cowboy capital
| You will get no argument from me. Yep - there are lots of cowboys here, y'all. And Deb and I fit in like socks on a rooster. The best part for us was the music ... especially in Cowboy Church. Seems like cowboys can sing and play the guitar as well as they can ride a horse. And the harmonies are as deep and natural as the blue berries on cedars! But then, there is something special about a posse of cowboys sitting around a campfire, too! We were lucky to have stumbled onto that, fer sure! |
kayaking in texas
(or not...)
| Texas does not require non-motorized boats to be registered, so all we had to do was get to the other side of the camp with our kayaks. That was no problem for the TrailHawk; we made our way and parked neatly on the banks. It was going to be a great day of paddling, we thought! But we would find the lure of the Medina to be deceptive. What we did not know is that it had not rained in several months and the river was wide but not deep. |
It's really hard to paddle when you and your kayak are sitting on rocks! So after about two miles of paddle-a-bit, hike-a-bit, then paddle-a-bit more, we decided to call it a day. Our feet were more wet than our paddles! Hiking in the Medina River while dragging your kayak behind you is not as much fun as it sounds!
For entertainment, we are camped next to the Chicken Coop! There are seven hens and three roosters. Once the dawn's door is open to their abode, they enjoy surrounding our RV. One very vocal rooster stands outside our living room window and serenades us with his “song.”
All day long he crows.
We just chuckle.
The flock has free-range privilege and roams the camp all day. Faithfully, they return to their coop at the end of each day. We've been told that when the chickens sense danger of predators that they will quickly seek the safety of their “coop” home. They are quite funny to watch as they bird-waddle-run their way across the grounds! Chickens are definitely not "built" for running!
One day we came home and the vocal rooster and one of the hens were sitting inside the chassis of our motorhome underneath the slide-out! We never thought that our bird watching fun would include chickens!
God's creatures are amazing.
out of range!
But no connectivity. <SIGH>
When you hear the wind blow, dear, hear the wind blow, just right, we can catch a WiFi signal, so we might be able to post in short bursts, from-time-to-time. But cell phone service is "zero bars" all of the time. We promise to do some catching up when we get back on-the-road at the end of the month!
Oh ... and YES! ... the stars at night ARE big and bright ...
Have a great February!
always smiling ... margaret crow
[Ken 02/04/2016] We were blessed last night by the opportunity to drive up to Austin to visit my cousin, Margaret Crow. Margaret is the daughter of Ed and Dora Rodgers (there are some great stories about Ed and Dora!). My dad, and his older brother and sister, George and Mary Alice, were welcomed into Ed’s family and raised by Great Grandpa [William] Rodgers after the passing of dad’s mother (to tuberculosis) and father (to alcoholism – and likely a broken heart). I was thinking that I had not seen Margaret in fifty years, or so, but she reminded me that she sat next to us at Uncle George’s funeral [about] 17 years ago.
Margaret lives on two-and-a-half acres at the southern limits of Austin. She showed us her home and lots of great pictures of her children, Nathan and Shannon, and their two families. We sat in her living room; she relayed lots of stories which had been passed on to her by her father about growing up in their expanded West Virginia home with dad, George, and Mary Alice. She lives alone, with two dogs and two cats. Some of the things in the Austin house remain the way that Gary left them.
We had a chance to go out for dinner and trade stories. Margaret really loves teaching. And she loves the kids that she has taught over the years. She still tutors fourth graders 19 hours a week. Margaret shares that she tries to build a bond with each student. You can see in her heart how much she enjoys and cares about helping these young kids. I admire that. Even today, she still runs into some of her past students, now adults, in her day-to-day life. It is fun to hear stories of how those “kids” still remember her so many years later.
From the small world department, Margaret has good friends who [also] RV with SOWERs. When we looked them up in the directory, they were listed right next to our names! We are going to have to meet them someday – Margaret says that they are a real hoot!
We are very glad that Margaret invited us up to her home. And dinner was very nice, too. It was a fun and special night of stories.