Abilene, TX State Park blog part II

Does this mean I can call it ATSPB: Redux?

This little guy marked the end of the trail for us. April does not do snakes, and could not be coaxed to walk past this one, despite it being about 4 feet off the side of the trail, and about 60* where we were. It was cool enough and he looked sluggish enough that he would probably be doing good just to find somewhere to hole up for the night before he got eaten! But oh well, SWMBO won out in the end. In her defense, it was about a 4 foot long snake, so I imagine that anyone with a snake phobia would have been terrified pretty solidly.



Another view of the same snake...



We went from the hiking trail to go check out a few other parts of the park. Ever seen a Yurt before? Me neither. It had a fridge, microwave, AC, couch, beds, etc inside it. You could rent it for sleeping accommodations. The wife had seen em on a travel show and was pretty excited to see one in person.



Not too sure what this was, and it was locked up, but best I could tell it is a fire watch tower. About 4-5 stories in height I would guess. Anyone have any ideas?



Deer tracks and deer were all over the place here. Lack of hunting pressure and a ton of food will do that I guess.



I always think these signs are pretty cool, so I'm including it (hey, it's my post, right? haha)



The other half



This was put in by the builders as well.



Concession stand at the pool.



Several of the campgrounds had these outdoor seats by them. There is also a large fire pit just to the left out of frame.



Anywho, not much else going on right now. I have one more part from our trip to post, I'll try to do that in the next few days. Hope everyone is doing well. Talk to you soon.

Well, I am not able to do what I said I would

I promised I would post more pictures of our adventure, but I can't quite get it to do right here at work, so I'll get it fixed tomorrow and posted from home.


I did lose something today that has been close to my heart, so let me tell you that story.

My new turnout coat finally came in today (I went from one that was sized a bit small for Tom to one that is sized for me!) and I was excited. As I was moving my stuff from the pockets of my loaner coat to my new one, I realized that my spiffy (and $50) flashlight had fallen off the old coat! I know I had it this morning, someone was admiring it and asking where they could get one (I also know he didn't take it, it would be obvious if he suddenly showed up with an identical light that even happened to have my name engraved on it). The loaner coat did not have a good way to attach the light, and it had fallen off once before. Somewhere between that call and when my new coat came in this afternoon, it had fallen off again! I have been unable to find it so I just bit the bullet and ordered a new one. Fortunately my new coat is designed to hold this particular light, and I have devised 1 if not 2 additional ways to secure it, so hopefully that will help keep this one with me for a long time.


Oh, and if you are wondering about the close to the heart part, it had hung on the left chest of my coat, right over my heart. Haha, just a joke there to help cheer me up, I'm bummed I lost it since I usually take pretty good care of my stuff and it is unusual for me to lose something like this! I'm plenty mad at myself over it, but hey, sometimes that's the hand life deals ya!


So here we go guys, if you happen to enjoy an adult beverage this evening, take a moment to toast my fallen companion!



I'm sure whoever found it is wondering what the heck it is for (I think it fell out of the rig and into the middle of the road). Next time I'm going to put my return address label on the batteries or the batter holder and hopefully I'll get it back!

We're back from our epic road trip.

Hey guys and gals, I realize that I haven't blogged in a while, so settle in and prepare for the first of a few blogs to catch everyone up to speed on our trip to Abilene. I won't bother posting pictures of us and the baby just yet, Katie still has the market cornered on that! Instead I want to take a few blogs and show you our trip to Abilene State Park. April, Bryan, Nash and I all made the trip.

But first, some details. Our trip was approximately 2000 miles (round trip). We drove the whole 14+ hours there in one shot, but on the way back we stopped overnight in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Our hotel was right next door to a Mexican restaurant, so I figured we could just walk over there and grab a few drinks before bed. Neither of us was real hungry, but some margaritas sure sounded good! Unfortunately, Arkadelphia is in a dry county, so bear that in mind should you ever decide to stop for the night there! We wound up splitting a dinner at 'Ta Molly's'. It was pretty good, but drinks would have been even better! We had an absolute blast seeing everyone again (and for the first time!) and felt like the trip was over waaaaaaay too soon, but hey, what are you gonna do. Life keeps moving no matter what. Guess this just means it is your turn to come visit us Ms. Maddy! We really did enjoy getting to catch up with everyone.

Our usual hiking buddy Shiloh got to stay at the kennel on this trip. We figured that between Nash, us, my mom, Katie and Bryan's friends, and of course Ms. Maddy (who is a beautiful sweetheart!) that Shiloh would be just a little much. Fortunately Mr. Nash joined us for our little adventure and filled in for (but could not replace!) our little beagle buddy.

For those of you that haven't ever personally met Mr. Nash yet, let me fill you in. He is a giant baby; 100+ pounds and still growing, and has yet to figure out just how big he is. The head on this guy is just a giant rock, you can see here with Bryan's hand next to it.



The trail head where we started our little trip.



Cool looking tree.



We don't get these in TN too often, but they were all over the place here. What really amazed me is that some of them had been nibbled on by the deer. I guess I never really considered that something might actually munch on these spiky things.



We did venture off the trail in some places, and actually found this on a small game trail about 50 yards off the main trail. Other than it being a femur (right?) I'm not too sure what it is. I should have taken a picture of my hand or something next to it to give some perspective, but it was about 2 feet long.



There was a little debate about this particular leaf. April thought it looked like Mickey Mouse. I'll let you decide what the other option was!



There were these little bridges all over the place.



This is Mr. Nash asking politely to please be let into the water to play. His request was denied.



There were all kinds of cool flowers around.



Another view of the 'Buffalo Waller' that Nash was begging to get into. Personally I thought it would be a killer duck hunting pond if it was on private lands...



I'll post part 2 and 3 of our adventure later. April, you probably will want to skip out on part 2! Everyone else will just have to tune in to see why!

OK OK OK! I can't help it. I have to post a few of the cutest member of the family!

Of couse, Katie and Madeline Grace Williams are pretty darn cute too! Nash loses points for too much drool!


I was making a goofy face here... I think I wasn't really ready for the picture and I was the one taking it! Luckily April was in the photo to pretty things up! This was taken on our little excursion to the park. Be sure to tune in again for an update real soon! (Like tomorrow probably!).



PS: Katie, it's your job to remind me to post a blog about what Shiloh, April and I made for dinner tonight. Also, remind me to post some pictures from the other adventure April, Bryan, Nash and I made, ok?

We're off for TX in the AM

Hey guys, I know I promised I'd post a follow up to that last blog, but I haven't had much time. I'll go ahead and bang one out now real fast though. We are leaving for TX in the morning, and right now the tentative plan is to drive straight through. I'll leave work at about 7am, so hopefully by 8am we'll be on the road. It is about a 14 hour drive, so hopefully by 10pm or so we'll be there. If we get tired, we'll stop, but we are only planning/budgeting to stop once (and only then if we absolutely have to) so hopefully we'll be able to make it through on the way down in one shot. If it's too much trouble, we can leave earlier on the way home or stop both times, but that is a last resort. I'm excited to meet my newest niece, so this should be fun. It'll also be nice to see those people that are going to be taking care of her.

Anyhow, on to the fire. I had hoped to have some pictures to post with this blog, but it is not to be.

It got dispatched at 0333 (that's 03:33 am) and initially came out as a fire alarm. I remember that because I was sitting on the edge of my bed rubbing my eyes wondering what in the world the people were doing to set off their alarm at that hour of the AM. It quickly got reclassified as a structure fire, and I knew that my engine would be the first on scene. It seemed like it took forver to get there, and it was pretty much across the street. We got on scene, and went inside with no hose lines or anything because we were trying to find the fire. I remember that there was no smoke when we went in, and I thought that was wierd because my Lt. had said he could see fire when he walked around the building.

We went straight through the house, into the kitchen, and through a door. There was a big fireplace and a flat screen tv, so I figured we were in a living room. There was a pretty good sized fire right outside the door and to my left. I had all my gear on but I was not breathing out of my airpack yet because there was no smoke still. The hose got brought in, I went on air, and started spraying at the fire. When I hit it, it darkened down and steamed up alot, so I stopped spraying for a minute, waited for it to clear, and hit it again. I finally realized that we were in an outside covered patio area.

We got the fire knocked down, then went upstairs to check for fire spread. There was no visibility whatsoever upstairs, and that is where the guy got hurt. He had come up the front stairs, but at the end of the hallway those stairs led to, there was another set of stairs down. He was busy looking for attic access, so he missed the stairs and fell down. Luckily there was a landing just a few stairs down, so it could have been worse. He knocked a hole in the wall into the garage, and more smoke was coming from there. I sprayed water through that hole for a minute, then I was getting low on air and had to exit. That was pretty much it. They got the rest of the fire put out and we spent the rest of the morning tearing out drywall to make sure we got it all.

It was pretty fun, and while I don't wish bad things on people, I wouldn't mind getting to do more of that!

Anyhow, that's about it for now. I don't have anything nearly as exciting to report as Katie does, so I'll end my blog now. Hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep tonight so I can have a good drive tomorrow. Maybe we'll get to blog with photos of the new kid. Talk to you later.

I'll write more later

I promise. But for now, here is a link. I was first due on this fire. We got a pretty good knockdown and stopped it before it spread to the attic. I'll try to post more pictures when they become available. Sorry it's been so long, but I've been busy with work. I am pretty much going to be working every day for 5 days, today is the 3rd day.

http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=9119113

Let me know if the link doesn't work. Thanks!

I think April had a different video, but for the life of me this was the only one I've been able to find.