Mena to Clemson Ride and Visit

On my way from Mena to Clemson, I went through Huntsville, Alabama. NASA has a lot of stuff there, including a full stack Apollo/Saturn 5 vehicle.

Mentone has a nice art gallery/cafe.

They made a delicious veggie omelette.

When I arrived in Clemson, Julie and the boys surprised me with a cake. (Apparently, someone had a birthday.)

The boys always enjoy climbing on the 'spider web' at Clemson City Park. We found a geocache, too.

We found another cache at ?? Park. There was a lot of climbing and leaping, too.

We got to meet Kerri for lunch, and she gave us a VIP tour of her lab. The showpiece is a 'cell printer', used in their biology research lab.

I got to enjoy walking with Fly. Most of the time, he enjoyed going. But occasionally, he would decide he didn't want to.

Fly really enjoyed getting food pellets from his treat ball.

Thanks for a great visit, Julie & Tony & John & Christopher and Fly!

(I didn't take any photos on the ride home.)

Ride to Mena

In May, some motorcycling friends invited me to ride to Arkansas with them - Syd and Hayden, Thomas and Richard. They planned to spend a couple of days riding around the Mena area. I decided to ride on over to visit Clemson.

About half way along the Talimena Scenic Byway, we encountered a group of people riding "Gravity Vehicles" down a long steep hill.
There were skateboarders - up to about 45 mph. (A local sheriff's deputy was there with his radar gun, providing traffic control for the riders.)

And there were street luge riders - 84 mph!

The luges were quite sophisticated.

After they all came down the hill, they loaded up in a U-haul truck for the ride back to the top. They do this here once a year.

Our destination was Iron Mountain, the CMA campground at Hatfield. The other guys stayed in one of the cabins.

Like this.

Fortunately, they ran out of beds and I got to stay in the 'toy box' trailer.

Nice and roomy! And quiet!

Grandcamp - Better Late Than Never?

We didn't do very well with photojournalism during this Grandcamp.
Here is the only photo we got:

 After that, she said "Take a funny face!"  So we did.

 It was a fun time, anyway. Maybe we'll do better next time.

Aunt Bunny

Back in March, we had a delightful weekend visit with Charlotte, aka 'Aunt Bunny'. It was soooo nice to have her come see us, at last!

We did some shopping in downtown McKinney, and had a wonderful lunch at Burger on the Square.

Naomi and Aunt Bunny really hit it off.

Of course, who wouldn't!!

Thank you for making our weekend wonderful, Charlotte!

Three Chicks

Turtlehood

When Naomi visited with us a few weeks ago, she entertained Turtle.

Turtle likes to ride in a pizza box.

Turtle doesn't eat pizza, but does enjoy watching someone else eat some.

 Turtle tried some cheese.

Turtle enjoys architecture.

Turtle likes to meet other turtles.

Turtle also enjoys talking with other animals. Especially when dressed up in a napkin.

When Turtle gets tired, watching some videos is the best thing to do.

Night-night, Turtle.