Arkanas

Oh yeah, I totally forgot to post about my trip to Arkansas last weekend. Colby and I left Friday afternoon, made a quick stop at the Busy Bee in Hugo (the best cheeseburgers anywhere, period.) Mmm, makes me want to go get one now - it's only 20 minutes away or so. Anyway, we drove on US 70 from Hugo through Oklahoma. All I have to say about that leg of the trip is that Broken Bow smelled like poo - honestly, it did. I accused Colby of severe and egregious flatulence, then rolled down the window to air out the car - oops, the awful stench was on the outside!! Dad said there is a Tyson chicken plant somewhere around there, and that might have been the cause of the fowl odor. (waiting for laughs, the sound of crickets chirping quietly in the background.....)
So then we hit Arkansas - the sign welcoming you from Oklahoma to Arkansas looked like someone took posterboard (and not the cool colored kind, just boring white) and wrote "Welcome To Arkansas" with a sharpie. Not a good first impression, IMHO. But the drive was nice - even at night, it was scenic, kinda.
We made Hot Springs about 9 or 10, I forget, and found a hotel. We picked it because it had a cool mural on the side.



We left the next morning for the diamond mine. After a longer than expected drive there (due to missing the turn and driving waaaay past before realizing my mistake), we spent 4 or 5 hours digging dirt, sluicing it, and finding .... absolutely nothing. A few quartz crystals here and there. But it was fun - I got my watch tan line back!
We had a few hours to kill, so after visiting a historic Indian village (forgot the name but it sounded like Im Ho Tep, the Egyptian pharaoh or something) and having late lunch at Sonic (I let Colby pick, my mistake, and not the last one I'd make on this trip - read on!) we decided to do some scenic driving (and take pics!). After that, we find a decent looking motel, bed down for the night, and drive back through Mina (someone told me that route is VERY beautiful and photogenic) Sunday on the way home.

That's not what happened.

So, we decided to do a few hours of scenic driving or so Sat afternoon. Colby found a place called Poison Springs on our map - it was in green, which meant scenic! So we headed down hwy 371 - Colby was the navigator, since I was driving, and he said it was just after you cross I30 that we'd need to turn. Okay, no prob. He decides to take a nap, and I've got my tunes going, cruising down 371, on the open road.
About the time Colby woke up, I noticed a sign along the roadside saying "Welcome To Louisiana!". Oops. Seems I'd been listening a little too intently to my tunes and didn't notice when we crossed over the BIG GIANT INTERSTATE HIGHWAY THAT HAS LOTS OF SIGNS AND STUFF TO LET YOU KNOW ITS COMING. Oh well. We decided to scrap the plans for Mina and instead ventured forth towards Shreveport. All the casinos are lit up really beautifully at night - lots of flashing lights, the colors.
So we found a hotel which looked decent. Upon entering, I noticed A) No awful stench of any kind, and B) No bloodstains on the carpet or bed, so we were in good shape. The bathroom was another story.



The funniest part of this pic isn't the horrible looking tub - its the nicely folded towel and soap laid 'just so' on the tub that makes me laugh.
Sunday we headed out from Shreveport to Kilgore, TX. That's where Colby's dad Max lives (until he moves to College Station next month or so) - we had lunch with Max at a great little Mexican place, then left for home - and then the rain hit all the way back. So ended our trip. The next weekend trip (our last for 2006, most likely) will be for Natural Bridge Caverns near Austin or so. Plenty of photo-ops there, I think. Hopefully I won't miss the turn!

I am a PRO!!!!!

Finally, after so many long months of waiting, I have my first photo shoot - as a PAID PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!!

(I'll wait a few seconds for those of you who are spewing Coke out your nose and laughing to calm down and clean yourself up. Go ahead, I'll wait.....)

Better? Okay, here's the scoop. My friend Darwin thinks I am a really good photographer (yeah, pulled a fast one on him). He was really impressed with my camera, probably more impressed than he is with my photography skills, but hey, I'll take what I can get. Anyhoo, he wants me to come to his church next Sunday and take pics of the choir, congregation (not during church, that would be inappropriate - see how awesome my photo taking skills are?), some group shots, and individual pics, then print them out and sell them to the church members as a fund raiser to buy some new sound equipment. I told him I would do it for cost of materials, so I'm not making money on this, but still, I'm getting PAID FOR TAKING PICS!!
This shoot will present some challenges for me - well, not challenges, but some different situations I've never photographed before. I have lots of pics of white people, and I have lots of experience touching up pics of them on the computer. Usually my only problem is having to correct for blownout highlights on the skin. Black people (Darwin goes to a predominately black church - around here, Sunday is the most segregated day of all, it seems) present a different situation - underexposure will be a problem, so I'll have to correct for that without letting the flash blow out everything else. Cool - shooting in new conditions can only enhance my skills as a PAID PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!!

Arkansas, Again

...well, "again" usually implies that you've done it before, but not so in this case. I head out for Arkansas tomorrow (instead of last week), along with Colby, straight for the largest diamond ever to be found (I hope) at Crater of Diamonds park. Mostly I bet I'll find some cool rocks, but hey, that would be nice too. I REALLY hope to get some great landscape pics - my wideangle lens is already attached and ready!

He's Baaaack!

Roy strikes again. This time, he's not ranting about giving North Dakota to the Israelis, he ranting about...well, you figure it out for yourself.

(from the Paris News Website)

To the Editor:

Does praying for rain really, ever cause it to rain?

There are many prayers for certain things. Rain is a common object of prayer. Changes in the weather are prayed for when it appears to be needed. A church group prayed for rain and it started raining. Three days later they prayed for it to stop raining. There is the childish rhyme “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.”

The more we know about the causes of weather, the less likely we are to expect to change it in order to save our hay crop, or have a fine day for our garden party. A prayer for rain will do no harm. It might even do some good. So lets all pray for rain and hope for the best.

Roy Bunch

Paris

I believe the editorial staff at the Paris News has an alarm that goes off when ol' Roy writes an editorial, making sure they include it in the paper, because other than the "Gosh, Isn't He So Stupid, It's Funny?"factor, there is no good reason to publish his editorials. So the staff must be printing them solely for the entertainment value, lol. Keep 'em coming, Ray!