At about the time we got married we decided that we would move south to warmer climes in three to five years time. So it will be three years this coming spring and we are right on track for the three year mark!
In anticipation of that forthcoming move, we traveled to Arkansas again this past week and followed it up with a side trip to Albuquerque for balloon fest. We had a ball!
First in Arkansas we drove around the four counties that we have centered our search on and tried to narrow down our focus a bit. I think we’ve decided to center in on the area just east of the cities and south of the lakes. that would give us good access to town and still be out in the boonies a bit. While I like the house in the north it just seems like such a long drive. And who’s to know what will be available when we are ready to purchase? We also got to meet the local SCA group and are very pleased we will eventually be able to call them family. We toured a cave, we had lunch at the tea room, we went cashmere shopping – it was a very relaxing vacation.
In Albuquerque we went to balloon fest. We took the Gondola package which involved special parking, a closed off area near the field with breakfast and golf cart rides wherever we wanted to go. We also got a special pin and then I went off and bought all of the penguin pins. It was a very fun morning even if I did have to get up at 4am. During the few days we were there we also went to Santa Fe to visit the oldest church, the oldest house, and the oldest municipal building. We got some pilgrim badges for the shrine, visited a mine and got some stone beads and a bone button, got lost in the scenery, and visited lots of old friends.
And now we are back at home and there is so much that I need to get caught up on!
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So far we have seen three castles. I don’t remember having seen any on our last trip so were up three castles
I’m going to try to load some of they pictures to Pintrest later tonight if I can. Not sure what we will do tomorrow.
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We drove the short distance to the Kloister and walked up to the building where there was a very nicely dressed party of 30 forming up. We went in but you can’t get into the museum until it opens which is at 2pm on Saturdays. So we left.
We drove to Kalkar. Last visit we were accosted by the tour guide in Kalkar and one of the six little Predella flower boxes was out for cleaning. Very few of my pictures were useful to me. We arrived at the church in the late morning and found our way to the parking lot and then walked the two blocks to the church and went in the door. There were several other people in the church and one guy up on a ladder with some sort of vacumn machine. We started taking pictures – lots of pictures. At some point the guy on the ladder let us know that he was leaving and would be back in ten minutes and since we were the only people left in the church he was going to lock us in and we could continue to take pictures. And so we were all locked in the church until he returned which was closer to twenty minutes later.
But all of the little boxes were there and we could just snap away! We were so lucky. Lots of good pictures this time.
From there we proceeded to Xanten. Xanten was an old Roman town and parts of the old wall still stand. As faithful readers from the last visit will know – the church in Xanten was undergoing extensive renovations the last time I was in town. It looks lovely now as they did a great job and everything is back where it belongs. And so we hunted out the Kloisterarbeiten that I just know they have and I pointed out the only one we found on our last visit. Well they have an even better one! It dates to 1510 and has some very nice peacocks all out of silk. It was enough to make me go Squee!
What a fabulous day. We got in the car and headed for the condo but the condo address was misread by the GPS and we ended up in Luxemburg so after getting directions and driving another hour and a half we made it to the condo. It’s a one bedroom with a foldout sofa but surprisingly spacious with a full kitchen. Pretty peaceful but quite a drive.
After a large supper of very yummy food – we’re back at the condo and falling asleep, singing “I’m in heaven…”
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