Just a Few

Dennis and I have been home for two weeks now and I have been slack in getting any pictures up for you ladies. We did have a wonderful time and we have promised ourselves to go away more often. I am going to post just a few pictures and then I want to get back to my regular posts. So without further ado ............. This is the back roads that we took that Wednesday morning. We never travel expressways or highways. Always back roads..... You get to see a lot of America that way. We traveled 5 hours that morning and arrived at the first Craft Fair on our itinerary.

The Ole Applegate Place........... What a disappointment......... The brochure said the fair was from Wednesday thru Sunday............ What a beautiful place........ Tucked up in the hills of Arkansas with it beautiful scenic roads and tress just turning.......................

They had a horse drawn carriage to escort the people from the top of the hill into the valley

Look at this view! I was so excited........... It was a beautiful day but little overcast with some rain but the TRUE craters do not care about a little rain!!!!!! Soooooooooooo we hopped up in that wagon and clippity clop down into the valley we headed!

Then out of the valley we came............maybe 20minutes latter........... No one there! There were maybe 15 booths and those were not crafts but store bought things of no interest to me and Dennis........... We walked around just a minute and flagged down the nearest horse drawn carriage............ bummer !

When at the top we went inside the small general store to inquire as to what happened. Come to find out they advertise that the fair runs from Wednesday - Sunday when in acutal fact most of the exhibits will not be set up till late Friday. That is is not right.. We paid $3.00 each to go down that path and back up ......... soooooo we took ourselves and headed North in hopes that the Bella Vista would prove to be something better!

AND BETTER IT WAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BELLA VISTA , ARKANSAS... WHAT FUN!

There were hundreds and hundreds of booths, each one had to go through a panel of judges to make sure that they were bringing in hand crafts and nothing store bought............. OMG and hand crafts there were! We were there over 5 hours and we saw every single booth. We stopped and talked and visited with many of the crafters. AND just like me, Dennis forgot to snap a picture now and then so we have many memories but not too many pictures BUT !!! I will share something with you in the post tomorrow........ (I need to take a couple of pictures)

This guy was tooooooooo fun to watch and what skill....... from a hunk of wood into a thing of art! I stopped and asked him if he had an old Crow, and his reply was that he had been doing chain saw art for 20 years and had carved most any animal that you could name but never an Old Crow! Bummer.......... I am always looking for Crows for my son Chris................ He promised me that he would practice and have one next year...... We will see...........


This lady was really into the scare crows! Cute but no one was coming by... but nice lady.... but it was the first day so I am hoping she sold out before the end of the weekend....

I had my DH take a picture of this because I just loved it and want to make one myself... I came home and learned a couple of neat things that I will show you tomorrow! But is the cute or what!

Lots and lots of people and lots of big tents.. This was the first one and there were 7 and then there were booths between the tents! OMG............ we had a ball!

I think my DH was very hungry at this point, but we had promised each other that we would not eat any of the junk food at the fair......... Just too much fat and too greasy ............. We did good and left there and had a big salad with grilled chicken............... (I am patting myself on my back)

When we left Bella Vista we headed to Fayetteville Ark. I had never been there and wanted to see the city. Dennis wanted to go to the campus of the University of Arkansas. His Dad went to school there and back when the University was first built 1871. For many many years they would carve the names of the graduating students into the side walks going toward Old Main ...... which was the student union on the campus. Today it is the Administration building. They carried on this tradition unitl 1999 as far as we could find. There are too many students graduating from UA now and not enough sidewalk space to hold them all........... But we found the year 1950 with Mr Waldens name carved along with his class mates............ It was a special moment for Dennis. He lost his Dad May of 2007.

This is a picture of Old Main as they call it and the names and dates started from there .

You cannot read the names on the sidewalk on the first year of this tradition but there were 5... Can you imagine that....... Today they are graduating more than 3000. Times have changed. This date was at the very bottom of the first step in front of the building. I do not know why they did not start this the first year in 1871 but they were faithful until 1999.

Here is the date at the end of the sidewalk that bears the name of Mr Wilburn O Walden


There he is, we did not count the number of his graduating class.. too many
Wilburn O Walden class of 1950

This is his sidewalk leading up to the steps of Old Main........ Those were special moments for Dennis .......

We headed home that afternoon and got home late Saturday night. We then headed out Sunday to head to the city for the Neil Diamond concert. The concert was wonderful but there was just one thing. There were about 14,000 people at the Ford Center and the average age was 60. Every one was quiet and seated and then in came 4 very very drunk men in their late 30's. They had been partying at Hooters and had tickets to the concert. Why I will never know........ Well where did they sit........... right in front of me and Dennis. !!! They were very very large well over 400 lbs and they could not fit in the seats......... They were very very loud and kept standing up shouting "Neil Diamond Rocks" and this was all before the concert started! Finally coming from both ends of the seats were armed Oklahoma City policemen and suggested to them that they sit down (if they could) and behave or they would be escorted out.......... They wanted to get a bit mouthy but eventually they sat down........ They remained pretty loud but all in all the concert went well.......... We were checked at the door for any cameras or recording devices so we had to leave the camera in the car....................BUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there were flashes all over that place.......... That really ticked me off........... I could have smuggled mine in under my jacket! Oh well.................

Well ladies, I am going to take a couple of pictures tomorrow of some goodies that I bought and then tell you about my big plans! I have missed all you my friends so much and I promise to get to each of you in the next couple of days......

Hugs