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Celebrating the 4th in Tyler TX

July 19th, 2010

            This past weekend the Tyler area and the nation celebrated the country’s two hundred, thirty fourth birthday. In the wake of tough financial times the celebrations seemed to me a bit more muted than normal. News reports claimed that fewer Americans spent the usual dollars on fireworks and cook- outs than in previous years, while more people went out to watch big professional fireworks displays. I remember as a kid spending a lot of money on fireworks and even experimented with creating my out, (something I don’t recommend to young people today). But not this year. Instead my young son and I did what many families did this year; we took in some professional and inexpensive events that didn’t require us to go out of our way.

            Every year a number of local organizations put on an air show featuring contemporary and vintage military aircraft. These events seem to be held at different locations around East Texas, and admission is always very pricey. However as aircraft arrive the previous day, (the third) The Historical Aviation Memorial Museum (HAMM) holds what they call a “static air show.” Participating aircraft are put on display on the tarmac at the old Pounds Field terminal in Tyler, (now the location for the museum) prior to the main show. For five dollars, visitors can get up close and personal (in most cases) with some really unique and fascinating aircraft. This year’s cast included a C130, a couple of F16s, a couple of A10s, a B25, and others, in addition to the aircraft on permanent display. My little guy was fascinated by the exhibits (as was I by the way), and enjoyed the opportunity to climb in and around the C130 Hercules in particular. This is a really neat event that is inexpensive and helps to raise a little money for a great area institution.

            The rest of our weekend was rather subdued I introduced the boy to the joy of sparklers and few other rudimentary fireworks (a gift from friends) and that night we walked up the street to watch much larger display put on by our community. I don’t think this admittedly mundane story is much different than the one most folks are telling this year. Hopefully, the decline in festivities is merely symptomatic of the fact that collectively, we’re not in a partying mood and doesn’t indicate that we are forgetting the reason for the season (if I can borrow a badly misapplied cliché).  But it’s often the small events that we remember. And hopefully, in years to come, my son will be able to reflect on the year “we saw the airplanes and the lights,” with fond nostalgia.  

            For more on the Historical Aviation Memorial Museum, see their website at www.tylerhamm.org. Also see the following articles on this site: Cultural Institutions and Events in Tyler TX, and World History is Down the Street.  

Marshalls in Tyler Texas

July 6th, 2010

Marshalls sells top brand clothes at low end prices. In the commercials a sales woman had trouble with the language barrier and orders a thousands shirts instead of a hundred. Marshals buys the extra clothes at a low price and resell them cheap.

Marshalls in Tyler is a lot like another store I shop at here in Tyler, Ross. Though Ross’s women’s clothing selection is larger, Marshalls is a lot cleaner and it is easier to find what you are looking for. The women clothing section is not as large as many stores in the Tyler area, but they always have new selections and great prices. They also have a large selection of purses that are mainly leather. Not liking leather I am not a fan of Marshalls’s selection.

I really like the children’s clothing section in this store because the sizes are in order and there are not a ton of clothes on the floor. Marshalls prices are great! The prices are probably the thing I like the most about this store. Little children grow so fast, it seems like an outfit can fit my children for about six months then I am getting rid of it. It is easy to blow money on your children’s clothes, Marshalls helps with this by offering both quantity and quality at great prices.

Like Tyler’s store Ross, Marshalls has a pretty big shoe department; but unlike Ross you do not have to dig through the shoes on the floor to find a match. Marshalls has a great selection of brand name shoes like Skechers. It is so much easier to shop when you do not have to search the whole store for the left match to a pair of shoes.

The store has a great selection of wall décor, frames, mirrors, and furniture. I always like to look at the trunks at the store. Some times they have the prettiest art work, and iron wall décor.

Marshalls is much cleaner than other stores in Tyler, but you may not be able to have as much of a selection, but each piece of clothing is designer pieces. You can redecorate your house and get new furniture at the lowest price possible.

Tyler Area Zip Lines

July 1st, 2010
http://www.goziptexas.com/

NY TX Zip Line Adventures

It seems like a recent trend over the last few years, but Zip- lining has become a huge phenomenon! In fact, nearly every time I turn around, either someone is telling me about their experience, or I’m seeing someone trying it on television.

Now for those hard core enthusiasts, who are likely to protest that the hobby is not new, I know, I know… I’m only asserting that there has been a renewed interest of late. I recall as a kid playing at my uncle’s house where he had run an admittedly short line through the hills around his Vancouver Island home. That line was admittedly rudimentary but we had a great time.

There is now a professional series of lines in East Texas. The company is called NY- TX Zip Line Adventures and they are located at Shultz Mountain Ranch about twenty miles east of Athens. The historic Shultz home is the center piece and home base for the ranch. The views are tremendous and guests can ride through six different zip tours, the longest of which is nine hundred feet long and a hundred feet above ground.

From looking at the pictures available on the site the surrounding landscapes are really beautiful! They also offer a tour available only to returning visitors. It’s called the Full Moon tour, and it whisks participants through the Piney Woods on moon lit nights. Now there is a price to be paid for an adventure like this, and it’s not particularly cheap. The cost for a single rider on one tour is sixty dollars. Add three tours and the cost is eighty dollars.

And there are price reductions available for church groups by the way. Even though the admission fee is rather high, the experience looks to be worth the cost for those who can afford it. If I had more disposable income, I would certainly pay Zip Line Adventures near Tyler Texas a visit. As it is, I’ll have to wait a bit longer before taking in a day or night of flying through the forest. NY- TX Zip Line Adventures is located off 155 past Fat Dogs, on Farm Road 3506.

For more information visit their web site at www.goziptexas.com/index.html. This is a great site with a lot of information and incredible pics. I advise spending a little time looking it over before going. For those who do decide to go, have a great time, then licheck back with our site and tell us about your experience!

Purple Pig in Noonday TX near Tyler

June 15th, 2010

image1240930164.jpgThe Purple Pig in Flint TX is one of my favorite bar-bq restaurants in the Tyler area.

What I usually get here is their chopped beef barbecue sandwich. My brother gets their pulled pork sandwich.

They have a large variety of sides and I like their barbeque rice and mac n cheese.

They have a very good weekend music venue outside by the Indian teepee.

It is definitely a restaurant in Tyler worth checking out.

The Annual Parade of Homes

June 9th, 2010

In case you live in a bubble, and have yet to see the signs all around Tyler this week, The annual Parade of Homes is about to start again in our area. Every year for fifty seven years now the Parade of homes puts newly built or remodeled houses on display for East Texans. Of course the houses open for display are generally up- scale and therefore more expensive residences.  Brought to you by Sherwin Williams and the Tyler Area Builders Association, Tyler’s parade of homes begins today, June fifth and runs through the fifteenth. Of the twenty eight homes on display this year half have already been sold. This year’s parade takes the visitor all over East Texas, from Lindale, to Chandler to Tyler, Whitehouse, and Flint, even all the way out to Bullard.  Each year a part of the proceeds for the event are given to a local charity. The recipient of this year’s donation will be the Azleway Boys’ Home and Breckenridge Village, in Tyler.

The question for the average East Texan becomes, is this really an event I’ll enjoy, or is it merely for those in real-estate or with the income to potentially invest in a more high- end pricey home? The answer is no; for the person who enjoys watching HGTV, (Home and Garden Television) or any of the plethora of home design or home decorating shows on TLC (The Learning Channel), or DIY Network (Do It Yourself), this is a do not miss event! For those people, and I am nominally one of them, the trick seems to be to hit the high points, by which I mean the bigger more expensive homes. Forgive the crude metaphor, but a friend of mine calls this house pornography. It’s for most of us, an unrealistic picture of the ideal home and life, with all kinds of superficial extras that don’t really matter, although it’s fun to imagine owning them.

For those who are actually interested in building or otherwise investing in more moderately priced real-estate, the tour has a number of more realistic designs and models on display in order to offer ideas and inspiration to the visitor. And keep in mind by the way that in comparison to the rest of the country, the Texas real-estate market is relatively healthy. So my advice overall is simply this, leave your own vanity and materialist impulses at the door as much as possible, then go window shopping. Enjoy the larger display homes like you would a museum; and then return home to your average Tyler area residence grateful for your own blessings and for the fact that you don’t have to pay the mortgage on those overpriced models you just visited. With that in mind you may sleep better.

For more information of the Tyler area Parade of Homes, and the Tyler Builder’s Association, go to their website at www.tylerareabuilders.com, or http://www.tylerareabuilders.com/whats-happening/parade-of-homes.html.