Travel Tuesday

Last Tuesday, we went off on another geo-caching adventure. This time we landed in Athens, Alabama--about an hour and a half from home.

This mural was painted by the local high school art class. 

At our very first stop, these ducks came up to me.

They followed me around which prompted Butch to send this picture to the girls with the caption "Mother Goose!" I felt bad because I didn't have anything to feed them. Butch said I shouldn't have made eye contact with them! Hey, I'm just friendly! What can I say?

Our adventure took us to some military museum. This was outside. It's similar to the helicopter Butch's brother, Walter, flew in the early 70's in preparation for Vietnam (luckily he didn't have to go--neither Butch or Walter).

After about an hour in Athens, we had lunch. Butch always finds the best and most unusual places for us to go. This time we chose barbecue. We decided to drive through and take our meal to a nearby park. When we walked up to the picnic tables, I scrunched up my nose. They were gross! Butch took one look at me and said, "You don't want to eat here do you?" I said, "no" so we headed back to the car. It wasn't long before we realized why the tables were so disgusting. The park was right next to a high school. Apparently, the kids are allowed to eat at the park. No wonder it was such a mess. Kids don't care!

Oh, and the barbecue---nothing like we expected. Butch got the pork sandwich with the Cole slaw on it. We like that. But, it was the vinegar-y type Cole slaw. I got the chicken with a "white sauce". I was expecting shredded chicken like we have in Nashville. It was a chicken breast. I have no idea what the "white sauce" was. Looked like mayonnaise to me. It was good but different. 

After lunch, we went about 20 minutes down the road to Decatur, Alabama.  As we were walking to the first cache, I noticed this in the sidewalk.

I guess Thomas refers to the owner of the building.

It looks to be an apartment building called "Thomas Terrace." It's old, but I think it's always been apartments.

Okay, I love geo-caching and all the interesting things we see and learn. But I can never remember it all. This is some confederate bank or something. It's set off quite a ways from parking, so it's kind of impractical in today's world. As so many statues are coming down (which is why I'm happy to get to see so many now), do you think buildings will be next on the list? I sure hope not. I enjoy the architecture of these beautiful old buildings. Exactly the same on all four sides.

Next, we found ourselves along the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail. I didn't even know there was such a thing.

Although there wasn't much in bloom, it was still pretty. I might have to find out more about this Butterfly Trail and see where all it goes. That could be a fun trip too. Hmmm, maybe a girls trip.

As we strolled through Decatur, this old cemetery was our next stop.

I walked around, but it's sad that you cannot read a single grave. It's too bad that someone didn't record the information long before it got to this point.

We thought of Jack (and Connie) when we stopped here. This is the old train depot. Now it's the police station. There is a large room on the left of the building that houses the rail museum. We walked up to enter and found a couple men talking. They told us it was closed. Bummer!

But, as has happened to us more times than I can count, they invited us in anyway. People are so nice.

They gave us a tour and even turned on the trains for us. They have an exact replica to scale of the entire town of Decatur in another room. I had to stand on a box to see in to it. I forgot to take a picture. 

Next they took us outside to see the train garden. Now this isn't exactly what I was expecting. There were no plants or flowers at all. Still, it was very interesting. I think they would have kept us all afternoon if we wanted to stay! Maybe we were a diversion from their work. We were just so happy that even though they were closed, they took the time to give us a private tour. I DO love a private tour!

Our last stop was this old church. 

On our way back to the car, I noticed these cute chairs!! I should have sat in one. Butch couldn't believe that I didn't notice them when we first started out. I reminded him that I miss a lot when I have to constantly be looking down so I don't trip on all of the uneven, old sidewalks that our adventures take us on! I have to really watch where I'm going!! 

I love our geo-caching adventures. We see and learn so much. It's so nice to be outside and pay attention to the beauty right around us. It's something fun we can do during this pandemic. Really, if it weren't for geo-caching, we would never know about these places and unusual things. So fun! I love learning--even if I don't remember much of it!

We have another good one that we did yesterday. But, you'll have to wait until next week for that!

Monday Mystery

They say everything is bigger in Texas. I don't know who they are, but I've heard it for as long as I can remember. It's a mystery to me. How can normal things just be bigger in Texas? You be the judge.

Janice has always saved dead bugs for the little nieces and nephews. Even I am intrigued by them. They are huge!

Obviously this is some sort of locust. It's silvery white.

I don't know what this is, but I would die if I encountered one! She said she had to get the exterminator out because there were so many. It looks sort of like a giant fly. Remember that movie from the 60's? If you look real close you can see Jeff Goldblum's tiny face! (If that's a mystery to you, then you are too young!)

I guess this is some sort of wasp. It was the biggest thing and so fat! 

Yep, bugs are definitely bigger in Texas. It would be a good place for entomologists to live. Would I ever move there? I don't think there's any mystery in that!

Halloween in the House!

Okay, the truth of it is, I did all of my Halloween decorating in September---early September at that. It's a lot of work. Maybe not as much as Christmas, but still a lot. Luckily, Butch hauls all the boxes for me.

Problems again with putting the pictures in the order that I want. So, they are more random than I would like.

These pictures are pretty gruesome, but I love that they look perfectly normal until you move. The regular photos are further down.

Stephanie came in the other night and was straightening my candles. I told her to leave them all crooked! They are supposed to look all cattywampus! 

This year, I put my big bug on Bernard's foot! Ooops, you can see my shoes in the background!

My favorite Halloween pillow. I also really enjoyed stitching it. This was my project when I was laid up after my foot surgery.

I guess you can't see very well, but here are the normal pictures.

Here's the best example of those photos. Go back up and see what the regular picture looks like. I remember getting these at Michael's years ago.

I made the button trees with my craft group--probably 10 years ago. Time flies.

Another needlepoint pillow.

Well, there it is. Another year, another Halloween. I don't think we'll be having any trick or treaters this year. Crazy year all the way around! 

A Few Things

1. I'm reading a Gregg Olsen book, True Crime (he's my new favorite author--if you haven't read, If You Tell--you should. Best book I've read this year). I came across a quote that I thought sounds pretty true:

"The Midwest: the place that nobody moves to but everybody is from!" 

2. In my estimation, this is way off. They need to take off number 4 altogether, move everything down and then add a more rare one to #1.

I prefer #3, but I would call that medium well and should technically be in the #4 spot. I guess I'm spending way too much time thinking about this. But, that's what I do. Think too hard and long about nonsense!

3. I pulled this photo from Facebook.

I couldn't resist! What a beautiful tree!

4. I rarely get political, but....all I can say is...

Amen!!

5. Seen on our last geo-caching trip in Decatur, Alabama.

I just LOVE ghost advertising!! One of the things we love about geo-caching is all the unusual things we get to see that we ordinarily wouldn't. We just love the history! We've got another trip planned for this week too. 

Probably the best thing about geo-caching is that it's something you can do right now during the pandemic. It gets you outside in the fresh air and keeps you away from people at the same time!  I'm so glad we have that!

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

1. A friend of mine posted this on Facebook---meaning I know the REAL person who posted this so it's really true!! I've never bought mangos, but now I might need to!

FYI

First off, I am very sensitive to poison ivy. I also love mangos.

Unfortunately, I learned the hard way...

I couldn’t figure out where the poison ivy rash came from!!

Mango is in the same botanical family as poison ivy. The sap of the tree and the rind of the mango fruit contain urushiol, the oil that causes the poison ivy rash. The pulp of the mango fruit does not contain urushiol, so if someone is sensitive to poison ivy, they can have someone else peel the fruit for them and then they can eat the fruit without harm.

2. While we're on nature, I came across this.

Okay, that's good. I thought they would turn out to be related to armadillos! Those things are nasty!

3. Defrosting the freezer has got to be the worse job! I only do it once a year. No matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to get the freezer empty enough. I end up having to use every cooler and also moving as much as possible to the refrigerator/freezer.

It took me 6 hours! I'm fortunate to have so many beach towels because I use about 20 of them!! I do keep my freezer very well organized. In this picture, I haven't moved the stuff from the kitchen back yet. Hence the empty top shelf. At least it's done for another year!

4. Had a little mishap while making Peanut Butter Banana Pudding.

I put the peanut butter in to melt. It immediately started crackling, sparking, popping and caught fire! I immediately stopped it.

Turns out I didn't get every little bit of that foil lining. I just scraped the burnt part off the top and called it good! It didn't affect the dessert at all.

5. When I was visiting my sisters, we came across this "blessing box". I've seen the little libraries, but had never seen one of these. I've heard of them though. It says, "take a blessing if you need one, leave a blessing if you can."

Anyway, my sister, Janice put a dollar inside. About a half hour later, when we walked by it again, the dollar was gone!! I'm sure that's the dollar she won from me playing poker!!

It's October 1st! You know what that means?? Time to put out the Halloween decorations! Who am I kidding? I did it the second weekend in September! I went back and forth with myself as to whether I was going to bother with it this year. I talked myself in to if because I have some pretty cool Halloween needlepoint that I never get to see. Stay tuned....