Old World Swine

Back from Vacation

We're back and mostly recovered from our brief vacation break. The AC is working again (did I say, recently, how much I appreciate air conditioning?) and the dogs have stopped giving us hurt and confused looks... "How could you leave us for two whole days with only the neighbors looking in now and then? How-ow-ow???".

We went to Branson, Missouri. Yes, tacky and materialistic. Yes, hokey, flashy, tourist-y and shallow... but the kids love it. As is our custom, we ate our way around Silver Dollar City. Very good food for a theme park, much better than what we experienced at Disney World, but it seems to be slipping, a bit. In fact, the park seems to be slipping a bit.

SDC expanded like crazy for a couple of decades, erecting one monstrous thrill ride after another, along with an ever-expanding repertoire of diversions for the kiddos... but the economy may have hit them like it has everyone else. We noticed that a number of features were in need of cleaning and repair, and others had been stripped down to basics. It wasn't crowded, as we expected. The wait for rides was happily brief.

What attracted us, initially, to Silver Dollar City was the fact that it was small-ish, kind of homey in an unapologetically Southern way, full of huge oak trees (providing delicious shade) and exuded a warm, relaxed atmosphere very welcoming to families. The rides were always fun, but the great attraction was the whole feel of the park. In the beginning, the rides were noticeably smaller and less flashy than those in more urban areas.

And then there was the food; Huge, open-air pans of fried potatoes mixed with onions, peppers and other secret yummy stuff... ice cream with strawberries, cobblers, very respectable barbecued ribs, turkey legs, pancakes, honey roasted pecans, Kettle Corn, pork rinds fresh and still popping from the hot oil, fried sweet potatoes, cookies a foot wide, whole barbecued chickens, corn-on-the-cob...

The park, as I say, has grown a lot during the time we have been going there, and in recent years has competed more directly with destinations like Six Flags or Busch Gardens. It was more often crowded and noisy. It catered more openly to a younger crowd. Though it retained a good bit of the family-friendly, old-timey pioneer atmosphere at the center of the park, the expanded areas grew more flashy and modern.

We enjoyed our trip, though. The first day, Martha and the kids went to see the Titanic exhibit in Branson and swam in the hotel pool while I took care of some business in Little Rock. I joined them later that night. It was nice to get away together, again. I don't know how many family trips we may have left!

At any rate, glad to be back home.

Chasing Road Trip Rabbits

Back from the OPA show in Nashville, all in one (somewhat numb) piece and grateful to God that everything went so smoothly. Neanderthal that I am, I still rely on directions from  MapQuest printed on dead trees rather than a GPS. I do hope to get a GPS device someday soon, hopefully one that can talk to me in the voice of the HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey... you know, when traffic is bad and my HAL/GPS unit detects stress patterns in my voice it will say things like, "I really think you should pull over, take a stress pill and think about this."

The maps did the trick, though. I managed to end up standing in more or less the right places at more or less the right times. The affair was less stuffy than I had imagined, more informal and I met and chatted with a number of perfectly nice folks. The quality of the paintings was excellent, so it was a little annoying that the dense crowd made it difficult to really look at them in the thoughtful, unhurried way they deserved. As is usual, I could see nothing but the flaws in my own piece. It's difficult to honestly see one's own work. Familiarity breeds, well, all sorts of things.

I won no awards this time around, but I'm very encouraged that I can do better next time. It was, as they say, "an honor just to be nominated...". At the after dinner, I sat with one of the award winners and her husband. When I found out he was a NASA engineer it almost derailed the conversation permanently, as I gushed that my son and I shared an interest in the space program and that he had his picture made with Buzz Aldrin and The Right Stuff was, like, our favorite movie ever, and blah, blah... I didn't mention the blurb I read on some blog recently (by someone who would probably know) that said NASA was like a sheltered workshop for high functioning autistics.

I came back down to earth and we talked about kids and the election (by this time we had each sent enough coded "I might be a conservative" messages that we felt it safe to venture a bit into politics. In a gathering of artists of that size, you're going to have a lot of Obamaphiles and no one wants a scene over their grilled swordfish).

The drive was pretty easy, though there is not much that can dress up the plain fact of sitting in one position for nine hours. Actually, I take that back. I drifted into the range of an alternative radio station out of Little Rock (KABF) that I thoroughly enjoyed because they happened to be in the middle of a long jazz set. It was so cool to tune in and find music for grown ups!

I was quite taken by the sounds of Gypsy Swing (which is so much fun to listen to that I actually laughed out loud once or twice) and am itching to download a lot more of that genre. Listen, I'm at the point where I just don't have time for music (or anything else) that doesn't have some genuine joy to it, and gypsy swing fairly oozes joy out the seams.

I was also saddend to hear them announce the death of legendary soul singer Levi Stubbs, of The Four Tops. His voice and their music is simply iconic.

I had the singular pleasure of driving into the hills of western Tennessee on a perfect autumn day. The road was smooth as buttermilk and the sun filtered through the leaves and dappled the rolling blacktop. They let the trees grow closer to the freeway there, I think, which I heartily endorse. I didn't run the air conditioner the whole trip, as the air coming through the vents was dry and cool.

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I promised myself I wouldn't do any more political posts before the election, so I'll just steer you to this dose of sanity from The Anchoress. She calls for fasting and prayer and I'm, you know, down wi' dat.

Back from Colorado and Points West

Still numb from  the 13 hour drive yesterday. No substantive blogging today, but a full report (more or less) will be forthcoming. I checked off all my major goals for the trip; saw my brother and his family in Nebraska, camped and hiked in the Rockies (Estes Park) with my daughter, met up with a good artist friend (who acted as our guide) and visited art galleries in the Denver area.

I meant to clue my readers in on my coming absence before I left, but got caught up in last minute preparations... story of my life. I'm an artist. I'm absent minded and a chronic procrastinator, which means that all my preparations are last minute preparations.

I will only say that I think when God made Estes Park, He was showing off a bit.

 

More coffee.

Buffaloed

Sorry for the light blogging this last week. I was pretty busy, and put off writing some posts until the weekend, but had a sudden change of schedule.

See, I've been waiting for an opportunity to get together with another artist friend of mine (Glenn, right in the picture) and venture into the wild to paint and do some photography. It is an almost unbelievable  privilege that in my chosen craft, this kind of thing is a business trip.

Long story short, when the weather's fine and the water's up, you jump while you have the chance. So, Glenn and I (in his canoe) hit the Buffalo National River and paddled for a couple of days. I am posting a few photos to document the trip, but I need to point out that, due to an unnaturally aggressive tree trunk (which I am almost certain leaped in front of our canoe out of pure mischief) our sturdy craft capsized and took on many gallons of Buffalo National Water, soaking both our cameras in the process.

"Now, now..." you may cluck, "you two should have had your cameras in watertight bags, against the possibility of such a mishap.". Indeed we did, or so we thought. They were carefully sealed in Hefty zip bags, the kind with a plastic zipper thing that saves you the tedium of actually sealing the bag with your finger and thumb. Needless to say, Glenn is preparing an official Letter of Chagrine addressed to the Hefty corporation. All the old-fashioned bags (sans zipper) were water tight, while all the zipper-pull bags leaked.

I didn't use my camera for the rest of the weekend (out of fear I might damage the circuitry). Naturally, this was by far the most interesting portion of the trip. Hopefully I'll be able to retrace my steps there soon and photograph some of what I missed this time around. I did get one small color sketch done, but spent most of the time paddling. Check back for paintings from the Buffalo. I'll post each one as I complete them.

Meanwhile, it's good to be back, soreness and all. Another perk; apparently I lost about three pounds.

Bonus Feature! Canoeing Quiz:
When approaching an obstacle with limited time to maneuver, which of the following would be the proper response:

A) Use a "J" stroke to turn the canoe

B) Use a stern-to-bow sweep stroke on the side of the canoe opposite the obstacle

C) Drop your paddle and scream like a girl

The correct answer will be discussed later.