How about driving 900 miles to meet someone you have befriended on the Internet?

That's what thirteen of us blog writers did for a July 4th weekend good old fashion Blogstock '08 (remember going to Woodstock way back when you were a hippie type?).

[large picture] [super size]

Here we have your favorite blog writers standing by our 4th of July parade float. If you had a crush on one, take a good look using super size to make sure you are still in love!

From left to right (click a blog title link to view that blog):
Janell of One Square Mile
Cliff of Cliff Morrow's Blog
Ralph of Homespun Headlines
Desiree of Believe,Live Well,Laugh Often & Love Much
LZ Blogger (a.k.a. Jerry) of LAZY Blogger
Jerry of Back Home Again
Rachel of Sliding through life
Jamie Dawn of Jamie Dawn's Mindless Blather
Nora of chez pez
Jim of JIM'S LITTLE BLOG, JIM'S LITTLE PHOTO PLACE (has Wordless Wednesday posts), and Ask Dr. Jim (blog)

Not in the picture:
Driving the float, Dan of Dan's Everyday Observations
Coming in the afternoon
John of The Changelog
Terrah of Forest of the Plains


After the parade we all split. Most went for lunch at the Silver Creek Winery and B&B north of Tekamah.

Mrs. Jim and I had Jaycee BBQ at the park with our cousins, Jack and Linda, and Jean and Dwain. We don't get to see them very often so this was great. Then we visited cousin John who also lives in Tekamah, but didn't make it to the park for BBQ. We had some really nice visits and decided all of us cousins needed a cousin reunion.

That evening we went to Cliff Morrow's farm for hamburgers and hot dogs. Cliff is an excellent cook. And he does it at a drop of the hat, just call or come. He should be a Southerner, with all his hospitality, he would fit right in.

There were fireworks in the Tekamah ball park that evening but most of us just relaxed and chatted at the farm. Those who went said they were great fireworks.

The next day we all showed up again for brunch cooked of course by Cliff. We had sausage, pancakes, and eggs. IHOP holds no comparison to Cliff's breakfasts!


[Remember, click on any picture on my blog for a large size view]

I went for a horseback ride in the cornfield in the afternoon on Julie's horse, Major. He is a nice horse who needs to be ridden some more.

Several of the neighbors who read Cliff's blog also showed up. Some have a Blogger ID so they can leave comments. The day will come when they too will try the blog writing thing. A lot of us got our starts with that Blogger ID, I did.



Supper was Cliff's famous barbecued chicken. It was really good. He made just the right amount, not a quarter of chicken was left.



Marilyn made us some nice cobblers outside, cowboy style, in iron pots covered with hot charcoal. The last picture is of Jerry blowing out the candle of his birthday cake. I don't think anyone asked him how old he was, but of course all 72 candles from one box were too many.



In between there was a lot of side dishes made by bloggers and those coming to meet and mingle with us. Please have a little sympathy with me as I couldn't eat corn on the cob or the chocolate cobbler with pecans per my colonoscopy doctor.

Shown also is Cliff's outdoor kitchen, minus cookers which were beside the house, minus the food on the table, but does include the outdoor refrigerator standing tall there in the backyard. That reminds me of a redneck joke that I can't remember how it goes.

And here is Ralph and the birthday boy, Jerry, having a serious conversation.

After supper we had a show and tell about our blogs. That was interesting for all to see how we all had started blogging, what we are writing about, our purpose for blogging, and anything else pertinent or we cared to ramble on about. Then it was time for goodbyes.

Will we do it again? Ask Cliff. That would be nice, but by next year I suppose gasoline will be about $6.00 a gallon if it goes up like this year. But like the movie, Field of Dreams, have it and they will come.

Cousin Bud in Colorado got a visit after we left Sunday morning for a fourth visit with an a first cousin of mine. I have three others but we couldn't see them on this trip.

Tonight we are staying in Dillon, Colorado, where it was 45°F when we got out of the car and went into our motel. Tomorrow night for a bit we will be staying at Telluride, Colorado.



Adi, eat your heart out. I miss you (she is staying with Karen and Billy) and will be coming home very soon. Cliff's cat is named Luke, I forgot the dog's. Both of those critters took a liking to me. [Does this remind you of the Nursery Rhyme, Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat (she went to London and all she could see was a little mouse under the queen's chair.)?]

And no, we didn't get one pictures of my first cousins! I'm sorry too.