adventures

adventures / football / photo / video / weekend — Comments Off on He watched football … in church (there was praying)
1
Oct 16

He watched football … in church (there was praying)

We are here:

It is a chapel on a small college campus in north Georgia. Also, a football game was celebrated on the front lawn, just after the bride and groom drove away. Before that, however:

Some 10,000 people have seen that on Twitter and it got picked up by a couple of those re-write sites. Every once in a while you get one that really takes off …

Anyway, he was watching the Georgia – Tennessee game. The hail mary one way, hail mary the other way game. He was quite pleased with the outcome.

(Edit: The guy in the picture saw it. Hah! Thankfully he has a good sense of humor about it.)

After that, the reception was lovely:

The groom was one of The Yankee’s former students, and we saw some other former students and friends there as well. A fine time, as they say, was had by all.

adventures / memories / photo / Twitter / weekend — Comments Off on We went a ways
24
Sep 16

We went a ways

A quick snapshot of some barns we passed between here and there during a morning errand.

The there being Columbus, Indiana, where we had to pick up some new sneakers. Because sometimes you do that, going over hill and dale for running shoes.

As I wrote on Twitter:

Here it was just car, car, car, at least. And this funky bridge just as you get to Columbus:

We didn’t stick around to visit the town, but right away you get the impression that there’s something neat worth seeing over there. I’ve no doubt we’ll be back. But it is a Saturday, after all …

adventures / cycling / Indiana / photo / weekend — Comments Off on Barns and corn and lakes and hills, all in one ride
11
Sep 16

Barns and corn and lakes and hills, all in one ride

We rode 40 miles today. This includes five significant hills and my ride falling apart about midway through for no reason whatsoever. But the company was, of course, lovely:

And the scenery was nice. Say this about this place, if you can get in a few dozen miles you can see plenty of different scenery. For example:

adventures / Friday / music / photo / running — Comments Off on We ran a race, watched balloons and saw Lee Greenwood
9
Sep 16

We ran a race, watched balloons and saw Lee Greenwood

There was a 5K for a local hospital. We ran it. We didn’t win, but we didn’t come in last. I actually placed second in my age group. Most importantly, we finished with smiles, so who cares, otherwise?

This race was at the local fairgrounds, and I have photos to prove my alibi, should the need arise:

After the fun run the trucks came in and dumped out piles and piles of nylon and dacron. The bigger purpose of the night was bringing people out for hot air balloon rides:

And this is what I learned: Depending on how you frame or crop your shot, Yoda’s expression really changes a great deal.

Also, feel free to grab one of the above three shots if you need a new social media avatar, I guess.

There was only one Yoda balloon, but he was clearly the star of the evening for kids young and old:

I bet you could do a Star Wars hot air balloon theme. It’d be great fun, until the blasters and light sabers came out.

Also Lee Greenwood appeared. He did a three song set, by himself. No band, so karaoke, basically. Well, we think it was actually Lee Greenwood. You had to stand so far away that you couldn’t tell. And it wasn’t the crowd, which was sparse, that dictated the distance from the stage, but the drop zone. A parachutist descended with a flag to set the night off right. They mis-timed this. Greenwood hit that last “AAAAAAAAA-” said thank you and was back in his trailer and maybe on his way to tonight’s steak dinner before this guy got to the ground:

On the way home, we wondered how many times in his career Greenwood has sang that song and if that is annoying for him. So I looked up his booking rates. Let’s say the site was accurate and there is no bargaining. Let’s say his aunt isn’t the marketing agent for the county fair. Or that he didn’t lose a bet to a county commissioner. Let’s say he didn’t have to be in a nearby town the next day and that this was a just another convenient stop. (Judging by his published tour dates, he was here special.) They might have paid $25,000, for a three-song set.

You’d think that for that kinda dough he might run the chorus one more time to help the skydiver, but no.

He was already off stage, counting his money, pleased that he’s been singing that song for more than three decades now.

adventures / cycling / history / Indiana / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off on Revolutionary canvas and defying physics
2
Aug 16

Revolutionary canvas and defying physics

On the loading dock today was this large canvas roller. These things intrigue me to no end, even as I know I will likely never have a real use for them myself. But that’s the way of it. Great logo, too:

Dandux is a product of C.R. Daniels, Inc. That company started out in New York City, but was purchased by the Trumpbour brothers soon after, in 1920. They moved to New Jersey, and now also have two custom facilities in Tennessee and Maryland, where this particular roller was produced. The second generation Trumpbour men at Daniels have passed away in recent years and you can find their obits online. They both had military service, which continues a long tradition in their family. Apparently eight of their Trumpbour ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War.

Favorite tidbit, Edward Trumpbour Jr. did not suffer mediocrity, “or as he would say ‘Meatballs.'”

Let’s find out about those 18th century Trumpbours … seems they were of Dutch descent. And at least some of them were enlisted in New York’s Ulster regiments as Tories. Two of the men from that era died in Canada in the 1800s, which is where a lot of Loyalists found themselves during and after the Revolution. Maybe we’re too far removed, in the sense of family history, to talk about the brother-against-brother aspect of that war, but here, it seems, we might have an example of it.

Anyway, their great-great-great-and-so-on grandchildren are still here.

We rode our bikes, where I thought nothing of Trumpbours or ducks or canvas or any other thing. If you chase fast people like The Yankee you don’t have time to think:

I took a bunch of pictures of her on this stretch of the bike ride, one of the few places I could pull alongside. But she kept outrunning my focus, which was weird. She wasn’t approaching the speed of light, but she was somehow defeating it nevertheless.

I did improve on a half-mile climb by four seconds. The cycling app says I presently have the third-fastest time up that climb for the year, which can only mean that most people don’t ride all the way down to the boat ramp and then back up. There’s no way my pitifully slow time should be on a leaderboard.

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