Happy Halloween!!

This time of year always reminds me of when I saw one of the scariest movies that I can remember.

It was called

HALLOWEEN


with a new actress named Jaime Lee Curtis. I don't remember the name of the actor who played opposite of her. But I DO remember his name in the movie.

MICHAEL MYERS

This movie came out in 1978.


It set the bar for how scary movies SHOULD be made, as far as I'm concerned. There wasn't too much blood and guts. There was more scary scenes like Michael wearing the mask and peering in the window: Or jumping out at people.

Let me set it up for you. My friends and I decided to see this movie at the show. First we went out to dinner after work, then to a small movie theater in Chicago that we had never been to, in a neighborhood some of us were not familiar with. Why, I am not sure. It was Fall, of course, so it was dark by the time we went to the show. We got into the theater and sat down. I can't remember if there were three or four of us. Anyway, the movie started and got our attention right off the bat. The music alone got my heart rate going. For some reason, I STILL don't know why, I happened to glance back at the man sitting behind me on my left. He had a HOOK arm. I almost wet my pants. I continued to glance back at him throughout the movie and thought, "If this guy puts that hook on my shoulder I will SCREAM!" I really was kind of frightened of him. It's not too often that you see someone with a hook for a hand; let alone while watching a scary movie!

At one point in the movie my friend Chris leaned over and whispered, "Why is it so dark?" (talking about the movie). Suddenly Michael Myers jumped out of the darkness wielding his big butcher knife and shoved it in some kid's chest, nailing him 6 inches off the ground to the laundry room wall.

"THAT'S WHY!!" I whispered back.

We had a good laugh about that later, but at the time it scared the bejesus out of us!

After the movie was over we hurried to my friend's car, climbed in, and, you guessed it....her car wouldn't start. Well, now I was having visions of ole hook arm coming after us! Luckily my other friend Teresa called up her boyfriend to come look at the car. It didn't take him too long to get there, which was good because if memory serves me right, the theater closed and we were left all alone in the parking lot. It was a LIT-TLE SCARY.

So seeing Halloween on the big screen, the man with the hook arm, and the car breaking down in a strange neighborhood, all left a scary impression on me.

I will NOT watch scary movies on my own. I used to go to the show with my scary-movie-watcher-friend, Jan, but sadly she passed away suddenly, 2 years ago. She would get a kick out of me screaming in the theater, hitting her, or holding her hand during the scary scenes. Why would I subject myself to that?

I don't know. Just crazy, I guess.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Watch a clip......if you DARE!

Scenes from the Road

Hello darlings. This is one tired old broad. Last you heard from me, we were in Des Moines, Iowa. Well, since then, we've traveled through:

and

and

and

and now we are in:

That may sound like a lot of driving, but we've actually only gone around 1,000 miles! Since it is so late in the month for us to be coming down to Arizona, we are not touring, but just driving, stopping for the night, and leaving the next morning.

That means I had to just wave at this sign:

and hope that maybe we can stop there another time. This is the exit for the Madison County Bridges, made famous in the movie with Meryl  Streep and Clint Eastwood.

I am enjoying our ride down as far as the scenery goes.......the fall colors have been spectacular. There's the advantage for driving down later in the month! See for yourself.

I like how this vibrant red tree is standing right near a totally barren one!

We saw some interesting and/or funny things on the road:

Don't know what "Bob's" was, but it was awful inviting!

Saw this fancy semi-truck at a rest stop:

Let's zoom in on the extra large cab, shall we?

Notice the words "Smith&Wesson" in large letters?

You know, we see Harley Davidson stores everywhere we travel. But this is the FIRST time I saw one of these stores in a BARN! I actually did a double take and almost didn't get the picture taken!

I sure hope the employees don't wear bib overalls!

I saw this beautiful wagon train sculpture in Kansas as we were leaving our campground.

This guy stands about three stories high, just look how he dwarfs the big trucks in the parking lot! I think "Terrible's Casino" is a Terrible name! I wonder if anybody ever wins any money?

I found these telephone poles to be a little mesmerizing....I don't know if they were in the process of replacing them with the straight poles or what.

Out of the five campgrounds we've stayed at so far, two were really nice, three were, meh. The next two photos were taken at one of the nicer campgrounds.

And finally, we KNEW we were getting into the southwest when we saw one of these roll across the road:

Have a great rest of the weekend.

Thursday's Things in a Row

Old MacDonald had a farm....EIEIO.

And on that farm he had some chickens. EIEIO

With a bawk, bawk here.......

Old MacDonald had a farm...EIEIO. And on that farm he had some turkeys. EIEIO.

With a gobble, gobble here.....

Old MacDonald had a farm...EIEIO. And on that farm he had some roosters. EIEIO.

With a cock-a-doodle doo here.......

Old MacDonald had a farm...EIEIO. And on that farm he had some ducks. EIEIO.

With a quack, quack here......

Old MacDonald had a farm...EIEIO. And on that farm he had some sheep. EIEIO. But there were only two and you need at least three to make a row, EIEIO. So I have no pictures to show.

These photos were actually taken at Hank's Farm, in Ottawa, IL, which has a Curious Goods store that sells all kinds of things. There is also a good restaurant, AND all these animals are walking all over the grounds.

I remembered at the last minute about Thursday's Things In a Row. I'm losing track of days because we are on the road making our way down to Arizona!

What have you got for me this week?

Signs - Winslow, AZ

Taken in Winslow, Arizona a few years ago as we were passing through.

This should bring back memories for a lot of you! Are you singing the song "Take it Easy" by The Eagles? No? Well, here, watch the video and that will get you singing!



For more signs, visit Lesley here.

Welcome to Iowa

T

Well folks, last night I laid my head down in a small town just outside of Des Moines. We got on the road as soon as we heard that Lily got a good report from the doctor.

The clouds rolled in and we drove through a few minutes of rain here and there. Sometimes the sun broke through the clouds and the lighting was awesome. My header photo is one I shot from the truck window.

I played with the photo a little. Which one do you like best?

I used the "posterized" effect here.

Same photo, but with the "topography" effect

Some things I saw on the road:

Turbine propeller

This sign directs you to the town of What Cheer, Iowa. Who wouldn't want to live there?

Founded in 1865, it was first named Petersburg, after the settlement's founder Peter Britton. But the Post Office rejected the name! I don't know why the name was rejected, but isn't that a slap in the face? Joseph Andrews, a veteran of the Civil War, suggested the name of "What Cheer", and the town officially changed it's name in 1879. So I'm not sure if it was named Petersburg UNTIL 1879, or if it was a town with no name until that date. There are many theories behind the name of "What Cheer":

• What cheer with you is an ancient English greeting dating back to the 15th century. Supposedly a Scottish miner exclaimed, "What cheer!" when finding a seam of coal near the town.
• Some think that Joseph Andrews chose the name because of the connection to his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. When Roger Williams, (a theologian who began Providence Plantation), arrived in Providence in 1636, he was greeted by the Narragansett native Americans with "What Cheer, Netop". "Netop" means "friend". The native Americans picked up What Cheer from the English Settlers.

This company does some eye-catching advertising for farm equipment!

We got to our campground, which is situated on a farm. We had to pull into the farm to register. This is the outside of the office.

Looks friendly, doesn't it? Inside we met the owner, and her cat, Pillsbury.

To get to the campground, we had to leave the farm, go back out onto the road, turn down a side road, then another road, to get to the back "forty" as they say. Although it was bigger than that! We were surprised at how nice and clean the campground was; most of the sites were paved. There was a large building that had a game room, bathrooms and laundry. 

There were huge statues all over the park.

We walked to see the horses in the field. They wouldn't come to us, even though Jim whistled and I made kissing noises. Darn!

A road less traveled

And we're off again!

Update on Lily

Thank all of you for your prayers for my granddaughter, Lily. Her eye surgery went well this morning.

A few days ago, my daughter, Jessica, had explained to Lily a little bit of what was going to happen to her. Last night she said, "Lily, either Mommy or Daddy will come and get you and it will still be dark out. It will be an adventure!" Jessica said.

Lily turned to me and said, "An adventure, Gwamma!"

Jessica continued. "Then Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Papa, and you are going to pile into the car and we are going to go for a long drive. And then we will go to the doctor. He will look at your eyes."

"That will hurt!" Lily said. (That kid's no dummy!)

This morning when Lily came downstairs, she was all excited to go on the adventure. We adults felt a little guilty because we KNEW the truth. The ride to the hospital took an hour. Lily pointed out the moon several times and told us that she saw animals as we passed a wooded area! This kid has such a vivid imagination.

By the time they actually took Lily to surgery, it was 8 a.m. The first time she cried was when the male nurse picked her up and took her away.

The doctor and anesthesiologist had reassured my daughter that there were no lingering gasses in the operating room and that it was safe for Lily to have surgery in there. Because of the chance that Lily might have Malignant Hyperthermia  (MH) (allergic reaction to some triggering anesthetics) her surgery was the first of the day.

The surgery lasted almost 2 hours. There was some concern because Lily developed a fever and her heart rate had escalated; two signs of MH. But they kept a close eye on her, and gave her tylenol for the fever and she was okay.

There is a slight swelling around her eyes, some bruising, and both eyes are bloodshot. She's having a little rough time at home, not being able to keep anything down and feeling nauseous from the anesthesia. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. It's so hard to see a little one go through this!

Thank you all, again, for your prayers. Jessica, Dave, Jim, Lily, and I, appreciate them so very much!

If everything goes well with Lily tomorrow, we will begin our trek south to Arizona.

Busy Times

The next few days will be busy. Today we are going to my daughter's church where they will be doing a special "laying of the hands" on our granddaughter, Lily.

You may recall that she is having corrective surgery on both eyes tomorrow morning. The hospital is an hour away from my daughter's house; the surgery is scheduled for 7:30 am. Lily has to be there by 6:30 am.

You do the math.

Yep. We have to leave by 5:30 am at the latest. 


To make things easier, Jim and I will stay overnight so we don't have to get up any earlier than necessary and drive the 1/2 hour to my daughter's house.

The surgery should last around 2 hours. An hour an eye? I wonder.

Again please remember Lily in your prayers. I hope to be able to update you on her condition.

The very next day (Tuesday) we head for Arizona. We don't drive very far each day (between 200-300 miles); this is due to the stiffness of my bones and the uncomfortable seat in the truck! We are planning on stopping and setting up each night (versus staying a couple of days here and there). Jim is anxious to get to Arizona! So it will be a tiring week and my postings may be sporadic. I hope to be reading your blogs, but I may not always comment!

Take care everyone! Hope you all have a good week!

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

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CAUTION!! SEXUAL CONTENT!! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE BOTHERED BY PHOTOS OF NUDE STATUES IN SEXUAL POSITIONS!!
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So here's what happened. I was fully clothed, wearing jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a fleece vest, socks, shoes, had a blanket wrapped around my legs and the heat cranked up to 73 in the trailer. It probably was in the 40's OUTSIDE, but the trailer just doesn't hold heat if the furnace isn't running.

Anyway, I digress.

I was surfing the net, catching up on the different blogs I follow; not only all of yours, but ones like Post Secret, or Oddities, etc. And I stumbled across this one.

And this is how I decided that JeJu Island (also known as Loveland) in South Korea, is now added to my bucket list of places to see.

JeJu Island became a popular honeymoon destination after the Korean War, due to it's warm climate. At that time, many of the Korean marriages were arranged. So there were many a nervous bride. According to an article in Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, in the late 1980s journalist and travel writer Simon Winchester reported that some hotel employees on the island performed as "professional icebreakers". In the evenings, the hotel would offer an entertainment program featuring erotic elements to help newlyweds relax.Wikipedia


"Loveland", an outdoor sex-themed sculpture park, opened in 2004, and has 140 sculptures representing humans in various sexual positions. The park is the size of two soccer fields. You must be 18 years or older to enter the park; there is a play area for children to stay in while the adults tour the park.

I'll only post some of the milder photos, although the penis statue DID make me laugh.

I like this one, because you can insert yourself right into the sculpture.

Like this!

I think this one is beautiful.

Comical

and

I think love is in the air!

There are funny signs throughout the park like this one:

and this one

You could pose behind a few different cutouts - I thought this one was cute.

Some of the more erotic statues:

Although I think this is kind of funny, too, like, "Look , Ma, no hands!"

I guess size DOES matter! Look at the background, too!

Back gate of the park!

I like that the sculptures are all tastefully done and that there is a sense of humor throughout the park. Also, this island is GORGEOUS. Look at these photos!

Talk about Fantasy Island! In more ways than one! *wink* All that's missing is this guy yelling, "Da Plane, Da Plane!"

So how 'bout it? You with me on this?? Should I book a group tour?

That's all I know is, by the end of this post, my vest was off, the blanket was folded and put away, the furnace was turned down, and I was sitting here naked beside myself! KIDDING! But I was down to just my stocking feet, jeans and shirt! Can you say hot flash?

Hope you enjoyed my little tour and I hope I didn't offend any of my readers. I love art, sculptures, travel, and, uh, sex, and found something that combines them ALL!