October 15, 1994 - 2007

Thirteen years ago today was our wedding day. Although I love my DH (dear hubby/husband) right now I could choke him! HE's NOT said ONE word about what today is! NOT a PEEP! I know now that I should have went ahead with my first thought this evening...... I already had "Kitty" loaded up and freshly cleaned...... I should have went riding somewhere...... anywhere! Oh he's going to hear about this........ NOT a word..... not a card... not a single flower. And where is he right now? Parked in front of the TV watching the Baseball playoff's! I can remember the weekend we got married he almost cried because it was opening weekend for "Coon Hunting Season"! MEN! ARGH!

Ah, the weekend! 10/13-14

The weekend has came and gone already. I've came to the conclusion that something just isn't right about this..... it's all backwards! The weekend should be 5 days and the work week should be 2. Nice idea!
Saturday was a beautiful but windy, a little cool to ride but I was wanting to so bad. Hubby and I went down to "Wilderness Road State Park" to check out what all they had for this years festival. It really is nice..... and it seems to have had more vendors there this year than any year I've seen before. Talked with the lady in charge of booking the music for the festival and as of now "Wilderness Road Dulcimer" is supposed to be playing there in 2008! So mark those calenders for the second weekend in October and be there!
Today, Sunday, I went up with Mom to Granny's house to go through some of her and Papaw's things to see if there were anything that I wanted to keep. I'm honored to say that I've now got their old guitar and an old electric guitar! I can tell that the flattop has been played many hours from the wear on the neck. I'll cherish it all the rest of my life. Thank you Mom for letting me have it. She also gave me the set of three Yellow Ware bowls! Oh they are sooooooo nice! I'm tickled to death! Can't forget the pair of McCoy planters that stayed on Granny's back porch!
After we loaded up what I brought home, we loaded up some of the things that Mom is keeping. Granny's Electric Organ....... and Sewing machine. I can close my eyes now and see Granny sitting at that Organ playing away. Granny would have been 95 had she lived till this years birthday. It doesn't seem right that she's been gone for 10 months now. Sure do miss that feisty little woman.
We unloaded mom's stuff at her house then I came on and put up what stuff I had. It may take me a few days but I'll get the guitar cleaned and polished up and put new strings on it. It is in pretty fair shape to be as old as it is.
Today was an even warmer and more beautiful day than Saturday was. I'll admit that I kept thinking about how I wanted to load up Kitty and go riding. I got a late start but we made it! Unloaded at the bottom of Stone Mountain at Rose Hill and went to the top and took a right out the ridge. Rode to Crows foot and came back down and headed to the truck via the old railroad bed. Stopped several times just to enjoy the quiet..... to listen to the leaves falling and just looking around. I was alone so I didn't eat any dust what so ever! It was sooooo nice! I know that I broke one of my own rules...... Do NOT ride alone..... but it was just to nice of a day to miss out any riding what so ever. The sun had gone down and it really got cold on me. I stopped and found where I had packed away a jacket and a pair of gloves. They sure did feel nice! It was really dark by the time I got back to the parking lot.... but I was happy. I got to go riding and all is right with the world again!

Attended MTORA meeting

I attended the MTORA meeting last night. I was courious as to what all went on at a meeting. I was shocked to see how few people actually were there considering how many are actually paying members. Now I understand that a lot of members don't live in the area, and I can understand why they don't attend, but for those that live IN the county... that is another story. I guess this is just like "Bluegrass In The Park" was.......... only one or two doing the work and everybody else enjoying what they do!
I could understand if they had meetings every week....... but geezzz people! They only meet once a month.... can't you get out one evening? It isn't like the meeting goes on for hours and hours to where you'd be dead on your feet when you get home. I would have been home by just after 7:30 had I not stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things. And the meeting didn't start till 6:00!
Anyhow back to the subject, there were 6 people there including myself. The president wasn't there but from what I was told he had a good excuse, but what about the other club officers? I know that the secretary was there but other than where were the others? Maybe at the next meeting they all will show up and dozens other members and make me eat my words.
OH in case you are totally in the dark as to what MTORA is...... this is what it stands for ... Mountain Trails Off Road Association Inc.
Anyhow the good thing that was done was to set a date for the "Joyce Heck Memorial Ride" to be held on Sunday November 4, 2007. Ride to start out at 10:00 AM. I'll do my best to be there unless it is so bitter cold that I can't stand to get out in the air to breath.

I have my GPS!

Terry brought the GPS to Dulcimer class last night. I got really lucky. VERY lucky indeed! It is a Garmin etrex Legend Cx. This one came with the basic stuff to install. But Terry found out that he needed more things than this one came with so he bought another one, more expensive of course, that came loaded with all the programs within days of buying this one. He's installed everything that the new one has onto this one for me, for FREE! If I've not mentioned it before now I think the world of Terry and his wife Pam. Those are two of the nicest people on the planet! And the best Dulcimer player in the world! I stand corrected.. Dulcimer Players! Pam plays too.
I had to turn it on last night after getting home. I now know exactly where on earth I'm standing just outside my back porch. Hey it could be handy to know! I'll admit that it is going to take a while to learn exactly how to use it, but in the long run it will be so much fun to have. Now I can download and hit some trails that I've only heard about. Or who knows I may find some new ones that I can share with other people. I rather doubt it, but it could happen.
We got some rain yesterday and the trails should be a lot better this morning, but I can't go on any of them. I've got to go to work and open the shop up at noon so all I can do is talk about going for a ride.
Maybe I'll get lucky and have a few days that are warm enough for me to get out and ride this winter after the shop shuts down. I'm not a big fan of cold, freezing weather. But I might try to put on enough clothes to stay warm and venture out on my own.
Well I guess I need to get off of here and do two things, make that three. Load the dishwasher, load the washing machine and do some more reading in the owners manual.

We found our second machine, now to come up with the $$$$

We, husband and I, took a little drive yesterday. Was supposed to leave Sunday evening and spend the night somewhere but didn't get home from Sunday's ride early enough. Just needed to get out of the house and away from everything even if it was just for a day. Started out going to Shoney's at Harrogate for Breakfast. And of course we ate to much.. yet again. Then went into Middlesboro to buy the cheapest gas around. But then it isn't cheap anywhere but at least it beats paying $2.75 a gallon at any station here in town!

While in Middlesboro we went in to see if hubby could find a Bluegrass CD he had been wanting. They had it! He bought the latest Bluegrass CD by Larry Sparks. I've been wanting so bad the CD by Hunter Berry "WOW BABY".... they didn't have that one! Grrrr

We just took off following our noses down the road. Next stop was Morristown, TN. Still couldn't find my CD! Kept going.. We got onto I-40 west bound and got off at the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge exit. NOW lucky for us there is a brand new " Bass Pro" shop at that intersection. Lord how I love going into that place! One of these days I'm going to walk in there with enough money in my pocket to just load up anything and everything that I want from there!

We wondered up and down the isles till we came to the part of the store that has the Arctic Cat ATV's. WOW! Oh how I love those KITTY's! Finally got hubby to sit on an 08 400 4x4. I thnk he really liked what he felt and saw! I sure hope so! OH that thing was pretty! Great ground clearance..... and all the bells and whistles that I'd want on one. It may not be the biggest that AC builds but I honestly think that for no more than he will ride it and I know he will stay off the roughest trails... that it is more than what he needs.

We left there still talking about it.. and kept talking about it all the way home. Oh we did make it on into Pigeon Forge and I made a bee line straight to the "Ernest Tubb Record Shop" and would you believe that they had SOLD OUT of Hunters CD! I was ticked off to say the least! NOT fair! Looks like I'll have to wait till I get to finally see Rhonda & The Rage in person over in Ky the 1st of November then just buy it straight from Hunter at the table.

Cross your fingers and say a prayer that we can swing getting that new Arctic Cat! I do love that thing... it's so sharp!

Finally found Martin's Fork Lake!

I've always heard it said "Third time is the charm." well.. it's true. The past two weekends we have tried to make it to Martin's Fork Lake in Cawood, Ky. Well today we finally made it! I'll admit, just getting there was an adventure in it's self. After Pringle jinxed the trip right from the start we should have known that we were going to be in trouble. He had a little problem in the parking lot first thing... but then got it going and off we went. Then poor Dale had to stop and put in more water before we even got to Crow's foot. That is when Mudpuppy found that she had lost her cell phone! We, Mudpuppy and I, left and backtracked all the way to the parking lot where we began! But good news.. we did find the phone and kept her out of trouble.. well sorta... it was kinda wet! Maybe it will work when it drys out. I sure hope so. Ok, now on with the trip.... I'm a fairly good rider but we came to a place that I knew it was time for me to get off and let someone else take it over that rock! Now it wasn't just your normal little pebble.. OH no.. that I could do. This is one that put you in danger of flipping straight back!! I knew that my Kitty had the power.... but I found out that I didn't have the nerve. I'd rather be safe than have a broken anything. I drove up to the edge and then took a really good look and yelled for someone to come and do this for me. I walked up and over while Dale rode my Kitty.. but it did have a little help.... not that it needed it but they had the tow line hooked to it to keep it from flipping. I loved what Dale said about Kitty after he got up to where I was.. he said "that thing will climb a tree!" But then after everyone made it up over the boulder there was one other little thing to get over... a tree! Now it wasn't the size of the tree it was the way it had been cut. Someone had cut it a foot high from the ground and leaned it over. Darn if I didn't get stuck on that sucker! But I had help and they got me free and we went on. Finally the lake was in site a few minutes later. LUNCH TIME! After everyone ate it was time to play.. and for some reason they love to see what sort of trouble they can get Mudpuppy in. There was a fallen tree that went over some of the backwater and of course they put her up to going across the tree log. She made it... but she crawled all the way there and back! Next stop was near Cawood. The mudhole that they were heading to was sorta taken.... someone had gotten a truck stuck in it and had just left it there! Next it was off to the river/creek to play in the water. I like water! Mudpuppy got in and washed off some of the mud.... and she had a little help! hehehe Then it was time to head home.... seems like we made it back a heck of a lot quicker than we got there!

But we made it. We all ate dust.. again... cough.... cough. But we made it. Nobody broke down to be towed home, and nobody wrecked and broke anything... so it was a good day!

The leaves are starting to change..... maybe next week the leaves will be at or near peak fall color. Maybe we will go slow enough to get good pictures of it too! Till next week.. stay safe!

The weekend is here!

Well it's the weekend at last... My better/other half is going to be very busy so that means that I can go riding guilt free! Not sure where the group will head to tomorrow (Sunday) but wherever it is I'm sure that it will be a good ride. I have a brand new Thor helmet that is still in the bag brand new and clean. I've got to get it dirty! I heard that it is against the law to have a perfectly clean helmet. Can't break the law!

Before I forget...... if you find this blog.... and like what I've done with it please feel free to tell me about it. If nothing else just drop me a note to say hello! See ya'll tomorrow.