December brought lots of visiting with friends and celebrations with family.
Our visit with Roseann's former workmate, Karolyn Mau & her family was a treat for sure. Karolyn, AKA Frau Mau, runs the best bakery in Columbus,TX. Besides baked goods there are the breakfast burritos. A great taste for sure. What a day is was. We spent most of the day touring the area with Karolyn and 2 of their children.
John, her husband and former NM Air National Guard pilot, is also quite the entrepreneur. He is producing custom made coolers with fantastic "plasma cut" metal logos of your choosing. When we get our next "Stick & Brick", John's cooler will be in our backyard for sure.
We then spent some time visiting their home in the hills. What a beautiful place to raise her children. Lots of room to run, family nearby and animals to great them everyday.
Then it was the special occasion of helping celebrate our granddaughter's 16th birthday. Her mom and dad blessed her with a teenagers dream, a small pickup truck. Oh well, another teenager on the road. Watch out! They had a big barbecue for our granddaughter and friends. My son-in-law, Marshall, sure can cook some great tasting ribs & venison sausage. We all ate very well that night.
Lester and Rose Graham brought tons of memories and laughter. Tim worked with Lester in the MICU at the VA Medical Center in San Antonio, TX back in the 83-84. What memories of those nights working with the veterans who had served our country. We shared a great discovery, Lucky's in Canyon Lake, with them on that day. Really, the bread pudding at Lucky's is something worth traveling there for. It was big enough for all of us to share. Fabulously delicious.
Time is passing quickly for sure. It's Christmas time already and we're off to visit our friends, Roger & Marilyn Parker, and take in the Christmas light show in Whimberly, TX. What a great night. There were Christmas carolers, hot dog roasting, hot chocolate, somemores and the Christmas lights all put up by different organizations in the town. The highlight of the night though was when Roger asked Tim to him raise the service flags at the Vietnam Memorial there. Roger was one of the people instrumental in getting the memorial built. Thank you Roger. You are truly an American hero.
Our travels have brought us new friends too. We first met Alan & Ann Morrison in Colorado just before they started their Full Timing journey. Our paths have crossed again with their stop here in Austin,TX. We spent the afternoon visiting the Air Museum in San Marcos,TX and sharing lunch. Great times with fellow FT'ers. We look forward to seeing them again in our travels.Christmas Day was spent with my son-in-law's family. What a holiday treat it was for us to see his family again. I can't believe we drove that much though. It was especially great seeing his grandmother Noreen. God has blessed her well.
Work continued to address the shrinking level of Canyon Lake. There was an additional 20' of concrete added to make sure that the fishing pier stayed accessable to the millitary personal able to use the Ft Sam Houston facilities. Hopefully they'll start to get rain to regain some water in the lake.
And so it was to come, the end of our visit with our daughter, Marshall and the family. We spent our last night with them at the resteraunt laughing and enjoying some more good food. What a great time we had with them these past months. We look forward to our next visit with them.
As a final note, one of our goals during our travels is to find unique dining places around the country. Besides Lucky's in Canyon Lake, we found Mrs. Bush's Pies near the damn and the there was Flapjack's in Sattler, TX. Pancakes like you've never had before. We'll definitely be back for more.
