Its Party Time

This has been an amazing day. This has been a party day. This has been a fun day. This has been a day that was a spur of the moment that took three days to cause happen. Earlier this week we had planned to head down to Smoky Mountain Parkway area. We would like to see the country and we have some friends down there. So we were working slowly that way. I had two days of driving and needed a day of rest. Well at least a day of not driving. We did go to a glass factory and visited a covered bridge on the day of rest. That was fun and relaxing. That evening, Thursday, I got an e-mail about a party for a Bentsen Grove friend about 450 miles away. Somewhat back tracking north so we did not know if we really should try to go. We slept on it all night and had not made a decision even after we were moving along the road on Friday morning. About a mile from an intersection where we had to go left to the Smoky Mountains or right to the party we finally decided that this is the reason we are traveling. We turned right and headed to the party, a surprise party. So Friday and Saturday we drove towards Effingham, IL. We could have driven the distance in one day but that is simply too long to drive. I want to start late and stop early and NEVER drive too far in one day.

This morning we got up, went to church, and then tried to find out where the party was going to be held. It was not on any of my mapping systems and we wanted to arrive without anybody knowing that we were going to be there. After all if it was going to be a surprise party why not made more surprises. The firemen in the local city gave us directions to the address. One of them knew Popham Lake and the two brothers that owned it. After a few wrong turns and a few u-turns we found the location. And we were surprised too. We expected that there would be people that we knew from Bentsen Grove in McAllen, Texas but there were a lot more than we ever guessed there would be. Tammy Popham, the one that sent us the E-mail was so surprised that she had tears that ran out of her eyes when she saw us. The surprise was perfect. And George and Janet Whalen had not even arrived when we got there so that was perfect. It was George's 75th birthday party and he did not know that anybody besides his immediate family would be there. He did not know that the Bentsen Grover's that live near his hometown would be there and he had no clue that we would be there. It was perfect. The picture below has perhaps a third of the people from Bentsen Grove.


SOME OF THE PARTY ATTENDEES MOST OF THESE WERE FROM BENTSEN GROVE

We had a great time talking to friends from Texas. We had platefuls of good food. The scenery around the lake was a lot better than I would have dreamed. The place that the party was held was by a pond that has existed for an unknown number of years and had been joined to an old limestone quarry to create a 21 acre lake. There was a really nice lake cabin with everything that can be desired. A lot of effort has been put into making it an enjoyable area to spend time.


A VIEW OF THE POPHAM LAKE FROM THE CABIN


THIS HAS GOT TO BE A GREAT VIEW ANY TIME OF THE YEAR

We did not spend all the time on the road just getting from one point to another. As we came across Ohio we stopped in Cincinnati to see an Aunt of my wife's. And we also spent some time going to see the largest free swinging bell in the world. It is called The World Peace Bell. Most bells of this size are fixed to a solid mounting and the clapper is swung into the bell to make it ring. With this one the bell is allowed to swing and it hits the suspended clapper just like a hand held bell. It is really impressive. The time that we were in Cincinnati was short but it was great. To see family is always nice. When we have been in Cincinnati before, both times were during their Tall Stacks Festival for river boats, there was so many people in the area of The World Peace Bell that we would have had a hard time taking pictures.


THE WORLD PEACE BELL WITH WITH MY WIFE AND HER AUNT

Till later this is Uncle Duck.