Home Again, part one

Sweetie and I are home again -- we were away for about 9 days, attending the "Changing of the Colors" annual rally of the Christian Motorcyclists Association. (CMA) This was my first year to attend and I admit I had some reservations. First of all, I don't ride motorcycles. Second, we were going to camp out for 8 days & nights and that takes a lot of planning and "stuff." I just couldn't figure out what I was going to be doing all that time while the others were on bikes.

I'm happy to say that it all worked out! "Colors," as the rally is called, was a really wonderful event and I enjoyed just about every minute. Oh, there were time when I did wish that I was somewhere else -- like at 4:30 am when I needed to go to the restroom and it was 1/2 block (uphill) away. Or when it was raining -- all evening, all night, all morning, and my tent was getting wetter and wetter! But, we actually had a minimum of problems, and I believe the rewards far outweighed the downside.

This event was held at IRON MOUNTAIN -- a place owned by CMA, in the Ouachita (pronounced Wash-a-taw) National Forest, in the state of Arkansas. It was beautiful in this hardwood forest -- the leaves were beginning to change colors. Most of my camping experience has been in pine forests so this was a new experience. There were many, many oak trees and also some that we were told were hickory trees. When the wind blew the acorns and hickory nuts would rain down on us. I'm told the hickory nuts hurt when they hit you but they always missed me. The acorns were too small to be a bother, however, except they often landed where they weren't wanted, like in your cup of hot chocolate!