My funny, witty, wonderful Uncle Joe (picture by Leslie)

Mother and her brother Joe engrossed in conversation

Daddy laughing at a funny story (picture by Leslie)

Of all of my relatives, I am considered to look most like my Uncle Joe (picture by Leslie)

Shirley (left), Joe's delightful companion and Carol

Cousin Eric (son of my mother's brother, Tom) and his son Thomas, a freshman at James Madison University

The four amigos! Three generations of Whitesells. From left: Joe, Michael (son of my Cousin Vicky-Eric's sister) and freshman at VA Tech, Thomas and Eric

Sharing country ham (cured by Joe) and turkey on biscuts, fresh fruit and lots of conversation.

Conversation, coffee and Cousin Vicky's fresh apple cake...too bad Vicky was tied up with relatives at her house and unable to visit!

Finally, Mother is getting rid of Grandaddy's copper pot...for over 20 years it sat under a bush in the yard. Eric is taking it to his farm in VA where it belongs. (picture by Leslie)

What a wonderful day! From back left:Daddy, Leslie, Eric, Thomas, Michael, Carol, Joe. Front: Mother and me! (Thanks for taking the photo Shirley!!)

I certainly don't have my mom's knack for centerpiece decorations. Carol's addition of a few sprigs of burning bush helped some but it is still pretty homely.

A Thanksgiving feast! We are a very blessed family.

Mother, short one toe! She enjoyed sitting around while the daughters and Daddy pulled the feast together. As a matter of fact, she gets to sit around and read books until her foot heals.

Leslie and Daddy post Thanksgiving feast!

Leslie and Mike...smile!

Okay, this is a really blurry picture of me and Carol! Since it is the only one I have, I am including it. We will try again tomorrow when the relatives show up. Just don't want you to think that we weren't there!

Fall has finally arrived in my yard! Two years ago I planted a red maple and although she is still scrawny, she had a nice growth spurt in the spring/summer. Her color is still a bit suspect though. Each October her leaves begin to drop without color and I threaten to take out the chainsaw to make room for a "replant". Somehow by mid-November her colors magically appear in vivid shades of yellow, orange and red and I repent.


My Red Maple's 2nd year!

Oh so beautiful... my Japanese Maple!

Home again after less than 27 hours spent in the air and in a meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas. Yesterday's flight through Cincinnati was relatively uneventful. I must admit, I am becoming too familiar with Terminal C in the bowels of the Cincinnati International Airport. Terminal C is the arriving and departing point for many commuter aircraft. It is dark, noisy, overcrowded and the flights are always oversold. On past trips I have collected a number of Delta dollars in Terminal C for giving up my flight for a later time, but not on this night; I was anxious to get to Bentonville and settle in for the night.

The arrival in Bentonville was right on schedule. I checked into the Springhill Suites and walked to Brioso Brazil for a late dinner of fresh asparagus, artichoke hearts, shrimp and smoked salmon. Yum!

This morning I was delighted to run into an old friend in the hotel parking lot, Lori Bell. Lori and I were buyers at Venture Stores and I haven't seen her since 1994 when I left St. Louis. We both work for manufacturing companies now, in different fields. Lori is still the same tall, thin, vivacious blonde I remember and is now a mother of 2. Her husband, Tom, was also a buyer but wisely returned to law school and is now practicing in St. Louis. We had little time to chat as we were both off to meetings. I am looking forward to exchanging emails and catching up on the past 10 years!

Prior travels to Bentonville have led to my conclusion that Bentonville is the fastest growing city in the USA (it is officially listed as the 3rd fastest growing city). As fast as ADOT can lay down fresh asphalt another farm is transformed into a new hotel, office building or strip mall ready to serve the town's growing corporate demands. My meeting took me to an unfamiliar part of town, an area I call "Old Bentonville." What a treat! Old Bentonville (founded in 1837) is like many small southern towns, built around a town square (Plaza de Armas). In the center of the square is a statue of Robert E. Lee (?) and the word "Confederate 1861-1865" inscribed on each side of the four sided base (no question where the city's loyalties lie). On this trip, the square was decked out in white plastic and wire Christmas sculptures with many twinkling lights. When I walked by, I noticed that just off the square, a local church was already setting up it's all-weather nativity scene.

The original Walton 5-10 has been preserved on the square in it's original location. It now serves as a Visitors Center to tell the Sam Walton/Wal-mart story. Very humble beginnings for the international mega Wal-mart corporation. I was pleased to discover my meeting was held in the historic Terry Building, circa 1888. Bentonville is becoming a new, modern city but the city fathers seem to have the wisdom to invest in and preserve the historic country roots.

If you opened Smithposts and received a notice to download Traditional Chinese characters, don't be alarmed, I haven't gone multi-lingual overnight. According to information on Blogger's update page, they are adding a number of international languages to the software. Apparentlly over 50% of the million + Bloggers are from countries outside of the ole US of A. I haven't downloaded the Chinese characters yet but just to be sure my page has not been Shanghai'd, I emailed Blogger to check things out!

Not much to report this weekend. Time was spent doing domestic chores like mowing the yard and putting new tires on my car. Bah humbug! We did take a few hours today to drive to the Smoky Mountains for a short walk on Bote Mountain Trail. The fall color traffic has dissipated and trail traffic is light. We are scheduled to lead a backpack to Campsite 18 in January and haven't been to the campsite in almost a year. Mucky trail conditions exsited due to recent rains and many of the slick roots were buried under layers of leaves. We were amazed that so few leaves still remain on the trees. As you can see from the photos, the area is incredibly beautiful!

Tomorrow I am off to Bentonville for 36 hours then back in town for a few weeks. Hard to believe Thanksgiving will be here in 1.5 weeks.


Along the West Prong from the banks of Campsite 18 (photo by John)

Another photo from Campsite 18 (photo by John)

A little bit of color lingers on West Prong Trail (photo by John)

A glooming day in Portland as seen from my hotel balcony. Mt. Hood is visible from this spot on a clear day!

The wake up call came at 6:00 am. I was so exhausted that I could hear the phone but could not manage to move to answer it. Luckily the significance of the event registered in my tired mind and I did not go back to sleep. So much for staying awake for 22 hours and trying to recover on 5.5 hours of sleep.

My first day in Portland has been quite nice. An early morning glimpse from my 9th floor hotel balcony revealed the Columbia River and an unexpected treat, the most beautiful bright red maple trees I think I have ever seen. The maples are not a phenomenon just under my balcony; all over the city leaves of yellow, bright orange, burgundy and red grace trees lining the streets and walkways of Portland. What an incredible urban color display! Hard to believe I had to fly to the Northwest to experience one of the most beautiful falls that I can remember. The day has remained overcast and gloomy although we almost saw the sun for a few moments. The high today was 53.

Dave and I spent all morning and early afternoon in meetings. The highlight of our day has been the social event of sharing food and good conversation. Twice we have patronized McCormick & Schmick's establishments. For lunch we took a group to McCormick & Schmick's Harborside at the Marina where we dined on fabulous seafood and corn chowder and mediocre dungeness crab melt sandwiches. Jake's, a staple on the Portland dining scene since 1832, was our choice for dinner. Joining us were several people who shared several hours of lively conversation and a meal that included excellent crab leg appetizer and so-so clam chowder. My entree was a superb combination of crab, artichoke and mushrooms sauteed in a wine sauce. Yummy!

Now I am looking forward to a long night's sleep. I hope to feel like myself tomorrow and not struggle so to stay alert.

What a tediously long day this has been. My trip to Portland, OR was side lined in Cincinnati for "maintenance issues." I think maintenance is new airline jargon for mechanical problems, less scary. In this case, maintenance is refers to broken hydraulics. Yikes!

Delta first outlined our predicament about 15 minutes past scheduled boarding as the several hundred people at the gate began stirring nervously. The first guestimate was an hour's delay. The hour came and went and nothing happened. The second announcement indicated that a part was being flown in from Atlanta and our departure time had been changed to 8:45 pm (originally scheduled for 5:00 pm). Along with our wait came a $7.00 food coupon that fell short $3.00 of covering the soup and small salad I ate at Max and Ermma's. Hmmm!

We finally boarded at 8:45 pm and were wheels up by 9:30 pm. The Delta staff did go out of their way to be nice to us. They were so gracious to the coach section by "giving" out earphones instead of charging for them. We saw two movies "Bourne Supremacy" and "The Notebook." "Bourne Supremacy" was pretty good, although I discovered I could take my headphones off, read a while, put the headphones back on and know exactly what was going on in the plot. "The Notebook" totally captivated me. It is a very sentimental love story and a perfect "grab a box of Kleenex" Saturday night video.

We landed about 10:45 pm local time (1:45 am on my watch) and I grabbed a taxi to the city. This is my first visit to Portland and I am really looking forward to seeing some things, in between meetings of course. My first view of Portland? Heavy fog, misty and cold...just like rest of my trips this year! The staff at the Downtown Marriott tells me that my room overlooks the Columbia River, I just can't see see it through the fog.

Leslie and I took a beading class at Lilly's Bead Box this morning. Although Leslie has done some beading on her own, I am a total newbie to the concept. A bit overwhelmed by the available options, I ended up working with my favorite, pearls. The bracelet I made is accented with ornate sterling Bali beads and a few crystals. I think it looks great with the sterling cuff John bought in Peru for my birthday! Leslie made a similar bracelet using green stones and pearls.

We also made several earrings, which I didn't enjoy as much as bracelet making. I found the wires hard to work with. The girls at Lilly's tell me earring making is easier with practice.

This hobby could be "addictive!"


Pearls, crystals and sterling