Saturday evening, September 21, 1996... Do you remember what you were doing then? For a fair number of you, you were at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, helping these two crazy kids embark on an adventure... Yep, that's right, Hope and I have just celebrated 15 years of wedded bliss! And how did we celebrate today? By cleaning up after a sick 4-year-old, getting the older two off to school, and a glamorous dinner of chicken wraps before rushing Kenny and Beth off to their religious ed classes! (And, of course, now I'm writing this blog while Hope relaxes watching some TV--Stephen appears to be doing much better now). It is truly hard to believe that 15 years can fly by so quickly...and that I could be blessed with such a kind, compassionate, and loving spouse, who has been putting up with me for all this time (actually, closer to 20 years, given how long we dated!). Thank you, Hope my love!
Alright, enough of the mushy stuff!! We've been pretty busy with school and work, and I haven't had a lot of opportunities to get enough pictures to put a blog together. The next few pictures (including the one above) are from a train museum in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, about an hour from our house. This was an old locomotive yard and repair facility that has been converted to a museum. They have a number of restored examples of rail cars and engines from years gone by, including this sleeper car the kids really liked:
Beth had lots of fun sitting in the engineer's seat in the diesel locomotives:
and here she's acting as a scale for the size of this huge steam locomotive:
These monster steam engines came at the very tail end of the steam era, and could haul big loads at high rates of speed, but were doomed to be replaced by the more efficient and cost-effective diesel locomotives. After visiting this museum, we went to a small community near Pine Bluff to visit a historic cemetery:
This cemetery was started during the Civil War when the Confederate Army had relocated to this site (which had a mineral spring and healthier conditions than nearby Pine Bluff). As happened in most Civil War camps, disease proved to be far deadlier than bullets, and a graveyard was added to the camp and accompanying hospital. Below, Stephen wanders past the graves of the soldiers, most of whom were recruited from southern Arkansas and parts of Louisiana and Texas:
Kenny's become quite a Civil War buff (as my brother Bob and I were as kids growing up). On a cheerier note, this week is Drew County Fair week, and so yesterday Monticello held a parade for the fair. Hope and her Cub Scouts teamed up with a local boat manufacturer to set up a "float" in this year's parade. Beth and Stephen joined our Webelos Kenny in this parade (that's Beth in the pink shirt standing at the front of the boat):
Small town parades in the South are certainly something special. They get quite a chunk of the police, fire, and other emergency vehicles to lead:
Then the local schools put together their cheerleaders and bands, as well as vehicles with local beauty pageant winners (from infants to adults), local youth sport teams, farmers in their tractors, young and old men and their shiny cars (new and old), local businesses often sponsor themed floats, and some people even ride horses (as you can see it the background of this picture):
If you can handle the stress of chasing a bunch of excited boys around, you can actually have a pretty good time at these events (especially if the weather is dry, as it was yesterday). Hope's older Cubs and Webelos did a litter pick-up along part of the route (part of one of their merit badges), and we got by with only one stressful event (one of the boys started walking home instead of waiting for his dad to pick him up, leading to high anxiety for a few minutes).
After we got back from the parade last night, we had a nice "Skype" call with my brother Bill and his partner Scott in Korea. It is amazing how well that connection worked, given that they're half-way around the world. If you have a good high speed internet connection at home, I'd strongly encourage you to get Skype and give Bill a "buzz"--I'm sure he'd love to hear from you!!
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