AW_L

 Absent WITH leave -- that's me.  I can't believe I haven't blogged on this site since October!  I have, however, been trying to keep up with my wild traveling teddies and their blog -- www.teddietravel.blogspot.com -- and though I haven't done too well with that one either, it's the best excuse I could come up with.

Jack and I just returned from a great nine-day trip through Arizona and I do plan to do a decent blog or two on that one in the next couple of weeks.  For now, here's a quick catch-up of where I've been in the last few months.

You probably can tell that the top picture was San Antonio in December.  Great time, great food and, of course, the lovely San Antonio River all decked out for Christmas.

From San Antonio, I went directly to Fredericksburg -- a global shift from a Hispanic Navidad to a German Weinachten.  Both these stories will show up in Slice Magazine in the late fall.

January highlight was a great girlfriends' getaway planned by the wonderful Leigh Lyons -- Grapevine CVB.  Shopping, spa-ing, wining, dining, painting and a fun evening at the Texas Star Dinner Theater.

Arkansas was a February destination with the Travel South folks.  From Miss Lizzie's Bordello in Ft. Smith to the oh-so-elegant Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville; from lions, tigers and bears (Turpentine Creek) to ghost tours in Eureka Springs and a great time in Little Rock.  How to sum it up in one picture?  PIE!

If I hadn't had enough to eat in Arkansas, I made up for it at Frederick, Oklahoma's annual Fried Oyster Festival!  
 

March in McAllen, Texas -- best birding in the United States!  At least I'm not eating in this picture.  This is a chachalaca who was more interested in oranges than in hiding from my camera.

Zoe arrived from England for a two-week visit in March and we headed north (no, not that far north, that's salt, not snow) to the Great Salt Plains.  It's one of Oklahoma's treasures.  I promised myself I would never again use the phrase "best kept secret" but I'm sorely tempted.

Weatherford, just a bit over an hour west of Oklahoma City, is the home of the Thomas P. Stafford Air and Space Museum.  Okay, this is another of those you-know-whats (best kept......).  Fantastic history of aviation and particularly the space program.  Did you know we have over 80,000 items in use today that were the result of the R and D that went into putting a man on the moon?

 I'll admit I'm a Red Dirt Rangers groupie -- I've known John Cooper since he was a little kid.  What a guy!  And Brad and Benny are super, too.  AND they're fantastic musicians.  John's mom, Nancy Smiley, and I visited John at his home near Lone Chimney to do an article on him for Oklahoma Living Magazine.  Then, the end of April, we went to Tulsa when the group played for the opening of the Woody Guthrie Center.  AND we showed up at the state capitol last week when the RDR were honored as Oklahoma Musical Ambassadors by the State House of Representatives.  Way to go Rangers!

 

Last trip in April was to Lake Eufaula to visit Carlton Landing, a new planned community giving an okie spin to Florida's Seaside concept.  That article will turn up in Slice this summer.

There, I'm caught up -- except for that great Arizona jaunt.  Please don't give up on me and visit again!