Friday, May 21

Thursday evening, Ron came back from a business trip earlier than expected. He was due in Friday evening after we departed. We all chatted, shared photos and stories of days gone by. Ron now pastors a small Southern Baptist church in View, Texas, about 10 miles from where they live. The church is celebrating its 100th anniversary shortly, so they are in preparation for that event.

Today's trip was about six hours total, a nice, no-rush trip. We had time to stop and eat lunch at a Pizza Hut--thin crust, half cheese, half supreme. Delicious.

The drive through Texas and Oklahoma was different than the Southwest. Here there was real greenery; one could see the gradual changes in the landscape. We drove through some small towns and plenty of wide, open spaces. The crops were either not planted yet, or just harvested.

There was plenty of hay rolled up in the fields. We came across a pickup truck with one of those rolls in the back.

When we got to Kingfisher, OK, I called Callie and said we were on our way. She left her house and would meet us in Enid at the hotel. We got to Hennessey and saw a billboard for the Prairie Quilt store. Of course, we had to stop. I went there, the family went across the street to the Dollar General store. The quilt store was just super; wall to wall fabric bolts, fat quarters, colors, notions, kits, machines, anything.

Give me a yard of everything. I settled on a half yard of a pretty floral print and four fat quarters. I could have stayed longer, but Callie was waiting.

We got to the hotel, checked in and the called Callie. She knocked on the door about 20 minutes later. It is so nice to put a face to a name. Teresa took a few pictures while we chatted for about 30 minutes. Callie had to go back home to take care of a new kitten and put a quilt on her machine and get it done before 2:00 pm tomorrow. We walked her out to her pickup, took some more photos, then said goodbye. It is really nice to meet friends for the first time, that you have known for over 10 years via the internet.










Monday, we get to do it again with Sandy, Barbie and Jan in Iowa. That will be fun.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Today Terry took us to the Abilene Zoo, which was actually a nice, small zoo. Lots of the usual animals. The giraffes had a bridge in their section. Kids would feed them special crackers and their long, gray tongues took the food readily.





There were seven bison who also ate those crackers. The lioness looked pregnant, the rhino was roaring as it was in its enclosed cage and apparently wanted out. There was also food for the catfish, koi and ducks out on the small lake. It was one of the better zoos I have seen.


After that we went to a chocolate place and got some chocolate covered strawberries; they dipped them as we waited. Fresh, good and so healthy! You could get anything dipped in chocolate there. The store is a former railroad depot.

Wednesday, May 19

Terry took us to a Texas history Museum. It was an interesting exhibit of a 100 year history of Texas and the early settlers. Some of the stories are really sad, of course, and others one wonders how these people managed to survived.

She then took us to downtown Abilene which still has the old brick buildings, nice quaint street and angle parking on the street. The storefronts are really neat. We ate at a place called Alley Cats which had such delicious sandwiches and tortilla wraps and so big—I hope I do not put on weight while on this trip as it is only the second week.

Anna,Terry and Ron’s younger daughter, and her husband Tom, and two boys came over for dinner. We went to the 7:00 pm evening service at their church.

The pastor preached a good message about reaching out to the community and being an effective witness. At the end, all the men went to the altar and prayed for the prayer list. Then we were dismissed and met the pastor. He has been at the church since March, having served in a church in Oregon for 41 years.

Tuesday, May 18

We left Tucson, with hugs all around, about 7:45 am and got onto the I-10 about 8:30 heading East. There was construction at various spots along the way.
The ride through Arizona and New Mexico had about the same desert scenery. It would be something one could get used to, cactus, low bushes and sand. We saw several swirling sand tornado-type funnels across the wide, flat, open plains. Such expanse, as far as the eye could see in many places, especially when we hit Texas. There were many trains, some a mile long or more, parallel to the highway.

The first part of the trip the girls and I packaged up our prayer cards to send to our supporting churches. We stopped in a town about noon to mail a bunch of them; that took about an hour for the clerk to weigh and price everything, and about $100 to mail. There are still more to go.


Welcome to Texas

The drive to Abilene took 12 hours. We forgot we had to go through two time zones, so when we finally got to Terry’s house, it was after 10:30 p.m. About an hour later, we all crashed. It will probably be our longest day on the road this entire trip.

Weekend May 15-16-17

Debbie and her family came over for a late lunch Saturday. Little Amelia was a big hit with everyone. Debbie’s parents-in-law made the meal; they like to cook. On Sunday after church, we went over to Debbie and Brandon’s home, about four or five miles away for lunch. This time we had sandwiches and salad. Amelia was a big hit again, performing for everyone. She readily smiled, clapped and cooed for everyone. Monday they all came over for a short afternoon visit; again Amelia was a big hit. She is such a doll.

Friday, May 14

After taking Teresa back to the dorm to leave a few items there, we left Lancaster at 10:10 am and headed East toward Tucson. The car had some difficulties going up inclines, so we turned off the AC for that, but generally the trip of about 500 miles went well. We filled up with gas once near the Arizona border. At that time we got about 25 mpg which was good considering the load of stuff we carried.

The drive through the Southwest is desert, albeit we noticed changes in color of the mountains we passed.

There were many low-growing plants, wide, flat places for miles and miles; and rocks, rocks, rocks. We saw trains carrying sea containers and huge wind farms –acres and acres of those huge turbines; some spinning, some not. I wonder how much electricity they actually produce and at what cost. We arrived in Tucson about 7:00 pm., as it was getting dark.



Barb, Jerry and son James moved here late last year. It’s a beautiful one-level home
with a pool…and backs up to a golf course, but beyond the back fence is habitat for the birds and critters and plants. Very private. Last night the three men got into the pool and played around for an hour. We ladies just put the feet in.

Barb and I talked about family events and I mentioned my autobio that I am writing, so we launched into recollections. I showed her some family photos I have on the computer, some of which she never had seen.

We retired after 11:00 pm and it was the end of a long day.

Thursday, May 13

West Coast Baptist College

The boys checked out of the hotel and we loaded the car with their gear so Henry could take them to the airport at the end of the day for their red-eye flight. We met Peter and he took us around. Teresa was able to leave some boxes in his office for the summer. He said he was so glad he does not have school anymore and projects to do. We had lunch at the cafeteria, then left early afternoon and returned to the hotel.

So while the guys stayed there, I took Teresa down to DMV so she could take the written driving test. We waited in line for 20 minutes, then waited in another line for nearly 90 minutes. A sign said that written tests stopped at 4:00 pm. Our number got called at 4:20. She as processed through, had a photo taken, and told that she should come back and go directly to window 1 to take the test. Only Friday, the DMV was closed, so she will have to get that done when she returns in the fall.

Henry took the boys to LAX and then checked at Delta for the lost video camera. It was there and intact! Praise the Lord nothing was lost. Henry had emailed Delta on Monday night about it and finally got a response on Friday via phone. By that time we were on our way to Tucson.