Back in Thomasville

Yeah - its a file photo and is here just to represent our return to Sugarmill Plantation RV park in Thomasville, GA. Will be here till the 10th visiting friends and taking care of a few things.

Sorry to Lamar and Diane. We had already been in the long wait at the I-10 crossing in Pensacola feeling a bit of frustration and elected to continue on. 2 hours to make 10 miles. What a drag. Will make it up with the next pass. 

Not everything had escaped the notice of hurricane Katrina. This wharf with a reportedly nice restaurant on the end did not fair well. They had just opened in July after recovering from hurricane Ivan last year, when Katrina hit again and shut them down. As we drove through the surrounding countryside we were astonished by the stark contrast left in the wake of the storm. You might drive down the beach road and see nothing out of place. Beautiful homes in manicured landscapes and then - pow - devestation. 2 or 3 houses totally wiped out. Moved off foundations and crushed. Amazing. And tragic for those whose homes were destroyed.

Also on the park grounds is a nice fountain. Being a veteran myself, I always enjoy a good display of our flag. This fountain is surrounded by a nicely kept rose garden. Even though there were signs of the recent passing of hurricane Katrina, the fountain and surrounding beach park had been cleaned up nicely. We had a nice lunch at a little deli restaurant directly behind me that served up some deliscious seafood poorboys. I had a shrimp and oyster poorboy that was terrific.

Inside the park was a wetlands exhibit designed to teach the public the importance of the marshlands, bays and estuaries of the Mobile area. Nice picnic grounds and we were able to chat up some nice folks taking a noon time walk or having a bit of lunch.

While staying at the Rainbow RV park, we took a short trip to the town of Fairhope, AL. A nice little seaside town with plenty of little artsy shops, delis, and parks. One in particular was right on the beach. I was able to take this shot of Mobile which lies across the bay.

23 Oct, 2005. We arrived at the Rainbow Plantation RV park in Summerdale, AL. This is an Escapees private park though they will rent sites to non-members. We're members so we got a very good rate for a top notch park. Large grassy sites, full hook-ups. Very friendly folks to help you out and there is always an SKP hug waiting around every corner.

22 Oct, 2005. Having left TX, we made a stop over in the Atchafalaya Welcome Center in Louisianna. Very nice welcome center that allows overnight stays. Dry camp, but nice just for a rest stop before continuing on. This is a pic of a sunset over the Louisianna swamps.

Sunday we had a nice fish fry. Cooked up some of the halibut Mom caught during the Alaska trip. Pretty good, especially for my first time trying to cook that fish. Easier was the catfish supplied by my Uncle Ray. The best around. He isn't in the picture as he is still in Colorado, but will be here soon. On the left is Mary Lou, my Sis (Becky), MaryLou's hubby (John), then over to the right is Rod (bro-in-law) and Mom A great day for a fish fry. I'm cooking behind this camera. Tuesday we will be heading back to Georgia to take care of some business and facilitate our moving back to Texas. See you on the road.

Mom takes a breather with Sterling at her feet.

Tammi, me sis-in-law, is busy keeping the kiddies busy. Yeah, that is the ole balloon pop board. About 5 minutes before I was sitting behind that bourd. That is until a dart landed at my feet. Keep it up sis, only a couple more HOURS to go.

My bro and Sis-in-laws son, Kyle had his b-day party on the 23rd. And what a party, he should remember this one for quite some time. 25+ friends, 25+ adults, a petting zoo, pony ride, Jump King, food and drink for all. Kylapalooza.

Sam & Joe checking out the game. Sam (left) is still learning the gist of the game, but she had a good time none-the-less.

Yeah, its not a good shot, but it is a shot of the team getting ready for a kick return. A good day for Christa and her Falcons. It was also a good day for my Cowboys, even thugh I didn't get to see them.

At our seats, we check out some of the pre-game activities. You know - athletes stretching, kids trying to get autographs, and cheerleaders fixing their pom-poms.

Oct 16 saw us at the Falcon/Saints NFL game played in San Antonio at the Alamodome. Good game and a nice venue to see a game at. I hope they can use these opportunities to get a teram into San Antonio. This was the largest booking the Alamodome has ever had, a little over 65,000.

A shot of one of the lake snags prevalent in this arm of Canyon Lake. I saw several pretty good sized bass jumping in the vicinity of this old tree.

Enjoying a bit of fun and sun, the girls check out some rays.

As usual, we couldn't get the boats out of the car without Lucy's approval. Here she is in her normal captains chair position sporting a new life vest.

I know you have been waiting for my signature foot shot, so here it is. Canyon Lake and a hill in the background.

Hooray!!! Got some paddle time in today. The gear is out and ready to paddle along the shore on the NW corner of Canyon Lake. A bit breezy today, but not bad. Matter of fact, turned out to be a good trip. Saw plenty of deer along the banks as well as herons, egrets, buzzards, and a host of other shore birds. Also quite a few large bass jumping all around me.

Our future home

No visit to the area would be complete without stopping by our little property and spending a moment thinking about our future home here. While here we have been meeting with builders and bankers with a plan for building to begin within the next month.

This picture is a composite of about five pics stitched together to form a pan of the homesite. Man I can't wait for this to begin. Of course, once it begins I'll probably wish it were over or never begun, but I hope not. While we were here, we saw avout a dozen dear, and a pair of armadillos. More houses are being built, but there is still quite a bit of wildlife in the area.

Thispicture was taken today and that catches me up. I think tomorrow we will come back up here and go down to the lake for a bit of paddling. 

Gruene River Grill

Overlooking the river and a beautiful sunset (hard to see here) we enjoyed a fine dining eperience and good company after not having been all together for a while.

The evening as well as the conversation was pleasant (sometimes raucous), what a great homecoming.

This weekend will have us all together again for a fish fry. Looking forward to that. 

Gruene River Grill

Here we are catching up with my brother his wife and my sister. My sister's hubby is holding down a table for us inside.

Pictured to the left is the Gruene Museum of Art and Music. This is a new attraction that we have not been to yet. I will have to out this on the to-do list for now, good food awaits just around the corner. 

More of Gruene.

One of the sights offered by Gruene. This is the Gruene River B&B. A very nice looking place and I understand one of the premier places to stay (though I haven't stayed myself). 

Gruene, TX

One of the nice places in the area is historic Gruene, TX. Next door to New Braunfels, Gruene (you'll be safe pronouncing it Green) offers a nice little place to go and relax to good music, food, shopping, visual treats.

Christa and I were drawn here a couple evenings ago to have a dinner with my sister and brother and their spouses. I love this little place as a get away that is close by.

This night we would dine at the Gruene River Restaurant. Supposed to be very good with a unique view of the Guadalupe river. 

Oh, and Lucy is well, too.

Yep, let me not forget Lucy. She survived all the traveling as well. Right now she seems to be enjoying the prolonged pause and the ability to stretch her legs a little. 

Canyon Trails RV Resort

Getting a little closer to being caught up. After leaving River Shade RV Park in Seguin, TX, we moved 30 miles north to the town of SanMarcos, TX, staying in the Canyon Trails RV Resort. I think we have found our new home base.

Close to the center of all things we come to visit, this is also a very nice fairly new park. Wide and long sites easily accomodate the largest of rigs.

We are still waiting to finish up some repairs from a local facility, basically waiting on parts at the moment, but we are also checking on the building of our new home. So this park seems to offer a lot in the way of comfort and convenience to us. 

River Shade RV Park

Catching up in time a little, once we had made it back to Seguin, TX, we stayed at my Mom's for a while. However, with the 105+ temps in the area we had to move to a full service RV park so we could crank up both of the rigs A/Cs. We chose to move a few miles across town to the River's Shade RV Park.

Nice park right on the Guadalupe River. We were able to find a site with a clear veiw of the SE sky for satellite purposes. We stayed here a week while we affected some repairs and took care of some pressing local busines.

We would have moved to the park sooner, but Hurricane Rita had all the local parks full until the storm cleared the coastal regions of South TX.

We moved to another park up in San Marcos, TX, on the 6th of Oct. 

Randy receives his retirement orders from the offficiating officer (I'm not aquainted) and his standing with his wife, Diana, and sons.

A proud, unerving, sad, happy, frantic, (are there more feelings going down here) moment.

Man, those kids are getting tall. Last time I saw them they were only up to my knees. 

Randy Retires

Here Randy stands with my friend and brother Chief (Senior Chief actually) Rod. I also heard that one of our other old fellows, Dave, was there.

Looking good guys, sorry I couldn't make it, but I was thinking of you.

Rod sent the pics to me and was glad to see them. 

A Friend Retires

The following pictures were sent to me by one of my brother Chiefs on the occassion of our mutual friends retirement.

My friend Randy stands at the podium and addresses those in attendance in one of his last official capacities before returning to the "Real" world of civilian life.

Been there myself and know that it was probably a tough moment. A good man, Randy put in 20+ years of service to his country, good years. Transitions are tough, but this is a really big one that tends to take one aback.

Randy learned from some of the best (ahem) and I'm sure he is already well prepared for the next phase of life (life after the military). 

Here is a pic of some of the other sticks I turned out during the caravan, including a stick that has not been started yet to show what they look like in the rough. 

The Wlaking Stick (cont)

This is a shot of the entire stick. Maybe not a good shot, but the only one I have. 

Wlaking Stick (cont)

Here is a picture of some of the detail surrounding the "Diamonds" in this speciman of willow.

This is the "foot" of the stick. I purposely left some of the rough bark work in this particular stick, the reason known to Randy via a letter of declaration explaining the symbology behind the stick.

Hey, its a military thing. 

The Walking Stick

Well, I'm back on line. We've been having a bit of trouble with the ole Internet Satellite, but all seems to be working for the moment. From the last post we made it finally to Mom's house in Seguin, TX, and stayed there long enough to catch the 105+ degree days in September. Wow, what a change from the last few months. Anyway, I'm going to do a little back-up to finish off some things.

First of all is to finally show the finished Walking Stick I created for my friend's retirement. Most of the Caravaners saw me working on this and were interested in how it would turn out. Pretty good I think. The top is jade and is afixed to a Diamond Willow limb obtained in the Yukon. I worked on this baby for a little over a month. Needless to say I was sad to see it go, but it was going to a person whose friendship I am proud to have. I figured a good man getting his walking papers needed a good walking stick as well.

The real challenge was fixing the jade head to the stick. Not being a craftsman, this was a real problem for me, but I worked out a solution and was able to ship the stick to my friend, Randy, honorably retired after 20+ years of outstanding service to his country. I am proud to say I was able to serve with him for a short time during my own humble career.