ArKinSaw Walkabout

A couple weeks ago we went to Arkansas to visit Gene's son and DIL, along with his granddaughters. I realized yesterday, that I never really shared many photos of how pretty it is down there.

There are mountains, but they are Ozark mountains, not rocky type mountains. Lots of trees and beautiful scenery. I imagine it's incredibly beautiful there especially in the fall.

I can't resist tunnel photos.

One day while we were down there, my step-son, Chris, and the 2 granddaughters - Cheyenne and Madison and I all went for a ride in the Jeep. Chris took us to a couple of his favorite spots and we just sort of rode around looking for photos.

This is a place where they hang out, go swimming and fishing. A shallow, pretty little river. I can see the appeal.

Chey, walking across the river. As you can see it's fairly shallow at that time. Right after this we drove across.

I couldn't resist a photo of the red rock down south. We just don't see this in my neck of the woods. We have good old brown and gray rocks.

We're boring.

If you get opportunity, I would suggest visiting Arkansas. I'm sure there is much more beautiful stuff to see than we saw up on the north side, but it does seem like a good place to go, sit and and take in the beauty around you.

Now, back to laundry.
Sigh

As a matter of fact, I DO remember what it was like to be a child. So there.

I'm your typical girly-girl. (Most of the type). I like things that sparkle, clothes that make my butt look smaller (do they make those?), babies, pretty fingernails, eyeliner and tiny things.

Yes, it's not uncommon to hear me say "Oh how CUTE" when I see a miniature version of anything much larger. *anything*.

So when we went to Colorado for our honeymoon, there was "Cute!!" when I saw our little toiletries.

Yes, I know I'm sad.
*anywayyyy*

We stayed at the Marriott, which is nice because they give you branded toiletries, and the brand is not Marriott, it's Bath and Body works. In miniature.

CUTE.
(see, I told you I can't stop myself).

We decided to be "those people" and each day we took our cute little shampoos and soaps and hid them in my suitcase. Yep. *THOSE* people. lol. After 6 days, that's a lot of shampoo!

Now to be fair, normally what I do is donate these to the local food pantry. Why? Because when I was a kid, I remember this conversation with my mom about kids at school that were not the cleanest.

Me: "I don't understand why so and so is so dirty all the time. Soap cost, what, like 50 cents?"
Mom: "Well, sometimes people can't afford to have their water turned on, and some people don't have 50 cents to buy a bar of soap."

That stuck with me ever since.

So whenever I go to a Best Western, or a motel 6, and they have those tiny bars of soap or a little bottle of shampoo, I drop them in a Ziploc bag and a couple times a year, take them to the food pantry. I know it won't solve everyone's problems, but a bar of soap can make you feel a whole lot better about yourself.

Now, having said that, when I saw these, I thought of Gene's Granddaughters and how much they were probably like me. A typical girl that likes sparkly things, nice fingernails and minis.

So I saved them for them.

Last week when we were at Michael's, I found these adorable little gift bags and we picked up a few to make little posh gift bags for the girls.

I also included a couple of these:

I'm sorry, but those are just cute. Cute cute.

Cute.

I remember when I was a little girl, getting one of those tiny jelly jars at the Old Threshers Reunion in Mount Pleasant. I kept it FOREVER (it might still be in with some of my old doll clothes!) So I knew when we got a couple of these with our room service, that we would NOT be using them, and save them for the girls. Unfortunately, they only had 2, so I saved the tiny Tabasco sauce for Cheyenne, who claims she loves really hot food.

I'm sure of course, that I'll get called out for not being equal and fair. Blah blah. Life sucks, you are WELCOME. LOL. :p

Yesterday, their package was shipped off complete with girly-girl backpacks for school and girly-girl dresses bought on sale.

My contribution to the new school year is officially DONE!
:)

Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations

Have you seen Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations? It's a PBS show, that started in KC in 1995. From their website:

Since 1995, Randy, Mike and Don the Camera Guy have been loading up their cramped minivan to document outsider artists, grassroots art environments and offbeat attractions of all kinds exploring creativity across 39 states and 3 time zones. What began as a single show on a local Public Television station has grown into 54 half hour episodes and 3 one-hour specials, seen currently on PBS stations from coast to coast. From the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas, to Dr. Evermor’s Forevertron in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and to Vollis Simpson’s Windmill Park in North Carolina (and countless places in between), the boys have shown viewers the best the back roads have to offer in terms of art and oddities, food and fun.

Ever since becoming a fan of the show, I always think of them while I'm on the road on vacation. I'll take photos of things I find humorous, odd, weird, unusual, maybe not rare, but definitely out of my normal every day viewing.

So our recent trip, I found a couple things, to add to my "rare" visions collection.

My first vision - a giant drivable lemon. How often do you see one of those?

I've always been a little fascinated with Table Rock Dam which dams up (obviously) Table Rock Lake. If you've never been there, there's a cool trout hatchery at the base where you can feed the trout. When I was a kid, we would go here every year. It was a lot more exciting when I was a kid. LOL. They had no netting over the large fish back then, so you could either get closer, or actually fall in. I'm sure my parents always took us there, because it's free. Free stuff is hard to find on vacations anymore.

A view of the marina, in our rear view mirror.

Looking at this, I want to go "WheeeeeeeEee" We have hills, but we don't have *Hills*.

And I really appreciate my neon, with A/C when I see a hill like this.

And this scene turned out not so rare, but that's ok because it wasn't hot.



which made me feel like I needed one of these... only one that floats:

This also made us miss our turn, because I wasn't paying attention and looking at 1/3 of a fake Titanic and cracking jokes about "touch a real iceberg!" (imaging some guy in back and lots of ice cube trays)

As I was on my explore, looking for scrapbook stores in Springfield, I ran across this cool mural and made a point to turn around and come back. It was the back side of a huge building, facing a main road. I still don't understand the reasoning of building it that way, but that's another story.

To get an idea of how huge the horses are:

And that's how I discovered the theatre where we saw Star Trek.

Now, you must share with me photos of your rare visions and/or roadside revelations!