Getting "it" back

I'm working on getting "it" back. Over the past two years it's not an unknown fact that I pretty much stopped riding my bicycle and eating way too much.  The result wasn't good.  I have had a time of thought and reflection and finally it's starting to make sense.  My Dad passed back just a few days before Thanksgiving and even today I felt a tear in the corner of my eye as I opened the birthday card my Mom had given me on Saturday to find it saying "Love, Mom".  I don't know, I guess I just always thought she would write "Love, Mom and Dad".

I got back on my bike on Sunday afternoon and rode for the first time in about a year.  I may have ridden 6 times maybe in the past 2 years.  I used to be on it everyday almost but the honest truth, I got burnt out.  I did so great rides, huge rides but somewhere along the way I just got bored and burnt.  Boy did I have a new attitude on Sunday.  I had a blast and woke a sleeping giant.

I thought to myself, Ok I need some motivation to keep me going so I signed up for the CARTI Tour de Rock on June 9th.  I'm just going to go 50 (half-century) sense I just feel I would be pushing it to pull a century (100 miles) so soon back in he saddle.

I will be out riding on  Monday and Wednesday evenings and then either Saturday or Sunday.  Once I get my legs back I'll ride Saturday and Sunday but I'll ride to the river from the house like I once did.

Yes I'll still be posting photos.  I'll figure out some way to ride with a camera safely stashed away.

It's hard to believe that 3 years ago I was getting off my bike at 9am having completed a 24 straight ride.  Oh the place you go!

Life is good!

Little Rock Marathon 2012

My daughter in the black and her pal Amy running a stylish LR Marathon. CONGRATS on a big finish you two!

Baseball

Site scouting

Of course I would do this on the coldest day of the year. Site scouting. I'm gearing up and getting ready to start shooting soccer and baseball for the season. I wanted to get a feel of the fields so I have started visiting. Sylvan Hills has a beautiful new field which was nicely protected. I'm excited about getting out there and capturing the Bears in action. Sylvan Hills always produces some good players.

Soon this scoreboard will be lit up.

I spotted a pipe and couldn't resist a little sun flare through the pipe shot.

College of the Ozarks

One of the hidden secrets of the Ozarks is the College of the Ozarks. I was told there were some nice photo ops there. It's just outside of Branson. The next exit actually. The college is unique because the kids who graduate don't have a debt if they work on campus. There was a sense of pride in the students we met. I got to see greenhouses, cattle and one of the crown jewels of the place, the restaurant. We were told to go to brunch on Sunday and boy were we surprised. It was out of this world. A student from Puerto Rico made my omelet. Our server was a Criminal Justice major. The furniture was some of the most beautiful handcrafted pieces. The service was 5 star as was the food. Very much worth the stop!

I took time to photograph around the mill that seems to be almost in the center of campus.

National Ice scuplting competition

We headed up to Branson for the weekend just to get away. Talk about a quite town. One guy told me, "You can lay in the middle of highway 76 for half the day and not get run over." He was right. No shows and even a lot of restaurants were closed until March. Now the sales were big time. We saw 85% off in a couple of stores.

The surprise of the weekend was there just happened to be the National Ice Sculpting Competition going on and it was free. The tents were packed and of course it was older folks or kids so I too it easy on getting great photos. One time I also started to wiggle on through the crowd to the front but I just didn't feel like this was the place for that.

These guys are great. One fast competition was 15 minutes and one guy had a beautiful fish done within about 10 minutes. He was a real showman. Dancing around and we all just waited for an arm to fly across the room. I mean the dude was slinging a chainsaw!

Swan Song

My wife and I took off about an hour and a half north of Little Rock to a town called Heber Springs. It is a lake town known for Greers Ferry but we had our GPS locked in to another another lake on the outskirts of town. Lake Magness. It's a small private lake but something magical happened about 1993. Folks think a storm knocked a few Trumpeter Swans off course and they wintered at this lake. Now years later there can be as many as 195 swans as well as other water fowl enjoying the lake. I didn't expect to see so many cars as we pulled up. It was a beautiful Arkansas winter day with blue skies and the temperatures right about 60 degrees. We had been told to arrive about 4pm so we could see them coming in. It's not a real schedule but about. We only saw a few more ducks come gliding in as the swans were already there. I'm starting to like these exploring the state of Arkansas adventures. Enjoy the photos!






One thing that happened at sundown today in Arkansas... Duck season ended. Not the best season as it didn't get really cold up north to drive them down. Maybe next year...