"Bill's Excellent Adventure!"

Update (7:50pm): It is currently 34 outside with mixed precepitation (sleet, snow and rain), probably 38 inside! No...don't really know what temp is inside. Not sure I really want to know either! Actually, I bought a huge blue tarp and have hermetically sealed the tent, right before it started snowing! I really hadn't planned on winter camping. The tarp goes to the ground and then some front and back and comes down to about 2 ft on either end. I wrapped the excess around the ends to keep wind from making its way inside and used diaper pins to secure the ends. That plus my heater it's actually not bad in here. My ears, toes and fingers are still warm so I must be okay for now.

Took some pics outside the library here. It is a small one but was built by Carnegie back in 1912 I think. While there on Spring St (one of the main streets in historic ES, I also took some pics for a few blocks on one stretch. This town is so convoluted, but I think Spring is probably on about three levels. I think what I do is as I take more on Spring St I'll attempt to tell you which blocks, or maybe I'll just combine all Spring St shots into one slide show. It is a very unique place, no doubt and I think you'll see what I mean. Streets are very narrow as they were built to accomodate horse and buggy, not cars.

From some of what I have read, it sounds like this town got built very haphazardly and burned down several times in its early years.

Today I drove to Fayetteville, AR (pop 67,000). After several false starts at finding the tarp I wanted, I found it where I was going to stop first, Wal-Mart. It's like 24' X 29'. I was after 30 x 30 and for $52 was the right mix of price and size. Home depot had a 30 X 60 for $116 and found one at a pawn shop 30 X 60 for $65. I was about to go back to the pawn shop then decided to check out Wal-Mart.

The exciting adventure today was the AR Air Museum there in Fayetteville. It was a really pleasant drive of about 45-60 min. It's a nice collection of old civilian plans as well as some military jets and helicopters outside. Those are in pretty rough shape. There was an A-4 there from my old carrier, the USS America! That was pretty neat to find. It was from a Navy squadron, V-64. I'll have to look them up in my America yearbook when I get home and see if it was from at least one of my deployments.

The have three buildings, two of which are hangers. Chatted with the old timer working at restoring the planes. He says they have about 14 volunteers come in on Tuesdays and work on the exhibits. They have a range of jeeps and other military vehicles as well there that he says all run. His volunteers are all older than he is and I figure he must be late 60's early 70's himself!
One building has a really comprehensive display of rifles from all conflicts including German and Japanese weapons. All kinds of uniforms all inside plastic and look in perfect condition, as well as surgical tools, etc. The main building has really nicely done window displays of each era of War we have been in. Small but tastefully presented.

I was really impressed with this place and the care that has gone into it.

Took lots of pics, but may not get them posted until tomorrow...we'll see how the deep freeze does this evening!

Just checked the forecast...supposed to drop to 19 Fri night and 17 on Sat. A heat wave begins Sunday with a low of 44.

Well, let's see if I can process my pics.

More later.
Bill

4/5/07 Thurs. Just spent AM processing pics and posting on site. Still need to add narrative but you can at least see what I have been up to. As usual, go to the April Photo Gallery.

More later. Good to hear from Norm yesterday. Good luck with the "surprise" wedding coming up!


Bill