Where's Waldo?

My mother sends a special thanks to Jim for the honey from the busy bees of upstate NY. The quilt (isn't it pretty) was made by my sister.  Notice the lump?  Susan, you can tell Bertha she's not the only cat to hide when company (in the form of a dog) comes to visit.  Center photo is Easter brunch with a beautiful bouquet Mother put together with flowers from her garden.  Even though the pecan trees haven't leafed out yet, spring is happening.  Speaking of pecans - the bowl under the rosemary bush is full of "left over"pecans from my sister's lawn.  She said she was sick of picking them up and any more that fell could just stay there. In spite of the dry weather it was obviously a decent pecan crop.
Bottom photo - our campsite in Mason.  Can you pick us out among the other Habitat campers?  We're "hiding" behind that gray pickup in the middle. Harvey, the guy in the first camper on the right, said it had been a long time since he'd seen an outfit as small as ours.  We seem to be settled in just fine though.  It's very cozy.

Just for Bruce...

We always seem to give Bruce a lot of grief about using his phone to look up "stuff".  But here my family is sitting around doing the same thing.  Scott (our nephew) and Jessica (our niece-in-law) come equipped with a travel kit that includes a router so we can go wireless with ease.  Mother is smiling because John hooked up a new computer for her this morning. It's all set up so she can do her email and listen to Diane Rehm with ease. Becky is exploring the wonders of an iPad. She was heard to say "I want one". And John is doing whatever John is doing.
It's in the 80's down here folks and the AC is on. Is that good or bad?

Texas at last!

     First - the answer to yesterday's trivia was b.  "Wash out" refers to washing out the interior of one of those big trailers on an 18 wheeler.
   The top row of photos is a promo for my birth state of Arkansas.  They have an absolutely beautiful state park system.  We stayed last night in the lodge run by the park service at DeGray Lake.  Terrific accommodations! A place for you to consider Joe, or any of you for that matter, if you're heading west.  The 18 hole golf course looked great and the fishing is reported to be the best.  They even serve beer in the restaurant. And the waitress had an answer to "why that pyramid in Memphis?".  They're putting in Bass Pro Shop... They also have bald eagles that nest there.  John is standing by a life size replica of one of their nests. Suppose if you offered them enough they might even let you spend the night in it.
   On to Texas, hands firmly on the wheel as we made it through Dallas/Fort Worth.  Tillie would not have been happy. Stopped for lunch at the haunted Weatherford Downtown Cafe (center photo). Notice the ghost in the bottom left hand photo? OK - you're right.  That's me.  Not all photos come out perfect.  Am sure you can pick out the photo of John with Peter Pan (Weatherford is the birthplace of Mary Martin).  The bottom center photo is their courthouse.
   Heading off to the heart of Texas... Mother had homemade noodles waiting for John and homemade soup for me. And my sister Becky is putting us up in her spare bedroom.  The life of luxury for a couple of days until we start our first week of camping.  You don't suppose those three beauties in the bottom right hand corner are related, do you?

Meandering...

Today was sunny - yeah!  It was 70 - yeah! And the scenery was much more interesting - yeah! We're through Kentucky & Tennessee, home of many horses, many bourbon distilleries (that's Kentucky), many whiskey distilleries (that's Tennessee), country music, dinosaurs in Kentucky P2 followed by what were either dinosaur barricades or road construction in P3.  Cousin John & Judy will probably recognize the Corvette Museum in P4.  We noted it looked like mostly "wanna be" Corvette owners in the parking lot.  I picked out Only, TN to have lunch in but P6 was just about all there was to Only so we had lunch instead just down the road under the buffalo at Loretta Lynn's Kitchen - turnip greens, white beans, grits, fried chicken, her own pork - smoked.  It turns out she's still alive and lives just down the road from Only.  Hers is another April birthday, 4/14/32.  P5 - the pyramid in Memphis (why?). Finally we were over the Mississipppi and into Arkansas to find daffodils in bloom.
Trivia question - What does the sign in the last photo mean?  a) be careful entering because the entrance is washed out on the left. b) a truck driver's answer to detailing. c) a quick fix when your home hair coloring project went amiss.  You'll have to wait until tomorrow for the answer...

Off again...

A bit later than in the year this time out, but we're again on our way to Texas to visit family & work on a Habitat project.  So we don't miss too much spring in NY, we've decided to take the shortest route rather than meander.  P1 - John's stockpiling his "driving" energy. (Am not sure what Bertha the cat is stockpiling but she's very dedicated.)  P2 - Leaving our house this morning. Goodbye snow!  However, the sun was out and the redwing blackbirds were singing away.  The robins at the bottom of the hill, where there are bare patches of ground, are biding their time before visiting us. P3 - NY. P4 - Pennsylvania. P5 - Ohio. P6 - N. Kingsville, Ohio (where my mother grew up). P7 - Kentucky.  Let's see... that's 5 photos of boring highway = dull, dull, dull, dull, dull! Unfortunately, I was too slow to get a photo of the only interesting billboard we saw but it was huge.  Oh yes, all it said was "HELL IS REAL".  You don't suppose they'd just driven over from NY, do you?

Wrapping it up... finally...

P1 - Yes, that's Gus.  He's already wrapped it up for the day and it is only ten in the morning.  Some snowy days are more trying than others.
P2 - The finishing touches on the bedroom.  Captain's bed with storage underneath (now if we can only remember which storage cubby we put stuff in).  The headboard is part of Debby's picket fence she took down this summer.  I had originally thought porch posts again but the picket fence turned out to be a better idea.  John is still adjusting to the idea that the color I chose for it is a lot pinker than it looked like in the store.  Although you can't see it in the photo, the chairs face the wood burning stove.
P3- Curtains finally up in the new room and odds & ends strewn about just like someone is enjoying living there (which we are!).
Stay tuned - another trip to Texas & a new Habitat project starts in April.