VALOR

 

RV and Boat Shows catch our eye !  We have an interest in keeping up with current trends in functionality and design.

This show was within 50 miles of our docking port. Of course we we went !

The Hot Springs Convention center Arena had plenty of parking and we walked and looked until we were wore out, looking at everything that struck our fancy.

After a lunch break at a Chinese Restaurant that we won’t write home about, we took in a movie. ACT of VALOR.

The Senior admission fee was $7. We were there a bit early and got our pick of the seats. If I had to pick a one word description for the Act of Valor, it would be Intense. The audience was mostly totally and quietly engrossed,  except for a few moments of levity in some of the scenes.

There was a lot of older veterans there, that, like myself, were totally absorbed by the movie. I expect that we were comparing the older technology that we knew, with what we were seeing up on the large screen. The surround sound in the theater made a firefight truly rage all around the us. Special effects were dead on solid.

For example when a Dillon mini gun was firing during a hot extract, the sounds and visuals were so dead on in the surround sound filled theatre, that I almost thought that I could smell the dragon’s breath of the mill spec ss109 powder that was burning outside of the barrels and making the bright fire blossom .

Like most veterans, I caught myself looking for someone that I might know. Then I realized that a character that looked like a guy I knew named Knudsen, would have to be his great grandson, should he be related to him ! Yeah, the years are a’ rollin’ by.

Here is a photo of one of the displays in the theater lobby. Click on any of the photos for a larger view.

As the movie ended and the crowd came out into the lobby, they were somber and contemplative.

On the lobby wall was a place where you could list the name of a military loved one that you had lost and wanted to honor.

I hope I havn’t made the movie sound sad, it was a great movie that honors the service of our military to America.

KNOCK

It was eleven thirty at night, deep in the Arkansas outback. A front was coming in and a stiff cold wind was blowing out of the North. Then an unlikely thing occurred. There was a knock at the door. Betty and I lock eyes. The unspoken and underlying thought is  .  .  . .  . trouble !

 

The messenger at the door, had, however, no bad news that night. Though a phone call would have done it, news of this magnitude required personal delivery. For after all, a Ouachita Mountain boy that went off to war, would finally be coming home.

Here in the Ouachita’s we almost never called it a conflict, as the media was doing. We knew and could recognize,  war when we saw it, and many here saw it first hand. Korea.

Our messenger had word about a mountain boy that never made it back from Korea, had finally been identified in North Korea, and his remains would be soon coming home.

Years had passed and family members, still hoping for news,  had submitted DNA samples. Then after all these years, word came.

Here is a look at the current marker, it says on the bottom, “at rest in North Korea”.

TREES

 

The old Norman High School and the Home Economics Building on the left.

Tree planters in action. The crew, left to right, Keith, Dicey and Betty.

They are planting flowering Pear trees.

Lots of preparation work had been done before our planting crew arrived.

Graduating Seniors names in the sidewalk.

LAUREL

Betty and I went for a Sunday afternoon drive and went to a remote primitive campground on Lake Greeson. The Laurel Creek campground sign just as you turn off of hwy. 27 says it is 5 miles.

It didn’t seem as far as it used to be to get in there so I reset the trip odometer and measured it at 3.7 miles.

The campground has been refurbished somewhat since our last visit. And the road in there is much improved.

We talked to some camped out bass fishermen while at Laurel creek campground today. They said some of their bass had eggs already ! In my mind that related directly to water temperature and amount of sunlight. I believe we may actually have a bream spawn in March !

SKATING

Arkansas Ice Skating ! Yuup ! Even though it has been a unusually warm Winter, Ouachita Mountaineers will find a way. Here is a look at the local ice rink, complete with kids enjoying it.