Showering Acts of Joy Porch

I hate to bust your bubble Pat but Winnie and I have met before. She might not remember and it was pretty much just in passing a time or two. But, we have met. :)

I don't know if I would say I was an encyclopida. Call it my Irish blood I guess. There is something about a place that speaks to you. I have lived in all parts of Arkansas with the exception of the extream south. There is a song about the state that has a line that says. Arkansas it runs deep in me. That's how I feel. It kills me that my kids haven't gotten to experience it the way I did.

Bear has never been much for car trips so the kids didn't get to go to the caverns or see all the state parks. Only on ocassion have we ever gotten in the car and just drove to drive not caring where we ended up. I grew up that way. Every little town has a musuem and they all use to be open on Saturdays though not anymore. We would pull out of the drive and Daddy would ask Left or right. At every stop sign it was left, right or straight ahead. We would take turns picking and where we ended up at lunch time was where we would stop and visit the local state park for a picnic lunch and find the museum.

So yeah... I know probably more than most do about their home states. But, It's facinating. We were the last stop before Hell... Also known as indian country. We had the hanging judge in the north, state legislatures gunning it out on the floor of the state house in the center of the state and Jim Bowe making the Arkansas toothpick in the south. All of those things put together makes for a facinating culture that is hard not to want ot learn more about. I drank it up as a kid.

My biggest regret is that the Cowboy Poetry Convention didn't come back to ASU Beebee after the last big tornado that took out half the campus. That does remind me though. The reinactors should be on Pettie Jean Mountain soon. I need to go over to the website and see when they are going to be there again. THe kids would love it if I can manage it. We lucked into seeing them at Pea Ridge a few years back and Alex was just facinated. :)