Schulenburg Texas, March 2015

As I said in the February blog, March was a busy month. Holly and I went to Houston Space Center. It was interesting looking back at history.The only difference is we were there when this was all happening. We remember the first time man went into space and orbited the earth. We watched the first time man landed on the moon. Yes it was strange thinking about this while we were looking at all of the displays. We had a great time looking back in time.

This is the moon rover and the two astronauts on the moon. The government would probably make you a good deal on the rover...you just need to pay the shipping cost to get it back here.

They took us on a tour of Johnson Space Center which is next door. We were able to go in the building where they have mock ups of the space station for the astronauts to train on. This is one of the  prototypes for the new moon rover.  Below is a robot they are developing to perform work outside in space to cut down on space walks, making it safer for the astronauts.

These pictures here prove that as you get older you start to get shorter. OK, maybe not that much shorter. They had a Ripley's Believe it or Not display. I don't remember what the  big chair was but the other is of the world's tallest man. He was 8 feet 11 inches tall. As you can see Holly is a little on the short side.

On another trip with Bill and Penny, we went to see the Battleship Texas near Galveston. It's a self-guided tour and they have signs explaining where you are and what different areas were used for, including the prophylactic room. Now that is almost self explanatory, but if you need a better explanation you can e-mail Holly. This is Bill looking forward from the gangway. It's amazing how much fire power they had on this ship, plus they carried two sea planes. 

This picture is looking towards the stern from the bow. This shows the first turret, the bridge and fire control above that. I was able to climb into the first turret and get this shot of how the shells were loaded. Now when I tell you that this was a very small area I do mean small. There were two seats for the gunners, one on each side. The area they had to sit in was smaller then a stall in a public bathroom. To get into the turret you have to climb under the rear of it and then climb up through a small hatch.When I stood up in the hatch with my feet on the deck I was half in and half out of the turret. Once you get that far you need to climb a ladder about four feet to get to the gunners position. Then if your like me, you sit down and think "how the heck am I going to get out of here".

This is Holly standing next to some smaller shells for some of the other guns on board. As I said, they had a lot of guns on this ship . Of course after exploring this mighty ship from stem to stern and bridge to keel we had to find lunch down on the Gulf and a good lunch it was.

On February 20 our granddaughter Chloe became on of the many Air Force's newest Airman. The Air Force has basic training in San Antonio Texas which is a 2 hour drive west of us. It was a no brainier to pack up and move to a RV park in San Antonio. Her mother and two sisters flew in along with Brianna's boy friend and Krista's friend Kim and her family. Chloe's dad and his wife also flew down,  This was a two day event. On Thursday they had the "Airman's run and coin presentation" and on Friday the formal graduation. This is Krista (Mom), Mikayla (sister), Grandpa, Grandma and Brianna (sister) holding Chloe's sign.

This was a special day as they graduated the last 8 1/2 week training class and the first 7 1/2 week class for a total of 1060 Airman recruits. They started with all of the recruits running into the stadium to the cheers of the family and friends. Each "flight" as each unit is called wore different colored shirts so you knew ahead of time what color shirt your airman was wearing. After they went past the viewing stands they ran way out on the parade ground and back past going the other way. After this this they changed into their ABU's and marched back in for the coin ceremony.

After all of this we were able to go find "our" airman and get short hugs (no more then 5 seconds) Grandpa cheated on this; what they going to do, and a quick peck on the check. That is Mom to the left wiping away tears, Grandma going in for the hug and big sister Bri wiping away the tears on the right. We are so proud of this young lady and everyone else that graduated that day. My Dad was a Tech Sergent in the Army. My brother was in the Navy, I was in the Coast Guard, Her Uncle Mike (our son) was in the Marine Corp as was her Dad. Now with Chloe in the Air Force I think we have them all covered.

Here are the sisters three. I know that big sister Bri and younger sister MJ are both very proud of Chloe and will miss her not being home all the time. But now days with cell phones and computers it is a lot easier staying in touch then when I was in.

This is Chloe and her Air Force coin that she worked so hard for. That is something she will have forever along with all of the experiences of basic training.

This is just one shot of the formal graduation. I have many more but just imagine a field covered by 1060 airman in Air Force blue and  that's it. A lot of marching, they took the oath one last time (I guess all of the other times were for practice so they wouldn't screw up this one), and they sang the Air Force song.

Here she is all dressed up and grown up. We were out somewhere with her and someone referred to her as an adult and it really caught me off guard. I always thought of her as Chloe my granddaughter. But they were right, she is an adult. Cute, confident, and smart but still my Chloe (now Grandpa is wiping away tears).   She  is now at tech school at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas after which she will go to her first duty station at Lakenheath Air Force Base in the UK.  How cool is that?

Here I am with her and I think my shirt says it all. I know that Grandma and Grandpa are very proud of her and we both know that she will excel at whatever or wherever she goes during her time in the Air Force.

That's it for now. We have about three more weeks here then we head home to see our grandson Cameron graduate from high school and then we will be off to Libby Montana. So you are all dismissed and may carry on. Just be sure and report back here next month and visit with us again.

Schulenburg, Texas Febuary 2015

Sorry for the late start. February has been a wet, cloudy and rainy month. The temperature swings have been 30 to 40 degrees day to day. We have not done much so this will be a short blog this month. As you can see Holly and the kids were able to enjoy some sunshine. But our day at the beach with Penny and Bill was not as nice.

The bad weather did give me a chance to finish my puzzle. It took about two months of working but I did it with out any help. Well that's it, I said it would be short but I will make up for it in the next month. We have already been busy traveling all over and we have a very exciting event coming up for our family and I hope to share it with everyone. See you next month.

Schulenburg, Texas January 2015

 It has been a windy, rainy and sunny month in Texas, but a least we don't have to shovel rain.  We spent one of the sunny days in San Antonio with our friends Penny and Bill. We started at the Sunken Gardens. It is an old limestone quarry that has been converted to a very nice area. They have a tea house and several ponds.

 Penny says they also have a water fall but they must of forgot to pay the water bill because it wasn't running when we were there. That is Holly, Penny and Bill to the right on one of the bridges on the walk way. Below is a nice picture of Holly and me at the gardens.

 We then went down to the Mexican market and looked in all the different shops and bought some fresh made churros. They had a bunch of dancers there and we think it was like a dance recital. They were all different ages and we watched them for awhile. It was very colorful and fun watching them.

 We lost track of Penny for awhile but eventually we found her partying with her new friend. If we go there again I think Bill will need to get one of those kid leashes to keep her close.

 We then went to the River Walk. After a nice dinner of Texas BBQ we walked along the river and then went on a river tour. They still had the Christmas lights up and the river was beautiful.

 They have carriage tours downtown and at night they are all lit up. This was just one of many and they are all different.

 Holly and I took a drive up to Smithville which is about an hour north of us. We walked around town and went into a few of the shops and bought a few trinkets. One thing they are known for is the very large gingerbread man. The police officer was very understanding when I said that I wasn't going to eat the whole thing but just wanted a taste (by the way it isn't made of ginger bread, it's wood I found out).

 As normal in our travels we found another railroad museum. It wasn't very big but they did have some things I hadn't seen before and I did pick up a couple of things.

 Holly and I celebrated our 46th anniversary on January 24 and our co-workers got together to give us a little surprise party. We had cake and coffee and they all signed a card for us. It was very nice of them to think of us.

 As a sort of anniversary trip, we packed up the motor home and headed to Corpus Christi which is about three hours south to visit our friends Lew and Deb. We had a nice visit and went to dinner a couple of times. We went out and drove down the beach for miles until we found a nice spot to let the kids out to run. They really love the beach.

 We also went to the Texas State Aquarium. We spent about three hours there looking at all the different marine life  and other displays. The weather was perfect; warm and sunny during the day and cool Gulf breezes at night. It was a nice mini vacation. We were able to visit friends and explore new things.

That's all for now. We will be here for three more months then heading home to get some repairs done to the motor home and see our grandson Cameron graduate and then off again on a new adventure. Like my little friend here, I think it's time to fly till next month. See you then.

Schulenburg, Texas December 2014

 Hi from Texas! We've been here for about a month now and have started making new friends and exploring. There are three other couples working with us and all have been very nice. We have been doing a lot with Bill and Penny who are from Arkansas (I know, but we don't hold that against them). Schulenburg is a small town of about 2800 people and the area was settled by Czech  and German immigrants. When they built their churches they modeled them after churches in their homelands.  Due to this, the area has become famous for their "painted churches".

 We've been to all in the area and have found most to be very ornate and beautiful inside. Most were built in the mid to late 1800's. As you can see they have been well taken care of and many are currently undergoing restoration projects. They are known as painted churches because of the interiors.

  Many of them have ornate designs and painted scenes on the ceilings and walls as you can see in these pictures. They also have beautiful stained glass windows throughout the building.

 There are about seven or eight churches in the area and we spent two different days driving to them. Most are open to the public so you are able to go inside and marvel at the beauty of them. I think there were only two that were not open during the week. As I said, some are very ornate and a couple were pretty "plain Jane" but that is just due to the religious beliefs of that church.

 We really enjoyed visiting these churches. It's hard to imagine how much time went into the art work on the walls and ceilings. I say art work because it is truly art. The people who built these and did the interiors were truly artist. I know I mentioned the stained glass windows and I will again as I love the looks of them with the sun coming through. Have you ever noticed that even when the sun isn't shining or at night they still have that glow to them.

 We found a very nice Mexican restaurant about 15 miles south in the town of Hallettsville. We went to dinner with Bill and Penny there and then stopped at the court house and took some pictures. They really went all out with the lights on this one.

 This is Bill and Penny (that's right the one's from Arkansas). This is a gazebo that was on the corner of the court house. I can imagine that  a few weddings and proposals have taken place there. It was a very beautiful spot. Yep, that's Holly and I in the lower picture. I told you it was a beautiful spot.

The four of us took a ride to Austin and went to a "craft fair". I'll tell you some of this stuff was priced way out of the craft line. I will say though that this is the first craft fair I have ever been to that had live music and beer. I guess that was to take some of the sting out of the pricing. We were able to get a free holiday picture courtesy of the beer company.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. We had a big potluck at the park on Christmas with about 40 people so that was nice even though Holly and I worked that day.

This is a 1000 piece puzzle of Tiger stadium that I received from my son and his family. I think they are trying to drive me crazy. Well let's see if I have it done by the next Blog.

That's all for now. Hope you all have a great new year and I'll see ya'll then.