Some rivers soothe and some rivers challenge. The Buffalo River can do both, but with its towering limestone bluffs and gentle sweeping turns, mostly it inspires.

For more than three decades, one of the nation's most impressive and unique Independence Day celebrations has been held in the North Texas town of Addison. While 4.4 square mile Addison is only home to 16,000 residents, more than a half-million guests from across the nation come to celebrate Addison Kaboom Town!® each July 3.

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts is the book for discussion at the Bonham Public Library, Friday, June 28, at 1:00. Who hasn't watched the movie The Wizard of Oz or read the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The story of the making of the movie and the relationship between the author L. Frank Baum and his wife Maud Gage Baum is the subject of this month's book Finding Dorothy.

By now, we had the morning rituals learned and we were ready to board the rafts earlier than usual. We were starting out at about Mile 119 and we only drifted short way to Blacktail Canyon, where Bernice had requested that we stop for a brief concert in the canyon.

Mark your calendars for the Whitewright Truck & Tractor Pull coming up June 28-29. Gates open at 5:00 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. Coolers are welcome, and concession stands will be available as well. The Monster Ride truck will be back, too!

1948 – Cold War: Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible. The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche Mark from West Berlin. The Western Allies organized the Berlin airlift (26 June 1948–30 September 1949) to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, a difficult feat given the size of the city's population. Aircrews from the United States Air Force, the Royal Air Force, the French Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the South African Air Force flew over 200,000 sorties in one year, providing to the West Berliners up to 12,941 tons of necessities in a day, such as fuel and food, with the original plan being to lift 3,475 tons of supplies. However, by the end of the airlift, that number was often met twofold. The Soviets did not disrupt the airlift for fear this might lead to open conflict, even though they far outnumbered the allies in Germany and especially Berlin. By the spring of 1949, the airlift was clearly succeeding, and by April it was delivering more cargo than had previously been transported into the city by rail. On 12 May 1949, the USSR lifted the blockade of West Berlin, although for a time the U.S., U.K and France continued to supply the city by air anyway because they were worried that the Soviets were simply going to resume the blockade and were only trying to disrupt western supply lines. The Berlin Blockade served to highlight the competing ideological and economic visions for postwar Europe and was the first major multinational skirmish of the cold war.