The Spanish Oaks Halloween Party continues it’s fine tradition…..well tradition.

80+ year old hikers are hiking coast to coast

That makes me feel pretty bad. I was hoping to bike the Cross Florida Greenway one day, but currently can only do 14 miles max before pretty much calling it a day.

I was looking to see where my webpages come up on Google  and was surprised to discover one of my online videos on Defensetalk.com

It is that time of year again, when artist haul their stuff from event to event hoping to sell at least one piece to make it worth the effort.

There was quite a number of vendors this year with a wide variety (lots of nature) of art.

Usually I am interested in the sculpture, but with the new photography hobby I found myself looking more intently at those booths. It seemed most photograph vendors went with huge prints either on canvas or framed. The asking prices were sky high, but in their defense, so were their mounting expenses. Took away a lot of interesting ideas though.

Oh, I got my hopes up with a Greenman Ceramic sign. Don’t see ole Jack’s motif a lot in America. Turned out their last name was Greenman and no Greenman expressed in their work. If your into drunken Pagan festivals found this video on youtube.

Wayne with his “Russian Counterpart” Nicholas. I didn’t get the full story, but I think Nicholas lived here around 2001 (according to the shirt) before moving back to Russia and taking the concept of scenario paintball back with him. Now he is producing games in the 1,000s in Moscow using surplus Russian military equipment and movie props.

I got a heads-up from the Dollacks that the game was going to be small so I didn’t plan on videotaping but went out instead to try my hand at paintball photography.

Made me even more impressed with Dad’s photos. It is nearly impossible to see through the viewfinder with the mask on and every time I tried I keep hitting the menu buttons changing my settings.

Sisters Nancy and Linda dropped by for a visit.

It is that time of year again for me. Good tidings and cheer? No. War and flying paintballs. I just got done today finishing the Paintballs-Grand-Finale.com website to help promote the Nov. 30 - Dec. 2 event. The main work was in the Youtube video promo. I try to turn it up a notch each year.

This year has got me worried on attendance. Not only has it been a slow year but the enemies of Wayne Dollack (there are many) have moved their Free Finale from Georgia to Camp Blanding. Ouch.

The 50 dollar a head Grand Finale has got to compete with a free game with reduced paint prices on the coolest paintball site ever.

This could be rough.

I have been meaning to go to a high school football game for a while with Booster Stadium next door. It was Vanguard High School’s homecoming game which they won 32-13

Out of hundreds of photos I didn’t get a lot of good ones with my first try at football pictures. But this was the game changing play as it was a run to the left side that was closed off and the runner improvised scoring a touchdown.

Half time we actually saw people we recognized; the Schillings neighbors. Their son plays for Vanguard and was part of the Homecoming court.

I had a hard time getting photos because I had to turn down my shutter speed so slow to get the photos bright enough to see. I will have to do some research and see what the pros do.

Went back to the pond today, to get some more pictures for my collection.  I couldn’t decide if this new guy was a heron or gray egret.  After looking it up on wekipedia, turns out an egret is a type of heron.  I need a less complicated hobby like experimental aircraft building.

Well, at least I know this one is a snake bird.

This guy circled the pond several times but wouldn’t land close enough for me to get a good picture.

It must be Fall, the blackbirds are roosting in Hitchcock-like fashion.

Wow, how the girls have really grown-up. Me…..not so much. Think God I finally got out of the long hair phase.

We were amazed on how the town has caught Bama fever this year.

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Saturday we went up to Uncle Glenn’s home and watched the Alabama game. With the Miller family somewhat camera adverse (getting a photo of Stephanie was even harder to get then the great heron at the Spanish Oaks pond) I decided to just take pictures of the house and Lake Tuscaloosa today.

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On the way back to the RV we stopped at Dreamland to pick up some ribs for dinner. This isn’t the original Dreamland famous from College Football segways but one of their new franchise locations under the downtown bridge.

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Back at the Library again to upload some more photos

Chief Tuskaloosa

Mom ran off with Aunt Cherry and Stephanie to Mississippi to help the poor indians there.

Dad and I went to Sokol park to ride the trails that got me interested in mountain biking.

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After riding, we picked up Chip for a walking tour of the University of Alabama campus. The campus landscape has seen radical changes since we visited Tuscaloosa two years ago.

I have had this re-occurring dream where we are either temp. living in Tuscaloosa again or back in Florida after having been away in Tuscaloosa. Either case I am having trouble navigating with two different maps in my head. To make matters worse the place I am at is a dreamscape unlike either Ocala or Tuscaloosa.

I felt like I was living this dream trying to get from University Blvd. to Peggy’s place which use to be a straight shot, but they have changed all the roads on campus.

And at night, it was JUST LIKE some of the dreams with these new big lighted complexes and lighted buses all over the place.

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Because of the number of pictures I have put the rest up here.

I also have two hours of video that parts of may get Youtubed in the future.

While Mom visited with her nursing classmates, Dad and I had to find things to do.

We went (back) to Walmart to finish up Peggy’s new curtains and get some other things and we visited her at Clara Verner to finish up the re-decorating.

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Special thanks to the Tuscaloosa Public Library for being able to provide something the UofA could not, a free public WI-FI hotspot allowing me to upload these pictures and cutting down on my workload when I get back home.

After a trip to Walmart (to paraphrase Buckaroo Banzi - Wherever you go you are in a Walmart) we dropped by Aunt Peggy to see the newest member of the clan.

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We stopped by the Pritchett’s home for a visit

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We arrived in T-Town in went to the RV Park to get hooked-up.

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We decided to divide the trip up to Tuscaloosa into two parts by stopping overnight at the Ozark Travel Park.

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This is Jean’s table. Her friends here at Spanish Oaks sent her gifts and many cards.

The Bama Purse on the right side was given to her by Tommy.

This has been a very strange week for her. On Monday we were planning on going on a short camping trip to Tampa. But Monday afternoon she fell, mainly bruises. She got worried about her family in Tuscaloosa, so we changed plans and are heading to Tuscaloosa Sat Am.

Also one of the residents here died Tuesday and her funeral was today on Jean’s birthday.

I was asked to speak at the funeral. So with Jean’s help and know how she proceeded to call and get people to write down theirs thoughts and I typed it all out and then read this at the service. We even had a neighbor that was traveling in New York send their by email. It turned out rather nice.

I was not to mention  ages, but they aint young!!!