News from April 26, 2007 issue

Local News
The Crittenden Press (3 pages) PDF
(Selected pages 1A, 3A, 4B)
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Unique vacation facilitated in Marion
When Gary Elder called looking for a place to hunt turkeys and hook rugs, he knew it was a strange request.
So did Michele Edwards who was on the other end.
The good thing was, Edwards knew just how to handle it.
“At first, I thought it was a prank call,” said Edwards, who is the Marion Tourism Director by day and operates a hunting lodge by night along with her husband and outfitter, Russell Edwards.
Edwards said she thought someone was playing a joke because she’s always telling folks about the numerous calls she gets as director of tourism in a small town, many of them off the wall.
“He told me that this call was his last, if we couldn’t help him, he’d give up,” Edwards said. “He’d called everywhere looking for help.”
Oddly enough, this one was easy.
Edwards was quick to book the trip for Gary and Kathy Elder of Longview, Texas. The couple is here this week – Gary hunting and Kathy hooking rugs.
Edwards said that Elder had found Tradewater Outfitters on the Internet and called with his unique request. Edwards said he’d looked all over the state for a combination vacation for he and his wife. They live in northeast Texas. She is a musical director for a children's’ broadway theatre and he works for Halliburton.
“My husband had heard that Kentucky was the best place to hunt turkeys,” Kathy Elder said.
So far so good. Gary bagged a big double-bearded tom Monday morning on his first day of hunting and Kathy is learning how to make rugs the old-fashioned way from local artisan Barbara Wheeler. Kathy’s project during lessons this week is to make a red, white and blue rug with the Star of Texas emblazoned on the front of it.
Kathy said the couple planned this special five-day vacation so that each could have some time off work and enjoy the things they wanted to do.
It was a special request, Edwards said, that could be filled in Crittenden County and perhaps nowhere else on earth.