Sunday, October 23, 2016
First thing this morning we got to listen to Charles Stanley preach about faith. Then we decided to visit the Temple Baptist Church just a mile down the street from us for their 8:30am service.
Above is Temple Baptist Church's cross in front of their church.
This is the baptistry in the front of the sanctuary.
We really enjoyed the sermon about handling wayward children.
Then we came home and listened to our church, North Side Baptist, on the internet. Most Sundays we are able to listen to our church on the internet. What a wonderful morning!
After lunch, we decided to go to the Town Lake Park which is next to the New City Lake.
To our surprise, these were the only ducks we saw at the lake.
It is breezy today so the water is not calm, but the clouds still were reflected. There is a golf course on the other side of the lake from the park.
We saw a couple of blue herons. This is the best picture.
Tic caught these little butterflies on these little wildflowers.
We saw several sandpipers along the sandy shores.
We were able to walk around about half the lake. This is another part of the lake. It is a pretty park.
We saw this one white heron also. This bird was on the opposite shore of the lake. The zoom on Tic's new camera is amazing!
We saw this tree that is starting to fall over. It still has enough roots in the ground to only be leaning and still looks very alive. The ground is very sandy so no telling when it will actually fall over.
We wondered if a bird pecked out the center to create this hole. Well, we got about 5000 steps in by the time we finished walking around as much as we could. It is a beautiful afternoon.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Today we are headed to the Pumpkin Festival in Paris, TX. As it turns out the festival was mainly for children.
They had pony rides. Most kids like pony rides.
Kids could go "fishing" in the city fountain.
There was live music. It wasn't bad, but not good enough to sit and listen for a while.
A lady was wearing this T-shirt. I "NEED" one of these.
One of the fire trucks had its ladder up displaying the American flag.
Fruit juice jars were used to create a maze for the kids to walk through.
This clown was blowing bubbles with the wand in her hand. Unfortunately we missed getting the bubbles. It was hard to get a picture of her without people around her.
What would a Texas festival be without bull riding? This little boy had a blast.
This video is actual speed the bull was moving. Look how tightly the little boy was holding on. It was fun to watch!
Of course, Paris had to have its Eiffel Tower (Texas style). We asked a young girl to take a picture of us in front of this. She thought she had. We failed to check the camera and there was not any picture of us. Oh well.
So we found an image on the Internet, just so you would not miss out. It's a wannabe.
In the parking lot of the Eiffel Tower was a small gathering of Cushman owners and their bikes. Above and below are just 2 of the 6 or 8 there. There were others parked around, we believe their event had just wrapped up for the day.
Right next to the Eiffel Tower was this Veterans Memorial. It was still being worked on. I love the gates!
Above is the front side of the large plaque at the entrance. Below is the back side of the same plaque.
This stone was set in the ground at the entrance also. We all need to remember that our freedoms come at a great cost and should not be taken for granted.
This trolley pulled up as we were exiting the Veterans Memorial. Not sure about the route. No one got off and the driver just sat there. We did not ask any questions.
WOW what an exciting trip to Paris... Texas that is.
Friday, October 21, 2016
We only have 2.5 hours to our next stop and since we don't want to be there before 2 pm we have the whole morning to see more at De Gray Lake.
De Gray Lake is just outside Arkadelphia, AR.
De Gray Lake is a reservoir on the Caddo River. De Gray dam impounds the waters of the Caddo River to form a flood
control lake that covers 13,400 acres, and a shoreline of 207
miles. Completed in 1972 at a cost of $63,800,000 including a 40 MW hydraulic turbine and a 28 MW turbine generate electricity for the Southwestern Power Administration of Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. (Per Wikipedia)
The Caddo River just below the earthen dam.
On down the Caddo River. Pretty area!
It was nice to see the sun shining this morning.
From the Visitors Center we got a closer view of the dam.
This is the 40 MW generating station at the back side of the dam.
This is the Iron Mountain Visitors Center. We should be leaving by noon today. It has been a beautiful and relaxing morning.
We made it to Ramblin Fever in Mt. Pleasant. We are using Passport America for 3 nights. There are no restrooms or showers, but there are laundry facilities. All sites are FHU with 30/50 amp electric.
Our site is pretty narrow. You can see our neighbors on one side and the parking area for the site on the other side.
We drove around town a little and they have this large city park around a lake. The name is "New City Lake". Original huh?
Sunset is so early these days, we almost missed it.
Thursday, October 20, 2016 - continued
The Sugg Model Train Garden was within Garvan Gardens also.
Again I'm just going to post the best pictures without descriptions.
The model train garden was complete with a panther. Fun!
Within the Garvan Gardens is Anthony Chapel. It looks very much like the Thorncrown Chapel. It can be rented for weddings.
The structure above is called the Anthony Family Carillon. The picture below is looking straight up inside the structure.
It was a beautiful afternoon getting to wander through God's creations. We are so blessed to be living this lifestyle. Thank you Lord!
