Catching up on 2010

Boy have I fallen down on the job. We finally left Red Bay, Alabama on December 3rd. We had to spend Thanksgiving there rather than in Houston with Wayne’s family. Thankfully the Methodist Church was serving dinner so we went there for lunch. It was very nice.

As we drove back through Tupelo, Mississippi, I caught a glimpse of the sign pointing to Elvis’ birthplace. Wayne wouldn’t turn to go see it. It’s probably for the best as we are about 50’ long when we are all hooked up.

We drove to Bossier City, Louisiana and spent the night in the campground at Diamond Jack Casino. They had a good seafood buffet and we played blackjack for about 45 minutes until Wayne nearly fell asleep on the table.

The next day we drove to Spring Branch, Texas and stayed in a campground that must have had the most sticker burrs in the State of Texas. We couldn’t even walk Trouble.

We picked up the BMW and that evening we went out to dinner with our friends that were keeping it for us. Sunday we went over to their house and visited and had brisket for dinner.

Monday we drove into Austin and took care of the insurance on the cars then back to Spring Branch to get the motorhome and on to Aransas Pass. Wayne drove the motorhome and I drove the Beemer. It drives nice but different from my Jeep.

We spent Christmas at our daughter, Nola’s, house in Waller. Christmas eve Ashley and Hailey came over to exchange presents. They lived with Nola when Hailey was just a baby. Ashley and Michelle have been friends since they were about 5 years old. Trouble got in on the picture as well.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with Nola, Michelle, Mike, Matt, Papa Wayne and I, Todd, and Cindy, one of Michelle’s best friends. After dinner we opened presents and our stockings as Bob and Doris had to leave early Christmas Day to go back to be with their other grandchildren and Todd was leaving that night to see friends. Cindy stayed for the opening of presents.

Wayne bought a Santa hat and played jolly old St. Nickolas .

His hat moved and made noise. Trouble didn’t know what to think of it.

And he truly was a jolly old St. Nick.

Nola got a beautiful sweater from Uncle Todd.

Todd got his favorite Godiva chocolate from Matt.

Mike seemed to enjoy our gift of a Bass World gift card.

Michelle seemed pleased with the books we got her to help her as a first year teacher next year.

Wayne and I got some Moose Munch from Todd.

Wayne is finding lots of goodies in his stocking.

Matt got his own printer to take to UT next year along with everything to do his own laundry.

Christmas morning Michelle and Matt, along with Michelle’s fiancée, Mike, left to spend some time with their father. Did you notice that new word “fiancée”? Yes our Michelle is engaged to marry Mike Cheripka. He is the Assistant Band Director for Birdville ISD. If you watch the Rose Bowl Parade tomorrow look for him. They are really excited to be chosen to play in the parade.

Wayne and I and Nola headed over to Wayne’s brother, Kim’s, house. He and his wife, Irma, always host Christmas day dinner and as always they outdid themselves.

Since I left my camera in Aransas Pass, I had to depend on others for pictures. Nola did take this picture of Wayne's brother, Darrell’s wife, Tammie, holding one of his brother, Leslie’s, new grandbaby.

This morning There was a little black puppy walking by and Trouble begged to go out. Wayne put Trouble in the pen with it and they played and played. I’m sure they will become play buddies.

We are going to a New Year’s Eve dinner and dance tonight and I will take my camera. I’ll try to post more than once a month in the future.

Breakfast with Wayne’s Brother

On Monday we met one of Wayne’s brothers in Tupelo for breakfast.  Claude Leslie is the next oldest to Wayne and he drives an armored 18-wheeler.  He and his co driver, Mary Ann, often carry valuables across country for museums, banks, etc.  One of them drives while the other one sleeps so they are constantly on the move.

Here are Wayne and Leslie.

It was good to get to see him and to meet Mary Ann.  We had a good visit.

Rattlesnake Saloon

On Saturday, Rich, Karla, Wayne and I drove out to the Rattlesnake Saloon for lunch.  It was about a 45 minute drive.

Shortly after we drove up in the parking lot we were met by the Red Neck Limo.

We drove towards the Seven Springs Lodge.

Then we turned and went down a steep hill towards the Rattlesnake Saloon.  Here is Karla holding on for dear life.

On the way down was this rocking chair under the overhang.

There is a pretty patio down below overlooking a creek.

The Saloon is complete with outhouses.  There are also indoor facilities.

We couldn’t get the full impact of the facility as they had covered most of it with heavy duty plastic to keep it warmer.  Here are some of the tables set under the overhang.

Here is one of two carved rattlesnakes at the entrance to the indoor saloon.

The ceiling fans indoors are all connected and run by a single motor.  The ceiling looks to be pressed tin.

There are rattlesnake skins on all the ceiling braces and animal heads around the room.  The picture of the turkey is the only one that turned out. 

The food was simple but I had one of the best hamburgers I have had in a long time.  We plan on coming back this way next spring so we will have to make a trip out when the plastic is not up.

Coupland School and “Tuff Guy” Trouble

I downloaded my pictures today so I could post some pictures of Trouble our 5 lb ball of fur and found two pictures that I took last week on our way up here.

Coupland School is where I taught two days a week in 1971 – my first year of teaching.  (I taught two other days at Jarrell, TX and spent one day a week at the service center planning.)  If you drive east from Austin on Hwy 290 and turn north at Elgin you soon can see the two story building that was Coupland School.  It was grades K-8 with two grades to a classroom K-6 and the principal taught 7 & 8.  I just googled it and it appears that the school still has grades K-8 with up to 10 teachers.

It was really a pretty old building as you can see from this picture of the back of it.

Now to the real reason for the blog.  Our friend, Emelie, from our travels the past two summers bought a “Tuff Guy” t-shirt for her dog that didn’t fit so she gave it to Trouble.  It fit him perfect and maybe now everyone won’t say how cute “she” is.

Emelie also brought Prince and Bear over to play.  Here is Prince checking out Trouble.

It must have been the shirt because Trouble soon had Prince on his back.

It will probably get cold enough here for him to wear his shirt several times.

Wayne’s new toy

I told Wayne that I wanted a second car for when we winter in Aransas Pass.  We talked about getting an antique car but then he decided that the parts would be too hard to get.  Wayne decided that he wanted a sports car so we looked around and decided on a BMW.

Here is the proud owner and his new Beemer.

Although it doesn’t look like it—it is a hard-top convertible.  Here are Adam, Wayne, Doris, and Bob watching the top get ready to fold up.

One it folds on top of itself, the trunk opens.

And the top stores itself inside the trunk.

Now we have a convertible to tool around in.  It’s not as sporty as we first look at but we can get in and out of this one.

Bob and Doris are babysitting the car while we go to Red Bay, Al tomorrow for repairs and modifications.

Halloween Brunch

Halloween morning we woke up and decided to call some friends from the campground that we stayed in last year.  We met Warren and Jean for lunch at a wonderful restaurant in Georgetown named Wildfire.

We found out that they used to stay at the park we currently are staying in until one fall when it was full.  Small world.

After lunch we went out to their campground and visited for a while.  Their dog, Randy, and Trouble used to play together.  Since we are gone they got Randy a pretty grey cat to play with.

To Lockhart for Bar B Q

On Wednesday we drove to Lockhart to meet a friend for lunch.

Lockhart is the Bar B Q capitol of Texas.  We chose to go to Blacks for lunch.  Here is Wayne getting ready to go in.

 

Blacks is very old as the sign below says.

The walls are covered with horns, heads, and pictures.

Ron is our UT buddy from Corpus Christi.  He was in town visiting his brother and his wife who also joined us for lunch.

Wayne and Ron discussed UT football long after his brother and his wife left.

 

Lockhart has one of the prettiest courthouses around.  You can see the clock tower and some of the spires above the old buildings on Main Street.

This is the other side of Main Street.

We had a great time visiting with Ron, his brother, and his wife.  Next time we will try a different Bar B Q restaurant.

UT vs. ISU

We got up early—very early—and drove to the stadium. We have to be at the stadium three hours prior to game time to park close. We went to the Texas Exes Chapter Leader Room to visit with the staff and old friends. I decided an wanted to take a picture of my life membership posting so I went out into the lobby. I ran into a former neighbor of mine and we visited for a while until her husband arrived. Marsha and Jim lived next to us when the girls were young and our children practically lived at each others houses along with a few others on the block. We went to all the UT football games together and then partied afterwards. They have both recently retired from teaching. Here are Marsh and Jim.

I went upstairs and discovered that those members whose numbers are above 27,000 are not framed but are in the big leather books that are laid out.

This is the page that Wayne and I are listed on.

And here are our names.

Here is the UT band before the game.

On the left they are bringing out a huge Texas flag.

This is the megatron that we have to look down on from our lofty seats. The team is touching some longhorn horns that are mounted on the wall. It didn’t help them.

At half-time both the Longhorn band and the Alumni Band performed. The Alumni Band spelled out HOOK EM while the student band spelled out DELOSS for our athletic director.

It was good to see everyone who sit around us but it wasn’t a good game for us.