Oh, I have been meaning to let you guys know…I sent an e-mail to the contact listed for Calvary Nudist Baptist Church…He did not reply and since he did not, I am saying it is a hoax. As bad as we Christian’s can be at times I don’t think any have stooped to that, especially my Baptist Brethern. Did you read my download on my Big Mama?…Let me tell you for a fact that every child in America needs a Big Mama, one who tells it like it is….Heaven is Heaven and Hell is Hell and Jesus Christ is the only way to get to Heaven..Black is black and white is white and there ain’t no gray areas…Today, more than ever before, the children of America need that, in my opinion..Help us, oh Lord to be as honest and straight forward as we can be to all we come in contact with…Amen?

In my post about  Eureka Springs and War Eagle Mill, I mentioned touring Van Winkle Hollow. Well, to my dismay, we turned around at Van Winkle Hollow and went back toward Eureka Springs….As I understand it, about a mile further west on Highway 12 there is a visitor’s center….Dang, we missed it, so now we will have to make plans for another trip…For the Van Winkle Family who have not been that way lately, you need to go…I hope you will…The State of Arkansas, or whoever is responsible for that work,  did an excellent job…And don’t do like us and miss the visitor’s center…Pete Hester….PS, oh, and I am married to Peter Van Winkle’s grandson, Albert Pike Van Winkle’s middle child and she”s a good’un….PS, Jr… for your information, the information about the visitor’s center was told to me by Marilyn Hicks, who wrote a book on the Van Winkle’s, filled with tons of genealogy about the Van Winkle family. If you are interested in purchasing one of her books, write me and I will forward your note on to her. The reason I said it that way is because I have not asked her permission to offer her book on this post, but I don’t think it will make her mad…..kidding, and thanks for reading the post.

You know, I don’t have a lot of friends….I have several buddies….But a real friend is scarce, you know what I mean, someone you can just share all of your life with, the good and the not so good….Well, I have one, he is not my last best good buddy, but he almost is..He had his cancer in remission for a couple of years and now its back…So when you read this, would you pray for my best good buddy?…real hard, ’cause he’s a good’un….Thank you, Pete Hester

There is no place like home, and we are glad to be back. But, we’re glad we were able to visit a few places. My wife is a Van Winkle and our daughter and son-in-law were with us. So, while we were at Eureka Springs we also toured War Eagle Mill, a working water powered grist mill, with a Bean Palace on the Third Floor. They were getting ready for the annual arts and craft fair that they have every October. And about a mile down from War Eagle Mill on Highway 12, is Van Winkle hollow.(Stop at the rest area for directions.)  Peter Van Winkle had a sawmill in the 1880’s and a lovely home there. Not much remains nowadays, except some National Historic Markers  telling where the house place  was, where the mill was located, slave quarters (Arron, called Rock, was freed and considered a family member. He had 12 children, and had pictures taken with the family). The remains of a flower garden and a spring house, etc. located on  a good all weather pathway.  A beautiful little creek runs through the place, a clear stream of beautiful fast flowing water, having  a small bridge to walk over it. My wife and daughter, the great-grand daughter and great-great-grand daughter of Peter Van Winkle felt a deep kinship with that hollow and it touched me to see them embelish each informative plaque and touch the trees and rocks around the place. There is a picture of the home on one of the plaques and we were able to see trees that we think were there when Peter lived there. You know,  we saw shows in Branson and Eureka Springs, visited the Christ of the Ozarks, saw the site of the Passion Play and sat for a while in Thorncrown Chapel, and we all felt God’s closeness while praying there…..But I believe I was more touched watching my wife and daughter visit Van Winkle Hollow….. Peter’s sawmill cut a lot of the lumber used in the construction of the University of Arkansas. When he died a special train brought his body down from Rogers, AR to Fayetteville. He is buried in the Evergreen cemetery near the University campus. We also visited his plot there, where Peter, his wife Temperance, grand daughter Cora and I think his great-grand daughter Ruth are all buried. Well, all this is probably not important or interesting to you, but I know that you also have times when you are touched by your ancestors and visit to old home sites, etc, and I just wanted to share this special time with you. It will stay in our hearts forever…… Pete Hester

Well, we are going to Branson…We have been several times and really enjoy it…The Boss had hip replacement surgery in May of 2008 and we had not been anywhere since, except short trips….No.1 daughter and no.1 son-in-law are flying in from Tucson and No. 3 son and no. 3 daughter-in-law are coming down from Madison, WI and we will meet at Lambert’s “Home of the Throwed Roll”  in Ozark, Mo. After one of their fabulous meals, we will continue on down to Branson. So we are looking forward to a mini family reunion and some class entertainment. No. 3 son is quite the entertainer himself, a very good song writer and recording star, so we may put him up on stage while there. You can sample his music and learn about him at www.erichester.com or www.slothtrop.com. He’s a good’un. We bought him a guitar when he was about 10 years old, I think it was, and the boy ain’t put it down since. I would hold him in my arms when he was a baby, as we were practicing for my gospel quartet in those days. He would sing at the top of his voice and kick his foot in time with the music…He is not singing gospel…yet..but it is his roots…he will get there…Well, dad-gum, I kind of got side lined again just thinking about that boy….Anyway, we gonna be in Branson and I need you to guest write for me. You can do that by clicking on the comment in any one of the postings and tell our group of followers what is going on…You want to?….I don’t have a laptop now-a-days so I will grab a computer on the road if I can. I might do another post tonight…I read today about our debt, now over a trillion, and I want to talk about that…Scary, ain’t it..I probably should just stay home and worry about that,… well, listen, you worry about that for me for a few days and I will take it up when I get back…shucks, on second thought, don’t you worry about it either…Ain’t a dang thing we can do about it, is there?

Here is a sample from my latest unpublished novel for your reading pleasure, I hope. I really would appreciate your comments on this story and with enough requests, I can do another chapter or two of it, so please let me know…Thanks, Pete ChapterOneApache,BS,TFR,AndMe-1 I have shorten the title here. The full title is: Apaches, Buffalo Soldiers, That Female Reporter, And Me….Chapter One….copyrighted by E. V. Pete Hester, August 2007. click on the high lighted line and you may have to click a couple of times, but it will open for you…thanks, Pete

Letterman is blowing away NBC in the late night competition. To catch up, Conan probably needs to announouce an affair or some sex hang up, i.e., wearing ladies underwear, or he could model ladies underwear on his show, or some other scheme. Did you read what Martha Stewart said of Letterman…”He’s a very attractive man. Very appealing. Great sense of humor, obviously, and I think all this was done while he was still not married. Although it’s still probably harmful to his wife…But, you know, men are men, I’ve put up with it all.” Whoa, Martha, he had an affair with a woman…What about ” women are women”…It takes two, I think, and I have not read about Letterman forcing himself on the lady involved…As a writer I have never used sex to try and sell a book and I never will. It is not that I don’t think about sex it’s just that, well, you know about it and I know about it, but I want to make other statements, say other things…I write for me and my family and I hope any family member can read my writings, as bad as they may be, and not be ashamed of me…I wish my past was lilly white, but it ain’t, and I am not ever going to write about things you already know about, you don’t need that. You also can probably tell me some stories that will “Make my face turn red”, so I don’t need to write about sex for either of us. I like to write about the “old west” and “when times were tough” and “men were men” and “women were ladies”. That is probably not all that interesting reading, but it satistifies something within me. In 1997, when I had by-pass surgery and it added a few more years to my life, I decided to do a couple of things I had always wanted to do and I asked God to help me fulfil that desire…Write and paint…I have since done both…I forgot to ask God to help me be good at it…But I am still working on it..My painting are improving also. A couple of my grand children have requested a couple of my works and I will give the paintings to them, but I want to give my children first choice, if they want one…How pleased I am that my grand-kids would request a painting. I am honored. So, I thank God for the extended time in my life to do something that will last for a while after I am gone. A request like that from a grandchild is worth more to me than selling a million copies of a book, and folks, those are not empty words…. Well, I don’t watch Letterman or O’Brien, I am doing other things, but I think Conan will come up with something, don’t you?……Thanks for listening…..Pete

I am a Cowboy fan…Let me see, when did they start playing, maybe early ’60s…But whenever it was, that is when I became a fan…You remember Eddie LaBaron, the 5’6″ quarterback they got from Washington, I think….Those big linemen would rush him and he would have to throw the ball almost straight up to get it over the out stretched hands of the rushers..Then Dandy Don came on…You know, in my humble opinion, if Don Meredith had been behind a better offense line, he could have been the greatest quarterback ever. Coach Tom Landry, a class act and great coach, if ever there was one…I watched him play for the New York Giants, defensive back and a pretty good one… Don Perkins, you remember him? Calvin Hill, Robert Newhouse, Bob Lilly, Randy White, Leroy Jordon, Chuck Howley, Cliff Harris, on and on they go, up to all the later players which all of you remember…. Tony Romo will be among those we look back on with fondness…mark it down, he is a good’un…He is a make do, make up, do it when the chips are down type qb and I think in the mold of a Don Meredith or a Bret Favre…one of those guys who think on their feet…Yes, he does get in trouble, but he can make thing happen and he has more heart than any player I have seen for some time…Yeah, the Cowboys are either loved or hated….I have never changed…They have been my team since forever….win or lose they are my team….I just wanted to go on record…

Interested in New Mexico Real Estate? Well, I read the ad in today”s Business Outlook of the Albuquerque Journal….20 acre home sites at just 75,000..If my math is correct that’s about 3750 per acre..Not bad and I think that it is a pretty good area, somewhere around Mountainair, but what really caught my attention is in the small print. It says something like, it is not intended to be an offer to residents of CT, HI, NY, NJ and OR. I wonder what those folks have done that they cannot be offered the land. Well, sorry folks, if you live in one of those states, too bad….Reckon the people from one of those states can buy here in Albuquerque and we can watch them for a while and then if they prove themselves we can then let them buy property? Yeah, I know, laws are laws, but sometimes they do sound pretty strange….Did you know that would put them down pretty close to Claunch? Maybe those folks from New York are allergic to pronghorns…Remember, there is a bunch of them down there….Well, it could be the other way round…Pronghorns could be allergic to New Yorkers?…. Reckon?

Today we got our cooling system shut down for this year, so if it gets hot again we will have to open the windows. No. 2 Son and No. 2 Grandson did the work and I supervised….Well, at least I was up on the roof bossing them around and they acted like they were listening…Anyway, we got the job done and the real boss fixed us breakfast, timed it perfectly by having it ready just as we came down from the roof…And it was goooooood….I think she calls it gonzo or some other dad-gum Irish name, or is that Spanish, well, whatever, it was good. It has chopped potatoes, chopped green chilies, diced onion, diced bacon , diced sausage, diced ham  and a fried egg over it all and salsa on top or on the side, your choice served with hot tortillas..orange juice and coffee…Mexican food is good anytime, but in cold weather, man-oh-man…And my boss is an A, number one, sho’  ‘nough, fine cook….It has been said that behind every successful man there is a smart woman and behind every fat man there is a excellent cook….I don’t know anything about the first part of that sentence, although my boss is plenty smart, but I can testify to the second…..