Excursionists

We headed down to our Arkansas kids' home with the offer to help them paint their house.

How have I not ever seen this prairie home before?  The roof has fallen down, but the frame is still up!  Next time, when we have more time, we will have to get off the main highway to explore this!  I quickly snapped a shot to remind myself that we HAVE to do this!

 We made a rest stop.  I heard some singing in the trees.  A bird was singing its heart out!
     Cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer.   Tsick-a-dee-dee-dee.
     Per-chic-o-ree, per-chic-o-ree, per-chic-o-ree, per-chic-o-ree....."
On and on, repeating a certain song, then changing to another call.
It had to be a mockingbird!

                                      I got the binoculars from the car to get a closer look. 

It was!

Mockingbirds imitate not only other birds, but other animals, like cats, dogs, frogs and they have been known to even imitate a chain saw, a car alarm or other machinery!  They learn new sounds throughout their life.  The song is a long series of phrases, repeated 2-6 times before switching to a new song.

I have this little children's book I have read to my grandchildren.  It is about a mockingbird that sings a happy robin's song and warbles like a thrush.  And he twitters like a sparrow.

Then he wants to try to meow like a kitten.  Some children call the firemen, thinking a kitty is stuck in the tree!

Isn't it fun?

Clouds were building as we entered Arkansas.

As we drove along, I read aloud from the booklet "Life in the Bluffton and Pandora, Ohio, Community, 1877-1920:   Excerpts from The Bluffton News."

"Gotthard Althaus was among the excursionists from Columbus Grove last week....."  

"Al, what is an excursionist?"  He wasn't sure.

I looked it up on my smartphone, which is smarter than me.

"  :  a person who goes on an excursion."

"Oh, of course!  Well, that is what we are doing!  We are excursionists!"

We also read from the 1902 news about a young eight-year-old boy who was seriously burned by an explosion of gasoline while lighting a fire.  This little sufferer was in the hospital in Findlay, Ohio for 6 months.  Family and friends were furnishing the boy with skin grafts.  He had a total of 798 grafts and recovered to such an extent that he was permitted to return home.  He was able to get around on crutches at the time of the article.

It reminded us that a young girl from our church was in the hospital, also recovering from a gasoline burn.  Father, please bring healing to this child, as you did for little Clayton back in 1902.

We met Uncle Bill and Aunt Betty for supper!

What a good time!  So nice that they live on the way to Josh's house!

Aunt Betty is 10 years younger than my daddy.  She is the little girl in this picture.

We said our good-byes and headed further south.   It began to rain.  Golfers were getting rained on.

This cloud looks like a bear's claw!

The rain clouds would be a foreshadowing of the coming days.  It would be interesting painting the house!