The Tasty Dip, Somewhere on Hwy 78 Near The Georgia/Alabama Line

A little ways down the road from the cool Memorial Park we came across the Tasty Dip and decided we needed some ice cream. It was a neat little place and the cool treat hit the spot. I love old places like this that are still being used the way they were intended. It's good to see our old way of life being preserved. My family used to stop at places like this when we are on road trips all the time. I really miss those old days with the Mom & Pop joints serving great food instead of the "one just like the others" corporate eating establishments. When you see a place like this stop in and show a little support. They won't be around forever, enjoy them while you can.

This sign has probably been on the roof of this building for over 40 years. It still works and still looks great.

I played with the exposure a little and came up with this one. I kinda dig it, looks like the sun has gone down and we're just waiting for the Johnny and his 57 Chevy to show up and start "cruising".

Allison was waiting for our ice cream. Other than the plastic garbage cans, this pic could have been taken decades ago.

from the other side. it still looks good.

Classic sign painting is becoming a lost art. I wish I had the talent, I would love to be able to paint stuff like this.


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Memorial Park On Hwy 78 Near Tallapoosa, GA.

Allison and I went to Atlanta for the Rockabilly Luau recently and on the ride home decided we would take Hwy 78 instead of the Interstate for most of the way. This is always a good idea when you have time because you run across really neat stuff that gets missed when you're "trying to make time". One of those neat places is Helton Howland Park near Tallapoosa, Georgia. I was driving along and saw the tank first and thought "that's cool" THEN I saw the Mighty UH-1H Huey on the pedestal. THAT got me to almost run off the road getting stopped. We turned around and went back to check things out a bit. It was pretty damn hot by this time of day so we didn't wander too much, but I did take a LOT of pictures of the Huey. Some of you know that I was a Huey Crewchief for almost 10 years in the Army and still have a big soft spot for them. Over 1000 hours of flying in an aircraft will do that to you ;-) There were a few other military vehicles in the park as well, but I didn't like the pics I took so only the M-60 Tank made the cut.

"Standing Guard"
I took this pic from up the hill where the Huey was located. It was just too hot to walk all over the place. I used the zoom to get the picture and then used Photoshop to take out some posts and other junk in the foreground. The way the tank is located on a hill in front of the flags impressed me. Just like our current Military members, standing guard, watching over us and protecting us from evil.

"Glorious Huey"
The way they have their Huey displayed is VERY nice. Most displays like this just have a post with a rack that the aircraft's skid tubes sit on. Their display actually mounts into the hellhole on the bottom of the airframe and I'm sure it attaches to the cross-member that holds the cargo hook when installed. They had American flags all around the park and I liked how they framed this view of the aircraft.

"Fly By"
From here it looks like the Huey is flying at you. They have the rotors turned instead of lined up with the airframe and it REALLY makes it look great. If it wasn't such a pain to get rid of the post with all those trees and plants around it I would make this one really look like it's flying. Oh yeah, they also have mannequins in the aircraft in flight gear to add to the look.

"Take Off"
This view really does look like the Huey just lifted off from a Firebase to go drop some C-Rations somewhere else. When I crewed I usually sat on this side and flew with the doors open. When we had the guns mounted I sat on the rear seats in the gun well, but most times I sat on the bench seat mounted across the interior.

"Lift Off"
In this one I did get rid of the post and also added some motion blur to the blades to make them look more like they are moving. I'll probably play with it some more later and blur them a little more.

Just included this one so you can see the mannequins on board. They need a little work, it looks like they are slipping from the angle they sit at and the helmets don't fit quite right. Maybe I'll go back and volunteer to take care of that for them ;-)

Bald River Falls, Near the Cherahola Skyway, TN

During the Big Mtn Run last weekend we went for a ride to check out these falls. I got some pretty cool pics and I'll post them over the next few days. I love being in the mountains, and I especially love being near mtn. streams. My Mom started a tradition with us when I was a kid. Any time we went to the Smokies we had to go to a stream and at least put our feet in. I still enjoy this tradition today.

Taken from the bridge above.

From the road right before the bridge.

Taken from below the bridge. This is a beautiful location and I truly enjoyed my time there. I'll post more pics soon.

Some Flowers I've Seen Lately

Since I got the new camera I've been taking pics of anything that catches my eye. Sometimes that something is a flower. Here's a few that I've found around my yard and in my Mother In Law's yard.

From my yard.

My Mother In Law Jane is unbelievable at growing flowers and other plants. This is one of the ones I saw on Easter while we were out in the yard.

Another from my yard.

Another of Jane's

And one more from her yard.

Some Architectural Fun!

A while back we went to New Orleans for a visit. While there Allison and I wandered around the Quarter and took some interesting pictures of buildings. Now it's time to share some of those with you....

The granite entrance to a building. I wish my old camera had been capable of getting more of this entryway into the shot. It was a very interesting building and I don't think this picture does it justice but I do think it makes a nice picture.

LOTS of cool balconies around the Quarter. I liked the look of this one and snapped the pic. I did zoom in for this one.

Even better was that the whole building looked cool. When you can have that much interesting detail on the corner of a building you know you've done good.

Just a cool looking window in a building that was being remodeled.

Something about the symmetry and squareness of this building caught my eye. I ended up taking 3 or 4 shots before I caught what my naked eye was seeing. I like how the stairs look like they could be raised up and fit right into the balcony going around the building.

We Had A Little Rain Last Week.

This is my yard during last weeks storms. I took advantage of the rain to do some more experimenting with the camera.

Not sure what setting I used in this one, but it worked. as you'll see in the others auto was not a good setting to choose.

In this one I set the camera to "aperture priority" which is basically where I pick the f/stop, but the camera picks the shutter speed. It seemed to work good for this.

This picture was taken on auto, as you can see the camera tried to focus on the rain drops and didn't take too good of a picture. Kinda neat, but not good.

Same thing with this one, but it's so bad you can barely see the road. All in all this was a pretty good session because I was able to try some of the things I've been reading about and at the same time learning that auto just doesn't cut it sometimes.

Stay tuned, I'll try to get some more interesting pictures over the next few days.

A Cabin In The Woods...

A picture I took of the Walker Sister's Cabin in the Smokey Mountains Nat. Park. Lotta history around that cabin. It seems my Grandfather stayed there when he was a kid and that we are related to them by marriage. Whatever the connection my Mom loved this place and I must have inherited it because I get a very peaceful feeling whenever I'm there.

I got Allison to sit on the porch in the same pose as one of the Walker Sisters in an old picture I saw years ago. Too bad I didn't have the book with me when I took the pic so that I could have gotten it a little closer to the original. It's close, but I'd prefer it to be closer.

.The old picture was in one of my books so I scanned it for you. The photo credit says 1936 by E.E. Exline