Sunday, May 27, 2012

There's no place like home...

...except maybe Arkansas, which, like Tennessee, impressed me with its unexpected natural beauty:

and depressed me with its economic stats (although the state's per-capita income has risen to 44th in the country, up from 48th).  

 There were also signs during my visit that indicated I should perhaps have requested hazardous duty pay for this assignment:




Luckily for me, the worst that happened was an unexpected expansion of my waistline, due to the excellent lunch and dinner offerings at the lakeside compound where I spent the week.

7 comments:

  1. I'm of the opinion that it ain't the gators or beavers (the pelt sort), or even the nuke that one should be leery of. Rather, it's the two-legged, gun toting critters thereabouts.

    Glad you made it back with all of your appendages and I hope you're well rested ;-)

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  2. Charlie Farquharson referred to the beaver as a hank of hair and a piece of tail. Maybe that's what makes trapping them so dangerous...

    That's a nice shot at the top, Intell.

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  3. Got to love the beauty of the Ozarks. I thought the only gators in Arkansas were sharks. I wouldn't touch a trapped beaver either!

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  4. Hey, jj - glad to be back. I missed the mountains, and my kiddo, and my bed!

    Doug, I think catch and release is the way to go. And thanks for the compliment - I forgot to pack my 'real' camera so was putting the phone cam to the test.

    walking man, predators of all sorts have a tendency to stray out of their customary range. Apparently so do beavers.

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  5. Nothing quite like government instructions to calm and inform the populace. There was once a sign at one of the Florida springs canoe launches that read: Beware of rapids, whirlpools and alligators. I saw neither and I swam most of the way.

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  6. Ah, Arkansas. The only state in the US I ever visited. Physically beautiful, culturally… odd. The cab driver explained in detail to me why Clinton was a Communist (I didn't feel the need to explain that as an actual CP member, he wouldn't meet the entry requirements), and the Confederate flag seemed to be everywhere. Lovely people though.

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  7. glad to see you are communing with the, er, wildlife in meaningful ways.
    signage amazing..... the semiotics, even more so.

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And you thought...