It's a Lovely Day in the Neighborhood - Day 1

I'm a little behind on the blogging, but as promised, I am going to take you on a little tour of a lovely valley, I like to call..... home. The whole fam damily made our voyage home to celebrate the independence of our dear country last weekend, with loud fiery explosions, taking in the sights of the parade and stuffing our faces with grilled goodies, watermelon, and brownies. Let the good times roll!

Sing along friends!

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,

Where the deer and antelope play;

There is an actual herd of deer that live in a field across the street from my childhood home. This pretty lady was roaming around the yard. She seems to have gotten wrapped up in some wire. My dad often gripes about the deer because they like to eat his flowers and trees. But how often can you see a deer laying on your lawn, on a daily basis?

You're in Indian territory now! This is a little "trading post", or in other words, a shop.

More buffalo!

Our treasured antelope. It's a common practice among the teenagers here, to "ride" the antelope. I'm not saying that I've partaken in this ridiculous act of adolescence, but then again maybe I am..... like I said, I'm not saying anything.

Check out our view from our backyard. Like my pa says, "this is God's country!" Okay, I never call him pa. I just thought it would sound Little House on the Prairie-ish.

This little hill is right next to my home. As a child, me, my younger sibs, and friends would spend HOURS playing on the rocks. We would play Star Wars. Oh yeah, I was always Princess Leah. I even wore ear muffs a time or two to get the whole bun effect. This certain rock formation was the Millennium Falcon. It goes light speed, ya know. May the force be with you.

Our little hill also has cactus growing here and there. Just to let you know, it takes about 1 hour to take out the spines of this particular cactus, from your feet. Feels good!

Here's a little nature, from our little hill.

Ancient Indian hieroglyphics? Um, no. Me neighbor, my brother Brian and I were bored one summer and decided to carve grooves into the sandstone. Did I mention there isn't much to do around my home town?

Our 1 and only movie theater and some store fronts. You could usually count on seeing a recently released, new movie, a few weeks after they actually came out. Many of these buildings were built in the 1800's!

This use to be where my high school was located. Part of it was built in the 1920's, and because of it's age, it started to crumble on top of the students. A few years later it was torn down and a new high school was built a few years ago. We use to call this wall "hood wall". The "hoods" use sit on this wall, staring us down with their dark, sinister eyes while puffing on their ciggies. They were known to rumble in the streets. Okay, they didn't exactly rumble, but they were kinda scary.

Here's the very same fireworks stand were I ran into "my past" when I brought my hubbin of lovin to my home town for the first time, 13 years ago.

This particular fella carves bears and various sculptures from wood. He is known as the "bear guy". He resembles Grizzly Adams and lives in a van down by the river. Not really. But he does resemble Grizzly Adams. He actually runs his business from his trailer home. I guess that could be just as funny as living in a van, down by the river.

Grizzly Adams, in the flesh!

We didn't have a Dairy Queen, but we did have a Dairy Land. Home of he Billy Bar and the Cheese Wheel.

Here's the laundry mat where me and my friends would "ride" the dryers. Like I said, there wasn't much to do in my home town.

This structure has been here, as long as I can remember. I don't know the history of it or when it was built. I know. What kind of tour guide am I?

Here ends day 1 of your tour of my little home town. Hope you enjoyed the sites!