Saturday PM

Just got an email from Flickr...they are down and some of the new photos I uploaded are gone. Crap. Crap. Crap. Now I hafta do this all over again. For me that is tragic! I am so not computer savy with this kinda stuff....grrrrr.



Now for my continuing saga...
We are having Bev, Ben and Dorothy over for dinner. I think Grandpa thought we wouldn't be home until later tonight and invited them for dinner...so now it's Paulie who is doing the cooking...steak, roasted veggies, salad, bread and of course, wine.

I had to go back to read what I wrote earlier so I can continue.

After Paulie got back from taking Mom to the airport we settled in to watch the bowl games. Illinois was playing in the Rose Bowl. Gee it was a waste to watch the Illini get their asses kicked by those left coast kids. Sigh...and I swore after the superbowl I would NOT get caught up in picking a team and rooting for the losers. Oh well. They say the road to hell....

The week after the New Year was unexciting...it took me several days to pack away all the Christmas stuff. My guitar lessons continue and I still stink. On Tuesday, Jan 8, Paulie was scheduled to go to the VA in San Antonio for an Agent Orange test. We had planned this trip in advance and scheduled several free rooms from Choice points in both San Antonio and Fredericksburg. After SA we headed to Fredericksburg a German settlement. Wow, the shops and bakeries are amazing. We did stop first in Comfort, Tx but there was little to see after Christmas. We missed the lights at Riverwalk in SA by one day...we got there and they were not only taking the lights down, they were DRAINING the canal. So it goes...lucky Paul and Dee.

We went to a brewery in town and saw three real cutie pie cowboys all dressed up in authentic cowboy stuff...right outta Hollywood. They were reinactors. I got my picture taken with them and while talking to the three of 'em I found out one was from Lombard! Some cowboy. Lombard has a lilac festival for cripesakes. They were cute tho and they were fun to talk to. We had great pizza at the place and the beer was pretty good too.

On Wednesday we shopped all day long...now for those out there who don't know Paulie very well...this was a monumental concession on his part...he hates to shop. I did leave him outside a few places to rest his hip, but actually we had a great time. We had a great lunch at a German place that claimed the best rubens and hamburgers in town. The ruben was only so so, the hamburger Paulie said was good. Pffft...you'd think I learn not to believe all the hype.

We got back to the room, and I took a nap after spending a few bucks. Can you believe I didn't have to BEG? We stayed in and watched the crap they now call TV. Jeesh it sucks. Game shows, reality garbage. I can now convince Paul that we should watch TLC and Disc and LEARN something.

On Thursday we headed over to the LBJ Ranch and State Park. What a great place. We took the tour of the ranch...I can understand why Texans from this part of the state always come back...the hill country is beautiful. His ranch apparently was his refuge. Lady Bird has been laid to rest next to Lyndon, but the family has yet to decide what to do for her headstone. Beautiful red roses now mark the spot. The house where LBJ was born has been reconstructed and it is a nice little place. They were like most at the time, quite poor. His grandfather along with his brothers drove cattle, grew cotton and raised sheep. LBJ's father was a local teacher turned politician just like his son. The Texas White House is still under the family's control until one year after Mrs. Johnson's death when it will be turned over to the State. They are hoping to at least refurbish the room used as a conference room and have it available by next summer. We visited the show barn and saw descendants of LBJ's first herd of cattle. His favorite saying was apparently something like the cattle go out and the money comes in. I was not a fan of LBJ due to my protesting of the Viet Nam was as a teenager. Now I know that he truly was a prolific President and many of the programs he initiated back then have made life for many Americans better such as Head Start, HUD and Medicare. These programs have been criticized by so many people over the years, but I believe that we are a better people for reaching down to help those who need a boost. We owe LBJ for enlightening us about our environment too...he passed many bills such as the clean water act, which I think we now take for granted. Enough of my grandstanding for LBJ whom I never really cared for as a President. I still don't agree with that war, but he did do alot for the middle and lower classes. Pffffft to the naysayers!

After the LBJ ranch we went to the Suter working ranch which LBJ established for folks to understand how life was like in the hill country circa 1915, when he would have been around 7.
There are interpreters who actually work the farm. I am glad we were there on Thursday...we saw the animals they were gonna butcher next week...pooor piggies and calfs.

After the Suter ranch we found Luckenback Tx. It's NOTHING. A post office and a dance hall. Period. What a waste. From there it was back towards San Antonio and then on to Corpus Christi. We landed at a Quality inn on the beach but it was pretty empty. The place was in dire need of cleaning and altho the pool and the hot tub LOOKED clean, upon further inspection I decided not to risk the plague and stayed out. We had dinner at a place called Blackbeards. I had FRESH yes, fresh red snapper caught that day, and cooked blackened. Ohhhh...heaven. Paulie had fresh fried clams and they were also very good. We were entertained by a clone of Jimmy Buffet who sang a lot of James Taylor and America. He was pretty good and I was able to watch his effortless chord movements on the guitar. I'll never be able to do that...

We headed back to the room, watched some TV and hit the sack. All that walking on the ranches wore me out, and my scooter was not really capable of traversing the land there.

On Friday we headed to Big Padre Island, and visited Mustang Island. I didn't see any mustangs tho. A few jaguars and a few beemers. Ooops...bad joke I guess...We also checked out a couple of RV parks...on a resort with pads for sale ($50k up to $90+k) and a nice resort I could stay at with no problems...right over the sandunes to the gulf waters.

In Port Aransas we had lunch at a place called Finn's. Great hamburgers and the fish baskets looked great also. After lunch we headed back over to the mainland and headed up Tx 77 back home. We made it home around 5. We took the Vue over to Pep boys as the driver who shall remain nameless smacked into a bag full of empty cans some ass had dropped on the highway and the right front tire is losing air. I guess reflexes do deteriorate over time (insert evil grin here....!)


Well, that brings us up to date. Now I am back to redoing the upload of all those pix. Wish me luck.

Take care and Happy New Year about a week or so late!

hugs

dee