Friday, August 21, 2015

State Fair

When my brother, sister and myself were young we NEVER got to go to the State Fair.  Dad hated going to the fair.  When he was young he spent from June 1st until the State Fair was over in mid August at a fair.  Maybe only home for a day or so.  Slept and ate in the barns with the live stalk.  It was pretty serious business showing registered Hampshire Hogs and registered Hereford Cattle.


We did get to join 4H when we were kids.  Mostly I got to do baking or sewing when there was a separation with "girls and boys" 4H.  Then they started a combined 4H.  That is when we all three got to show hogs.  We got to go to the Coles County Fair but that was all dad could take. We never did qualify for the State Fair, which dad was ok with.
   Jeri took Kristyn to the Coles County fair on arm band day she invited the boys to go with them. 
                                                         "A fun time was had by all".                                            



When my grandsons, Clayton and Braden, joined 4H it was going to be fun to watch them participate.  On Clayton's first project he qualified to go to the State Fair.  Braden got a blue ribbon but was to young to go to state.  So last Sunday we all loaded up in Brad and Sarah's van and headed out for a "hot" day at the State Fair.
Ribbons from the Coles County Fair

                                                 Talking with the Judge at the State Fair




He presented his project and answered the Judges questions.  The Judge said he did a very good job for being young.

We walked the fair grounds.  Checked out the live stalk.  Then headed to the midway.  Ate fair food and then the boys plus mom and grandpa rode the sky lift.  Grandma, Lindy and daddy walked to the end of the sky lift.

             Conservation World was a big hit.  Got to shoot arrows and pellet guns.  Both boys are                                                           really good shots.  Must be in their gene's.


                                                                 Touching a Crawdad
                                                         The Lincoln here on display
                                                                    Typical Clayton
                                             And a must see.  The famous Butter Cow.


Ran into a woman I know from work and she took the sweetest picture of Lindy Lou and Grandma.



                                And as they say "Our dogs were barking" when we got in the van. 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Change of scenery.


Well last week was an extremely busy, fun & relaxing week.  On Sunday afternoon we went to Palestine for the JFL football Jamboree.  Clayton and Braden played.  Both boys did very well and so dis their teams.  Clayton's team, 7th & 8th grade, ended up tying the first game and winning the second.  Note: they only won 2 games total last year.  There are 15 small football players that play their hearts out.

Braden's team, 4th, 5th & 6th grade, won one lost one but they played well for being some of the boys first year.

When the games were over we headed out towards Gatlinburg Tennessee on vacation.  We got as far a Vincennes Indiana and saw an Army museum.  Of course it was closed but we drove through and got pictures.  Plan on taking the grandkids back someday.








We drove as far as Frankfort Kentucky.  Joe lived a few years in Frankfort when he was a young boy.  The next morning we decided to tour the capital building of Kentucky.  It is a beautiful building.  Joe said he went to Kindergarten just down the street from the capital building.  The building isn't there any longer.


This room is set up for the Governor to entertain guests or sign bills into law.  It has a balcony off the front of the capital building.  We were lucky enough to get to go out on the balcony (they don't normally open it). 

This is the view from the balcony.  Our guide was telling us that is we looked to the right there was a hill and you could see a cemetery.  You could also see a monument from where we stood.  It was Daniel Boone's grave.

After our tour of Frankfort we headed out towards Gatlinburg.  The scenery started changing.


Got to our room around dinner time.  I had booked our room online so we weren't sure what we were getting, but we couldn't have been more pleased and surprised.  Our room was amazing and we only paid $50 per night.  Pretty good deal.




Below is a fountain with a waterfall (the waterfall was not on when we got there).  This fountain sits above the parking garage.



This is part of the quaint part of Gatlinburg.  Lots of older looking village shops set back off the main drag.
 

Joe had me go into this candy shop to take a picture of this nut cracker.  The boys have decided that Grandpa Joe collects nut crackers.  In his words "I win".  This is the biggest one we've found.

There are shows and exhibits everywhere.  This may have been Ripley's Believe It or Not, I'm not sure but this old horse was hilarious.  It was moving pretty funny.

This is the breakfast restaurant where we ate a couple mornings. 

Unbelievable how they build cabins and houses right on the side of the mountains.


One of the places Joe wanted to go was the knife shop in Sevierville.  Supposed to be the "worlds largest".
Second day we took a trip in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  Drove up to Cades Cove.  It was one of the earliest settlements.  Bears were supposed to be very active.  Well guess what we didn't see any.


Stopped in at this primitive church.  Makes you very thankful for our padded pews.  These benches were very uncomfortable.



This is one of valley's in the Cove.  It was just stunning.
Signs everywhere to not feed the bears and also to be careful because there are lots of snakes and they like to hide under the buildings.






The steams were just beautiful.

Breakfast at "The Old Mill".  This was a recommendation from my Aunt Karan.
We stopped at a log carving store.  This was really interesting.

Saw one show.  The Hatfields and McCoys.  Really really good.  Just need to remember that if your phone doesn't change time zones that you will be LATE.  We missed the first 30 minutes.



When we left Gatlinburg we headed to Nashville.
Toured the Ryman Auditorium.  Absolutely amazing.  Unbelievable this was actually build as a church after Mr Ryman gave his life to Christ.

Tooties bar in the alley behind the Ryman.  Lots of very famous country artists got their start or sang there through the years.

Bridgestone Arena downtown Nashville where the CMT award show is held.
Then it was homeward bound.  We had had all the fun we could take.
 

Pardiville