Vacation rising!

Since my "model change" at work was Tuesday night and I had old parts to pull from the line, racks to set and new parts to set during the "gap" we decided I needed my wits about me and so instead getting up early, we slept 'til noon. We went and voted (local issues) and then I took the vent fan in the bathroom down to see if I could fix it instead of replacing it; so far I won!

So, at work anyway, it's 2008 now! Strange thought...

Friday we set things so the construction people can work while we are off for two weeks. I'm looking forward perhaps even to an "early out"!

Dottie has taken vacation days to cover what should have been her work days so she will be off for this two weeks as well. Last year we had our 4th of July family celebration here and then went to Vermont to spend the rest of it with her family. I wish we were again this year, but instead I need to roof my garage and there are lots of other things to be done here. If I am lucky I will get a line wet somewhere between all of them!

During the 2nd week we are going to Branson for a couple of days; we haven't been since 1983. We were there with my Dad that spring for the last "family vacation" the way we used to do them before his cancer put him in the hospital; then later in the year her Mom came out from Vermont to visit and we went back because she really wanted to see the Ozarks though she was dying from lung cancer at the time. She got some time on the lake, and we took her to Silver Dollar City; though we pushed her in a wheelchair through the park, she rode every ride! She and Dottie also got a flight in a helicopter over the city and out over Table Rock Lake. Her Mom had been a mechanical engineer for Pratt and Whitney during WW2, laying out assembly lines and hiring for them, among other things. She truly loved that helicopter ride, not only for the beauty of the country, but the appreciation of the aircraft as well!

It's going to be very strange going back there again; I know enough things have changed that the memories won't be quite so vivid, but having spent every summer there from 1967 to 1983 with the exception of the years I was in California (even making one from there the summer after Dottie and I were married) I have a lot of memories...

The first time I saw Silver Dollar City it was one block square; you parked in front of the "1881 hotel"; it was free and it cost a quarter to go down into Marvel Cave! It was early 1962, and Dad had rented a camper for the back of his 1961 Ford pickup to see if "camping" was something we could all enjoy. We spent a few days at Roaring River State Park and then went to Branson and stayed at "Stormy Point" campground...

That fall, my sister and I were amazed to see this place we had just been show up on television. They were calling it "Bug Tussle" and it was supposedly where "The Beverly Hillbillies" had come from.

So, 45 years later, I guess we'll see what it looks like now!

Anyway, with Dottie off my time here will become scarce; I hope you all forgive me!

Thinking of you all!

alan