Paris, Texas

We stopped at Paris, Texas on the way home. I was only expecting to find the tower, but was very pleasantly surprised and pleased to find a beautiful war memorial next to it. I am so glad to have stopped. It was worth it to me.

Car collection museum

This is Bill's Backyard Classics cars museum in Amarillo, Texas.

The pins represent where visitors to the museum are from. We were the first to put a pin on the map for Camden, Arkansas.

We also visited Escape the Trap House. We didn't escape, but came close. Destiny had fun.

Cadillac Ranch

This is Cadillac Ranch, just outside Amarillo, Texas. The many layers of paint that visitors have applied to the cars have slowly oozed off the cars in puddles. You can see the many layers of the paint, with cars somewhere underneath.

Spring Break 2024 vacation across Texas and Palo Duro Canyon.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Palo Duro Canyon is the 2nd largest canyon in the United States.

There is a rich Native American history in the canyon with a very sad ending.

Home gym

Yoga ball, workout bench, free weights, and elastic bands.

Baby likes to watch my workouts. 

New kitten.

My older daughter really misses her cat that was run over, so she already got a replacement kitten that looks very much the same. This one is a girl and is very affectionate and sweet. Our cat hates it. Maybe they will learn to get along and play some day.

I call it 'Tiny Bubbles'.

Victory Christian School Christmas 2023 program

 Destiny had a part in her school Christmas program again this year.

Christmas 2023

 We had Christmas dinner with my older daughter, her boyfriend, his two daughters, and his mother.

Children's handbells

Christmas choir 2023

Christmas party

Christmas message from my pastor, Brother Richard

Windshield, Rear-View Mirror, and Christmas

The windshield and the rear-view mirror are a great team. Every driver needs to see both forward and backward. Christmas is like a combination of windshield and rear-view mirror.

Christmas enables us to look back on things that matter. For many of us, thinking about Christmas in the past is a way of measuring changes in ourselves and in our families.

I remember Christmas as a kid, anxious to open presents and eat candy. Christmas as a young adult, going to parties with friends and coworkers. Christmas as a dad, watching my son open his presents and play with his new toys. Christmas as the years add up, missing family members who have passed away and are now absent from holiday gatherings.

Christmas helps me think about things that happened in my past, reminding me of who I am and where I came from.

Christmas also enables us to look forward. We make plans. We put up the decorations. We purchase presents. We send out cards. We prepare for special times of worship and family gatherings. Christmas Day becomes a focus of anticipation and hope, always moving closer in time. In addition, there’s always another Christmas next year.

This year, Karen and I were planning to go and spend Christmas with my sisters and brother, with our son and his girlfriend, with our family. Christmas plans remind me of who is important to me now, who I want to see and spend time with now and next year.

Christmas is more.

Christmas enables me to look back much further than my own lifetime and to see things much broader than my own personal family and friends. Christmas gives all of us the eyes to look back two thousand years and see God’s personal presence entering our world in a remarkable way, through the birth of Jesus.

Christmas is a marker in time that reminds us about some essential things. God loved us enough to send Jesus. Jesus’ birth was God joining us in history, bringing good news. God has not forgotten or forsaken us despite our disobedience. God cares about us and has deep compassion for us.

Christmas is a reminder that God fulfills his promises. He promised to send a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. He came, just like God promised. So we can believe in God’s promises that are still pending. If God did what he promised on the first Christmas, then God will do what he has promised to do in our future.

God promises to send Jesus again, his Second Coming. The first time Jesus came, he saved us. Next time, he will come to gather us and bring us home to him and to his eternal blessings. Be amazed! Be encouraged! God started something on that first Christmas. He will finish it!

May the Lord give us eyes to see clearly both backward and forward this Christmas,

Brother Richard

Byrna

This is my Byrna. It is legal to carry open or concealed in all 50 states without a permit or license. I carry my when camping and anytime I leave home. I keep it by my bed at night.

It is less-lethal. It fires round projectiles. This green and blue ammo is filled with a tear-gas type powder that breaks open when it hits its target. The cloud of powder will cause anyone near it to have difficulty breathing and their eyes to water so bad that can't see. Each magazine holds five rounds of ammo. You can also store an extra shot in the muzzle.

There are other rounds, such as this hard plastic that will shatter a car window at close range, or cause a large amount of pain and bruise if it hits person.

There is a CO2 cartridge in the nose of the launcher that after punctured from firing the first shot, can shoot about 12 to 15 shots before losing power. It fires accurately up to around 50 meters.

 

Christmas 2023 decorations

This is Destiny being funny wearing the new jacket I bought her at the Titanic Museum in Branson. 

I didn't decorate this year. I wanted to encourage my mother to decorate. Destiny helped. 

Mom's TV.

Christmas village. 

Mother made and painted these nativity pieces in a ceramics class when we lived in England. 

She also made this Christmas tree in the class. For those who don't recognize it, this is my office. 

These are some souvenirs we bought in Branson on vacation to give as Christmas gifts. The bear and key chain are for my older daughter, and the rest for my mother. 

The Branson Ferris Wheel (2 of 10)

 The Branson Ferris Wheel

History

Fun Facts

• 240 people can ride the wheel at the same time

• The wheel weighs more than 65 space shuttles

• The wheel spins 100 revolutions every day

• Its foundation was constructed using more than 4 million pounds of concrete, 6 million pounds of gravel and 80,000 pounds of steel

In 1893, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. designed a revolving steel observation wheel for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago as America’s answer to the recently completed Eiffel Tower in Paris. A hundred years later, Chicago’s Navy Pier Ferris Wheel opened in 1995 as the focal point of the newly renovated Navy Pier. Providing nearly 17 million rides in Chicago, it made its move to Branson in 2016, to continue sharing fun and entertainment to families everywhere.

https://www.arkansascarl.page/2023/12/ripleys-believe-it-or-not.html (3 of 10)

Branson, Missouri, Thanksgiving vacation (1 of 10)

I am writing this on one blog post to give an overview of our Branson, Missouri Thanksgiving vacation, but there will be links to see pictures, videos, and read more detail about each experience.

 1st day, Thursday, November 23rd (Thanksgiving Day) 

 Since I have been working so hard, and am receiving some work bonuses, I decided to take Destiny on a nice vacation to Branson, Missouri. The main attraction I wanted to see was Silver Dollar City, decorated for Christmas. I also wanted to see some shows.

I checked out some hotels, and although some of the prices were good, a few required that we sit through a two hour sales pitch for timeshare, which I didn't want to do. After reading the reviews for each hotel, they all had poor reviews because of bedbugs. So, I rented a condo on Airbnb. 

We left home on Thanksgiving day in the morning with only a five hour drive and perfect weather. We didn't have a schedule, and were in no hurry. It was a wonderfully relaxing journey. It was 1:30 when we arrived, but check in wasn't until 3, so we went downtown, just to look around.

The first thing we saw that both of us were excited about was the Ferris wheel. There was no line, and even though Destiny was a little nervous about the height, we enjoyed going around twice and having a wonderful view of the city.

Right across the road was Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. We went there next, and enjoyed looking around before going to the condo.

This is the view of the golf course out the back of the condo.

We had plans to go to a Chinese buffet for Thanksgiving dinner. We have done this before. In fact, we are a very non-traditional family when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving. Sometimes we have might have steak or sandwiches. I tried calling the Chinese restaurant to see if they were open, but nobody answered the phone. I decided on a different restaurant that was open, the Grand Country Buffet.

2nd day, Friday, November 24th

We brought a few breakfast burritos with us to have Friday and Saturday mornings. The people we rented the condo from provided coffee. I just can't sleep late, even when I'm on vacation. I woke at sunrise, had breakfast, played games on my phone, and watched TV until I finally woke Destiny, who was sleeping on the sofa in the one room condo.

I started to book tickets for Silver Dollar City the night before, and discovered that some of the things I wanted to do were not available for Friday. Instead, I made reservations for the Titanic Museum, which Destiny really wanted to go to, as well as made reservations for the aquarium, wax museum, and three other activities.

We had lunch at McDonald's after the Titanic Museum and going to the aquarium. We had dinner at Golden Corral after the other activities in the afternoon. We retired back to the condo early in the evening, spending time relaxing and watching a movie.

3rd day, Saturday, November 25th

Silver Dollar City had an advertised opening time of 11, but were able to enter after arriving around 10. Tickets to enter the theme park include all the rides and shows, but I paid for special tickets to enter two of the shows by skipping the long lines. I also paid for a special lantern tour of the main attraction of the park, Marvel Cave.

We had burgers for lunch at the park, which wasn't cheap. We didn't leave the park until nearly 8. I had dinner at the park, but Destiny wasn't hungry until we left. We stopped at one place on the way to the condo, but they were closed, so I ordered her a Hawaiian pizza to be delivered.

The bed in the condo was very comfortable, and I really appreciated the jacuzzi tub after a long day of walking all over the hilly park and going down and up all the stairs in the cave.

4th day, Sunday, November 26th

We woke early, and stopped at Shoney's for breakfast on the way out of town. Even though it's only a five hour drive, I wasn't in a hurry on the way to Branson or on the way home. The weather was nice both ways, with no rain, snow or ice. Of course the traffic was much more on the way home, because everyone was returning from their different Thanksgiving plans.

(view from a lookout along the road to the condo)

https://www.arkansascarl.page/2023/12/the-branson-ferris-wheel.html (2 of 10)

Ripley's Believe It or Not (3 of 10)

Ripley's Believe It or Not

Right across the road from the Ferris wheel was a Ripley's Believe It or Not. There are more than two dozen of these 'odditoriums' around the world. It is called this because the things you find in these museums are odd, unusual, and unique.

On December 19, 1918, the first Believe It or Not!—then called “Champs and Chumps”—was published and featured a collection of sports oddities Ripley had saved. Soon after, in 1922, Ripley embarked on his first around-the-world trip and published his travel journals, which led to the very first Believe It or Not! book in 1929!

The first Odditorium opened in Chicago, Illinois, at the 1933 World’s Fair. Inside the museum were dozens of Ripley’s famous cartoons, live performers, and hundreds of strange and exotic artifacts Ripley acquired on his worldly travels. 

Destiny under black light. 

https://www.arkansascarl.page/2023/12/grand-country-buffet.html (4 of 10)

Grand Country Buffet (4 of 10)

Grand Country Buffet 

After calling the Chinese restaurant we wanted to eat at Thanksgiving evening to see if they were open, and not getting an answer, I called the Grand Country Buffet, and they were open. So, we drove back clear across town.

We passed several other restaurants on the way, which were all packed. Once we arrived at what looked like a very busy shopping mall where everything was, 'Grand Country', we found a parking space and went inside.

Everything was decorated for Christmas outside and in. There was also a line we had to wait in for about half an hour.

Once we reached the front of the line, we could see the price. It was twice as much as I was expecting, but there was no way I was leaving and going to another place only to wait in another long line. We were shown to our seats and the buffet was on.

They had many of the traditional Thanksgiving foods. And with paying double the price, I went back again and again to get double my money's worth. I thoroughly enjoyed it and ate way too much. Destiny also found plenty of good food.

https://www.arkansascarl.page/2023/12/titanic-museum.html (5 of 10)

Titanic Museum (5 of 10)

Titanic Museum

 Our first stop Friday morning after leaving the condo was to go to the Titanic Museum. Destiny was very excited to go to the museum. She hadn't seen any of the movies, including the most famous by James Cameron, but she does of course know the story.

Destiny was Master Frankie Goldsmith and I was George Rosenshine. These were real people on the Titanic. On each of our boarding passes was a biography for each. As we went through the museum, we were able to not only see recreations of what it was like on the ship for each class, the children, and crew. They also provide lots of facts, including information about the many dogs that were on board.

There were many artifact recreations from clothes to jewelry to tableware. And all the staff were dressed in costume and acted in character.

This was the best thing we experienced in Branson on our two day vacation. We took our time, and at the end was a gift shop where we found many quality and fair priced souvenirs. I bought a new jacket for Destiny and a few others things for Christmas gifts. I will make a separate blog post about Christmas where you can see the other things we got here and at other places.

 

https://www.arkansascarl.page/2023/12/aquarium-at-boardwalk.html (6 of 10)

Aquarium at the Boardwalk. (6 of 10)

 Aquarium at the Boardwalk

After we finished at the Titanic Museum, we proceeded to the Aquarium at the Boardwalk.

We saw on the way to the aquarium, that there was a helicopter tour service right downtown. We didn't go on the tour, but it is very interesting for those who would be like to do something like this.

This is Destiny's new jacket I bought her at the Titanic Museum.

https://www.arkansascarl.page/2023/12/branson-hollywood-wax-museum.html (7 of 10)