More kids and grands visit

Tomorrow Kristy and family arrive for a two day visit on their way to South Texas. The following week they leave for Costa Rica for an eight month stay for intensive language training in Spanish. This is in preparation for their new lives as missionaries. We can only applaud their good intentions, and who knows, maybe we can even visit them while they are there. This is quite a lively family with the five mostly teenager grands being great fun. Never a dull moment in this family. Our job will be to feed them and if time, to play cards or dice and enter into the non-stop conversation. Max will get lots of attention which he needs, since our quiet lives tend to be boring for a dog.

This has been a lovely summer of seeing three kids and lots of grands. Our only regret is that we have not been able to see them all.

Two of our kids and their families will be out of our country at the same time. One is currently in Brazil, and of course the other is going to Costa Rica. Another son is moving from Wisconsin to Kansas and arrives there today. There are lots of changes in the works. Happy and safe travels

Little things

You know how you put off doing little jobs. Well, in times like we have been experiencing recently, some of those jobs that were put off came back for attention. The trailer we use to transport our car behind the coach has needed painting for at least a year. Left outside the weather has taken its toll; the boards needed repainting, and any rust spots needed touching up. That finally got done after thinking about it for at least a year. We also needed to replace a wheel hub, and that got done. The motor home needs a wash, and the roof needs to be resealed, and those might be my next jobs this week.

Inside the coach we have some finishing touches from the remodeling. The slides went in and out just fine. I did have to remember that the bedroom slides only go in if the television in the bedroom is in place. It seems that there is some type of switch that prevents the slides from moving if you have not done this. I had to search my little grey cells in my head to remember this important fact. Finally I remembered, and the slides worked. We only called three repairmen in the meantime, but fortunately all were busy. Happy travels.

Peterson Hospital is going

For many years there has been a seven story hospital downtown in Kerrville. Within the last two years or so, this building was replaced with a new edifice erected across the river near the main post office. Then came the discussion within the community. Could the old building be used for apartments? Should it be replaced by a high rise hotel? Do we need a convention center, and if so should it be placed downtown on the old hospital location?

Finally after much time and discussion it was decided to tear down the old hospital. This has now been happening for several months. Piece by piece the wreckers have taken the building apart. Sometimes it looks like giant grasshoppers sneak in during the night and take out giant bites of the old building. If you run across one of these grasshoppers, go in the opposite direction and quickly as apparently they can chop through steel and concrete.

We still do not know for sure what will be built on the site of the old hospital. Hopefully it will encourage a renaissance of downtown and encourage other businesses to locate there. Happy travels.

Max and his toys

Max has four balls. Walk-a-proud, walk-a proud. What I meant to say was that he has four toy balls. Two of them light up when bounced, one is a tennis ball, and the final one is a rubber ball that might remind you of a base ball. Max loves to play with these toy balls and has several favorite games.

One game is to chase the ball thrown by me. It is quite a sight to see Max returning with the lit ball in his mouth, and after he does this a bit he gets all growly. Somehow listening to him growl with a lit ball in his mouth makes me laugh. It is particularly fun to do at night as he can find the lit ball in the darkened bedroom. Another favorite game is to toss the ball in the air and see if he can catch it before it hits the floor. He has gotten quite good at this game, too, and really responds when we say, "Good boy, Max." He is up to seven or eight straight catches without losing the ball. He will play this game as long as you are willing to toss it.

Today he learned another game where the pall is placed on his nose and he tries to catch it before it hits the floor. Another successful game for Max. The rubber base ball seems to be the best for these last two games.

Now we are trying to get him to stay while a treat is placed on his nose and only take it when told to do so. Some of our kids have taught their dogs to do this. As to Max's other toys, and he has several, you will have to await future posts on this blog. Happy travels.

Max and the deer

Poor Max has known that something was different these past several days and has moped and wanted to be up on my lap more than usual. He is not yet a confirmed traveler. However, when we got to the new park, he was glad to have new places to sniff and to check out. This morning we set out as usual to take care of his morning constitutional. He quickly took care of nature's call, and then we went for a short walk through this part of the park. Max saw some movement, and this was followed by taking a three leg stance and standing stock still. Maybe Max has some Pointer blood as well as Westie, which might account for why he is getting so big. Diet dog chow is looming in his future.

The deer snorted and darted around. As we came around the block, we again encountered this group of watchful deer, and Max stopped again and pointed. Food on the hoof ! Road kill? A bit big for a small white dog though. There were two bucks and two others in the group. They raised their white tails and pranced off in the opposite direction. Max desperately wanted to give chase. Hunter instinct taking over for sure. A disappointed, Max followed me home.

He is currently asleep at my feet and growling. Is he dreaming about those deer? I hope so. Happy travels.

A time for reflection

In times of stress it is important to take time for reflection. It was quite a blow to be told not to report to work the next day. We were released and felt like we were fired. We felt that we had been doing a good job and could not figure out why this had happened.

In the spring of this year we had decided that a year of working at one place was a good length of time, and we needed to try someplace else. Our friend Byron encouraged us to go to Colorado and try work camping at the park where he works in the summer. We had talked to Byron's boss, and all was arranged. We let Don know that we were planning to move on.

Then almost at the same time I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and we decided to stay here in Kerrville and work with the doctors in the area. Don agreed to keep us on and that I would need time off after any surgery. All of that came to pas,s and we now think that Don waited until I was recovered and ready to move on when he told us that were no longer employed.

We have learned much in our year and a half working at this resort park. Both of us had jobs in areas where we had little previous experience. We worked hard and really enjoyed the learning and the interaction with other work camper,s as well as the guests staying at the park.

Will we do it again? We are not sure at this point. We have much to be thankful about and plenty to think about as we look toward the future. I am sure there is humor in here somewhere, but guess I need to dig more deeply. Happy travels.

What a difference a day can make

About 4 pm on Monday we got a call to go to the office and meet with the boss - Don. When we got there, he got right to the point and informed us that we were no longer employed at this RV park. We were not to report to work on Tuesday and needed to have packed up and left no later than the fifteenth of the month. We went home in complete shock.

We had some minimum things that needed to be done to the motor home and had to arrange time to make room in our storage unit so that things we would not need could be taken there and stored. That was quite a da,y since we needed to sort and rearrange and then do the same at the coach and then transport stuff to the unit. Friends helped us get our grill there, and we took the rest in several trips with our small car.

Finally this morning we completed the work on the coach, pulled in the slides, hooked up the trailer, and took off. We will stay here in Kerrville at another park for a month and figure out what to do next.

We know that we are not in charge of our life, but we sometimes wonder what God has in mind for us as this new page in our book is turned. Hopefull,y the month will give us enough quiet time to reflect and make new plans. The implementation we leave to Him above.

We just learned that our good friend Arthur, who had us help with his B & B several years ago up in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in the Puget Sound of Washington just now learned that his brother Donn has pancreatic cancer. His brother is about 80 and has always watched what he eats and taken good care of his body. This a a real blow to the whole family. Arthur wants us to come back and perhaps help out until the B & B gets sold. So we have one idea already to consider. Happy travels.