The words appeared for this page and I fell in love. The streaks of grey give the illusion of objects falling. The heart was already on the page. Love it when things work out like that!
I’m also loving the font of the book I’ve been using to find text. It’s a children’s or maybe a tween novel called Ghost in the Machine Ryan’s Journal.
Feels good to be creating again.
As Labor Day approaches, so does the start of school. We are attempting to ring out every last bit of enjoyment and family time as possible in addition to orientations, job hunting, checkups, back to school shopping and the rest of the usual business. We’ve been creating memories…not art.
Although I did do a little bit of art journalling this week. I was catching up on laundry from a weekend away had me in my art space quite a bit.
My heART journal seemed to need some attention. I’m still at the bright tones of summer but I’m sure soon I’ll shift along with the season. I’ve already seen several maple trees turning and dropping leaves. 
The little scrap about the mystery of time seemed to fit my thoughts of late… It’s funny how time is a constant but depending on the situation it can feel as if the hands on the clock are slowing down or traveling at warp speed.
After going through closets I discovered tons of t-shirts that could no longer be worn. Since I already have a huge stack of rags I decided to put on my thinking cap and come up with another idea.
Doggie tug toys…chewies or whatever you’d like to call them. You may or may not know this but the pet supply industry is booming. People love their furry companions…they are family. Now we may not have a dog as a pet, though Gracie tries her best to imitate one at times. 
I’ve managed to make a pretty good stock pile of them for the holiday craft sale season.
Good morning and welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday. Our hostess with the mostess, Elizabeth (along with her furry companion Bleubeard) is not a stickler for any sort of rules…she asks that we share a virtual beverage of your choice and whatever else you’d like to share for the week.
As I sat in the quiet this morning with my coffee I was thinking about all the changes that will be happening for the kids in a couple weeks. Both into new schools…High school and Middle school. I’m no longer an Elementary school parent. Then I look over at my coffee and see Playmobil horses and realize that they really are still just kids. Don’t grow up too fast…
Between our CSA and our garden, we’ve had a plethora of beans. I was afraid we might not be able to eat them all before they were past their prime. My neighbor had made some spicy beans last year and raved about them. I borrowed her Blue Ball recipe book and got to work.
They look pretty…I guess time will tell how they taste. I modified a recipe from the book as far as the spices and such. I used cayenne, garlic cloves and red pepper flakes to season the green and wax beans. Makes me want a beverage just thinking about it.
A couple days ago I sat down to journal. The train image literally fell into my lap as I bumped a stack of papers while reaching for something else. I often take that as a message. “Use this…you won’t be sorry.” 
An unexpected thing happened to the bright shiny image as I applied it with liquid matte medium…the image “aged”. I love it when things work out like that!!
I went in search of words and “the railroad tracks” were on the second page I picked up. Again…meant to be.
Last night I was perusing Pinterest and came across this Will Rogers quote:
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Welcome to T stands for Tuesday.
I’m going to warn you ahead of time… you better grab a fresh cuppa whatever you’re drinking today because I’ve got a lot of photos to share.
We traveled 1318 miles (2121 km), crossing two states, in 4 days. We spent a total of 25 hrs in the van. Remarkably there were no fights or bickering until we were within 5 miles of home.
We saw numerous wind farms we saw along the way. This one is in SW Minnesota.
Crossing the boarder in South Dakota. Kind of a boring sign if you ask me. We honestly almost missed it.
Next stop Wall Drug. This is just one of hundreds and hundreds of signs along I-90.
Actually we made a couple of stops before Wall Drug, such as a drive by of the Corn Palace in Mitchell even though it is closed while some restoration is done on the domes. At least we saw it.
We ate a very late lunch in Wall. It was super busy since it was the week preceding the Sturgis Bike Rally. We had hoped that we’d miss all that traffic but they started showing up about a week early.
This sign sort of said it all for the Wall Drug stop. Camp Disappointment. Too busy, poor service, and no paper in the restrooms…none. Lovely. But if in SD you have to stop at Wall! Just not near Bike Week. :)
We finally made it to our home away from home. We were fortunate to have the other side of the duplex empty the entire time we were there.
Little J and I fed the ducks early the next morning before we left for Mount Rushmore. Note my coffee cup on the picnic table.
Two days later we saw a sign on this side of the lake asking people NOT to feed the wildlife. Whoops.
After a hearty breakfast we were on to Rushmore… 
We ended up behind this motor home that had a long license plate such like one I associate with European countries. We lost track of it once before we even got through the gate.
We saw plates from all over the country both here and on I-90. I’d estimate that we saw 3/4 of the states in the lower 48 and several Canadian Provinces in the 4 days were gone.
I’ve visited Mount Rushmore many times over the years but have never walked the Presidential trail before. We got so amazingly close. 
Again with so many bikes…we decided to skip stopping in the tourist trap area of Keystone. Later that same day we visited Cosmos Mystery Area, Dinosaur Park, Black Hills Caverns, Chapel in the Hills and stopped for groceries. Whew! No wonder we were tired. Plus the kids and I went in the pool at the end of the day.
The next morning we decided to head to Custer State Park. As we entered rounded the bend towards the visitors center we encountered a bit of a road block.
About 200 or so bison were hanging out on and along the road. Males, females and calves all together. The bison were in rut.
This one was very interested in sniffing all the vehicles as they went by.
We took a 2 hour Jeep tour through the park seeing areas that aren’t accessible to the general public.
I think this was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. Our guide happened to be the lady who owned the tour company. She was amazing knowledgeable. 
We saw prairie dogs…
mountain blue birds…
and bighorn sheep.
After spending a lot more time than expected in Custer, we went to Rushmore Cave then back to our cabin for supper. We decided to explore the park that was on the other side of the lake until it was nearly dark. It was a beautiful evening.
In the morning we packed up to head for home via the Badlands.
There really isn’t a bad view in this whole park. 
Now why in the world would I show you this… Well, there is a story to this photo. As we walked to the end of this overlook Mr. G had mentioned that he thought these raised boardwalks would be a perfect place for rattlesnakes to rest in the shade. As we got about half way back we heard the telltale rattle. The kids were gone like a shot and wouldn’t get back out of the van for the next few stops. 
We finally got them to emerge for a final little trek. Little J would go past the sign that said beware of rattlesnakes. I have to admit I wasn’t terribly excited about doing that either after hearing one. Blech…gives me goose bumps just thinking about it again.
I hope I didn’t bore you with our road trip photos. We took about 900 photos with our 2 cameras plus a few videos.
Sorry that I never made it around to anyone last week….we were too busy traveling. I had my post scheduled and was able to use some wifi long enough to link up at Elizabeth’s blog.
© 2007-2024 Halle's Hobbies All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright
