Summer of 2012...we hardly knew ye!!

Is it possible that it is already September?  That our kids have been in school 2 weeks already??  It seems so unlikely, yet it is what it is--even though the near 100 degree temperatures we'll have today  will make a mockery of this assertion, summer 2012 is done!!  We at least ended the summer with a bang (or two).  First, a set of pictures from a recent business trip I made, with Hope and the kids in tow.  I'm on the organizing committee for a regional forestry meeting that occurs every two years somewhere in the South.  This next meeting is in Shreveport, Louisiana, which is not quite 4 hours from where we live.  So, seeing as how the kids didn't start school until the following week, we figured we'd take advantage of this opportunity to get out of town one last time this summer.  The meeting will be held at the Sam's Town Casino:

For some of you, this may seem strange, but a lot of these big casinos have large convention facilities and well-trained staff and really good prices for these events...  We got a room on the 15th floor of the casino hotel, which our kids loved:

The river flowing past the hotel is the Red River.  Along the banks of this river, the city of Shreveport has developed a very nice "River Walk", including some whimsical sculptures:

and some water features like the fountain below:

Shreveport has a number of casinos, including the Horseshoe Casino below...  Note the "old" steamboat in front of this casino:

Shreveport's casinos, like in a number of other places, are required to be floating in water--I guess a relict of days gone by when casinos weren't commonplace and were limited by laws to be found on boats...Our casino had a very similar designed, which must also have a "captain" and be "run" on a daily basis to be legal... Here are some more interesting floral-type sculptures along the river walk:

Shreveport wasn't always a "casino town"--much of the wealth of the area is a product of the oil, gas, and timber industries, as well as being a shipped and banking hub of the area and has a large Air Force base.  Shreveport has about 200,000 people, and recent high fuel prices have kept it relatively vibrant as fracking has allowed for expansion of the natural gas industry:

The casinos also certainly draw a lot of people, mostly from the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area a few hours to the west.  The oil and gas wealth of the area has provided a few other bonuses, including some interesting (and free) museums.  So, while I was working on this meeting, Hope took the kids to some of these museums.  Below, the kids walk through some of the gardens planted around one such museum, the R.W. Norton Art Gallery (http://www.rwnaf.org/):

Below is one of the sculptures on the grounds.  You probably can't read the little metal sign at the bottom, but it reads:  "Il porcellino"--the piglet and is a replica of a famous bronze sculpture now located in Florence, Italy:

According to their website, the R.W. Norton Art Gallery was founded by the Norton family, who made their fortune in the oil business and collected various types of artwork, including paintings and sculptures by famous American and European artists, as well as other interesting items, such as the pistol/guns Kenny and Stephen enjoyed:

Beth, of course, preferred the doll room:

They have a number of masterpieces, such as sculptures by Frederick Remington, western paintings by Charles Russell, and a lot of original landscape paintings done by members of the Hudson River School:

The best thing about this--it is free!  What a wonderful art resource to make available to the public!  And so much better than the artwork below:

The tree above is a beech tree that grows in a local park that vandals have defaced for years...  This same park also had an example of a tree that many may not expect from the South:

Hard to tell from the picture, I know, but believe it or not--this is petrified wood!  People come to expect that you only find petrified wood out west, but that is not true--we have quite a bit of it in the southern US, and when we canoe down the Saline River just a few miles from our house we often stop on gravel bars in that river and pick up small chunks by the handful!  Below is a picture of the wooden roof of a pavilion in that same park, make of southern yellow pine:

Sorry about all the tree/wood pix, folks, but when you're reading the blog of a forester, what do you expect??  Other big news--no, Beth has not started playing hockey...  She finally lost her first tooth!

The teacup and saucer in front of her is a Pruden family tradition...the lost tooth goes under the cup, and the next morning, after a visit from the tooth fairy, a token is left behind...  Yesterday (September 1) was the opening game of UAM's football season, so we joined some colleagues and friends and did some tailgating, UAM style:

Yep, about a half-dozen tents and a few hundred people is all that typically muster for tailgating at UAM.  In all fairness, this is a recent tradition, and this year's numbers were somewhat lower because of our recent brush with Tropical Storm Isaac, which had threatened to cancel opening weekend.  Fortunately, we only had to deal with 4-5 inches of MUCH needed rain and some minor wind damage, so tailgating rolled on...  Below, our buddy Scott K. fired up a new smoker-style grill for UAM's residence life program (Scott is the UAM dean of students):

Though for many of y'all, this make look to be a big grill, but it was only mid-sized at this small event--Southerners take their grilling (and grills) very seriously, and if you ever get an opportunity to partake in a true southern-style BBQ...DO IT!!  Below, the UAM flag squad leads out the band and football team prior to kickoff:

Here's the UAM team mascot, the Fightin' Boll Weevil, and UAM's cheerleaders:

As kind of silly as this mascot looks, it did star in a recent nation-wide commercial by online search engine KGB (here is the YouTube link you can follow to see this commercial, done with the official sanction of the university: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNkdeCKqoe4).  The football game was a dominating (78-0) victory by UAM against the College of Faith:

College of Faith is an online university from the Memphis, Tennessee area, that apparently advertised for their football team online and could barely field a team...The stands across the field are for the visiting fans, and as you can see, few made the trip.  Stephen didn't let that dampen his spirits:

Hopefully, the temperatures will shortly seem more fall-like than summer, and the leaves will drop for reasons other than the drought...