Anastasia

This was one of Anabelle's favorites, probably because of the large portion of the show in Paris.   But I got all the girls and myself tickets to see this show as a surprise.   What I did not think about was that the show started at 7:30PM on a school night, and we all know how Ruby has to have her sleep.  

The girls all looked beautiful dressing up for this event.  I took them our to a fancy Mediterranean restaurant called  Tazikis for dinner prior to the show, and we each had our own feast there.  I was excited to see this show, as I have no memories whatsoever of this movie or story.   The story was really good, the music was really good.  "Once upon a December" was an amazing main song, rather haunting, but very good.  

Seats for 4 on a budget put us in the back of the concert hall, but we had a direct center view.   The first Act was all in Russia, which was somewhat sad and slow.   Looking over I saw Belle engaged, but Ruby and Magan were fading fast.   At the break, I went up to the balcony and noticed that it was completely empty.   And the wings of the balcony are very close, actually almost into the back of the Orchestra section.   So I convinced our crew to move to these seats, and our view was much better for actually seeing the actors...but Anabelle was not happy with me because the side view blocked her scenes of the Eifel Tower in Paris.   Oh well, they will get over it, it was a much better view, and Act 2 in Paris was awesome.   I looked over and saw Belle with a big grin, Magan smiling, and well, Ruby was still fighting to stay awake.   

Magan apparently found some stock images below, but Anastasia's bow in the red dress was from our second seat and definately seats I will be looking for next time to save some money, but still get an amazing view.   The girls both got Anastasia keychains, and Magan got a magnet.   A really fun night...and yes, Ruby was asleep almost as soon as we left the parking lot.  

Return to Bryant Denny

 Every trip to Alabama is an adventure, and this one seemed to have a larger portion of fun during the day.   The Boy Scout troop planned these out much better this year, and we had much more participation from other parents, so instead of 3 games like last year, this should be our only game to have to work.  But since we had only one game, it had to be the Mississippi State game.   As the weeks came down to this one, I held my breath for this to be the CBS 2:30 game, but that did not pan out, and we were left with a 6PM start.   So our day began that morning at 4:30AM leaving the house with Sam and Grant Dabbs riding down with us.  I can't remember any "Grantisms" for the day, but maybe Davis will remind me of some.  

After grabbing the radios for each of our 3 stations, and getting everyone else set up, and grabbing some Jacks for breakfast, I came back to the Campus Deck to get started with our day.  It was a chilly morning, but quickly warmed up, and while we had to be there for 12 hours, the weather was nice and enjoyable.   Prior to noon, we probably only had about 15 cars show up, so it was really really slow.   The boys played a little football in the parking lot, and Davis rode his skateboard a bit.  

Our first crazy encounter was a man running down campus drive with earbuds singing "Don't Go" as loud as he could.   I don't really know this song, but that man knew it, and sang it for everyone.   Yes, Sam brought his laptop, and got some homework done while sitting there.  We kidded him about being the best clicker ever, while Davis and Grant were the bathroom relievers for the team at Shelby MacMillan lot...and apparently the dad there was having some stomach issues, so Davis and Grant kept having to go relieve them.   Davis was very happy about this.  

We later found the pair of pants right next to a can of beer at the corner of the campus parking deck.   There is a story in pictures like these, and those stories are typically not very good.  We later had an actual party van enter our parking area, and they had some 30 year olds reliving some college days dancing in the parking lot...perhaps even seeing the lost pair of pants and remembering a strange night.   Anyway, this crew was entertaining, and even woke Davis up from his sleep in the van.  

Another fun thing with this lot is the people.   Our lot was a handicap lot last year, but now it is a Tide Pride lot.   So this makes it fun to nicely tell handicapped folks that have parked there for years that "No, you have to go back out to Peter Bryce and park in the general lot A.   Don't worry the buses will pick you up".  Most were pretty nice about it.   Some folks are students that park here during the week, and somehow seem oblivious to the fact that it is a game day, so they are looking to park here and go to the library.   And this is also not the spot for faculty, but they expect us to just let them park here.  My favorite lady of the day was a faculty member and local hospital worker.   I explained that this lot was only pre-paid tide pride, and she looked at me with squinted eyes and said "I just hope you don't need my services one day at the hospital".   Wow, she definitely took that up a notch.    I politely gave her directions to the general parking lots.  

We do have a special list of people that do have permission to park without a permit here, and that typically goes well.  And it works even better if you have confidence, and just wave and pass right by us, yep that worked.   I am not going to chase you down.  One lady was not on the list, but she said "I am supposed to be on the list, I am just going to have to call NICK".   This is where I played the confidence card and said "Oh, you know NICK?"   She said yes, so I said, Ok, just come in and park anywhere that is open.   Sam looked over at me and said, "Who is NICK?", I replied, "I don't know, but he apparently is someone in the know".   And later we met Nick, who one of the directors of the UA parking.  

I gave two people directions down the wrong way of a one way road, because it was the only way to get to the lot they were trying to get to ... once roads close, it is very difficult to navigate certain streets.   But I watched them, they made it, just had to go a little rogue down a street.  We did get to see homecoming, and I loved seeing Miss Alabama texting on her phone when she passed by.   And our last adventure was one car that completely passed us by and parked in the last open spot outside.  I walked over, but the rest of the team stopped me, and said, only 30 minutes left, don't worry about it.   So I didn't .   They had the confidence.   And when the drivers got out, I could just think one thought that I shared to get a laugh out of Sam..."That car would make Kip happy".   He got the reference immediately, and I was awarded with a big laugh.   

So, for the game...I was excited, thinking this may be our year to take Alabama down, as they don't seem to be as dominate this year.   But I was not thinking the prior week getting beat by Tennessee would help, and it did not.   They starting scoring and by halftime, it was over.   We were planning to stay thru the whole halftime, but it was homecoming, and the band was not doing their normal routine.   So we headed back to the car, with my knee aching the whole way with old man aches.  We did see as we left the stadium that Kay Ivey was elected as homecoming queen.   I think that is what happened.   

AHG Fall Campout - Noccalula Falls

I think the AHG troop last visited Noccalula in the Spring of '21, but everyone had a great time, and we had a plan to attend the PowWow this time, instead of visiting the park. We arrived at a good time on Friday afternoon (even after a call from work delayed us by about 1 hour), before the crowd of folks, and had our pick of locations.   Then as I laid out the easy up tent, and quickly went to set it up, I heard a snap, and realized that my attempt to get the tent up fast had backfired.   One of the poles had completely snapped and shattered.   So our campout began with an expensive trip to Walmart to get the fun started.   I also bought some duct tape, but that old tent was quickly just thrown in the garbage.   Oh well.  

 The girls wasted no time getting started with the fun while I was gone.   Belle got her tent put up, and then the girls played like a mini version of gagaball.  We were able to get the flag poles lashed together, and all of the new AHG girls to sign our flag.  That night around the campfire, the PiPas had some oranges filled with chocolate cake (yummy).  

Saturday morning began with some breakfast that I cooked for the family over at the nearby Jacks.   And Magan appreciated the coffee I brought back.  Magan had a fun craft that morning to make pictures with the falling leaves.   And while all were doing crafts, I ran down to the falls (starting a repeating occurrence of disappearing from Magan on this weekend).  I really wanted to get a feel for the hike to the falls, so I could share with others that might want to go later.  About 1 mile, and only 15 minutes...but I should have stated later that was one way,  haha.  

We next drove over to the PowWow, and got to experience some of the Native American culture.  We began at the large teepee where one of the men spoke to the girls about Native American history and the weapons they used.   One of the weapons he showed the girls was the blowdart, then he demonstrated how accurate it was by shooting it into a target.   It was pretty cool, but the target was on the other side of the kids, and the giant needle was shot directly over all the kids...so that was something I saw at the Powwow.  Next all of the girls lined up to practice throwing axes.   So I slipped away looking at all the booths, and apparently Magan was looking for me.  We got a picture with the teepee, then I slipped away again, and met Mickey Roberts.

Mickey was I think 1/8 native american and told me about his time in Vietnam.   He wore a shirt that interested me that stated "Sprayed and Betrayed".   He was one of many that came in contact with agent orange while in helicopters in vietnam.   While the Government had finally helped him with his many symptoms, he was worried about many of his friends, including a brother, that also served, and were experiencing the same symptoms with little assistance.   He told me that COVID had about taken him out.   But seemed in great spirits, and enjoying the festival.  Cool Stories around the Powwow, but then I found out Magan had been looking for me to get them lunch.

Lunch was native american fried bread that about wiped out all my cash.   We had to try all of it, we got the fried bread hotdog, the fried bread taco, the fried bread with special fruit preserves, and the fried bread with cinnamon and sugar.   So we sat and ate our lunch, while we watched various different tribal dances.  Anabelle got a new pair of earrings for her souvenir, and Ruby got...well she got a white rabbit skin...and LOVED it.   It was her new best friend.  She even named it Louie.   

After the powwow, we went back to the campground, where some went to the playground, and others just took a nap in the shade.  It was perfect weather for the campout, really only getting to the upper 40s at night, and during the day reaching into the upper 70s.  We did later that afternoon get to hike down to the waterfall.   And Noccolula has a great location where you can walk down to the edge of the water...well you can when the falls is just a trickle.   Me, and Belle, and Ruby got to touch the waterfall.   I was able to share with the girls about this being one of the few places to see the backside of water and the chemical formula being O2H.   One of the other moms said she tried to help get the girls attention as I was about to share that information.   She told the girls "Mr. Scott has something serious to share"...then she told me later, she immediately realized that was probably incorrect.

That night we had a really fun campfire with a meal of tacos...with guess what...fried bread.   It was good, altho I missed the Dorito bags we usually use.   The Tenderhearts had a skit where Ruby kept falling, with finally all the other girls saying "See Ruby Falls".   I joined the Explorers as a pilot with the President, the smartest person in the world, and an AHG girl on the flight...which had a fun punchline.  And Belle and the PiPas shared with us a skit about a turtle that came from a Native American tale.  I shared a poem about the code to the bathroom...35 hundred and 92, that is the number you need when you go to the loo...yes, it was in a british voice.  And we closed the campfire with the retirement of three flags.   

And then on Sunday morning, we woke to a sleepy morning where I pulled out the leather keychains that many of the girls like to make.   I just try not to get hit by the hammers.   Rashann provided a good devotion, and then we began the paper plate awards.   Ruby won the award for taking care of unstuffed animals.   Belle won the award for being the PiPa leader on the hike down to the falls.  Since I did not have a group this year, they let me do the awards for the little brothers and sisters that had joined us, which was fun.  And then it was over.   Another fun campout complete.   We packed up and headed home.

So what were the boys doing this weekend?   Sam went to a Robotics tournament in Montgomery, which was also at a fair.   So they had fun competing with the robots, but also getting to ride some rides.   Davis went with the Boy Scouts to go mountain bike riding at Chewacla state park.   And since he and sam had both tore up their bikes, he took mine with him, and guess what...Yep, he broke my derailer on the first trip out.   So he had to borrow other kids bikes for the other two bike rides that day.   So three weeks later, Davis now has a new bike...and we took mine and Sam's today to be repaired.   Davis is no longer allowed on our bikes.