Photo By Bear

Bear and Mama Bear made a weekend getaway last weekend to Hood River Oregon and spent the night at the Columbia Gorge Hotel. That was cool. We also did some sightseeing and took a look at what was south of Hood River around the the towns of Parkdale and Odell. Besides super friendly people and great food we happened across this place called The WAAM Museum.

WAAM stands for Western Antique Air And Auto Museum. This is a living museum. Everything in there runs, can be ridden or flown. There is over 100,000 square feet of indoor space that features antique motorcycles, cars, and airplanes including a 1917 Jenny, a 1890′s Stanley Steamer and 1918 Harley Davidson! It is an amazing collection and this museum is completely supported by donations and run by volunteers!

Check out their website and next time you take a trip down I-84 instead of passing right thru Hood River take a few minutes and come and visit the WAAM Museum

Here are a few pics I took!

Photo By Bear

Did everyone have a fun weekend? After I completed my duties Saturday Mama Bear and I jumped in the car and headed to Hood River, Oregon! Now we have all stopped there for a potty break, stretch your legs, grab a burger and head to Portland or the coast.

We decided to stay the night! Where else? The classic Columbia George Hotel! Built in 1921 this 39 room hotel was the playground of Rudy Valentino (The lounge was named after him), Mryna Loy, even Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge stayed in this hotel.

The cool part of staying here was that my Grandmother would have lunch with her mom & dad on their way from Portland to Halfway.

This hotel was recently purchased by a local Tri Cities businessman and they have remodeled the hotel and brought back alot of the classic slendor of the Columbia Grand Hotel and it’s grounds. Every weekend there are weddings here, corporate retreats and while we were there the NW Wine Summit was being held!

So check out my photo gallery of the hotel. Do something different and check out the Columbia Gorge Hotel in Hood River. It was worth the trip! Tomorrow I will post something that we did that you wouldn’t believe is in the tiny town of Odell which is just above Hood River!

One of the things we celebrate in spring is birth, so we asked you to send us your baby bump photos. The winner gets a giant gift basket for expecting mothers from Arbor Healthcare For Women. Above is what we have so far. We will pick a random winner at the end of Friday, so you only have one day left to send us a picture of your baby bump. To make it fun, we’d like you to decorate your bump, or write a message to your baby on it.

Andrew Kirk

Photo By Bear

Right after high school, Brianna, my daughter, enlisted in the US Army. Through her junior high and high school education she was always wanting to be part of the police and military. There is that certain respect that a person in uniform gets and they get to do things that regular citizens don’t get to do.

After Brianna’s basic training and her first duty stations at Ft. Campbell, KY, and then Ft. Benning and three boys later, the U.S. Army finally said, “You gotta go,” so with pride in my heart, tears in my eyes, and a little fear, the U.S. Army has deployed my baby girl to Kabul, Afghanistan.

She arrived at Ft. Hood, TX, last night. She has her battle buddy with her, a tough box by her side and God watching over her.

God willing, she will return home safe to our arms in February 2013. Knowing that she is in a far away land and not a few hours distance from us is really hard to imagine. Even though when she has a few minutes, hopefully, we will be able to Skype her and visit.

By the time my baby girl’s deployment is done. We will all be a little older, a little wiser and a lot prouder of my daughter who is doing her part to keep us free.

So I thought I would share some pictures of my Brianna, her husband Will (who is staying behind to watch the three boys), Tre, Brandon & Elijah.

God speed baby girl! We want you home soon! And, Oh Yes! Momma Bear & I will be sending you care packages! Lots of them.

You can do your part to help our service men and women overseas by helping out a local group called U.S. Troop Care Package that sends THOUSANDS of soldier care packages to our troops every year. Help them out if you can. $10 to help send troops socks and hygiene items. Mail to U.S. Troop Care Package, P.O. Box 3445, Pasco, 99302. For more information,  call 509-521-7508.

And for my daughter your love, thoughts and prayers are a blessing and we THANK YOU!

Photo By Bear

Photo by Bear

Photo By Bear

Photo By Bear

Photo By Bear

Photo By Bear

We would now like your pics. Send us a photograph of anyone you know in any branch of the military — or someone who has previously served. KORD and Global Credit Union wants to honor them for their service by sharing their picture on 1027kord.com.

Enter YOUR email and we’ll randomly select one person a month to receive a $20 gift certificate to Hot Wingz.

The snow fell heavily at times causing school delays and closures — and even a few accidents, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

Considering we live in the Tri-Cities “desert,” mild winters should be the norm, but once in a while we get a heavy storm and find ourselves completely unprepared for it.

Historians of the Mid-Columbia say Richland and Kennewick began as cattle towns but the infrequent heavy winters killed all the herds.

Corene Hulse of the East Benton County Historical Society found these photos of three particularly tough winters in 1949, 1978 and 1980.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/247082922025537/

I know times are tough for lots of people right now, which is why I so appreciate organizations and people who will put the word out about pets of all kinds that need QUALITY homes with people that can afford to feed and care for them.

I saw this Guardian Angels Horse Rescue on Facebook and wanted to pass along the info. If you scroll down you can see the many horses that are in need of care. Angie is the gal who posted the rescues. Call her at 509-380-3209

PLEASE don’t even THINK about adopting a horse unless you know you can afford to give it feed, vet care, and attention!

Hi Everybody!

Most of you know I’m an avid horse rider. I’m always posting my adventures of me with my horse Galeron! Many of them in the river swimming!
I’ve had horses all my life and trained many of them with fairly good success! But, I’m sure I made plenty of mistakes! When I got my Friesien colt 11 years ago, I wanted to MAKE SURE I was doing his training the best I possibly could!

I began watching videos by John Lyons, Monty Roberts, Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling. And anyone else I could find to read or watch videos from.

Then I found a book called Natural Horsemanship by Pat Parelli. I began to play with my horse on the ground and establish respect and a partnership.

I believe so strongly that the base of what Pat Parelli teaches is so valuable that it will change your relationship with your horse completely! You both will learn to trust, respect and partner in a way that is so rewarding and FUN!

Now the reason I’m telling you all this is because I want to increase my level of learning and found Pat Parelli offers all kinds of further learning tools, and dvd’s now! He has clinics and classes all over the world. I recently purchased all the level DVD’s and I’m learning so much great stuff !

With my membership to Parelli Connect, I get a limited number of free tickets to The “Horse and Soul Tour” It’s in Puyallup, WA May 19-20th. Both Pat and his wife Linda will be there for the event. I believe it’s a specator only event not a clinic you bring your horse to.

So, I want to give some tickets away to my listeners who would like to go! You will have to find your own transportation, but I will give away the tickets in pairs while they last! Comment below if you would like a pair.

Flickr, CDA Resort

102.7 KORD and the Coeur d’Alene Resort asked to see your best Holiday Family Photos, you sent ‘em in and now we have our winners!

Congratulations to Nicole Tebeck and Stephanie Roberts for their winning submissions! They scored a Holiday Bed & Breakfast package from the Coeur d’Alene Resort which includes:

- One Night accommodations in a premier guestroom

- Breakfast via room service or Dockside restaurant

- 4 cruise tickets to the Holiday Light Show: Journey to the North Pole

Thanks to everyone who submitted their Holiday Family Photos!

Family First Dental in Kennewick and 102.7 KORD want to see your smile! Show off your smile for a chance to win a $100 prize…your choice of a digital camera, iPod, or $100 Visa Card!

Just fill out the submission form below and you will be entered for a chance to be our random monthly winner! All pictures submitted will be displayed right here on 1027kord.com, and at the end of each month one entry will be randomly selected and score the prize!

Check out all the SMILES =) of the current entries!

Congratulations to our Winners:

June - Crystal Moore of Kennewick
July - Nicole Wilson of Prosser
August - Carlos Magana of Plymouth
September - Danielle, Jason, and Jaydon Donnelly of Richland
October - Chantelle Davis from Kennewick

December -Jessica Finch of Richland

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

We love our college football! And college football teams are enjoying the love that they are getting from big companies like Nike & Under Armor.

The problem is that the designs are just getting a little too funky.  Colleges around the US are only too happy to take what big business can give them, but should they giveaway creative rights as well? Scan through the pictures above and judge for yourself.

The Oregon Ducks look like they are ready to take flight…I don’t think these uniforms are going to gain them any extra yardage.

Now the Arizona Sun Devils also got a makeover, and what kind of retro throwback hell were they thinkin’ about?

The Maryland Tarrapins however had to be the butt of somebodies bad joke! There are actually 32 combinations of their uniforms which are very garish. Yikes!

And all though Penn State University has chosen to keep their classic look, wait ’til you see some of Nike’s new Pro Combat line uniforms which will be debuting throughout the season.

The motives behind it all are no surprise. It’s all about jersey sales, merchandising, and attracting younger high school fans to their colleges.

Needless to say some of the older fans aren’t liking the changes and even though some of these are alumni that write checks. They are calling the changes more costumes than uniforms but it looks like that it is the wave of the future.

Photo By Bear

It was 10 years ago that America was attacked on her on soil. We will always live with that day and the events that unfolded September 11, 2001.

Nearly 3000 Americans lost their lives that day. As we dedicated the 9-11 Memorial at the Southridge Sports complex yesterday Let us take you thru our day and what went on on putting together this balloon send off.

We arrived early with our friends Gary & Laura from Oxarc and 6 tanks of helium and a special balloon manifold.

The balloon crew was assembled of station staff, family, & listeners! Look at us all bright & cheery! Thank goodness it was cool!

So we had a lot of folks ask us. How do you corral 3000 balloons? Well…..thats what station tents are for!

So we finished our task in about 2 hours! Thanks again Oxarc of Pasco, The Paper Factory of Pasco and Yokes Fresh Markets (They sent over pastry & fresh coffee! Yummy). At about 11am the artifact which is an actual beam from the World Trade Center made it’s arrival leading a procession of police & fire departments and veterans. What a sight.

Once the artifact arrived it was lifted into place and then awaited the dedication

The crowd was tremendous. Police estimated at 5000. Everyone really wanted to be part of this event and wanted to be sure that “We will never forget”

This amazing and then it was an amazing red & blue balloon send off of the nearly 3000 souls that were lost on that day September 11, 2001.

I got to take a quick tour around the Tri-Cities this moring  in a Kiwi Air helicopter. It was amazingly beautiful today and the veiw was incredible!

Robert was our pilot and he gave us a nice smooth ride! Kiwi Air is giving helicopter rides this weekend at the Outdoorsman Expo. The event is at TRAC today thru Sunday.

Kiwi Air flys 7 days a week year round. They offer support for rafting, kayaking, fishing hunting, hiking, backcountry excursions etc.

They are located at the Port of Clarkston, near the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, just north of where the borders of Idaho, Oregon and Washington meet. But, trust me…they can get here to the Tri-Cities pretty quick!

You can call them at 509-751-9000.

Be sure to catch them at Trac this weekend!

We asked you to make your own postcard using one of your vacation photos and submit it to KORD. Thanks to all those who sent in their postcards and congratulations to Cheri and Ron Thomas! They were the winners in the ‘Postcards from Paradise’ contest with Travel Leaders. They have scored a $1,500 travel voucher from Travel Leaders and Pleasant Holidays to travel anywhere they would like to go. You would be surprised how far you can go on $1,500 these days…give Travel Leaders a call at (509) 783-4645.

Thanks again to all of  those who participated!

(photos courtesy of Western States and CAT)

The results are in..and the Western States Heavy Equipment rodeo held last week with KORD set an attendance record!

Held at Granite Northwest  north of Pasco last week, the Western States and CAT event drew nearly 70 competitors, and hundreds of spectators.  Western States is staging 12 “rodeos” or heavy equipment skill competitions in WA, OR, ID, and Montana, with the 12 competitors with the best overall scores competing in August for huge prizes.  Five events were held, including stacking tires five tall using the front boom of a backhoe,  scooping tennis balls with a front loader,  removing soccer balls balanced on traffic cones with a front loader without dropping them, and more.   Jeremy Kysar was the Tri-Cities winner with the best overall score between the five timed events.  He will head off to Boise ID in August to compete for a 2011 F-250 Pickup, and tons of other prizes from Western States, CAT and others.  It was quite a show watching the heavy equipment operators and even amateurs try to master the skills!

Unlike most dads, celebrity dads are super sexy. That’s why they’re celebrities (and dads). You see how that works? You guys know where babies come from, right? Without further adieu, here’s the eye candy, just in time for Father’s Day.

photo www.rolemommy.com

This weekend is marked as the official kick-off to summer. Just hope the weather co-operates.

Lots of stuff going on this weekend including military memorial services at the cemeteries

Families getting together for BBQ’s..mmmmmmm Smoked turkey, Salmon, burgers, dogs, steaks & ribs. Time to satisfy man’s desire to burn meat! What are you going to BBQ this weekend?

Looking to have some fun this weekend? I will be at the Pacific Northwest Club 31st Annual Spring show & shine at Howard Amon park in Richland on Sunday. Bear will be the emcee and crankin’ out some great tunes. 9am til 3pm. If you have a cool ride bring it on down. registration is $20 at the gate. register by 9am.

After we are all done with that come on down to Clover Island for the 7th Annual Parrothead Party with Garrett Wilkin & The Parrotheads. 21 and over. Tickets are $15 each. Gates open at 4pm. if you love Jimmy Buffet music I can think of a better way to wrap up your weekend.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!