Everyone had a great time at the reunion. The main course was 40 pounds of shrimp which everyone enjoyed. Of course, it was more food than we could eat. Karen and I had left over shrimp the whole week.
The weather was great with a light breeze and the water was great. Reynolds Powe water-skied for the first time; while, a number of the adults had see if they could still water-ski.
Karen and I stayed with Uncle Tommy for the whole week. We had a blast boating out to the Middle Bay Light.
Here some more pictures from the reunion, just click the picture to see them.
My wife, Karen Allen, is running out of mystery books. You never want the avid book reader in your life to run out of books. Never fear, we have found a great mystery book store called the Book Sleuth, but it is in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Karen is in luck, because I travel to Colorado Springs on a regular basis.
Helen C. Randal is the owner, but I will have to confess that Karen and I thought she was dead the first time we walked into the store. She was slumped over and the book she was reading had fallen out of her hand. Given a door bell rang as we entered, we argued for few minutes about who was going to check her vital signs. This went on for a few minutes more, but we soon decided that we would make a large noise, which I am thankful to say she was not dead.
Lyman Mark manages the store for Helen. Lyman must have read very book in the store. You can barely describe a book that you are looking to purchase and Lyman will be able to put his hand right onto it.
Mammoth Cave was cool as in 54° F or 12° C, which is to be expected. Karen and I were on limited schedule of time, because we were heading over to Lexington, Kentucky. Due to our limited time, we decided to only go on the self guided tour of Mammoth Cave. This tour enters through the historical entrance and takes you by the saltpeter artifacts and walks you through some of the largest trunk passages in Mammoth Cave.
The saltpeter artifacts are from the time period around the War of 1812. Mammoth Cave became a valuable commercial property with the outbreak of the War of 1812 between the United States and England. Cave sediments with abundant quantities of nitrate, an essential ingredient of gunpowder, were mined by slaves during the war.
This picture is from the Kentucky Horse Park web site The park is made up of 1200 acres dedicated to man’s relationship with the horse.
Karen and I are heading to Kentucky for the Memorial Day weekend. We have never been to Kentucky. Karen has been wanting to see the bluegrass, which not actually blue.
We will start our trip by heading to Mammoth Cave in central Kentucky. As I understand this is the longest recorded cave in the world with over 360 miles of explored and mapped. We are going to be staying at our first Bed & Breakfast while we visit Mammoth Cave area. We found the Serenity Hill Bed and Breakfast at BBOnline, which a web site dedicated to providing information about any and all Bed & Breakfasts.
After Mammoth Cave, we will head north to drive the Blue Grass Parkway over to Lexington, Kentucky. From Lexington, we will visit the surrounding area including Richmond and Berea. In the Lexington area, we could visit the Kentucky Horse Park (pictured at the top of the page). In Berea, we will surely go to the Kentucky Artisan Center. The center looks to be a great place to pickup a souvenir for our trip.
Partial map of the Huntsville Land Trust trails with our hike hi-lighted.
Karen and I got out and did some hiking today. The weather was great with the temperature around 74º.
If you haven’t hiked the Land Trust trails, you are missing out on some great trails. The trails are primarily located on Monte Sano Mountain in Huntsville, Alabama, but there are others located throughout Madison County and north Alabama. The Land Trust has over 3,400 acres of land. The trails include many levels of difficult from easy on up.
We hiked all over the area between the Land Trust Parking lot and Cleermont Drive. I highlighted our hike on the map. It is a beautiful area with a creek running between the Fagan Spring Trail and Wildflower Trail. We found a lot of wild life on the hike. I saw a large black snake that was over three foot in length, but it move to quickly for Karen to catch up and see it. Soon after the first snake, we saw smaller two foot long black snake similar to the first. The snake did not move. I guess warm of the sun was to good to leave. The under growth was jumping with life, too. We saw chipmunks, squirrels, and lizards frequently. Karen spotted a pool of tadpoles. They were too young to see any legs or arms.
If you are interested in hiking the area, I have provided a link here to the trails in PDF format.
Everyone had a great time at the reunion. The main course was 40 pounds of shrimp which everyone enjoyed. Of course, it was more food than we could eat. Karen and I had left over shrimp the whole week.
