Day 3 in California 11-3-21

 Wednesday, November 3rd was day 3 in California. I did another walk around the hotel area. It is so
pretty.

We stayed at a Hilton close to the Sacramento River. 

This is the view from the hotel parking lot. The water is the Sacramento River.

This photo is taken behind the hotel. The road goes to a residential area along the river.

Same road way without the hotel.

Doyle and I went on another driving exploration. We just had part of the day as the conference started in the evening.

We made our way to see how close we could get to Mount Shasta.

On the drive I was fascinated with these clouds. It might take a little imagination but the "hole" looked like a heart shape.

You can see Mount Shasta in the distance. The drive was so pretty!

You can see Mount Shasta better in this photo.

This was about as close as we could get.

The town is called "Mount Shasta".

It's so pretty.

On our way back to Redding we stop in a town called Dunsmuir. We had been told by some folks in Redding that we needed to eat at "Yaks on the 5". Well, wouldn't you know it, Yaks is closed on Wednesdays! Who closes on Wednesdays?!

Dunsmuir wasn't a total waste. We saw some waterfalls here with a pretty and short hike.

It isn't a big waterfall. When we get close we see that the trail goes behind it!

Hedge Creek Waterfall

I took this photo from behind the waterfall.

A nice couple took our picture behind the falls and we did the same for them.

short video of the falls.

Big tree!

Doesn't this picture look like something from a calendar? 

The conference started at 7pm that evening.

We had a great day.

Have a good one!

Another Trip to Cali 11-1 thru 11-6

 Doyle and I were privileged to attend another church conference in Northern California. Our church networks with a church called "Bethel" in Redding. The conference didn't begin until Wednesday but we chose to go out a couple of days early. We left on Monday November 1st and spent nearly all day traveling from driving to the airport on our end. Flying to California. Renting a car and driving 2hrs to Redding. We got in about 4:30pm. We checked into the room and got settled then went to dinner then bed. It had been a long day.

Tuesday November 2nd, before we went exploring the area a little bit, Doyle needed to make a couple of calls regarding city business so I went for a walk around the hotel. 

I saw a hawk,

I believe this is a woodpecker.

I saw this beautiful place set back off the road nestled in these colorful trees with a mountain range behind.

I saw a squirrel.

And a flock of turkeys. They caught sight of me before I saw them and only managed this picture.

Doyle looked into going to some different places but after the wild fires they experienced and then heavy rains some of those areas were not accessible.

We still saw some beautiful country and had fun.

Our first stop was a wide place in the road that used to be a community called "Shasta" Lots of history in this spot.

This barn was disassembled and reassembled on this property. 

closer look at the sign for the barn.

Overlooking what's left of the town of Shasta.

We travel down the road a bit farther

 driving by "Whiskey Lake"

We see evidence of the fires.

On our drive we saw a sign to go to Whiskey Falls and Crystal Falls and decided to check them out.

The road was very curvy and narrow. When we get to the falls we still had to hike a little ways to get to them.

A selfie with Crystal Falls behind us.

Click here for a short video of the falls.

I wanted to go to the other falls but it was almost a 2 mile hike to it and Doyle was having some hip pain.

Click here for a video of the drive back to the main road. Warning....if you get motion sick you may not want to watch.

We continue our driving. We wanted to go to a certain town that several of the leadership of Bethel Church in Redding came from called Weaverville.  The drive was so pretty.

The town was so pretty with the fall colors and mountains.

Quaint little community.

I'll share more of our California trip in another post. Stay tuned!

Have a good one!

New Owners

Keannon and Vanessa bought  a fast food restaurant. They took ownership on November 1st. It's called Jesse's Drive-in and is just 6 blocks from our house. It has been a dream of Keannon's to own his own business ever since I've known him. He is finally seeing his dream realized. Jesse's was owned by a man of the same name and lives one block from the restaurant.

Both Keannon and Vanessa have experience in restaurant management. There have still been challenges however. Getting people to work for one which seems to be an issue across the country. The previous owners were still doing paper ticket orders. The kids bought a Point of Sale system to use which took programming and learning how to use. For the most part they intend to keep things the same. Same name, mostly the same food.

This is the post that Vanessa made on Facebook.

Hello! We would like to introduce ourselves. This is Keannon and Vanessa Bailey the new owners of Jesse’s Drive-In. Both of us are born and raised Mineral Wells residents. We love our community and are so excited to be apart of our thriving and growing town.
Jesse’s Drive-In has been around for over 40 years and we hope to continue the legacy Jesse himself left of delicious burgers and comfort food.
Many many thanks to Curtis and Beth Henderson for their abundance of help during this transition and for being our very first customers on opening day!

Curtis and Beth Henderson were the previous owners and are in the photo with the kids.

If you'd like to follow their business, Jesse's Drive-in has a Facebook page.

Here is another post Vanessa made on the business page.

November 1st

THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you always seems like a simple phrase that is never enough, however we truly mean thank you from the bottoms of our hearts!

Today was a great first day. We are still learning a new system as well as training new employees and trying to get into the swing of it all. Every one of our customers today, new and returning, were so very kind and patient with us. We appreciate your graciousness more than you know. We will still be training new employees over the next couple weeks as well as continuing to get used to our new computer system so please bear with us.

Thank you again!

On November 4th they got a great review from a customer.

Rave to Jesse’s Drive In! Awesome food & customer service! The portions are huge and their ice is my favorite 

First time here and definitely won’t be the last!! 

November 8th

They got another shout out for this new addition to the menu.

 Jesse’s Drive-In finally a place with a delicious gluten free bun!!! So good I almost forgot to take a picture. Very happy!!

Vanessa made this post from the business page.

Thanks so much for the shout out!! We hadn’t fully made it official but there’s no time like now.....Jesse’s officially has gluten free hamburger buns! I know this won’t matter to most, but we know several people that have wanted to see this in Mineral Wells! I hope you all get to enjoy a good burger again, the way God intended it.....WITH A BUN!

On November 10th Vanessa made another "thank you" post.

I just wanted to take this time to say thank you again! I had forgot how challenging it can be to run a restaurant. We are in the middle of our second week and while we definitely have had some hiccups, all of our customers have been very patient and gracious with us.

Please know if we mess up we want to know about it and make it right for you! Our ultimate goal is satisfied patrons that continue to return and enjoy our business.

Things are running more smooth with each passing day and all our new employees are doing fantastic! Thanks again for the continued support! We feel the love.

They did take out the soft serve ice cream machine and installed a freezer for tubs of Blue Bell ice cream.

Jesse's announced November 13th that Blue Bell ice cream was coming.

Here is the new freezer with the ice cream. Don't remember exactly when they got it. This picture was taken on November 22nd.

Another thing that sets Jesse's Drive-in apart from other fast food restaurants is they use fresh ground beef for their hamburgers. Another post from their page November 17th.

Jesse’s fun fact of the day……

Did you know that we NEVER serve frozen burger patties? Our burger patties stay fresh and are portioned out and hand smashed daily to ensure the best tasting burger every single time!

(The patties below are kept safely cold and covered. I just wanted to show a picture for proof! )

Here is a view of the Jesse's before opening.

The sign at the corner of the property.

That's the news from me!

Have a good one!

Kennedy plays volleyball 10-30-2021

 

This picture was taken October 23rd. Kennedy's team is called Net Ninjas. Several of the team have played with Kennedy since she started.

Dad coaching here but his sister Karissa also coaches the team.

Kennedy gets the "bump". Her cousin Krystal is #9.

To watch some of the action you can click here. 

Click here to watch Kennedy serving overhead.

Have a good one!