Waco and visiting friends

I met Doug and Laura back in 2001, while still working and living in my RV in Wichita, KS.  We have kept in touch, but hadn't gotten together again until now.

A selfie

Although I had driven through Waco many times, I had never really stopped and done any exploring.  I still didn't do much exploring, only having one day, but Laura did take me downtown.  This is the original toll bridge built in 1870.  The company building it was guaranteed no other bridge could be built within 5 miles.

It's hard to imagine this bridge carried all the traffic of the day, pedestrians, wagons and even cattle herds were driven over this bridge.  Although people complained about the tolls, it wasn't until 1889 that the bridge was sold to the county, then given to the city of Waco, who made it a free bridge.  It is now a pedestrian only bridge.

In front of the bridge are large bronze statues honoring the men and cattle drives which once used this bridge.

Two Weeks in Tahlequah, OK

I stored my RV in Bandera, and drove my car back to Tahlequah in the middle of January.  My kids were headed to Africa for a medical mission and I was going to watch the grandkids for two weeks.  It was pretty cold most of the time, so we didn't get out much, but one Saturday we did go to the roller rink.

Yes, that's me with roller skates on.  And yes, I did skate.  In fact, I raced my grandson around the rink a few times, but I couldn't keep up with him.

My older grandson, Adrion, was on roller blades, but the youngest, Gavin, was on skates.  I think this might have been only Gavin's 2nd time on roller skates.

He got his face painted with black light paints.

They did the limbo on skates.  This is where the bar started.

Gavin doesn't even have to bend over at this point.

Adrion was one of three finalists.  They all made it under this bar, but no one made it under after they lowered it one more time. 

 

The day before I left it started snowing.  

5 hours later the ground and streets were covered with about 4-5 inches of snow and ice.  It wasn't looking good for me to head back to Bandera the next day.

In addition to the grandkids, they had just acquired this 9 week old, black mouth cur puppy named Taz.  See the size of those paws?

My kids returned from Africa safely and the snow and ice melted the next day enough that by noon I was on the road headed south.  I stopped on my way to visit friends in Waco, TX, but that's the next blog....

Bandara, It should be called the Dance Capital of the World

In the past, I had come to Bandera in April for the All Singles Dance Rally, but this year I decided to experience Bandera for the winter.  Well, it was everything I expected and more.  Thanks to Terry and Jim, I was introduced to some of the locals (who by the way, are the friendliest people I have ever met).  There is dancing and live music here almost every night.  Below are just a few of the places I go to on a regular basis.

Arky Blues Silver Dollar Saloon.

11th Street Cowboy Bar.  I especially love that this kid is exposed to dancing early.  And also, who says having kids has to curb your activities?  It certainly didn't stop this couple from going out and having a good, without the cost of a babysitter, too.

Quihi Gun Club and Dance Hall was established in May 1890 and is the oldest German Social Clubs in Medina County.  This is not the original building.  Built in the crook where two river meet, the original building was washed away in a flood.  It was enlarged and raised above the known flood level in 1960.  In the flood of 2010, this building had 2 feet of water inside.

Currently, they have dances 2x a month.  

It is very family oriented.  You will see lots of kids and I was especially surprised at how many teens were there.  But it is a wonderful, wood dance floor.

Next to Skyline Ranch RV Park is the Wild Horse Saloon.  Every Saturday from 4-8 they have a live band.

Not as fancy a dance floor as Quihi, but just as much fun.  It's amazing how good a concrete dance floor becomes with enough dance wax or cornmeal.

The other local dance place is Longhorn Saloon.  Popular every Thursday and Sunday evenings with local Gary Wright and his band.

Chicken Coop has music on weekends, but is smaller and can't hold the crowds like some of the other places.  Plus the dance floor is an old wooden floor that rivals Gruene Dance Hall for being the most unlevel.

A weekly schedule is published with the upcoming activities, listing the local bands and where they are playing.  The weather hasn't been as warm as normal (like most everyplace else this year), and yes, we have had a few nights below freezing, but only 1 day was there ice and it was gone by noon.  Hopefully the cold weather is now gone.  The current forecast has the next 10 days in the 60s and 70s.  WooHoo!

Although I have been to Bandera numerous times, I had never visited the local museum.  I'm glad I finally did.

It was built to showcase the western collection of Marvin Hunter, noted historian, journalist and author, who moved to Bandera in 1921.

A Martin Luther Bible, an original German translation, printed in the 1800s.

Mrs. Gordon was married to a Commander of Royal British Navy and traveled extensively throughout her life before settling in San Antonio as a widow.  She collected bells and after meeting Marvin Hunter, left her collection of over 400 bells to his museum.

There are two cabinets full of her bells. 

One of the first electrical curling irons.

I really am glad they have improved since this model.

More of Mrs. Gordon's collection of items from around the world.

I had never seen what raw oil looked like before.

An old hand-made baby incubator.

The museum, of course, had a collection of saddles and gear from the many cowboys which made Bandera the "Cowboy Capitol of the World".

To celebrate the town's heritage as cowboy town of cattle drives, there is a gunfight held in the town square on weekends.

Just down the road 13 miles is the town of Medina and it's famous Apple Store.  We caught them preparing one of their famous apple pies.  You can indulge in a piece of apple pie or an entire pie, apple cookies, apple struedel or apple turnovers as well as apple ice cream or apple butter.

Volunteering with the NOMADS

When I thought I was going to be working for Amazon in Coffeyville, KS (before my medical problems), I signed up for some disaster relief work in Bastrop, TX.  NOMADs, a Methodist associated volunteer group, was doing home rebuilding work in Bastrop, where a fire several years ago destroyed over 1400 homes and businesses.

The first project I spent the week painting.

This home had been entirely built by volunteers.  By the time I arrived the only thing left to do was the painting inside and some final trim work.

The next week's project I spent laying two rooms of laminate flooring.  It was actually fun.  My two weeks volunteer work was over before I realized.

My last evening the group went out to dinner.

There were some frigid days while I was there.  This man had a fountain in his front yard which created some really wild ice sculptures.

I also enjoyed the crazy wire sculptures in the area.  How would you like Big Bird to hold your mailbox?

This wire scarecrow was located in the garden.

Using an old plow, it looked like some alien from outer space was holding this group of mailboxes.

So all too soon it was time to move on.

The Holidays

Risen Savior Lutheran Church had a woman's Christmas luncheon.  We were entertained with these ladies and their skit about proper etiquette.

I got to visit my grandkids in Oklahoma City.

On the way to Tahlequah, OK, I stopped at this historical marker in Dexter, KS.  I guess the drillers were quite surprised when their well didn't burn the way most oil and natural gas wells do.  But evidently, this well was instrumental in providing helium for Navy dirigibles in the late 1920s, and then again in the 1950s when the demand became necessary for nuclear reactors and missisles.  Sadly, today, this town is not much more than a ghost town.

One of my favorite restaurants in Oklahoma was Del Rancho.  They had the best chicken fried steak sandwiches.  I thought they were out of business, but here they were in Tahlequah.

Of course, I had to have one.  They were still as great as I remembered.  And yes, the steak really was that much larger than the bun.

I spent a few days before Christmas with my son, Aaron, his wife, Holly, and the grandkids, Adrion and Gavin.

This quilt came from my grandmother, who passed away before I was born.  I found the quilt top in a box when I was cleaning out my mothers house.  A friend in Mississippi still hand quilts and I sent it to her to finish.  The quilt top was all hand pieced and over 60 years old.  I wanted it to be hand quilted as it was finished.

After I headed to Oklahoma City, Aaron took the boys to a local ice skating rink.  Adrion seems a natural.

Gavin is just now getting his legs underneath him, but he does better than I probably would.

I wanted to spend Christmas also with the grandkids in Oklahoma City, so about mid day on Christmas, I took the RV and headed to Oklahoma City.

I arrived in time to be with the grandkids on Christmas evening.  Here is (L-R) Cale, Colin, Carter and Caitlin.

I actually got Amy to pose in front of the tree too.

Although I didn't get any pictures, my church in Edmond has put in a couple of electrical plugs and I stayed in their parking lot while in Oklahoma City.  It's a great idea for members family and friends or even traveling members like myself, to be able to park in the church parking lot.  In fact, I wasn't the only one there, someone else was taking advantage of the opportunity.

I returned to Amy's house the next day to help the grandkids experiment with the mentos project (which was one of the presents I had brought them).  We tried it with various sodas and it did seem to work better with sprite (which is what the instructions called for).  But sadly, it didn't spray as high as some of the you tube videos I've been.  Needless to say, we still had a fun time.  

This was one of my favorite presents, a coffee cup with the grandkids pictures.