Jones Valley

We Joneses Guilford ("Gil") and Jennifer had a great time, especially since Jennifer's son Lt. Matthew Andrews and his girlfriend Lesley and their friend James came for Saturday and Sunday. We left Wednesday morning (July 2) and in only 478 miles we were pulling into the familiar sign at the entrance. It was pretty quiet most of Thursday but by Friday a lot of cuzzins were flocking in from everywhere.

There are a lot of photos, some here on the family website and some on my SmugMug account. The ones here are a select group and of smaller resolution, a total of 127 photos. However, ALL of the photos I kept (354 of them) are on the SmugMug account, in their full original resolution, and are downloadable or printable. You can click among the thumbnails or do a slideshow from either system, but the SmugMug will show them better. Odds are there are one or more shots of any of you so go browse and grab some for yourself. You can order prints from SmugMug. Prints of photos on this site can be ordered from Photoworks or Shutterfly. Enjoy.

I got a wild hair on Thursday to get electricity at our trailer site and spent some time arranging that along with some good R&R. Friday saw the swimming hole getting a lot of use right away but I was so busy taking pictures I never got in.

Johnny Cameron organized a really fun bunch of water games.  The photo gallery has a lot of pics of people doing really strange stuff in, and in the process of being in, the water.

Matt and his bunch made it in about 4 on Saturday and we had some good visiting, ate at the Fishnest, shot some fireworks off and then figured out how to fit 5 people and 2 dogs into the camper. It fits -- barely.

Sunday morning the "kids" (they hate it when I say that) and I made a trek up the mountain first to the old solar house experiment and then up part of Strawn Mountain near the site of the trainer plane crash from the 1940's -- although I only heard about that story after we came back down.

Doppler and Sebastian -- those would be Matt and Lesley's dogs --  had a great time on the hike. We thought sure they would be worn out but such was not the case. I know I was pooped!

We were sad to see the kids had to leave on Monday, but they did help me finish the electricity project first. Turns out the guy who set the pole and meter loop for me either did not know what he was doing and set a pole the Entergy would not approve, or was just too glad to take my money in spite of knowing it was no good and I'm afraid the latter scenario is the case. So while Jennifer and the kids were at lunch and I discovered that problem, they suddenly got a request to make yet one more trip by Plyler's for the prescribed 18 foot pole and a few related goodies. The hole was dug by Randy who was running a backhoe for Cathy and Gary and he was setting the new pole yesterday as we pulled out.

We came back on Tuesday after being away a full week. It seemed so short! Our wonderful neighbors had taken good care of Bailiff and Trooper and we were glad to get home to see them. Somehow the trip back seemed longer.