Never Too Old for Adventure!

My last post was a tribute to my Mom for her 87th birthday.  Little did I know that she would have such a wild adventure on that day!  My Mom has a very large yard (like an acre, maybe), and she has always enjoyed getting on her riding lawn mower and mowing her own lawn.  Well, that is precisely what she did on her 87th birthday!  She mowed the back yard first, and then went in the house to take a break, get a little refreshments, before proceeding to the front yard.  While mowing in the front yard, Mom apparently misjudged the distance between the mower and a large crepe myrtle tree, because when she turned sharply, she actually drove her riding mower right up the side of that tree, promptly dumping her backwards off the mower onto the ground, flat on her back, while her riding mower stayed standing up on its rear end (front wheels up in the air)!  Thankfully, she did not suffer any serious injury (except maybe  to her pride)!!  Mom says the hardest thing about the whole episode was being able to get herself up off the ground, and she was so glad no one saw her struggling to get up! 

Well, now we (her offspring) have cause to worry a little more!  She did not even call any of us when this happened!  My sister, Norma, (who was at work) had been calling Mom's house several times that day and was beginning to get worried when Mom did not answer her phone.  Well, when Mom finally did answer her phone, she told Norma what had happened.  So, Norma and Sharon, my two sisters, who live nearby, went over that evening to get Mom's mower up righted and to make sure Mom was O.K.  Thank you so much to Norma and Sharon!

I guess I get my adventuresome streak honestly!  From my Mom!  I also love to mow our yard and hope I am still able to get outdoors and do things when I am 87 years old!  What a wonderful inspiration Mom has always been in my life!

The week following our adventure out to Grand Canyon and Utah (in May), Tom's brother, Tim, and Tim's wife, Kathy, came for a visit.  We were absolutely delighted to have them here at our place, since we have been to see them in Georgia so many times over the years, and enjoyed their awesome hospitality.  While they were here, we visited the Grand Saline Salt Palace.

The Salt Palace is made with blocks of salt that were mined right there in Grand Saline!  We watched an interesting video which showed the mining process.  The huge underground salt dome, which sits just south of the town, can furnish the world's needs for several hundred more years!

Stopped in at Nutty's for some local peanut butter (or maybe an ice cream), but they were closed!

This is the historical marker which is just south of Grand Saline.

We drove thru the countryside to the artsy little town of Edom.  Visited Potters Brown studio/store, which is our favorite place to buy handmade bowls, platters, vases, etc.  They do some beautiful work with clay and glazing!  (Kathy found a couple of pieces that she could not live without.)  We found a cool, carved "tree trunk chair" in front of one of the shops in Edom.

Right near Edom, is the small town of Ben Wheeler.  There we enjoyed a picnic in the park!

 One day while Tom was at work, Tim and Kathy and I played cards on the picnic table on our deck.  It was a little tricky with the stiff breeze we had that day!

We braved the city traffic one day and drove into Dallas to go to the recently opened George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

We were impressed with the overall appeal; very well done!  When we first entered the atrium area and looked up, there was a 3-D Video being played out on all four sides of the atrium on huge digital screens that completely surrounded us, showing impressive moments of ordinary Americans (like me and you) doing extraordinary things, and also enjoying everyday life events.

 

It may be hard to tell from my photos that this is a video, with all these figures (in action)moving across the screens, in front of or behind each other.  It was a very moving tribute to all of us as Americans!  The video progressed from all these Americans to some awesome scenes from our nation's capital and throughout our beautiful country, and ending with thousands of photos (faces) of ordinary Americans flying up out of one corner of the atrium screens until all four sides were completely filled in with these faces!

 Again, my photos in no way convey how truly awesome this presentation really is.  You will just have to go and see it for yourself.  You can check it out at http://www.georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu.

Tom and Tim said hello to father and son, George W. and George H. W. Bush!

 Here are just a few of the areas within the Library/Museum:

Everything was done with the utmost respect for the families affected by this horrific tragedy in our country's history.  There were lots of video footage from different times during George W.'s presidency, interactive areas, also thousands of letters, emails are available there for us to read with the touch a button.  So much to look at, read, discover, you could be there all day!  

My personal favorite part was the Texas Rose Garden.  A beautifully landscaped area!

  
I also enjoyed the section where we watched a short movie, the Bush daughters version of life with their dad in the White House.  Funny!

Oh yes, I almost forgot that Tom enjoyed receiving a phone call in the Oval Office!

Hey Sweetie!  You look so presidential!  Sure is a lot of light coming thru those Oval Office windows!

We enjoyed a great lunch while there in the Café 43.  After leaving the Library, we drove by White Rock Lake  (which is right in Dallas on the east side).  

 

 

 

 

  What a wonderful few days we had with Tim and Kathy!  Hope they can come back again soon!

MY MOM

Tomorrow my Mom will be 87 years old!

This is a pictorial tribute to a wonderful woman, my Mom, Yvonne Trumps.

Four of my siblings, (Ginny, Sharon, Don, Norma) with me in the middle standing behind our Mom on November 25, 2010.

                                 My Mom still likes to travel!  (photo taken on the way to Louise, Texas. to visit friends) March 17, 2012

                       Norma, me, Mom, and Donna (taken at Mom's home
                       on March 25, 2012)

                                                       me & Mom  (November 24,2012)

                                   Norma, Mom, Don and me (November 24, 2012)

                       me, Mom, & Norma (taken at our house on
                       December 2, 2012)

                                Mom, in front of hers and my Dad's headstone
                       at the Rosevine Cemetery. (January 3, 2013)

                                            Mom, with her hand on my brother, Lyndon's, headstone; my brother, Roger's, there at her feet; my daughter, Candace is on the other side of Lyndon. (January 3, 2013)

                                Mom, what are you thinking about??????
                             (January 27, 2013)

                               Tom, Mom, & me on Easter Sunday, 3/31/2013

Mom still likes to play games with us, and does quite well at it!  This was taken while Mom, Carla, Holly Beth, Norma, & I were playing Mexican Train Dominoes; at our home on May 26, 2013.

We are so incredibly blessed to still have our Mom with us, and so happy that she still enjoys her zest for life.  Mom has always been a rock of strength, a fountain of love, such a caring and generous person.  She enjoys her "alone time" and still lives at home, and for that I am so grateful.  I am blessed beyond measure with the family I was born into!  I do love my family!!!!!

NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

What a wonderful morning!  The birds are chirping, enjoying a beautiful sunrise!  Surprisingly, it is 57 degrees this morning (in June?!).  What an awesome Spring we have had (and are having) this year!  Just enough rain every few days to keep the garden and the landscape lush and green.

I snapped this photo (thru the truck windshield) just south of Canton on Hwy.198.

___________________________________________

 

May 5th (Last leg of our Grand Canyon Trip)

 

Following a great night's sleep at the Holiday Inn Express in Graham, Texas., we had breakfast at the hotel and continued on our scenic drive east on U.S.Hwy.380.  Since we drove until well after dark last night, we missed what was probably beautiful scenery as U.S.Hwy.380 crossed over the north end of Lake Graham and then hugged along the east side of the lake also before we entered the town of Graham.  This morning our drive took us thru Bryson and Jacksboro before we came to Runaway Bay, which sits on the south end of Lake Bridgeport.  When we arrived in Bridgeport, we took a detour into downtown to the Visitor Center, where the city's life-size replica of a Concord Stagecoach sits in a glass enclosure in front of the building.

 

 

Following our little detour into Bridgeport, we were soon to Decatur, where we picked up U.S.Hwy.287 south (right thru Fort Worth) all the way to I-20 east.  Thankfully on this Sunday morning there was no traffic problems in Fort Worth, and we were soon heading east toward "Home Sweet Home" at the edge of the woods!  We were home by lunchtime!  Yippee!  No place like home!

 

Here is our garden before we left for this vacation:

 

Here is our garden a few days after we got home:

  

The unusually cool nights that we have had this Spring has slowed down the growth a little, however we should be able to pick our first veggies soon.

 

More later about our ongoing project of clearing the old fence line that you can see at the back of the garden in the first garden photo.

 

Also the week after we got home from our Grand Canyon trip, Tom's brother Tim, and his wife, Kathy came from Georgia for a few days to visit!  It was so great to see them and have them in our home here at the edge of the woods for awhile!

Saturday May 4th

Wow, how wonderful it was to get a good night's sleep last night, following a great Mexican food dinner.  I brought the Road Atlas into our hotel room and looked for a different way to go home instead of the usual way (which would be to go south to pick up I-40 east to Amarillo and then Hwy 287 south to the DFW area).  We decided this morning to go south to Albuquerque, N.M., than go east for only a short ways to Clines Corners, where we will take U.S.285 south to Roswell, N.M., where we will find U.S.380 east which we can follow almost all the way home.  This will be a new route to us, so we will see places we have never seen before, and that's what vacations/adventures are all about!

You probably remember me talking about all the many, many giant billboards for Clines Corners we saw on I-40 last Sunday as were going to Grand Canyon.  Well, we could not pass this place up a second time without stopping to see what all the "hooplah" is about!  I can tell you that I have never in my entire life seen that many souvenirs under one roof!  Aisle after aisle of thousands and thousands of any type of trinket you can possibly imagine.  Plus they had the largest and cleanest restrooms of anywhere (I think it was around 30 stalls in the women's!).   AND, the large wooden Indian in front!  Oh my goodness, what a tourist trap!!

We only passed thru two small towns, Encino and Vaughn, between Clines Corners and Roswell.  We stopped for an ice cream cone in Roswell and continued on our way.  Nothing much to see other than beautiful sky and flat barren brown landscape.

Oh boy, was it ever good to see Texas again!  After all the brown, desolate land we have been seeing yesterday and today, then as soon as we crossed the state line into Texas, it was like entering the "land of plenty"!

No matter where I go, there is absolutely no place like Texas!!!

I think Texas may be the only state that has beaches, mountains, high plains, desert, thickly wooded hills, many State Parks, also National Parks, and so much more.  I guess there is just no place like home!

Taking U.S. 380 from Roswell was a very pleasant and scenic drive once we crossed the state line into Texas.  I had no idea there were such huge farms in the high plains of Texas.  Wheat, cotton, and other crops as far as the eye can see!  Also acres and acres of grape vinyards!

This route was definitely more scenic, less traffic, less stressful; interesting to read about all the towns (in our Texas Travel Book) that we were going thru for the first time; however it took a little longer than it would have if we had traveled on the interstate.  I think the trade-off was worth it, although by the time we got to Graham, Texas we were beat.  When we saw a brand new Holiday Express Inn, we zipped in and got a room for the night.  We will travel the final leg of this trip in the morning.