WE CAN EXPLAIN THE WEIRD STUFF!  REALLY!

Photos above are:  Glenn and Heidi Reed in front of their home; Framed butterflies from Peru (not for sale), Glenn's "Grand Poo-Bah necklace made of real Moose Poop, A Great White Shark head mount (sold), a fossil whale vertebra carved in Barrow, Alaska, Glenn with our 8.5 foot tall extinct Cave Bear Skeleton from Romania (bear for sale, you guess which one!), and Glenn and Heidi in the midst of their Dinosaur Family in their backyard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glenn Reed used to have a shop in Myrtle Beach of shark and marine related items.  He closed the shop in 1994 and "went walkabout" with Darel, his beloved wife, for the remaining years of her life with M.S., meeting Heidi Lee who had been doing arts & crafts shows with her line of jackets, scarves and jewelry.  Heidi joined the "family" with Glenn, Darel and their two cats, and for the next four years, they both cared for Darel.  They combined their businesses, traveling in a Class A motor home, touring the country while doing 40-50 arts & crafts shows per year, with the wire-wrapped shark's teeth and gemstone bead necklaces Glenn was now making and Heidi's work with something for everyone!

Prior travels of Glenn and Darel have included 54 countries covering all continents except South America.  This included 8 summers chaperoning high school students on a six-week educational tour of Europe.  Road trips of the new "family" resembled what they called the "poor Charles Kuralt tour-with-no-sponsor" as they found the back roads and small towns that ALWAYS hid fascinating people, stories and treasures just waiting to be discovered.  Darel enjoyed every bit of it - an ever-changing scenery of interesting things that kept her mind more active than most.  

Glenn had already been "an avid collector with a short attention span", so when they all settled in Boulder City, Nevada (midway between Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam) there were oodles of weird things in the store right away.  They have since added considerably to the shop's inventory with things that "wowed" them.  Darel's condition merited staying put, hence the choice to open the store instead of traveling further.  Photos of the Boulder City NV store below:

The store was educational in nature, for all ages, with self-guided information cards throughout the store describing where things were made/obtained, and how they were made.  If they don't make it themselves, they either know the artist & technique or have dug the materials and met the miners themselves!  Their store was on the Approved List for educational sites for field trips in the Clark County School District.  During the school year, they gave weekly educational seminars on varieties of the way-too-cool stuff in the store.

The store theme was to display beautiful things from all eras and continents for others to see, learn from and perhaps purchase.  We hope you enjoy the "mentally nutritious journey" through the website in the same way.

Darel passed away in June of 2000 in Nevada.  She was a gentle soul with admirable stamina under the circumstances.  She is sorely missed.  For those of you that knew her and her struggle with M.S., she never allowed the disease to beat her, and fought right up to the very end.  She died with a sense of fulfillment - she knew that she had touched at least one child's life and made a difference.  It turns out that she did that many times over, as so many of you parents know from the experiences your children had in their contact with Darel.

Heidi comments that Glenn's faithful care of Darel kept her comfortable right to the last, keeping his promise that she never be put in a nursing home.  Not an easy promise to keep, especially those last few years.  Many never knew what an effort this took.  A quote from one of Glenn's friends was "what a statement that makes about the kind of persons we all can be".  How true.

Glenn and Heidi got married in June of 2001 (classic drive-up chapel, Las Vegas style wedding!!) and continued to run the store successfully.  After 9/11, which changed the Hoover Dam tourist traffic considerably, they decided by 2002, for several reasons, to relocate back to the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area.  The Nevada store had been open for 3 years by the time they packed it down and moved.  Photos of the Myrtle Beach SC store below:

They opened the store in Myrtle Beach in June of 2002 for 18 months, at which time the website and eBay business had grown phenomenally so they could not justify keeping the storefront open.  

So they closed it down and have been running the net biz from their lovely country home, 20 minutes drive from the beach, since December of 2003.  They continue to travel and come home with new weird things every time, they can't seem to stop!

(February 12-13, 2010)  Only the 2nd time in 21 years in South Carolina (the last time was Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009).  A winter wonderland for 24 hours!  So of course Glenn made a ghoulish Snow Dude.

Amanita muscaria

A beautiful water hyacinth in our friend Dale's Florida pond.  Photo credit to Dale and Kathy.

Documenting some of the semi-wild cats we enjoy here

Gold & white cat   

Our surprise Siamese Snowball   

Her brother (neurological problem, holds his head to the side)

New litter of 4 kitties

A tiger with white boots & nose from another litter 

Gold male cat, he is panting from the heat, as the cats have gotten their winter coats from a few cool nights, and now are too warm.  Weather is still in the high 80's during the day.

Believe it or not, Sept. 25th Glenn found berry bear puke with a baby bear footprint right in the middle of it, over near the deer corn.

A mama black bear and twin cubs visited the yard Sept. 26th.  (We had to deal with reflection on the sunny window, apologies).  

Some sound caused one cub to go up on his hind legs for a few moments.  False alarm.

Mom and cubs decided to take a tour of part of the yard to be sure there was no danger.

You can see where mom's front left foot has been broken, and healed crooked.  A permanent limp that does not look comfortable, also causing her to slow down.  A detriment if she needs to get away from danger with her cubs.

Mom tipped some of the corn out of the deer dish so all 3 could feed at the same time

This twin scooped corn between his paws and was NOT going to share

Another stroll on Myrtle Beach Sept. 21.  The weather is still in the 80's.

Heidi found a great Squalicorax tooth, they both found lots of sand shark points, and a few whole small teeth.

This wayward little turtle was tootling across our driveway towards the conservation forest, a LONG ways from water, when we spotted the cats looking at something in the yard and we discovered it - an Eastern Box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina), also called Common Box Turtle.  The hinged plastron (lower shell) that he is able to move up against the upper shell to protect his head is a marvelous ability.

In reading about it, I found that the male has a concave (lower shell) plastron to facilitate breeding on top of the female, which has a flat plastron.  So this is probably a female.  We took her down the road the other way to a small stream so she could have more of a chance of a good turtle life:

A pink flowering Fasciata Bromeliad on our porch we enjoy every day.

A hummingbird outside my home office window.  Through August we have hundreds of sipping visits a day outside Heidi's office window to the 2 feeders there.  Ruby throated males, females and juveniles visiting constantly. 

Glenn found a tiny red mushroom in our yard.  We can only identify it as a new mushroom of the Amanita muscaria species that turns into the red mushroom with white spots that we also find in the yard (other photos amongst the About Us photos).  YES, it is poisonous.

Two bears have been coming nightly up until the fire April 22; there has also been considerable construction going on nearby.  Since then we have not seen the bears, and worried they were either dead or had relocated to another area.  The bears usually start coming during the day starting in late May/early June.  They had not done so.

Friday July 17th one bear finally came during the day, we were so glad to see him!  It is the bear with the injured back leg, the skin & muscle had been stripped from the right rear leg back in March (we don't know what did it), we did not know if he could survive.  He did!  We estimate he is a 2 year old around 300 pounds

He ate well, took a bath

He's had his bath (you can see how wet he is), now it's a mouthful of cat food for dessert, going down on his elbow to do so:

he explored the latticework where the cats are, though they are not prey to him..

The damaged leg joint is stiff & fixed, and he swings the leg in an outward arc to walk.  You can see it is healed but thinner from lost muscle, skin & fur, and weaker. 

He looked up this tree several times on his hind legs at his full height.  He must have seen something we did not, then went on his way.

Nine cats showing in the 1st photo (the 3 mothers are off to the left), and six kitties at the milk dish in both photos.

Frank, normally a cautious, serious sort of guy (but really a kid inside) shows his other side when he comes to Myrtle Beach

May 1, it was a beautiful day to walk on the beach.  A little windy, about 75 degrees at the beach (closer to 82 inland), 

but the tide was out and there were numerous hermit crabs to watch skittering through the tidal pools.  What fun!  

MYRTLE BEACH FIRE

(photo credit to Tom Murray, Sun News, of a Loris firefighter at Nehemiah Green's home on  Willard Road, 12 miles from our home)

Azalea, myrtle blossom and yellow jessamine vine, early April, in our yard, a welcome sight:

Friends Harry and Linda visited again from Canada, a warm change from the record snowfall where they live

Raccoon eating happily from the cat food

Two of our "wild" cats have had kittens, they are old enough to explore through the lattice work and are now drinking milk from the dish.  Their antics are always entertaining.

They look like whack-a-moles poking their heads out of the lattice work.  Total of 6 showing in the last photo

Another wonderful walk on the beach with my Curmudgeon Glenn, one of me at the 2nd Avenue South Pier, and a wicked shell that just MIMICS a shark tooth, cruel:

The bush had the most blooms we have ever seen, though a freeze a week later killed them off, we thoroughly enjoyed them while we could:

One of the first azaleas, a double color:

Life's simplest pleasures, a Rainbow Foam car wash with a cotton candy smell (the color changes as it comes out of the nozzle), it is more than just a car wash to us.  A kid's delight, I hope I never grow up:

An orange sea anemone as seen on a mirror, a jellyfish, and a pink anemone (these 3 photos compliments of Carla Ellenbecker):

A random photo of a housing development on Highway 90 showing some of the snowfall

Here's Glenn at the Fresh Catch Seafood Restaurant, where we ended up watching the inauguration till 12:15 p.m., heading home to find the power on again and watching the rest of the festivities on our familiar large screen TV.  A memorable inauguration, but not in the way we planned!

Our

The camellias began blooming around December 20th:

Around Christmas, a flock of seagulls settled on the parking lot at Walmart in Conway

And one tree stump gnawed by the beavers looks like an elephant!

A pygmy octopus that washed up on the beach, Bob & Laura preserved it in alcohol for their collection. 

Friends and customers alike sent us Headline newspapers from their state or country (some whole newspapers), with the historic Barack Obama Presidential win.  One of our favorites is the headline "The Planet at the "O" Moment" from Romania.  We read every one, relishing not only the historicity of it, but also the news and perspectives of the other countries.  We thank you one and all for your generosity.  These will be cherished mementos of our U.S. history.

Below is a picture of most of them.  The papers are from: 

And here are photos of the same group, by sections so they are more easily read, if you wish to:

North Myrtle Beach, SC

We enjoyed a sumptuous Thanksgiving buffet aboard the Big "M" Casino boat, the weather was in the high 60's, a perfect day in South Carolina.  The boat trailing us is a much smaller casino boat.

Glenn's last shot was of a seagull as we were docking, with the rosy glow of a beautiful sunset coloring the photo and the seagull on the piling.  A fitting ending to a nice day, though we went on to have dinner at a great Mongolian Grill called Empire Fire north of Barefoot Landing shops.

Our most recent painting, acquired for Heidi's birthday, from artist Sandra Ragan who did our other sunset paintings.   Sandra named this one "Heaven's Autumn".

What a breath of fresh air, I can feel the soft grass on my back as I look up at the trees and hear the wind.

WISCONSIN, FAMILY VISIT

to Heidi's son & family.  Since we did not get a photo of the whole family, we took a photo of the photo on their living room wall, Marty, Crystal, Kyle and Kieran:

Making butterflies

And Kyle's Tinker Toy robot creation

Other great costumes we saw in the neighborhood, Sumo wrestlers, and a turtle

Kyle learns how to splash Glenn back in the hot tub

A MUSHROOM BIRDBATH!  Okay, it's for a really tiny hummingbird or munchkin bird, but that's what it looks like!

Baby spiders, just hatched, in between our front porch steps:

Fourth of July, our flag is waving proudly

Every afternoon we have a big thunderstorm, here is the view off the back porch of the cameo building and the dinosaurs in the back yard through the torrential rain pouring out of the eave troughs

One of our wild kitties, enjoying the coolness of the swing

Our fat, well fed raccoon family eating the cat food under the umbrella that keeps it dry.  Glenn took these photos from his office window with the zoom lens

We have known of a mother black bear and 3 cubs that have been visiting our side yard every night.  Now they are visiting the yard during the day!  

The young male (we think it's a male because he's bigger than the other 2 cubs and usually feeds separately.  Here he is standing guard at the crossover path at the ditch:

It looks like the bear is smelling the flower, when in reality the hibiscus bush is considerably closer to the camera:

And taking baths in the bear pool...together!  One cub entered the pool, then mama, then another cub..I don't know why the side of the pool (which is a boy's plastic car bed) didn't split.  We'll have to write the manufacturer and tell them how sturdy it is!

Then exploring a short ways beyond the hibiscus bush "barrier" before realizing they were "out of bounds"..

Here is Mama bear that came alone this morning.  She has apparently broken her left front ankle which has a large lump on it (or a snake bite), we have noticed since she began coming, as she limps but can put weight on it.  We hope it heals without an infection, we will continue to worry.

Day lilies that grew like weeds, 5 feet tall!

Hibiscus:

One of the flourishing flower beds:

Mimosa blooms, resembling an exotic Fourth of July fireworks, from a tree down the road:

June 23, 2008  The Texas Rose (a species of Hibiscus) began blooming yesterday.  The blooms are as big as dinner plates.  We have been awaiting their arrival.  Many more to come, the stems are over 5 feet tall with a dozens of blooms on each of the five stalks.  A testament to Miracle-Gro, I'm sure, and Glenn's loving hands:

Here's my tough big guy:

Little  Miss Bitty Kitty checking out the sprinkler head:

Mama boots, with her  litter and a couple of her mother's (Big Mama's) litter.  Boots' litter is 2 weeks older than Big Mama's litter:

Big Mama lapping milk with the kitties:

Big Mama, acting lovey, and another female we call Mrs. Black who did not bear a litter this year, thank goodness!

Update 6/14/08  This kitty has now disappeared, the casualty of one of the many predators in these woods.  We are glad we had some time to help a young creature, however long her life. 

Fat & sassy raccoons (there are 5 or 6) share the space under the storage building, and the cat food amicably with the cats.  The umbrella keeps the food dry..another pampering by Glenn:

Friends Frank, Cathy, their kids Josh, Noah and baby Danielle during their annual visit, posed under Mr. Cave Bear, and photos from the Fresh Catch Seafood Restaurant down the road

Beautiful hibiscus blooms at the new Market Commons (the old Air force base area of Myrtle Beach)

And our own azaleas blooming:

then they explode into real bloom!

and our early wildflowers:

Candy striped amaryllis:

More roses, more vivid each year it seems:

The hyacinths, azaleas, irises and crocuses have been out for a couple of weeks already, here in South Carolina, here's one of our hyacinths..

January 1, 2008

Open letter from Glenn:

It is with a very distinct amount of pleasure that I make my following intentions known to our loyal customers, friends and fellow business associates.

I have reached a point in my life where I have had the pleasure of building a very successful business.  My ever-growing curiosity over the past 38 years has led me to the far reaches of the earth, pursuing my dream of finding the strangest, most bizarre oddities that you see on our website.

These past 11 years, Heidi has been involved in my business. Early on, our businesses were combined, creating another whole dimension encompassing many beautiful categories of things we have found from new travels together.  

So I have decided it's time to hand over the reins of this partnership to my lovely and capable wife Heidi, making her the sole proprietor of Where on Earth effective January 2008.  

I will continue to support Heidi, but in a much different role.  This change in management will allow me more time to pursue other creative choices.  Working on gator skulls and cameos and restoring our cave bear skeleton is like putting together model planes and cars that I never got to play with as a kid, now I can do so with even less distractions...

One weekend's work with cameos & eyeglass loops: 

I hope you will join me in further support and interest in Where on Earth as we continue our travels to find the unusual, as well as educational endeavors.

As a sign of her mutual interest, she has taken a quantum leap in the new direction of the future of Where on Earth.  Heidi has made her first sole selection, a large addition to our outstanding collection.  It is with admiration and love that I share with you and showcase - Direct from Romania - The Romanian Cave Bear Collection (link below)

Cave Bear Fossils

A baby named CHERISH

A tiny resin baby by Camille Allen that my Glenn purchased for my 53rd birthday.  This is the 3rd baby Glenn has purchased for me from her collection (the other 2 can be viewed on About Us page 2, Sept of '05 section).  It does describe his attitude towards me.  What a treasure Glenn is.

Even she can only take so much, she finally leaves, and they are puzzled

and a lovely white wildflower sprouted nearby:

Glenn came home with a 50 pound watermelon.  It took the two of us a week to eat, but eat it we did!

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WHERE ON EARTH?

Glenn & Heidi Reed

P. O. Box 50597, Myrtle Beach, SC  29579, U.S.A.

Phone: 843-347-8724 

Email: whatnext@sccoast.net

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