Walhalla Jeepfest

Yes folks, it's the most wonderful time of the year - Jeep Fest time in Walhalla!  My sweet hubby spent two whole days and a copious amount of "specialized Jeep cleaning products" to get his Jeep all spiffied up and show ready.

This is the first show he has ever entered his Jeep into and the best part, it was right down the road from our house!

This is a yearly event and there was a great turnout.  They close off part of Main Street for all of the Jeeps to park, with space for vendors and a DJ.

I may not be a Georgia Bulldogs fan but I can appreciate fully commiting to a "theme".  We had a great time chatting with the folks who own this Jeep.  The vehicle even barks!

This is one of my favorite parts of a Jeep event, all the people are very friendly and love to chat about their vehicles and why they are "kitted out" the way they are.

My daughter's best friend is a H-U-G-E Stitch fan, so I had to take photos of this one. The lady just kept on pulling out more and more stuffed animals to put on the hood!

Let's not forget about the ducks!  Everyone was asking this guy if they could take his photo...

These were the ducks that people left on our Jeep.

There's another Jeep show next week in the neighboring town and then there's a round up at an Outback Steakhouse to get another special duck.  The Jeep fun continues!

Toodles until next time....

 

What I Read (and listened to) in April

How cool is this graphic?  I saw it on a friend's Facebook feed last month and saw that they use the app Bookmory to track their reading.  The app will create this calendar for you.  Yes, I'm a sucker for a cool graphic.  So know I track my reading with Goodreads and Bookmory.

I started the month finishing up The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon.  I had to wait quite a while to get this book from my local library.  I had seen a lot of people recommend this book on social media and I knew that it was historical fiction.  I didn't realize that this was also the author who wrote Code Name Helene.  My historical fiction sweet spot is around WW II, however this book is set in the 1700's and I loved it.  The book is based on a real midwife and the author used her journal for parts of the story.  While this was a rather thick book, it read very quickly.  

I normally read two books at a time, one I am reading and the other I am listening to.  So at the same time, anytime I was walking or driving, I was listening to Onyx Storm. My daughter in law introduced me to this book series about a year and half ago when we went on a cruise together.  She literally finished the first book on the drive home and then handed it to me to read.  This was also a wait list item on Cloud Library with my local library.  I knew I couldn't renew it, so I was feeling the pressure to finish in time. I think I finished it like 10 minutes before it was due back!  OH!  The ending of this book!! I literally called my daughter (also a fan of this series) the minute I finished and what like WTF?!?!?  Now the long wait until the next book comes out....

Next up was The Dressmakers of Auschwitz   This is actually a non-fiction book about this fascinating group of women who were able to survive horrific conditions because of their ability to sew.  A little bit dry at times, it was still an interesting and very eye opening read.

Then I went on a "palate cleansing" run of books by Portia Macintosh. She's an English rom-com author whose books are just delightful.  Her books are more com than rom (not that I don't like some spice 😉) and they are only about 8 hours long, so you can get through them pretty quickly.  I also think I like her books so much because I love the voice of the person who narrates her books.

While listening to those, I next picked up My Magnolia Summer  This book has sat on my nightstand for several months.  It is written by Dorothea Benton Frank's daughter.  While I loved her mother's books, this one was slightly better than meh.  I have a feeling this is the first book in a possible series.

While at the Dollar Tree I picked up a copy of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.  It caught my eye because I recently saw the title on a banned books list.  I taught 5th grade for 23 years but I don't think I ever read this book before!  Judy Blume is an absolute gem.

Next up we have Pictures of You. Emma Grey is an Australian author, so the narrator for this book has an Australian accent - I could listen to that accent all day!  Visiting Australia is definitely on my travel bucket list.  I really enjoyed this book and her first one, The Last Love Note.

I ended the month reading The Clementine Complex. I think the only reason I kept reading this book was because it was set in England and occasionally the dialog would be funny.  I really wouldn't recommend it.

I think I need to learn that it's ok not to finish a book....

What are you currently reading?

Happy reading and toodles until next time...