Photo Blogging Challenge (October 2013): Fall

This month's challenge was Fall. Around here, Fall brings football, fairs, and slightly cooler weather. I'm a big fan of Hallowe'en too; so I always look forward to that. Without further ado, my month's photos.

Waco hosts the Heart of Texas Fair and Rodeo every year in October. The boys keep getting more and more adventurous on the rides, especially Will.

The rodeo has grown quite a bit over the years. It's a qualifier for the PRCA events. We sponsor a team for the Calf Scramble every year. That's where high school kids chase down a cow and, if they catch it, raise it to show the following year. It provides some scholarship money for them and is always fun to follow their progress.

Our school only offers flag football and only through 6th grade so this is our last year of cheering on the Wildcats. I coached them a few years ago and I enjoy seeing how they have improved over the years.

The fall also brings Big Tex and the State Fair of Texas. Big Tex, who started his life as a Santa Claus in Kerens, TX, was destroyed in a fire in the last days of the fair last year. You can read about it here. We got to see the new and bigger Big Tex this year. I'll leave out whether he is better now. My mom is back from her summer in New York and we spent the day with her and the cousins. I needed a Fletcher's corn dog fix.

As I mentioned, I love Hallowe'en. The weather has been uncooperative so I'm pushing up against tomorrows deadline on getting stuff out. I've changed it up a bit and I'll post an update with the final product after it becomes final.

It's difficult to pare down 179 photos to just five. I invite you to take a look at my world on my Flickr photostream. Until next month... Visit the other entries here.

Photo Blogging Challenge (September 2013): Outdoors

September can be a pretty good month for getting outside in Texas or it can be miserably hot. We had a decent mix this year. I've been trying to bike some more. I've managed to get out quite a bit and do what I can to dodge traffic and get away from the house.

One of my photo prompts took me out to see some old cemeteries. We grabbed a couple of caches while we were there.

Fall is football season. My Bears are doing well so far. William decided to wear his horsehead mask to the game. There he is down by the 50.

This past weekend, we finally got the Troop back out for a campout. It was National Public Lands Day and we canoed down the river between the Confederate Union Grounds historical site to Ft. Parker State Park picking up trash along the way. We got rained on and ended up having to cut the weekend short due to severe weather but had a good canoe and picked up a lot of trash.

There's my month in a nutshell. I'm looking forward to seeing what the others have been up to.

EDIT: I was in such a hurry this afternoon that I forgot to include this picture. I took it with a little point and shoot and I get excited when those turn out well:

Photo Blogging Challenge (August 2013): Summer

Summer seems to have really flown by this year. It was a busy one. Scout camp in July, followed immediately by two weeks in Grand Cayman.

August kicked off with one last trip.  A visit to Little Rock, Arkansas for a family wedding. While there we visited the Central High School that played such an important role in the civil rights movement.

After our return, our little Horsehead, fully aware his pool days were numbered, took advantage of a warm summer day.

I participated in the Geocaching 31 Days of August Challenge and managed to find at least one cache per day. It was good to get out and cache again.

For us, August means Back to School time. The boys are already geting settled in to a knew school year.

Even though school is in session, we still found time for one last splash! Until next summer...

Photo Blogging Challenge (July 2013): Signs

This month's theme for PJ's HooHaa Photo Challenge was Signs. With two boys summer is a busy time and we saw lots of signs. Narrowing my selection was difficult and I decided to go two different ways with the theme.

The first part of July was spent in Talihina, OK at the Hale Scout Reservation. Below is our troop sign at the entrance of our camp site.

After returning from Summer Camp, we jumped on a plane and spent the rest of July on Grand Cayman.Our departure day also coincided with John's 13th Birthday. Here's his sign that he is now a teenager and happy to be at the beach!

Speaking of birthdays, we celebrated mine a week later. A sign I'm another year older.

This sign says you are too close! Within the 200 YD Limit, your boat can travel a maximum of 5 knots and must be headed either to the shore or away from it.

Finally, this sign was placed at the Public Beach. I like the thought of 'aloud' and 'allowed'. It tickled me.

Photo Blogging Challenge (June 2013): Bridges

So the theme for June was bridges. There are some cool old bridges around me so shouldn't be a problem. We don't have any covered bridges like PJ has but we have a suspension bridge with a lot of history. But that was not how this project ended up. Enjoy my journey!

We'll start out with Waco's most famous bridge. The Waco Suspension Bridge. One of the things I like about this location is you can see four very different bridges in very close proximity. I've written about the suspension bridge before and linked the wikipedia entry above, so I won't repeat it.

As I mentioned, one can see different types of bridges all in close proximity. Below is the Waco Steel Bridge built in 1901. It was the longest single span steel bridge in the world. It was recently rehabilitated and restored back to two-way traffic. You can see the remains of the Waco Interurban bridge here.

So, now is where I go off the rails a bit, so bare with me. Sure I could give you some more photos of hitoric bridges spanning various bodies of water, but what fun would that be? This is actually the first photo I took for this challenge. It is the bridge of my computer glasses at my office.

One of my boys is learning to play Radioactive by Imagine Dragons on the piano. As near as I can follow along (I'm not as adept at reading music as I once was), below is the bridge of that song.

Speaking of pianos, for my last offering, a portion of the long bridge of the piano.

I had hoped for the photo of a boat's bridge or even a game of bridge but that was not in the cards. (See what I did there?)

If you like these and want more you can see more challenge entries at PJ's blog.

Until next month...

Photo Blogging Challenge (May 2013): Night

I know I'm early with this but we are camping this weekend and I didn't want to miss the post. This month's theme for PJ's HooHaa Photo Challenge was Night. My problem is that the days are getting so long I'm asleep by night. So I did my best. All of these were shot at night.



We bought this motorbank a few years back because it had a parking deck and downtown Tulsa is sorley lacking in parking. After a few failed attempts to get things going, The Vault opened up. It's a really cool concept that has embraced the mid-century modern architecture of the building as well as its past as a bank. The Auld's own it, Libby is a fantastic chef that puts a unique flair on all of the dishes. If you ever find yourself in Downtown Tulsa, do yourself a favor and have a visit. Tell them Mike from Waco sent you. That and your credit card should get you some delicious food and beverage. You can find some additional photos in my Tulsa set.

 

May 13th is my baby's birthday. My baby turned 11 this year. He wanted a horse head mask for his birthday. I got him one. He is a clown.



We had a Boy Scout campout we hold annually called Welcome to Webelos where the Boy Scouts spend the day training the new Webelos. It gets us a chance to gather with the back and hopefully the Webelos enjoy themselves enough to join our troop after crossing over. Out Assistant Senior Patrol Leader grabbed my camera and tried to catch sunset. He just missed it. If you look at the bigger picture you can see just a hint of the sun below the treeline. Mr. Dao has developed quite an interest in photography himself.



A Memorial Day tradition is the gathering for what I like to refer to as Memorial Daze or Crumpalooza. This was our disputed 8th gathering. The kids aren't such kids anymore.



I'll wrap this month up with John practicing piano. He has a recital coming up is a few weeks and is working out the bugs on his recital piece. Both boys have gotten quite good. I enjoy hearing them play.

Until next month...

Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2013): Transportation

April is almost done already! It's hard to believe. Spring is generally a pretty busy travel time for me. We have a few conferences we usually attend but those numbers are down this year. I'm glad, it gives me more time at home.

April started out with a backpacking trip to Pedernales Falls SP. We are working on the Backpacking merit badge and needed a 15-mile hike. We didn't plan to do 13 of it in one day but that happens sometimes when you are boy-led.

Next, our troop attended a Merit Badge college at the local technical school. It's one of the better ones in that they offer merit badges that are hard to come by like Welding and, in this photo, Auto Maintenance.

Work took me to a conference in Key Biscayne, Florida. We have a business associate who lives on Fisher Island. His company was celebrating 20 years with another business partner and threw a dinner party on a little boat. It was pretty nice.

 I have all sorts of photos of airplanes, it's not often I'm around helicopters. As we were leaving Florida the one in front had just landed and the one in the air was circling to land where we were parked.

April ends similar to how it started. The Troop kicked off the Hiking merit badge with the first of four 10-mile hikes. We call this one our Urban Hike, it's a good loop that is all paved to get the guys used to the walk.

I can't wait to see what adventures next month brings.  You can see the other participants at PJ's blog.

Pedernales Falls SP – 15-mile Backpack Hike

Pedernales Falls SP primitive area, April 6, 2013, 10PM

We started this morning about 7am. We got settled in and hit the trail. 

We passed our camp area and kept on going. We were looking for a path running along the creek the ranger told us about but ended up in a area that was closed to allow for revegetation, Twin Falls.









We realized our mistake and quickly and carefully left the area.

We finally spotted our river crossing and headed up for the 4 mile loop. It was long and uphill all the way, literally. I don’t know how. The day was really starting to warm up, too.







 

After returning to the river crossing we broke for lunch. The decision was made to stick to the road instead of trying to return the way we came. Our 9-10 mile first day turned into a 13 miler, setting a record for our troop besting the previous of 11-miles. Later we made it back to the primitive area. I had an opportunity to find a nearby cache. We had a great "campfire" the boys told stories and jokes and told us their most memorable scouting moment.








 

We had a little less than a 3 mile hike back to the parking lot Sunday morning. After sleeping in a little and breakfast, John led the troop’s Sunday service. He did a nice job.











   

Carter helped him out with a song. We made it back safely and got back home around lunch time















I had the opportunity to try the prototype of the Alpine Hammock in hammock form. I found it quite comfortable. I wish there was a hook inside to clip a small stuff sack and it’s a little stuffy when it’s humid out. It’s a really nice product though.

Photo Blogging Challenge (March 2013)

I decided I didn't have enough on my plate so I added PJ's Photo Blogging Challenge The first month's challenge is My World and due to the activities in my world, I missed the deadline, but here it is anyway. 

March started off with a bleasure plusiness trip that was minorly work-related to Nassau, The Bahamas. It was abnormally windy and cool but we dove some and played a little golf as well as visiting with some old friends. 

 





 The next week brought us to Steamboat Springs for some spring skiing for the boys' spring break. We had two days of snow and two days of warm spring ski. They are getting really good. 









In Steamboat, we found this cool place called Ice Castles CO where they have built this huge structure out of ice. 










 
After returning home, the Boy Scouts of Troop 377 did some canoeing on the Brazos River during our March camp out. The boys did conoes while many of the adults kayaked. It was a great day on the water but a cold weekend.
  





Just last week, myself and a couple of local cachers decided to go after a cache that has been on our watch list for some time,
Necropolis of Britannia Manor III. We had a good time on this puzzle cache and ate some fantastic barbecue for lunch. Easily one of the best finds in my list.





And since I've already "broken the rules", here is a sixth picture out of five. Our March ended with an Easter egg hunt with the cousins and a friend from up the street. Next month, I'll try to be on time!

Thanksgiving_Turkeys_2012_5300

Thanksgiving_Turkeys_2012_5300, originally uploaded by cmiked.

Here are those same Turkeys seven years later.

Turkeys

Turkeys, originally uploaded by cmiked.

It all started here. Thanksgiving 2004 I joined flickr. I'm now sitting at over 24000 photos and almost 166000 views. I've met new folks, participated in many projects, and keep snapping photos. I don't remember the exact first photo posted as I have manipulated my stream over the years. But this one was one of the first.