What Are You Doing For Excitement Today?

[Diane Amberg]

I was just looking up Lorraine in Ellsworth County. They lost a fire fighter. Very sad.
... Headed to our fire house soon to put away the kids coloring books, hats, magnets, stickers and and adult literature that came in for fall. The national fire prevention topic this year is "Smoke Detectors, A Sound You Can Live With." I'm going to spend the afternoon stamping our fire company name on the literature so people know where it came from.
  Great, that sounds like a wonderful drive. I'd love to take a drive out to the Ozarks this fall but I can't seen to find time to schedule it. Also want to go down to Cape Hatteras, an 8 hour drive, but if this is going to be a busy hurricane season we may wait until the spring fish run. They do get Red Drum and the huge Black Drum there but I've never tried for them.

[Ms Bear]

Diane, I will think about you while I am there in October.  I will be in the Bentonville area the second week in October which is also the week of all the Fall Festivals and Craft Fairs.  Time with three of my children and three grandchildren, four granddogs and get to meet a new future daughter-in-law.  She will have that week off so we will be hitting all the craft fairs while everyone else is working.  Northwest Arkansas is so pretty in October, it is my favorite time of year to be there.

[Wilma]

My husband and I used to take a two day trip to northwestern Arkansas in October.  We liked the apple orchards and of course all the pretty foliage.  One year we were visiting with the owner of a fruit stand when his college daughter came in, kind of breathless as teenagers get.  She had just driven the highway from Missouri south to Eureka Springs and was feeling a little frustrated.  Her father asked her about the drive down and her reply was, "It was fine except for all the leafy crawlers holding up traffic."  He tried to shush her, but we had to laugh as we had just asked him about the tree that had the bright red foliage.  If I remember right, it was a sassafras tree.

[larryJ]

Well, the time has come to pack it up and check out.  Sadly, we have to go home.  Not being in a rush, we will not take the interstate freeway, but instead take the coast highway (CA-1) which runs along the coast and the beaches.  Speaking of which, we never found time to get to the beach yesterday, but it was also a little too cool to go.  We may stop for a while at one of the state beaches on the way.  Last week, we stayed at the Sheraton in Ventura and my wife discovered these "wonderful pillows" and after coming home, called the hotel and inquired about them.  She found out that we could purchase them from the hotel, so yesterday we drove the eleven miles there and bought three.  In talking to the head housekeeper, she informed us that the Holiday Express next door was a part of their chain and we should stay there sometime, because it has a better view of the boat harbor.  So we went there on the way out and made reservations for next week.  Last night, we drove back to Ventura and had dinner at the seafood place we loved so much last week.  It has been a nice weekend and I hate to go home, but there are granddaughters to take care of and pets to feed.  But, we will come back next week!

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Nothing like a little mini vacation to recharge the old batteries. We went up to Kennett Square PA to have lunch with one of my life long girlfriends and her husband. She either knows or is related to everyone in Chester County so she has the scoop on everyone. One of my oldest friends has been diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer so I don't think he has much longer.Very sad. We had a little more excitement at the Longwood Family Restaurant than we had planned. They have a nice second floor covered porch for good weather and today was perfect for eating up there. When the waitress brought the four platters she had them on a big serving tray that she set down on a tray stand.  When she picked up the first two it left the tray out of balance. She tried to grab them all but the second two then flipped up in the air almost in slow motion and came down with our wraps and fries all over the place. She was really embarrassed. It gave us more time to talk as we waited for replacements.

[Roma Jean Turner]

Back to Springfield.  Had a peaceful stay in Moline.  Great visit with Pat Mc  I think Chloe, my Jack Russell, felt she had made a new friend.

[greatguns]

Larry, your weekend sounds fabulous!  And Diane I still live in hopes of coming to your neck of the woods someday.  I love when you people tell about your parts of the world.

[Wilma]

I do , too.  I know that I won't have much chance of getting far from home anymore.  So, please, keep me entertained with your accounts of your outings.

[Diane Amberg]

Well, I can't say that flying fries are all that exciting, but it did light up the moment. I'm sure the poor girl figured her tip flew with the fries. We actually gave her a bit more because she was so upset. I love hearing about other people's travels too.

[Ms Bear]

I doubt if any of us will ever get to see all the wonderful places some of us get to go so it is nice to know we can see our beautiful country through each other's eyes.

Larry, I was 10 when we moved to Arizona from Oregon.  We took the train from Salem to Los Angelos and then through Needles  to Buckeye, AZ and were lucky enough to get to ride in the scenic car.  Don't remember what it was called but it had a lot of glass and it was a wonderful trip.  We got off the air conditioned train at Buckeye at 7 am early in June and it was 98 degrees.  We went to a restaurant for breakfast and my dad told us not to drink the water.  We were used to Oregon water that was always cold and good, the AZ was warm even with ice in it and tasted like we had taken a drink from the salt shaker.  We wanted to get back on the train and go home.  I remember most of the trip from Salem to Los Angelos was along the coast and it was so pretty.