Our amazing country!

Our final month of summer travel treated us to a variety of special views of our country. After a few delays for service items, we finally made it into the Badlands of South Dakota. Still trying to catch up to our original schedule, we only had a day there, but still managed to drive the scenic loop, see some animals and, most importantly, purchase some eclipse glasses at the visitor's center! The city of Wall was also interesting if mainly for the famous Wall Drugstore. Jeffrey's favorite part was the ice cream shop where he enjoyed a chocolate shake.

Great view in the Badlands, South Dakota

Another of our favorite Badlands views

Two average tourists in the Badlands

Finally getting back on track, we made it to Piedmont, SD, which is just a few miles away from Sturgis. For those of you not motorcycle-savvy, Sturgis hosts a giant rally every summer and half a million (at least) motorcyclists descend on it as well as all the towns within a 100-mile radius. Luckily, our time in Piedmont was over before the official rally kickoff date! While in Piedmont, we took day trips to visit Rapid City, Sturgis, Deadwood, and Devils Tower in Wyoming. The Tower was our country's first national monument and it really is an amazing rock (as well as a cool centerpiece to the "Close Encounter's of the Third Kind" movie made in the 1970s). We did the 1.5 mile walk/hike around it's base and took way too many pictures.

Two Gators at Devils Tower

We then moved Max down to near Hill City, SD, putting him in the heart of the Black Hills and near the Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments. By this time the motorcycles had arrived and were our constant companions as we explored the area by car. Except for the low rumble of their engines early in the morning, they were all very nice and although it did make for larger crowds in the touristy areas and EVERY store in EVERY town was full of bike rally merchandise.

Every picture we took of Rushmore could be a postcard

Still lots to carve on Crazy Horse, but even his head is impressive

In the southern areas of the Black Hills we enjoyed multiple Bison/Buffalo sightings, a lone coyote, and way too many prairie dogs to count. We also visited the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD -- basically a sinkhole that managed to snag an impressive quantity of mammoths over many years because it was too slippery to get out of. It is being escavated "in situ", so you really get to appreciate the "dig" efforts. Dad and Sheila actually worked at this site a few years back as part of a Road Scholar trip.

Herd of Bison/Buffalo

Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota

Our next stop was at Chimney Rock in Nebraska. Our RV park was very close it and we had a perfect view right out of the front windsheild -- VERY cool in the evening when they lit it up! Chimney Rock and other various rock structures in this area were part of the gateway used by settlers going west in the mid-1800s. Nearby city, Scottsbluff, offered even more information about this hard and dangerous trek along the Oregon Trail. Many americans didn't survive the journey.

Chimney Rock when the lights went on one evening

Chimney Rock from our RV site

Our final major destination of the travel season was to get ourselves positioned in the 100% totality zone for the solar eclipse. We picked York, Nebraska, and even had an Austin friend drive up to join us for the event. On the big day, we unfortunately had light clouds, but were lucky to get a decent view of the totality and "diamond ring" at the very end of it. At that point the heavy clouds came through, so we got Max on the road south -- day 1 of a 4-day trek back to Austin, Texas.

Upon arriving and getting settled, we were greeted by hurricane Harvey and as I type this, are cooling our heels in Max while it rains rains rains on top of us. The winds so far aren't an issue -- and I must say the cooler temperature is a surprise -- but hopefully we won't be stuck inside for too many days!

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Up, down, and all around

I told Jeffrey the other day that, even when there are "down times" in this lifestyle, there is still nothing I'd rather be doing as the "up times" are so worth it. He gave me a big smile at this statement and admitted he felt the same way.

So lets start with the latest "ups"!  We had a terrific visit with our Raleigh family and friends and were thrilled to witness the high school graduation of nephew, Isaac. He'll be joining his two siblings at NC State this fall and we are so proud of all of them. Though we are in the area for over a month each spring, we rarely do the tourist sightseeing thing, so it was fun to go with niece Anna and her boyfriend, Trevor, to the NC Zoo. It boasts of being one of the "largest" zoos and, based on sore legs and feet the next day, I believe it! It was beautiful but quite sprawled -- felt like I'd hiked 10 miles!

Graduation Day!

Happy Giraffe

We then did a fairly quick transit to Mackinaw City, Michigan (very top of the "hand" right before you cross the big bridge to the "Upper Peninsula") to spend a week with my Dad and Sheila who flew over from their home in Washington state. The four of us had a wonderful time exploring the city, Mackinac Island, and the Soo locks. One highlight was my Dad doing a tandem skydive on his 81rst birthday -- quite a change from his critical hospitalization during his 80th just a year ago. None of us were brave enough to join him (and frankly I was not pleased with his desire to test fate by flinging himself out of a perfectly good airplane), but nothing could erase his joy at the accomplishment.

My daredevil daddy

Lunch at the Mackinac Island Grand Hotel

Adjusting our schedule a day to race incoming weather across the Mackinac Bridge (they won't let tall vehicles across if high winds), we slipped along the south edge of the "UP", down the east edge of Wisconsin, and west over to Iowa. Enroute were were able to detour with the car to Friendship, Wisconsin, to have lunch with former Austin neighbors, Dave and Cheryl Quillman. They are also now RV full-timing and have relatives nearby.  Once we got to Iowa, we again detoured in the car over to Rochester, Minnesota for a great (but too short) visit with Jeffrey's uncle Merlyn (also a former IBMer), aunts Margaret and Louise, plus cousin Mike.

Meeting the Quillmans halfway for lunch

Once back in Iowa we took Max for a "spa" visit. This equaled a few days of getting old ugly decals replaced, the front "bug" mask replaced, and some minor paint "ouches" addressed. He even got a full body "buff" which really shined up his full-body paint, but requires us to re-apply a coat of wax since it was removed in the process (sigh). Since this was done, we've had several RVers ask if the coach was new because it looks so spiffy, so I'm not complaining (much).

Now for "all around" #1. We had a pesky but intermittent "leveling jack" issue and had decided over the winter to have HWH in Moscow, Iowa, take a look at it since we would be nearby.  So east we go. Well, just like the magic recovery that often happens when you finally make an appointment to see your doctor, the jack issue stopped happening and of course refused to show itself at HWH. They gave us a free "check up" anyhow and had us back on the road in a few hours.  The trip was far from a waste though as we got to spend a great weekend with RV friends, the Marlins. In fact, his name is Jeff Marlin, so we always giggle at how close it is to my own Jeff Martin. Anyhow, they were workcamping less than an hour away and we really enjoyed seeing some of the local hot spots with them.

Marlins, Martin, and Nelson at the General Store Pub in Anamosa, Iowa

"All around" #2 took us back west to Forest City for Winnebago's Grand National Rally, held annually near their large manufacturing plant. They have a huge rally grounds area and it easily held the 1000 Winnebagos that arrived for the fun. Many take the opportunity to get some service items taken care of at the same time (including us). Ours were all minor things except for a concern about "low coolant" alarms we had been getting since leaving Raleigh. The 24-hour Freightliner hotline had us adding coolant, looking for leaks, and watching the reservoir tank level closely. We actually had 3 of these alarms on our jaunt to Moscow, so we realized the leak was getting worse. Nobody seemed too concerned so we tried to stay calm and methodical about it.

The rally itself was just as great as it was when we attended 3 years ago.  Lots of educational seminars, visiting with other RVers, items to spend money on, and system experts to talk to. They even have roaming technicians who will come to your RV to help with issues -- and we got a new door awning motor installed free because ours chose to sieze up that day. The Cummins engine experts were also on hand and helped us get some extra coolant and arrange for an appointment in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after the rally was over.

Us posing in the "Fabulous Winnebago" chapel (note Jeffrey's ball and chain)

Getting ready to leave the Grand National Rally

Before leaving Forest City, we took the car halfway to Des Moines to have dinner with fellow UF grad and friend, Ware Lynch.  He recently moved from south Florida to start an exciting new job near Des Moines. We like to tell people that they can try to move away from us but we will track them down wherever they go!

Time for the "downs" now. The next stop was handing Max over to Cummins in Sioux Falls and it took them less than 2 hours to discover the coolant leak location. The bad news is we had to replace the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculator - part of the emissions system). The good news is they had all the parts they would need and could do it in a day. The really bad news is that emissions systems are excluded from our extended warranty. Ouch. However, looking at the bright side, the issue was caught before the engine was damaged (sigh of relief!). The only mystery now is why our 3-month old serpentine belt is splitting. New belt installed and belt path inspected with nothing visibly amiss. We'll have to watch it and see if this one starts to split as well -- which will clearly require deeper investigation.

"Down" #2 and another "all around". We can see that one of the fiberglass/paint repairs done in Forest City at the "spa" did not stay fixed, so back east we go. This blows up our schedule a little and reduces time we'll have visiting friends and sights in South Dakota, but we feel the need to deal with it now. They take another crack at it and things still aren't perfect. Got a rain check to try again in a few years when we will likely want to come back for the rally again anyhow. This beats losing two more days in our schedule. The defect is high on the front cap so not noticeable to anyone but us probably.

Tomorrow we drive west into South Dakota once again. Time for more "ups" we hope!

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Virginia is for Lovers - of U.S. History!

Not sure if Virginia really has an edge over the other states regarding its claim about "lovers", but it sure seems to have the edge in "leaders". Our recent whirlwind 3-week tour had our history heads spinning after just first stop -- central VA to see Jefferson's Monticello, Monroe's Montpelier, and Madison's Highland (US. Presidents #3, 4, & 5). Makes you want to name your house too, huh? 

Us at Monticello

We then moved closer to Washington D.C. to see the National Air & Space museum next to Washington Dulles airport -- and it was so big and extensive that it was tough to do in just a single day. 

Air and Space Museum (look at the center and you can see the nose of the Space Shuttle Discovery in the back room)

My aunt Helen also flew up from FL and the 3 of us visited my uncle Charlie's Columbarium resting place in Arlington National Cemetery as well as the graves of my maternal great-grandparents (unfortunately gone before I was born). 

My beloved uncle, Charlie Lavery

From there we drove to Mount Vernon, the home and burial place of General George Washington (U.S. President #1). My aunt and I are descendants of George's half-brother, so the museum about George's life and family was especially interesting. Unfortunately it wasn't until after Helen left that we decided to swing by George's birthplace. Forget George! This was the homestead of his great grandfather, John Washington -- the first Washington who immigrated to America in ~1656 and he is also my great great great great great great great great great great grandfather! The original home is gone but the National Park Service maintains a small museum and home built to represent the period. The family cemetery is still there and has John's grave and the graves of 3 additional generations that my aunt and I hail directly from, including that half-brother of George. Sadly, a recent storm toppled some trees and we weren't able to get to the cemetery itself in this visit. Oddly enough, while leaving the area, we stumbled on the locations of both Madison's and Monroe's birthplaces too. Quite fertile ground for U.S. Presidents!

Mount Vernon

As we started to trek further south of D.C. we made day trips to the Fredericksburg battleground, James Madison's Museum, and Richmond's Museum of Civil War & White House (confederate). Our final RV stop was down in Hampton, VA near Newport News and Norfolk. Turns out the RV park was right next to Fort Monroe, a decommissioned army base. When I say "fort", I mean FORT -- tall rock walls, a moat, and the largest coastal artillery cannons the military ever made. It is now being slowly converted to offices and homes/condos, but they still maintain a great museum within one the casement walls where you can actually stand in the cell where Confederate President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned after the Civil War. Goosebumps!

Fort Monroe (photo stolen from the internet)

Norfolk was loaded with attractions too -- the Nauticus museum, the Wisconsin (Iowa-class battleship), and General McArthur's Memorial/Museum. We even did a boat cruise that covered the huge naval base and shipyard. In Newport News we explored the Mariners Museum and found ourselves enveloped in the history of the Monitor (one if the first "ironclads"). It was sunk in a storm off of Cape Hatteras in 1862 and wasn't found until 1973. As it is rusting away quickly, a big operation was undertaken to recover it's odd looking turret and that now resides at this museum.
So much history in this area and so little time to see everything! We tackled the highlights and will just have to come back!

Three nuclear aircraft carriers being serviced at Norfolk naval base

Now to divert to "life on the road" experiences! Oddly enough, we are members of Costco. You'd think people who live in such a small space wouldn't find much use (or space) for purchases from a warehouse store like this, but we actually look for them as we travel.  They are always good for a car fill-up, a shrimp ring, and a huge cooked chicken, but Costco is also great for a few "Kirkland" staples that we use consistently. Conversations in our household are often something like: "Do we have enough chewy bars to get to the Costco near Detroit?".

Regarding Max, 'tis the season to be filthy with pollen no matter how hard we try to keep him looking spiffy. Certain outdoor maintenance items just have to wait until it lets up. Worse is to be under trees in a rainstorm. Unfortunately instead of washing off the pollen we just get more tree gunk glued to us! Tough lives, huh?  Another priority is keeping a close eye on the weather this time of year as it is often unpredictable. We'll choose to keep our slides "in" and live in a smaller space so that we have less noise from awnings flapping in the wind.

But our biggest challenge this month when we traveled from Florida to Virginia. We had a great annual service stop in Gaffney, SC to get oil changed, etc.  Technician even replaced our serpentine belt and fixed a small leak he heard in Max's air system (used to operate his air suspension and brakes when we are underway). Those are nice things to get fixed before they become bigger problems. Anyway, I digress!  While we were at Freightliner for this service, Jeffrey broke a tooth. Luckily, we were only a4-hour drive to Raleigh where we have dentist #2, so we modified our drive to VA to go through Raleigh and get it addressed.  We've been lucky to have medical issues happen at convenient times when we are near doctors we know -- and sure hope that trend continues!

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Wrapping up Winter 2017

February kicked off with attendance at our first Family Motor Coach Association rally in Lakeland, FL with 600 other "rigs".  Fair to say we were the youngest couple there by a few years at least, but we had a good time and it was both educational and entertaining. It was capped with a Super Bowl party on the last night with an amazing buffet of "bring a snack to share" that took up 40 feet of serving tables. Nobody left hungry!

We also enjoyed our last visit at Jonathan Dickinson (Jupiter) and Lake Louisa (Clermont) State Parks. Both are conveniently located near family and friends and we try to fill up our schedule with visits to see everyone. We took the opportunity to get a little maintenance done when we found ourselves on a nice flat paved parking space in Jupiter. One in particular involves me up on a ladder for hours at a time while I replace sealant along the roof edge -- hard to dig out old stuff -- easy to squeeze in new stuff. Being the caulk queen that I am, I finally convinced Jeffrey a year ago that I can do a better job than the $125/hr service technicians. Here is a picture of the heavens rewarding me for my efforts!

Max at the end of the rainbow

Date night on a lovely FL sunset cruise

As is our typical winter schedule, we moved Max up to near Gainesville at the beginning of March. It is getting harder and harder to get an RV spot in that area -- not that many RV parks and most are catering to RVers who spend 4-5 months in town, not just 5 weeks.  We are low man on the totem pole for sure. While there, we got to spend lots of time with Jeffrey's Dad and he fit us into his very busy schedule most days. Seriously, the guy rarely slows down! The three of us managed to get to Gator basketball, gymnastics, and softball home games and even the "spring" football debut and a regional track meet before it was time for us to drive north.

Track Meet

Gator Spring Football game

We did divert in the car for a week down to Orlando to see my parents (who love escaping the chilly NW this time of year). When they said they wanted to visit 5 theme parks in 5 days we actually thought they were joking! Thank goodness for "Fast Passes" and good tennis shoes -- we survived! Maybe visiting these parks during Spring Break wasn't the best plan, but we all had a good time and got to do most of the rides.

Jeffrey's favorite theme park picture

At the end of the week, they were supposed to peel off and visit friends who winter in SW Florida, but a big snowstorm in the US NE delayed their friends from arriving in time. Lucky for them, we "know a guy", so they joined Jeffrey's Dad in Gainesville for a few days.  It was very nice having all of our parents together with us -- something that hasn't happened since our wedding in 1988!

Parents and Offspring

As I write this, we are spending Easter in Gaffney, SC preparing to have our annual Max 8-gallon "oil change" tomorrow morning. Then on to Virgina for some history lessons!

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On the go go go!

On the go go go!

2016 went out with a bang -- or more accurately, the annual fireworks that we see from the campground at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound, Florida. We enjoy being in this park when the year changes as we not only have family nearby, but also several RV friends that swing through at the same time, giving us a chance to catch up on the past year's travel "happenings".  In this lifestyle, that is always a mix of "where have you traveled" and "what had to be fixed"!

Speaking of having to be fixed, the "bang" this year also included the sad demise of our RV refridgerator cooling unit. Lucky for us it didn't really "bang", but just quietly quit keeping things cold. We had to wait over the holidays for the new cooling unit to be shipped, but did okay living with a little dorm fridge we picked up at Target (and then promptly sold from our RV site for only $10 less).

As we can only stay in the Florida state parks for 2 weeks at a time, we crossed to the Florida west coast to stay at Myakka River State Park.  This is our second year here and, though it is a bit tight for our motorhome, it is a lovely place. Unlike Jonathan Dickinson, it has a lot of natural high growth and trees. The good part about this trip was seeing dear friends who live nearby.  We also had good enough weather to install our new window awning fabric ourselves. This park will definitely stay on the annual FL "swing". It is a good thing that Lazydays was only an hour away because we had to make day trips up there twice -- once to get the new cooling unit installed and AGAIN to have the toilet repaired. Jeffrey was not amused at all by the toilet as we had just replaced it but the new one had some sort of defect.

Max hiding in Myakka River State Park

Now for the BIG news! We were employed for a week! We were asked by the Escapees RV Club to help man their booth at the huge Tampa RV Supershow. They not only provided an RV spot for Max at the fairgrounds where the show was being held, but also gave us a daily stipend -- which we immediately spent on new LED lights we bought for Max along with other must-have items we couldn't pass up. We also had a chance to make new full-timer "Escapee" friends and, no surprise, learned some great tips from them! Jeffrey was happy to have LOTS of time to peruse the latest RV models, but thankfully didn't see anything he liked better than Max.

Us with fellow Escapees on the first day of the Tampa RV Show

As I write this post, we are back in Jonathan Dickinson State Park for just a week and then travel to Lakeland, Forida, for our first FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) rally. No doubt we'll have some interesting stories to tell from that!

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Back and forth we go!

When we arrive back in Austin, TX, in August we always feel as though we have LOTS of time until we leave mid-November -- so how come this visit always flies by so fast?  Guess that must mean we are having fun?

Before we left we managed to enjoy "swamp-hosting" 10 Gator football games and spearheading our Gator Club's fall scholarship fundraiser, knocking off bi-annual dentist and annual doctor visits, chasing around a white ball while pretending to play golf weekly, and catching up wth as many friends who would put up with us.

The Gator "bye" week in October is our chance to skip town for a short trip and this year we flew to the NW for a quick visit with my parents in Burlington, WA, before jumping aboard a 1-week cruise down the CA-CA (Canada and California) coastline.  We carried shorts with us but didn't actually use them much as the weather was cooler than we anticipated (duh... it was the NW).  The ports were lovely -- 2 ports in Canada (Vancouver and Nanimo) and 4 in the US (Astoria, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles).  Cousin Sally Cole even met us at the Seattle port and drove us out to see the impressive nearby Snoqualmie Falls which were really overflowing from recent rains.

Us at Snoqualmie Falls

We always save the last few weeks in Austin to do maintenance work on "Max" the motorhome -- the biggest items being a full body wash and wax.  This is no small feat, believe me, but we get better and faster at it every time we do it.  The only "ick factor" is having to be on his 13-foot tall roof for part of the washing, but using our new Little Giant ladder made the waxing process easier this time around.  We also tackled a little underbody rust-proofing and unfortunately discovered a collection of Brown Widow spider egg sacks and momma herself in our generator compartment (related to Black Widow).  Needless to say they didn't survive the vacuum.  So glad they never found their way into the "house" area.

Clean Max 

By mid-November we drive clean and shiny Max to Florida to spend the winter months.  After a brief stop in Pensacola to watch the Gators whoop up on LSU with the local Gator Club and Jeffrey's brother John and wife Susan, we carried on to spend Thanksgiving in Gainesville with Jeffrey's dad and brother Richard and wife Cathie.

We braved the post-holiday traffic to get Max to Lazydays in Seffner (near Tampa) for an appointment to fix a few items. Our extended warranty picked up most of them and "paid for itself" as of this trip :-)  We aren't huge fans of extended warranties, but I don't think we'd ever buy another motorhome without one.  Too many things can go wrong when you drive your house through an earthquake many days a year.  It was all pretty mundane stuff really -- toilet seal, side mirrors, slide seals, and chassis battery isolator replaced. We also got two of our ACs serviced -- just like you need to do in a house.  We only spend 2 nights sleeping in Max in the service bay and the rest in the attached campground (a novelty as they deliver a newspaper to us every morning). Jeffrey also got to feed his fetish and roam around through the motorhomes that were for sale.  He loves to look even though I insist I am totally happy with the one we have.

As I write this blog post, Max is in a storage place in Tampa as we flew out to Phoenix to spend 10 days exploring the area with my parents (who were thrilled to escape the very cold and snowy NW). While figuring out their highway system, we checked out Tortilla Flat, Butterfly Wonderland, nearby Wildlife World, the Capitol Museum, and even took a day trip to Sedona.  Jeffrey and I even connected with Wendy and Ken Zitterich, full-time RV friends who are wintering in Parker, AR - and my mom, Sheila, is connecting with a college friend she hasn't seen in many years!

The 3 Nelsons and 1 Martin at the viewpoint atop the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona

The best Sedona view in town -- from the local airport!

That said, I hope you are all "connecting" with family and friends as 2016 rushes to a close. Happy Holidays!

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Miles and Smiles :-)

The last few months have been packed with activities and "driving days" -- typical for us this time of year. Avoiding the big cities on the east, we dodged across Virginia to get on i81 and connect to i84 in Pennsylvania on our way to Newburgh, NY for an RV event. 

Forty rigs containing 80 "Escapees" (the name of the RV club that organized the event) met at the local KOA for 3 days of sightseeing in New York City and the Hudson Valley area. We left the rigs in the campground and boarded tour buses to visit NYC's Liberty Island, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the 911 Memorial and Museum, and catch a Jersey Boys performance on Broadway. Even spread over 2 days, it was tough to squeeze all of this in.

Us with Lady Liberty

We spent a separate day visiting FDR's home, one of the Vanderbilt mansions, and West Point. The latter was especially interesting as both of us have relatives who graduated from this amazing institution -- and I even have a grandfather and great-grandfather (plus their devoted wives) buried in it's cemetery. Luckily the tour included a fascinating walk through the cemetery to see some of its many famous residents, giving Jeffrey and I a chance sneak away and locate the graves of my relatives so we could pay our respects.

After waving a temporary goodbye to new RV friends, we drove north to the Adirondaks to connect with friends and former Austin neighbors, Chris and Sheila Blaicher. It was wonderful to see their beautiful property and their adorable log cabin home. They spoiled us with their fabulous cooking and shared the wonders of the area they live in -- Lake Placid, Whiteface Mountain, Fort Ticonderoga, and on and on.  Lots to see in this area so we'll just have to come back!

Us with our friends Chris and Sheila Blaicher

The fabulous view from Mount Defiance looking at Fort Ticonderoga

Our next destination was in Essex Junction, Vermont, so Max braved his first ferry ride to cross Lake Champlain.  We then spent a week at our first "Escapade", the annual RV Rally for us "Escapees". Our weather was lovely and we really enjoyed the days of educational seminars, entertainment, happy hours, and visiting with other like-minded full- and part-time RVers. Though we have lived this lifestyle for over 4 years now, we continue to learn new things.  We also both enjoyed sightseeing in the area -- especially the Ben & Jerry's factory tour :-)

Max's first ferry ride

With summer travel time growing short, we opted to adjust our "return to Texas" plan and swing south through Gainesville, FL on the way. This gave us a chance to get another visit with Jeffrey's dad as well as pig out on the Olympic coverage (and Sonny's BBQ).  We also got to tag along on a tour of the University of Florida's new state-of-the art academic facility for its athletes. VERY impressive indeed.  If I were a parent sending my athlete kid off to college, I would certainly cast my vote for UF as they certainly are working hard to help these kids get an education and graduate.

The time finally came to bolt back across the gulf states to Texas and we had to swing a bit more north than usual because of all the Louisiana flooding. With food and fuel shortages as well as power outages and closed roads, we figured the last thing they needed was transient RVers poking our way through it all. This did give us a chance to see a few new towns, including Monroe, LA, where we greatly enjoyed the Chennault Aviation and Military museum, mostly dedicated to their town hero, General Claire Chennault.  His contribution to history is really interesting: www.chennaultmuseum.org

We made it back to Texas late August and were surprised the temperatures were staying under 100 degrees. Having gotten the Gator Club activities launched and other "while in Austin" projects kicked off, I'm finally finding time to post to this blog! For those of you who know about my Dad's recent health scare, I am happy to report he is finally out of the hospital and getting back to his very happy home life with his bride of over 40 years Sheila. The doctors are still telling him to take it easy and heal for awhile, but his recovery is really a miracle to them and us too.

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