Guns, Honky Tonks and Cowboy Boots....Gotta be Texas!

Last month I got to travel to San Antonio, TX, for the second time in my life. Luckily, this time I wasn't confined to a golf course for the week.

I was there working on the Business Images of the Alamo Area Magazine which covers about eight counties around San Antonio. This wouldn't necessarily be a hard thing to do if this were a magazine in say, Maryland. 

But this is Texas. And everything is big in Texas. Even the counties.

One of the stops on my (pardon the pun) shot list was the Hill Country Shooting Sports Center in Kerrville, TX. The site will be hosting the second round of Olympic qualifying matches, as well as future national and world championships.

Some pictures you just happen upon. This windmill is in the town of Helotes, TX. Helotes is derived from the mexican word elotes, or corn-on-the-cob.

Of course, a trip to Helotes isn't complete unless you stop by John T. Floore's Country Store. Floore's opened in 1946 and helped give Willie Nelson his start, where he performed every Saturday night.

This is Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Big Foot, TX.

The town of Hondo, TX, is planning to make the Hondo Municipal Airport the centerpiece of their future economic development plans and develop their own version of Port San Antonio, an air, rail and truck logistics/distribution park.

Starlings flutter about the Torch of Friendship sculpture by Mexican artist Sebastian in San Antonio, TX.

Just a view scenes of the Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX.

Not Your Grandfather's Mountain

Hugh Morton inherited Grandfather Mountain in 1952 and started developing it into a tourist attraction. Shortly thereafter, he built the mile high swinging bridge, which tends to sway in the high winds that can hit the mountain.

Located between the towns of Linville and Boone, NC, the mountain was originally named "Tanawha" by Indians, meaning “a fabulous hawk or eagle.” Early settlers gave the mountain the name “Grandfather” after seeing the image of an old man in one of the cliffs.

Today, the mountain rises to an elevation of almost 6000 feet as it looks out over the Catawba River Valley.

As I entered the gate to Grandfather Mountain, the attendant warned me "You may not be able to see much. There's a lot of fog up there."

He was right. You could barely see across the swinging bridge there was so much fog. I had to wait for the it to roll through before I could tell that the bridge didn't actually vanish into thin air.

On my way to Grandfather Mountain, I stopped by Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, NC, to photograph their newly remodeled Industrial, Engineering and Customized Industry Training Division. John Hauser is the Dean of the school and is posing in one of the new high-tech labs.

Lyndell Duvall works on one of the new CNC Milling Machines at the school.

I See Dead People

Malcolm Johnstone became interested in telling ghost stories after visiting Gettysburg three years ago and taking a ghost tour.

Today, the Executive Directer of the West Chester Business Improvement District can be found giving visitors a tour of the town's ghostly haunts, spinning a little history and fiction into his talk.

The tours have become popular, drawing crowds as large as 60 people a night to take a walk along the streets of this town about 30 minutes outside Philadelphia.

The clock tower at the Chester County Courthouse

The statue of Old Glory outside the Chester County Courthhouse

The Beer Sampler at the Iron Hill Brewery

Serving the lunch crowd at Three Little Pigs

A game of tag football after school