Hey all I’m BA-AAACK! So happy to be here today folks in this lovely little burg. Seriously a wonderful place to live. The vacation was wonderful. We got to the camp site and set up in short order. A fire and several hotdogs later and we were ready for some rest on our new air mattresses in the new tent. Thank the good lord we decided to invest in both because the sky suddenly darkened and the heaven’s poured about 3 inches on us over night. The next morning things had not let up so we went to Springfield, home of the first Bass Pro Shop.
As I mentioned before we left, I had been looking forward to this inevitable trip because of the giant aquariums. Sadly when we reached our destination we were informed that the section I had been waiting all year for was closed for renovations and will not reopen till late 2009. Bummer Dude! That means we’re out of luck for next year too! So instead we amused ourselves with cough mufflers (the kids thought they would also work for flatus), deer lure (misread as deer LUBE due to a glare), butt out (a product that is inserted into the anal canal of a dead deer and probably the reason for deer lube), the fishing manequin that had been pantsed, and the ginormous alligator snapping turtle that was scary as hell. I have pictures of all these things and more, but won’t make any promises about when they will be up for viewing.
The next day was sunny and bright so we all went out in the 30 foot john boat hoping to catch some fish. Jarell caught a drum which he said are no good bottom feeders (related to Britney?) and threw it back and all I caught were some snags and a nasty sunburn. Fortunately the burn is now to the peeling stages and has tanned nicely. Wednesday and Thursday were spent lazing about, shopping for necessities and just enjoying ourselves, but Thursday night turned ugly again and by Friday morning we’d gathered at least another 3 inches of rain if not more. We realized that Friday night hot dogs were seriously in jeopardy as another bunch of campers was staking a claim on the only pavilion where we always have our gathering. It turned out that we won that debate, but not before my FIL, hubby, and I made the trip to Springfield again and purchased for a mere $500 a large 20′x20′ tent in order to still have cover over our heads.
When we reached Springfield there was severe flooding and we got to watch people wading through parking lots. This was not as bad as my sister-in-law, J2’s hometown of Cedar Rapids IA where the city is still under 7 feet of water, but nevertheless, it was a little scary. We returned to find blue skies at the campsite and the rest of the reunion went off without any more than the usual mishaps. All agreed that it was a good time and maybe even one of the best reunions yet. (I think they were just trying to butter us up, but who knows) The votes were taken at the meeting and just as I suspected, they all thought we did such a great job, that they voted us in as next year’s all day suckers again. I was actually pretty happy to be honest.
Sunday morning was the end of the festivities and it was the best part. The biscuits and gravy were divine, the bacon just right and the family was calm and enjoying themselves. As with every gathering, when it came time for it to end we were all reluctant to leave and it was after 1:00 before the last ones straggled on home. We then hurried to finish with clean-up and packing and were headed homeward by 2 or so. We made it about 8 miles to the gas station before the air raid sirens started their shrill screams and we went to check at the local sheriffs office to see what word was. As it turned out, there was a tornado in the town 3 miles west of us and headed our direction. We imediately decided to head back to the campsite where Jarell’s parents were so that if it did come through we’d all be together and not worried abou each other. I was almost in tears. If I had been home in the same situation, I’d have been calm and collected because we have a basement, and tornadoes never hit where we are due to the hills surrounding our house. Out there tho, I didn’t know what could happen.
Upon returning to the camp ground we had to drag Jarell’s dad from the camper as he didn’t think it would be that big a deal. Everyone was gathered in the concrete bathrooms and the atmosphere was rather jolly. I suspect this was somewhat affected by the 2 couples who had been enjoying the weekend by drinking early in the day, but anything that made us smile was good. It didn’t take long for us to be thankful that we had dragged G from the camper because there was a massive gust of wind that knocked over a large tree onto the transformer right in front of where they were camped and it shot a huge arc of electricity up into the air and caught on fire. After about a half hour of strong winds in excess of 70 mph, the storm warning was cancelled as the big monster had blown itself out and we headed home without further incident. We heard on the radio that a town 15 miles further west of us ended up with baseball size hail and we were thankful for our blessings of safety.
That was my summer vacation in a nutshell. Not too shabby, huh?
And God said, let there be……… rain May 22, 2008
Tags: comments, free stuff, garden, puppies, rain, swimming
And there was rain! And it was good for the first 2 hours or so. But at around 10:30 or 11 all heaven broke loose and the rain came fallin down like somebody up there dumped a big bucket out. My garden? Well watered and now a small lake actually. But its all good cuz the ground has just enough real dirt in it to slightly counteract the massive amounts of good ole Missouri clay mixed in and the water went down in a couple of hours. Not so the dog’s yard out back where the puppies are taking their first swimming lessons with Mama Tinkerbell. I just heard one squeal and I can only assume he or she was running around the pool and we all know thats a big no-no. Somebody might slip. In all seriousness, the puppies do have a waterproof dog house to get into and the ground is on a downhill slope so they’re not really swimming in case any of the members of the ASPCA or PETA are out there listening. I’d show you pictures, but then you’d see how REDNECK our yard is complete with a tire holding down the rubber mats on the roof of the dog house where it was damaged by a big blow we had back at the end of April.
Anyway, on to other news. I promised myself I would only be on the computer for 20 minutes tops so now over an hour later I am getting a little agravated with myself. I finished 2 mermaids yesterday and a project for the brown paper bag swap. One mermaid made from cloth went into my Etsy shop and the other of paper is undecided about her future. Would people pay for that kind of stuff? I may have pictures later but am not making any promises.
Lurkers unite and come forward! I do a happy dance every time someone leaves me a comment and would really love to hear from the people who read me. I am always so humbled because every single one of you who has commented thus far is part of my growing group of favorites. Your blogs make me smile and I just about bounce out of my chair with happiness when I see your name on a comment. So I’m going to beg for comments today. Tell me you were here. Do some graffiti and scribble on the walls a bit. Let me know what I’m doing right (if anything) and tell me where I should improve. I promise to send someone something cool if you do. (Shameless? I think not! I do this for the readers as much as myself)
Au revoir cheries!