Just Pull The Chain...

A century ago my daddy was a young man (yes... MY daddy was born in 1897!) who'd just moved from the rural Texas panhandle to Washington state. His family moved there for work. On their first night in a hotel my daddy, Jake and his brother, Lam, needed to use the bathroom. Back in Texas it was the outhouse or, on cold nights, just stand on the porch and point.

They asked a man in the hallway where the outhouse was. The man chuckled and pointed down the hall to a door. He told them to go in there to do their business and "just pull the chain when yer done!"

Dutifully they went into the bathroom and pulled the chain when finished! There was an almighty rush of water and they were sure they'd flooded the hotel. They tore out of the bathroom and down the hall past the man laughing and holding his sides. They went back later to investigate... and found that all was well.

It was their introduction to indoor *terlets*.

texture tuesday facts-
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Photo Op

I always travel with my camera planning to take lots of photos... but I had no idea when I left for Arkansas 11 days ago that I would have so much practice.  I got to stretch my knowledge, read up on and then capture silhouettes.

I mentioned in my 1000th post that Megan is working on some of her original music and she wanted me to take photos to use in the video presentations. I took a googlin of photos and we had so much fun. She made numerous wardrobe changes, we trekked down the ravine behind their house, we took it to the wood-pile and spent time on the deck.

I'd like to share four of my favorite with you here tonight.

Megan and Erik...

The twilight was beautiful so all I needed to do was give them a little boost. But when I moved on to the piano photos I pulled out my creative bag-of-tricks... ooh! I do love this!

Girls Day Out @ Eureka Springs, AR

Gordon scored his second grand-slam in vacation planning when he set up our girls day @ Eureka Springs AND offered to take care of Kristi's kids so she could go!

And I'm gonna tell you right up front that I DID NOT take this beautiful photo! Notice the green trees? Yup... we had naked trees. Credit goes to Art Meripol, Karen Lingo and was borrowed from the link above.

The sad part is that I really wanted to see this building AND visit in the quilt shoppe... but this is what I got to see instead (but not because we didn't pay for parking... just that we parked there)!

We parked right across the street from the building (you know, can't see the forest for the trees?), I saw the CLOSED quilt shoppe, walked down the stairs, around that corner, up the next street looking for other open shops and didn't think anything more about the beautiful building! I can't believe I missed MY photo op here!!

One of the locals told us that the whole area is filled with springs; cold artesian springs, not the hot kind, and the water bubbles up everywhere.

This is another example of the *rock-in-layers* that I love so much.

There weren't many shops open on a Friday afternoon in January. We did find several art galleries open. We found a cute shop that sold pre-owned furs. They had a beautiful red coat that was just a smidge too small for me... bummer. But I looked across the hall to a shoe store when a pair of red shoes called out my name! "Hey, little-Joanie! I'm 50% off... please take me home!" I'm of the opinion that one can never own too many pairs of red shoes so look who came home with me!

Erik, Megan and kids had visited Eureka Springs previously and told us there was a haunted hotel there. So of course we had to check that out too! The Crescent Hotel started life in 1886 as a hotel but "from 1908 to 1924, the building was utilized as the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women, but continued to act as a resort during the summers."  It was also used as a cancer hospital in the 1930s.

As soon as I saw this sign I started singing the Disneyland Haunted Mansion song and gave Kristi that jibbles! I thought this sign was creepy enough to be at Disneyland's mansion!

But you know? We never did see any ghosts. But over a delicious dinner Megan did tell us that she has a friend who stayed there, with her daughters, on Friday the 13th! dun, DUN, DUN!!



The view from the top of the hotel was beautiful. I can only imagine how pretty it is when all the trees are dressed not naked!



Lastly this visit to rural Arkansas wouldn't be complete without a photo of all of the roller-coaster roads that dip, wind and twist through the rills, hollows and hills. OhMyStinkinHeck could you ever get good and carsick on these roads!

We had a lovely day together.

Drive-Thru Zoo

Kristi suggested a wonderful activity for us... the Drive-Thru Zoo located in Gentry, AR. It was a fun outing. She asked the older kids if they wanted to come along and Makenzie said no... she was afraid of the emus.

Peek-a-boo emu staring into the van... who is watching whom?   Tap... tap... tap... is anyone in there?

Their larger cousins, the ostriches were right there at the entrance too... hoping for a hand out. Umm... not today!

We had a beautiful sunny day and most of the animals were out and active. We saw a whole pack of little deer creatures but they were all pretty shy about coming up to the van. Our next visitor was this gazelle. What a beautiful creature...

I love the texture of its horns.

Living in the same drive-thru enclosure was a herd of zebra. I LOVE zebra. As a little girl I always wanted one. It is just recently that I've realized that some zebras are white with black stripes and others are black with white stripes... and some have big bums and the stripes do nothing to minimize that fact! (bwahahahaha)

We saw the white bison from the highway driving in so I was excited to see them up close... mama and baby...

WELL! perhaps not this close!

We were supposed to *STAY IN THE CAR (which we did) WITH THE WINDOWS UP (hey! do you know how awkward it is to shoot through car windows?)*

What the heck is this? Cross-breeding?  A long-horned beefalo?

And this??? DEFINITELY INBREEDING! Poor little freak of nature!

The next noteworthy beast was this pack-o-piglets! Explain to me how such cute little babies turn into ugly razorbacks! (Oops! Did I really say that in Arkansas?)

Further in our journey we got to a sign saying "Horses, donkeys and deer are mowers, not dinner!" This was outside the big cat area. But you notice the guy is hoarking giant hunks of meat into the carnivores... so who is the sign for? The cats? The visitors? Or just to make the horses, donkeys and deer feel better about themselves?

This snow tiger was waiting patiently... in its watering trough with the hose running on it... for it's dinner.

By now Maddie was asking when we would get to the *by-yarn* (and the rest of us were wondering how far to the potty, no stopping in the bushes here!)... we arrived just in time to save us all... Jackson immediately made friends with the resident *Wildcat*- such a pretty calico girl.

I love how the shadow looks like Jackson is giving Wildcat a kiss.

We also say this precocious little fellow...

What a cute baby... I talked to him and he meowed and chortled right back... Can I take him home?

Not far from this sweet baby is, well, an obnoxious chimpanzee... is that redundant? Larry disappeared as soon as we walked up to his cage while Lula sat in the corner. He did a little boogy dance on his raised platform... then he started swinging back and forth displaying his manliness on each forward swing... we should have known that something was coming when Lula grabbed her blanket and crawled up to her platform and hid under said blanket. (Lula says- Look out of the way!) After a particularly violent forward thrust Larry spewed water out of his mouth at us. (I suppose we can be glad he wasn't like the chimps in Madagascar, "If you have any poo, fling it now!"

I asked everyone to gather so I could get a photo... Jackson decided he was a monkey...

And here are Kristi, Maddie and Grampy...

A good time was had by all... especially Larry!

Chambered Nautilus

This is my 1000th post! Wow!

My very talented daughter-in-law has written a song, soon to be released on You Tube that tells about the chambered nautilus. How this little sea creature builds its shell one chamber at a time. As the nautilus grows it builds a new chamber and seals off the old chamber. Megan likened it to healing... closing off that difficult chamber of your life and moving on- growing, getting stronger until, finally, the creature is free.

I loved this analogy! As I've written my blog, one post at a time over the past few years, it has aided me in my journey of healing.

Joplin MO

Since we were only an hour's drive from Joplin MO we wanted needed to go.

I've seen photos online and TV showing the devastation but I don't think I was prepared for the vastness of the tornado's power.

Tornado's swath

I became aware that for every photo like this there is a family who've lost their home, possessions and, in some cases, loved ones. How can I even wrap my head around that?

Shattered Dreams

It has been 8 months since the May 22, 2011 EF5 tornado cut its way through Joplin. There are signs of reconstruction: new homes, half-built homes, new businesses but there are still the very visible demolished buildings left standing as a reminder.

Joplin High School

I can' help but think about my favorite parable of The Wise Man and the Foolish Man. The floods will come, the winds, ye the shafts in the whirlwind will blow (and the EF5 tornado will wreak its might blow) but the Wise Man, firmly rooted on the Rock, who is Jesus Christ, will still be standing, if somewhat weathered when the storm passes.

Steadfast and immovable

Truly we could not continue on this difficult course of life if it were not for our faith in our loving Savior.

Magazine Mountain Adventure

As we anticipated our trip to Arkansas to visit Gordon did some *internet-shopping* to see what attractions were nearby and what activities we might enjoy. One of the first ones he came up with was going on a guided ATV ride at Magazine Mountain in the Ozark National Forest.

The mountain gets its name from when French explorers were travelling through the area and a landslide occurred on the mountain. The noise from the landslide was so great that one explorer described it as the sound of an ammunition magazine exploding. The explorers then named the mountain "Magazine" (inquiring minds want to know!)

OhMyGoodness! Did Grampy hit a grand-slam with this activity! What a fun time! We arranged for a 3-hour afternoon ride and were rewarded with good weather... but remember it is JANUARY... we had clear, sunny skies and acceptable temperature until we either

• A) Got wet
• B) the sun went down!

I love this silhouette shot of the machines steaming in the sunset... it's one of my favorites!

Our first of several rest stops (thank goodness) was at this scenic river. I love how the rock is all in layers... I think it is sandstone. The interesting thing is that the rock seems to be like this all over Northwest Arkansas. I breaks in squares and rectangles.

I whipped out my iPhone and Brandon snapped this great shot of Grammie and Grampy. (Erik valiantly gave me the warmest coat and Braden his tiny gloves!)

I turned around and Melissa and Bryan had already scampered off down stream.

Now I got serious with my Rebel and our guide, Kevin, was very accommodatingly played photographer  for us. Here's the group... isn't his a beautiful location?

And a close up of this great looking group!
Back- Bryan, Grammie and Jim
Front- Grampy, Brandon, Melissa and Erik

I love this one of Erik and his three oldest! What a great looking family... (me? Prejudice? Nah!)

Our trail had a plethora of puddles, which Grammie was a little leery of at first... but not the men! We came to one big puddle and Guide-Kevin called back that if we didn't want to get our feet wet we needed to pick them up... Melissa and I dutifully (and wisely) did so... but Erik and Jim, umm, not so much... they gunned it and got a mud bath!

Our second stop was just after said mud-bath at the recently erected beaver dam. They'd done a very tidy job with dam...

and hut and various escape holes in the dirt bank guaranteed to swallow an ATV machine (which it had a few week ago).

But the all time favorite was the crossing at natural bridge. It is like the stair-stepped photo at the beginning of the post only bigger. Guide-Kevin went down stream to capture our action shots crossing...

Grampy... yay, Grampy... look at your wave!

Grammie and Melissa... can you say cautious? (I just can't like being cold and wet!)

Erik and Brandon... you can hardly see Erik!

And terror-Jim with Bryan on the back.  Erik and Jim were fearless... and soaked! Guess that took care of the mud problem!

OK... now I have to laugh just a little at our wonderful guide. He is a native Arkansan so he really doesn't know anything else. Back at the beaver lake he pointed at the mountain range and said, "See that pointy mountain? That's Signal Mountain. It's the highest point in Arkansas at 2753 feet." I slyly told him we lived at 4800 feet. So when we got to this 200 year-old *ginormous* Ponderosa pine I didn't have the heart to tell him that this was just a baby compared to the truly *GINORMOUS* Ponderosa pines I grew up around in the Plumas National Forest. Like I said... it's all he knows... but he was awfully cute anyway!

Said not-so-ginormous-but-still-very-beautiful-Ponderosa-pine! Yep... I love them...

We had such a fun time. By the time we returned to the staging area were were frozen... especially our thumbs which have to run the throttle. I tried in vain to get Jim to take off his soaking wet pants and put on a pair of mine... he finally said, "Would you want to wear your mother-in-law's pants?" I could see he had a point.

I learned some important things from this outing-

• I love to ATV and will rent again
• I don't want to own an ATV
• Wear warm gloves
• My old thumb is still clicking in that last join from throttle fatigue
• Don't try to get your 6'2" 200+ pound son-in-law to wear your pants (bwahahahaha)