Fun Monday - Another Brick in the WALL?

Rejoining Fun Monday this week - the host is Jan of The Prytz Family. Apparently she's got a thing about walls and she wants to see ours!

Jan says:
The subject is walls. We all have walls of some sort. What I want to hear about and see, if you're going to show off your amazing photo skills, is what is on your walls, what color are your walls, what is special about them, what is your favorite or least favorite, is it inside or outside. You get the idea, let's show and tell about walls.

Um. Okay. First off, if you're a regular or semi-regular reader, you've seen my walls. With horrid wallpaper, with texture, with ugly paint, with patterns, in progress, at home and at the office. I have a thing for home improvement, don't 'cha know...

So why is it that when Jan asked about walls, none of those were what came to mind?

I'm gonna tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a guy named Larry. He was friends with Darling Man. Larry was a single guy, working a job that gave him lots of money and lots of free time. One day, he decided to build a wall in his back yard. Not your garden-variety wall of wood or stone, but one that incorporated both. Then he invited his friends to come and visit his wall.

They came. They oo'd and ah'd and visited the wall time and time again. It became a regular date to visit the wall on Tuesday nights, as the mosquitoes buzzed and the humidity kept your person hot and damp. This went on for quite some time - and then Larry decided to invite MORE people to his wall on a Saturday afternoon. People of all ages and abilities came and saw that it was good.

YES! A climbing wall! He held an actual competition and climbers came from all over. It was really quite amazing.

People of all ages came. And this one guy, the one with the cigarette was Klaus from Germany. How he managed to show up here is a mystery. I mean, North Florida is NOT widely known as a climbing hotspot seeing as how we don't have mountains or anything...

Larry's Climbing Competion was quite the success, and he set his sights on bigger things. Those bigger things led him to invite me and Darling Man to go camping and climbing - in Texas.

"WHAT? Texas doesn't have any more of a climbing reputation than Florida!" you might be thinking...


And there, you would be wrong. Because the place we went to climb is rather famous in the world of climbing. Just outside of El Paso, Texas is this marvelous pile of gigantic boulders in the middle of the plain. Looks a bit like Paul Bunyon's Babe left a present out there. It's called Hueco Tanks and people came from all over the world to climb these boulders.

One of the most amazing features there is The Round Room. It's quite an interesting climb just getting there, but once you're in - WOW!

Darling Man and Larry were very good at bouldering. They made it look like ballet on a wall.

Me? Not so much. I kind of look like I'm hanging on for dear life.

There's also spectacular bouldering outside in the open air. Darling Man is about 20 feet up (that's the top of a tree behind him).

But there is actually a boulder called "The Wall". It has an overhanging face and is not so easy to climb.

I'm facing it from this rock, but you don't really get the scale of the thing from this picture.

Perhaps this one gives you a better idea.

After a long day of climbing, everyone needs a foot massage!

And there you have it... my version of a wall. Be sure to go visit the Prytz Family and see everyone else's walls!!!