville to get out and walk around and have a little lunch. I remember this sign from near the Grand Ol' Opry, when Opryland was still there. Check out the speed limit:





Here we are hoping and hoping that old I-40 ends soon!

Here they come to save the day!!

There were an astounding number of bucket trucks and wood chippers going down I-40 yesterday in Tennessee. Every few miles, there would 10 or 12 more in a row. It took me a few sightings to realize they were heading down south to remove trees from power lines, etc. I took a picture through the bug-sprayed windshield.


I began to speculate that there must be government money involved to have so many--literally hundreds of them--available at a moment's notice. I know for a fact that the Siloam Springs Electric company has standing contracts with tree services for natural disasters, etc. I thought maybe some of those trucks were electric company trucks, but I didn't see any logos that made me think so. I saw lots of tree company logos, though. I suppose FEMA or the local electric companies in Texas and Louisiana already had contracts with many many companies. When the call goes out, I guess they drop everything and head out.

Sure would hate to be a homeowner with a tree down when that call came in.

~~~~~~~~~

The trip from Memphis to Black Mountain seemed very long. Memphis to Nashville seemed like a piece of cake. We stopped at Opry Mills Mall to have lunch and stretch our legs. Will got to go in the Gibson Showcase store and play a few several-thousand dollar guitars.

After you get to Knoxville, and as you approach North Carolina, I-40 gets very winding, the speed limit drops to 55, and the trucks have to stay in the right lane. It's a very good thing. That road is scary. None of the two or three tunnels are straight shot. You don't know when you see the tunnel how long it is and if there is anything happening in the tunnel you need to know about. The tops of big trucks appear to be scraping the ceiling in the arch of the tunnel. I did my best not to be passing any of them while I was in the tunnel.

But...it is OH SO HARD to go slow when you're sooooo close to your destination and you have just driven the long way across two whole states. I admit I did not go slow. I sped. Even though I have a warning ticket from the Johnson, AR, police department stuck in the sun visor to remind me not to. I was still safe, but I can't drive fifty-five!

Walking with my feet 10 feet off of Beale

We left the last regular season Naturals game on Monday in about the 6th inning, so we could get on the road and not be getting into Memphis too late. We picked up Jessica in West Fork about 15 minutes early, and made it to Memphis at about 9:30.

Of course, we can't just roll in and not have a visit, Michele called Mary Jo over, and we had a nice chat. Michele's house looks great. The girls had Silvano dressed up like a fairy with make up and everything. He seemed to enjoy every minute of it.

Poor Freeshow (Michele's elderly dog). She can barely move, and I wonder if she's suffering. That's probably the last time I'll ever see her.

It's so nice to have friends that welcome you in no matter how long it has been. It was like I never left. (I made Will take a picture of Michele and me before we left. I'll try to remember to add it to the blog.)



Some photos just capture perfectly a dog's personality. This is Michele's dog, Hank. He's some kind of one-blue-eyed little darling who smiles a lot and jumps up, but knows to sit if you make him, but not for the camera.

Will's Last Game

On Sunday Will had his last game as a Naturals bat boy for this season. Here's a fuzzy camera phone photo of him with the Sasquatch, Strike, in the home team dugout.

We had a good time at the game, even though the Naturals lost, 9-5, to the Tulsa Drillers. After the game the Northwest Arkansas Symphony played patriotic music and there were fireworks to finish off the night.

Apparently, Will secretly speaks Sasquatchese because I heard them chatting in the dugout before this picture was made. When I caught them, this was the pose they jumped into to cover up that they'd been talking. Will may be the only person who has ever heard Strike speak.

It's almost time!

It's amazing how much you think you need for a month away! But it all seems to fit.

We have two bikes, a skateboard, a skimboard for the ocean, all the helmets and shoes and pedals for the bikes; a tent, air mattresses, chairs, cooking stuff and all kinds of other things for camping; an electric tea kettle. Four suitcases! Two laptops, two ipods, a PSP, a Blackberry, walkie-talkies, CDs, and on and on it goes. Three pairs of shoes each, lots of clothes, swim suits, etc. Craziness.

While I'm packing up the Element, I'll take a few pictures and post them later.