Monday September 17th

We crossed the River Shannon, which is the longest river in Ireland, this morning while touring the city of Limerick.  We are continually amazed at all the very old buildings here in Ireland, many of them dating back to the 1100's or even earlier! 

What!!??  Texas has come to Limerick, Ireland!

We will have a shorter "on the bus" day today!  Our first stop is in the village of Adare, at the Heritage Center, where (for a fee) they will print the ancestry info of your family's name.  Norma purchased one from our Mom's maiden name, to give to our Mom when we get home. 

Once again, we saw many old walls and buildings today.  It's amazing how well they must have been built, to still be standing today.  In the village of Adare, there is a row of quaint thatched cottages with tiny front yards filled with beautiful flower gardens.  There are many beautiful flowers throughout Ireland!

It is raining lightly today.  Noel told us that the Irish call it a "soft day".  He said if we would go for a walk in this rain, turn our faces upward into this soft rain, it is very good for the facial skin!  Of course, he continues to relate many stories of Ireland, and today he even sang a little Irish song for us.  He has a very nice voice!

We arrived in Killarney by the middle of the day and checked into our room at the 4-Star Killarney Plaza Hotel.  The view from the window in our room overlooks a busy roundabout with shops and restaurants all around.  The horse-drawn "jaunting carts" are lined up right across the street from us.  The jaunting cart ride is to be our afternoon excursion.

3:00 P.M.
We walk across the street and board one of the jaunting carts.  There are seven of us in our cart plus our driver, Dan.  He takes us down the street to the entrance to Killarney National Park, where there are miles of nice paved paths that are wide enough for our horse-drawn cart.  We are taken on a very picturesque loop within the Park around Killarney Lake, which is the largest lake in Ireland.  It had been raining before we boarded the cart, however the sun came out just as we climbed aboard and it was such a pretty ride through the countryside in the National Park.  Following our cart ride, we had a little "free time" before we board our Motorcoach to be taken to Kate Kearney's Cottage, to enjoy a traditional Irish night which consists of dinner, folk music, and costumed dancers.  Good food and good music!  I tried something new to me again tonight: propheteroles!  Round, cream filled, deep fried pastries, piled into a large stemmed glass with chocolate syrup drizzled over them and topped with more cream!  Yummee!!

10:00 P.M.
Back at the hotel to our room!  Very tired!  Ready for bed and a good night's sleep!  I had a vey pleasant surprise!  My Sweetie, Tom, called me from the States!  I had called him earlier, but we had such a terrible connection then and I'm still unable to access my email!

Sunday Sept. 16th

9:00 A.M
We are served breakfast each morning at each Hotel restaurant where we are staying.  Sometimes it is buffet-style and other times we can order off the menu.  We left the Radisson BLU Hotel this morning, after staying here for two nights.

 

Today, we are passing through the ruggedly beautiful Burren area. on winding, narrow roads with hairpin "S" curves, that for me is unbelieveable that our motorcoach can even navigate!  Noel is a very good driver!

We visit the Cliffs of Moher.  What incredible, natural beauty!  700 feet high cliffs plunge straight down to the surf of the Atlantic Ocean!   Leaving the Visitor Center, Norma and I walked up and down the paths on both sides of the Cliffs, and snapped many photos.  It was spitting a little rain, however the sun came out while we were walking!

We went back to the Visitor Center and watched a short virtual video, which gave us a flying bird's eye view of the Cliffs and on below the water's surface!  Pretty cool! 

We looked for souvenirs and  afterward we enjoyed a whipped ice cream cone, before boarding the motorcoach for the picturesque drive to Bunratty Castle and Heritage Park, where we are to experience a Medieval Banquet in the Castle.

We had a fun surprise during our Medieval dinner, when one of Tour guests, Bubba Hayes (from Athens, Tx.), proposed to his friend, Anna Richardson, all as a part of the evening's entertainment, right up on the stage with a couple of hundred dinner guests looking on!  Anna was so happily overwhelmed by the sudden proposal, she cried tears of happiness the rest of the evening!

 The happy couple:  Bubba and Anna!

I guess love is in the air in Ireland, because there is another budding romance in our little group!  Stanley and Jeanne went to school together, knew each other, married other people and lived happy lives for nearly forty years, before each lost their respective spouse, about three years ago.  Well, about three months ago, a mutual friend of theirs reconnected them.  However, Jeanne and her sister, Bonnie, had booked this trip to Ireland awhile back.  But when Bonnie saw how happy her sister was to meet up with Stanley again after all those years, she asked Stanley if he would like to accompany the sisters to Ireland;  of course, Stanley immediately booked himself on this Tour.  They look so happy together, sharing the beauty of Ireland together, and reconnecting with each other!

Here isthe happy couple: Stanley and Jeanne!

 

Norma and I neither one cared too much for the Medieval play-acting at the Bunratty Castle, but the food was plentiful and delicious!  The young violin player was so incredibly talented and was playing a very old violin that had a lovely tone!  Eating our vegetables with our fingers was quite an experience!  (Sort of reminded me of all the "eating with my fingers" I did while on my A.T. Hike last year!)  We enjoyed the gardens in the Bunratty Heritage Park while we were waiting for our Medieval Banquet.

 

 

As we were exiting the Buratty Castle following our Medieval feast, we were serenaded by this Irishman on the bagpipes!

Ireland has a lot of quaint customs!  Earlier today, as we passed through the small village of Lisdoonvarna, Noel explained that it was a "Matchmaker Town" for 30 days in September each year, when Irish singles can pay 60 Euros  to place their name and personal information at the Lisdoonvarna Town Hall in the hopes of finding a spouse!  They take this quite seriously!  So the town of Lisdoonvarna is decked out with flags and banners everywhere encouraging this tradition!

We pass thru many fascinating villages each day, and Noel narrates a little background info on each one.  There are so many interesting town names such as: Knockalough, Ballynacally, Labasheeda, Knocknagashel, Bealaclugga!  I have difficulty even pronouncing most of the village names on my map as I follow our route each day.

Today we were in view of Ireland's highest mountain chain: the Macgillycuddy's Reek!

9:30 P.M.
Tonight we are at the Savoy Hotel in downtown Limerick.  Most of our hotels are right downtown.  The Savoy Hotel is a 5-Star Hotel and we are on the top floor which is the Executive level.  Oh my goodness, what luxury!  The most plush of everything in our spacious room!  Oh my!  I know we will probably sleep good tonight, after our long day of adventure in Ireland!

Saturday, Sept. 15th

Our thoughts and hearts are with our family in Cody, Wy. today, as they prepare to bury Rod, our brother-in-law.   I pray that God will give Donna and her children strength as they go forward each day.

Today, we are touring the Connemara region of Ireland, basically making a large loop along the coastal region west of Galway, and then back to the Radisson BLU for another night.

Our first stop of the morning was to the Celtic Crystal Factory, established in 1972.  I am amazed that the master craftsmen there handcut each piece from memory; no computers, just hold each piece of leaded crystal in their hands, moving it against the spinning grinding wheel (which they switch out often for different cuts).  Unbelieveable perfection in the craftsmen's movements!  We enjoyed the demonstration, watching him cut three different patterns into a small bowl.  Their showroom is full of museum quality pieces! 

Afterwards, we drove through Ireland's Connemara Region, which is known for its spectacular coastal and mountain scenery.  We passed thru this small village, where they were having a "boot sale", meaning you sell items right out of your car's "boot" (trunk)!  Believe it or not, our large motorcoach navigated right down thru the middle of of all this, since it was all right alongside the road!

 

 

Next, we toured the beautifully built Kylemore Abbey and Gardens.  I can't believe a man actually had this place built for his wife as their home.  What a grand home it must have been those hundreds of years ago!

 

Norma and I especially liked the 6-acres of walled gardens!  Unbelieveable, intricate, victorian landscaping, with many different varieties of flowers, shrubs, herbs, and vegetables! 

We saw pear trees that were planted along an ancient high wall, and they are pruned and trained to grow flat against that wall!  And they were loaded with fruit!

We had lunch while at Kylemore Abbey.  I thought I had eaten aged goat cheese before, but obviously I had not!  For lunch, I chose a very large slice of veggie quiche w/aged goat cheese, and I could only manage to eat a couple of bites of it!  I know it's crazy, but I could sense the smell of goats with each taste!  I won't  ever try that again!  I am attempting to try new foods on this trip, however I know my own limitations.  By chewing gum, AND having a cup of ice cream, I was finally able to get rid of the aftertaste of that goat cheese!  Oh yeah, and also a chunk of their homemade fudge! 

BooBoo loved Kylemore Abbey!  She found a horse to ride!  We took a shuttle bus one mile up the mountain behind the Abbey/Visitor Center, to the 6-acre walled gardens, and there was a picnic/play area with some interesting wood/metal/rope sculptures and I couldn't resist letting BooBoo have a little fun!

 

Our driver/guide, Noel, tells us stories each day and sings little local "story songs" sometimes.  It was a beautiful drive today along the Atlantic coastline.  We are continually fascinated by Noel's pronunciation of words.  His dropping of the "h" in  any word that has a "th" makes for lots of laughs for us Texans!  Also their phrases are unique!  Instead of "passing" another vehicle, one "overtakes" that vehicle; sheep in the road blocking traffic is called an "Irish traffic jam".  Noel was saying how hot it got last Summer, with temps into the 70's.  He said he thought they would melt!  Ha!  He's obviously never been to Texas!  We told him that we think temps in the 70's would be a cool front!

A lot of the roads we are traveling are definitely not designed for Tour Buses!  Many times we (and the cars we meet) must inch way over against the rock walls or hedgerows just to squeeze by one another!  Sometimes the road is too narrow, so the car will have to back up aways to a place wide enough to inch over enough to let us go by.  Pretty hair-raising!!  Crazy!!

This is a very small "caravan" (camper) meeting a car, so you can imagine what this large 53-seat bus looks like meeting those campers and cars!  It's an adventure each day!

There are not many traffic lights in Ireland, mostly traffic is controlled by roundabouts.  Most of these roundabouts are beautifully landscaped and most have a sign with the name of that roundabout.

As you can see, all the roadsigns have the Gaelic spelling of the name and also the English.  This is true of all the road signs, street signs, etc.

For some reason I am still not able to access my email via the hotel's guest computers; it's not recognizing my password! 

Norma and I walked down the street from the hotel to a convenience store where I purchased a roadmap of Ireland, some road snacks, and a international calling card.  I will love having this map as we go along each day to see where we've been and where we will be going next.  We wrote postcards to home today.  We are both tired, so by 10:00 p.m., it's lights out and to sleep!

Friday Sept. 14th

It felt great to wake up from a good night's sleep!  We enjoyed a nice breakfast in the hotel's dining room this morning, buffet style.  I tried blood sausage for the first time in my life!  I ate it, but I can safely say I'll probably never have it again! It is called pudding here in Ireland.  They had brown pudding and white pudding.

8:30 A.M.
We departed from the Dunboyne Castle Hotel, and headed west across the island of Ireland.  It was a narrow, winding road, with many roundabouts (traffic circles), for awhile until we merged onto the M-4 and then onto the M-6 toward the town of Galway, which is on the eastern coast of Ireland.  The "M" stands for Motorway, which is like our freeways in the States.

Our first excursion tody was to Clonmacnoise, an early Christian site, founded by St. Ciaran in the 6th century, situated on the banks of the River Shannon.  There were literally 100's of extremely old tombstones and tombslabs; along with the remains of a couple of old Cathedrals, all perched on a beautiful hillside overlooking the River Shannon.  Wonder of wonder, the sun is actually shining momentarily!

While we were there on our Narrated Tour of this amazing site, a Riverboat Cruise Tour came gliding down the River Shannon. loaded with tourists who were viewing Clonmacnoise from the water!

Glad I  packed my warm clothing because it was quite breezy and cool today while standing on that hillside above the river!

Afterward, we made it to the town of Athlone, which is said to be the center of Ireland, where we stopped for a break.  We walked a few blocks to Cafe Mama to have lunch.  There were ten of us: Lou & Travis, Polly & son Steven Green, Albert Gary & daughter Brook Brown, John & daughter Marilynn Gallagher, and Norma and me.  Polly & Steven live in Liberty City; John lives in San Antonio and Marylynn in Longview.  Getting to know more of our fellow guests each day!

We continued west along the M-6, passing thru lush farmland, with fresian(holstein)cattle, lots of sheep, horses and peat bogs. The Irish harvest the peat, compress it into bricks, dry it, and use for heating fuel.

Here are little "teepees" of peat bricks drying.

Noel, our Irish driver/guide, grew up in Ireland, so he is very knowledgeable about the history and culture of Ireland.  We love to hear him talk!  The Irish do not pronounce the "th" sound in words; they drop the "h" and pronounce a "t" or "d" sound!  "tink" for think, "mudder" for mother, "tree" for three.  "Kil" at the beginning of a word means "church of" as in Kilkenny, church of Kenis.

Next, we stopped at Rathbaun Farm, where we were served fresh homemade scones with tea or coffee.  Wonderful hospitality!  We experienced a glimpse into the daily workings of an active sheep farm; even watched the owner, Fenner, shear a sheep (very fast) after his border collie, Ted, rounded up the sheep into a pen.  We saw a ewe with twin lambs.  Lou and Kristina volunteered to bottle feed a couple of 7-week old lambs!

 

 

6:15 P.M.

We arrived in Galway and Noel made a circle around Eyre Square (right downtown), where there is a John F. Kennedy Memorial on the exact spot where he stood to make a speech to the people of Ireland in 1963.  We then made it to our hotel, the Radisson BLU Hotel, where we will stay for two nights.  We did not have any time to relax before going downstairs to the Marina Restaurant for dinner at 7:00 p.m..  Our dinner tonight was buffet style, once again excellent food.

 

I had no luck logging on to the computer in the lobby to email home, or using my AT&T calling card to call home.  Tomorrow, I'll try buying a local calling card here in Galway.

 

9:00 P.M.

To our room, shower, and to bed!

 

BooBoo says she can get use to these fancy hotels with great views of the water!  I love hotels that have windows that actually open! 

Thursday Sept. 13

6:30 A.M.  Dublin Time (12:30 a.m. @ home!)
We are still in flight over the Atlantic Ocean.  The breakfast cart is on the way!  What a rough night!  The bumpiest flight I've ever been on!  Sometimes it felt like we were on a rough, county backroad!   Bumpy, Bumpy!  I napped sporadically, but it is very difficult to get very comfortable on a plane, and it is hard to nap when it feels like we may ditch at any time, so I prayed a lot!

Dinner was served to us a couple hours into our flight.  I've never had a full meal like that on a plane!  It was quite good and very filling!  B.B.Q. Chicken, mashed potatos, green beans, garden salad, Biscuit w/butter, crackers w/cream cheese, and a snickerdoodle cookie!

Norma and I are so ready to get off this plane!  Even though we walked around in the airport to get some exercise, we have been sitting for much too long!  This plane has rows of two seats on either side with rows of three seats each down the middle, but it's still a plane!   Crowded!

Yea!! A safe landing at the Dublin Airport!!  When we get inside, we immediately go thru Customs.  Only today, that turned into a long ordeal!  There were 4 or 5 International flights arriving this morning, one right after the other.  To say they were not prepared for us would be a huge understatement!  There were hundreds of passengers, lined up in 10 serpentine que lines, and the line continued out of the que lines, down the hallway and around the corner, back toward the arrival gates!  At first the line rarely moved, because there were only a couple af agents working, however they eventually staffed severaly more windows w/agents, and we finally made it to a window to see an immigration agent!  This process took well over an hour!

We made to the Baggage Claim area to retrieve our checked bag, and I saw mine right away and grabbed it.  But Norma's bag never showed up, so I walked down to the end to see where they were coming up from below.  I heard someone saying "Where's Norma?"   It was Carol K., our tour guide!  She was on the other side of the Baggage Claim area, pulling bags off the moving belt, if she saw a yellow Holiday Vacations luggage tag on them!  What a relief to find she had pulled Norma's bag off the belt!  We then headed out to the big "golden pretzel", a large art sculpture, which was our designated meeting place.

Well, our Tour Director, Carol, headed out there as well; with Judy's (a fellow guest) suitcase, which Carol  had pulled off the moving Baggage Claim belt!  Guess what!  Judy and her friend, Barb, never showed up at our meeting place!  Several of us suggested to Carol that Judy and Barb were probably still at Baggage Claim looking for Judy's bag! (which Carol was holding on her own cart!)  We were already out of the "secure area", and could not go back to where Baggage Claim was.  So finally, Carol had the Airport page Judy and Barb twice before they heard the page.  And sure enough, here they come, just a little frustrated with Carol for not letting all of us know that she was pulling some of our bags off the carousel.

Norma with our luggage exiting the airport in Dublin.

Boarding the Motorcoach for a city tour of Dublin.

It was a little past 10:00 a.m. by the time we were all on the bus, and met our Irish driver/guide, Noel.  Noel is from the village of Kilkenny, and is very knowledgeble about Ireland, and is a very trim, attractive gentleman with a great sense of humor!

We traveled through the three mile long tunnel that goes under Dublin's Seaport, and connects the Airport to Dublin's City Center.  We saw a variety of interesting bridges that span the River Liffy, which flows right thru the middle of Dublin.

  

The "puzzle bldg" is a childhood learning center!

We viewed Phoenix Park and Grafton Street, and the famous Georgian Doors.

I was fascinated by the doorknobs on many doors which were placed in the middle of the door!

We also toured St. Patricks Cathedral, which is  several hundred years old.  So much history here, and very intricate, beautiful architecture.  St. Patrick is said to have baptised converts to Christianity at a well that once existed in the park alongside the Cathedral.

  We enjoyed lunch in downtown Dublin on Nassau Street.  I went to the "toilet" before we sat down to lunch, and laid my camera on top of the tissue holder, and left it there!  Norma and I ejoyed our lunch with Lou and Travis, and when we were done snd started to leave, I missed my camera!  Oh no!  I ran back to the toilet to look, No Camera!  Norma and I immediately asked an employee of the cafe if it had been turned in, and she asked the Manager and he said "Yes!  Can you describe the camera for me?"  I replied "I sure can"!  I did so and he went into the office and retrieved it for me!  Thank the Lord!  I would have been devastated if I would have lost my camera on the very first day of my trip!  It was a very good lesson for me!  I was much more aware of my surroundings and much more careful following this incident.

Dublin is a bustling city!  Lots of traffic, but even more bikers and pedestrians!  Driving is done on the left side of the road, with the vehicle's steering wheel on the right.  Lots of very old buildings dated all the back to the 1100's!  That's so much older than our country is!  We kept noticing that the doorknob on many frontdoors was in the middle of the door, so we asked Noel about it and he said he did not know the reason for this.  I guess when your grow up there, it doesn't seem unusual!

3:00 P.M.
We arrived at Dunboyne Castle Hotel, which by the way, is not a castle!

  However, it felt like heaven to us, since by this time, we had been awake so long, we were all like "walking zombies"!  Norma and I went straight to our room and immediately laid down on our beds!  Oh sweet heaven to be horizontal!  Our luggage was soon brought to our door, we grabbed it, and laid back down and slept till 5:30 p.m.  We jumped up, showered, dressed for dinner, and went to the Lobby for our planned "Meet & Greet".  When we arrived at the Lobby, there were many folks there talking and laughing, and they all had "Holiday Vacations"  name tags on, however we did not recognize anyone!  Could they have changed there looks that much since we got off the motorcoach?  Well, we did not know there was another Holiday Vacations Tour Group at the Hotel, who were celebrating there final night of their tour!  Our group had moved down one floor to a quieter venue.  By the time we found them, they had already started, going around the room with each guest telling a little about themselves.  Since we missed most of each one's "story", we decided to make a point of sitting with different one's each night at dinner, so we could learn more about our fellow guests.

We (all 31 guests on our tour) were served a delicious dinner together in the Hotel's restaurant.  It reminded me of dining on a Cruise Ship.  Excellent food and great service!  Tonight we sat across from the family from South Dakota.  Gerie Sorenson(81 yr.), her daughter, Julene Pike, & grandaughter, Kristina Pike(12 yr.).  Also Angela Sorrenson, from O'Fallon, Mo. who is married to Julene's brother.  It was such a pleasure to get to know them a little better.

9:00P.M.
We are exhausted but happy to be on this adventure in Ireland!  I must say I am really enjoying the luxury of sleeping in a 5-Star Hotel!  Wow, I feel spoiled!  I love all the comfort this far from home.  Now it's time for a wonderful night's sleep in this luxurious bed!

Wednesday, Sept. 12th

Well, the day has finally arrived!  Norma and I have been planning this trip to Ireland for more than six months!  However, it is definitely anti-climatic.  We have such heavy hearts today, because our sister, Donna, lost her husband, Rod, suddenly on Monday evening.  What a shock this is to our family!  An apparent heart attack  just days before his 55th birthday.  I am so sad thinking about Donna and her children and grandchildren. I'm sad that Norma and I can't be there with her.  We know she understands and really wants us to continue on with this trip.

I am so thankful for my Sweetie, Tom!  Today is his regular day off, so he is driving me to Tyler, where we will pick up Norma, and then he is taking us both to the Holiday Inn , where we will board our motorcoach for the trip to DFW.  I'm glad we do not have to leave our car parked at this Hotel for 10 days while we are gone, since Tom is coming back on Friday night, Sept. 21st to pick up Norma and me.

8:30 A.M
We are on the motorcoach, on our way to DFW!  There are 25 excited guests on this bus, all anxiously anticipating our adventure in Ireland!  Carol K., our Tour Director, warned us not to do any "bonding" with our fellow guests until we reach Chicago and meet the rest of our group!  Too late, Carol!  We are already getting acquainted with our fellow guests!  Lou and Travis Rankin, from Lufkin, are a couple that are members of Norma's and Mom's R.V. Camping group.

10:00 A.M.
We are leaving our little "pit stop" here at the Terrell Travel Center.  It felt really good to walk, stretch, and get an ice-cold Mountain Dew!  We are a very diverse group of people on this Tour.  We seem to be a fun, lighthearted bunch!

Here we are at DFW Airport!

1:30 P.M. 
 Here we sit, awaiting the boarding of our flight to Chicago.  Norma and I just realized that our assigned seats are 10 rows from each other!  We approached the gate agent, and he switched our seating so we could sit together.  We called our sister, Ginny, and they have made it to Fort Collins, Colo. on their way to Cody, Wy. to be with Donna and her family at this most difficult time, following Rod's sudden death.  Ginny had just talked to Donna and Rod's funeral will be held Saturday.  Our Mom seems to handling the long drive to Cody, Wy. alright.  She is such an inspiration to all of our family!

Today is probably the most difficult day of our trip.  Traveling.  Hurry up and wait.  Sitting.  We have gotten in a fair amount of walking, between looking for a place to get a "hot sandwich" in the airport, and suddenly having our departure gate changed from A-20 to A-39!  Although, I much prefer to be walking than to be sitting!

3:00 P.M.
We are flying @ 33,000 ft. altitude, a very smooth ride to Chicago.  Besides meeting Lou and Travis Rankin, we've also met Bob Brackeen, the  NBC Today Show host on KETK Channel 56 in Tyler.  KETK promoted this trip and sent Bob as our host.  We met Albert Gary, a pharmacist w/Super 1 Food Stores in Tyler, and his "20 something" daughter, Brook Brown, who is vacationing with her Dad for the first time.  Albert and his wife had booked this tour together, however she had double knee surgery recently and was unable to go, so he called Brook, who lives in Louisville, Ky., and invited her to come along.  Brook is very pretty, bubbly, vivacious, and so happy to be on this trip with her Dad!

Also, one lady in our group, Barb, had a slight mishap, right after we exited the motorcoach at DFW, and were on the up escalator, heading up to be checked in.  She said her carry-on bag's wheels got caught on the escalator and pulled her over backwards!  Norma and I were just ahead of her on the escalator, and when I looked back, she was layed over backwards onto the passengers behind her and was desperately hanging on to the rail with only one hand, so I grabbed the handle of her carry-on bag so she could use both her hands on the rail to try to pull herself back into an upright position.  With a lot of help from the folks behind her, pushing her up from behind, she finnally righted herself just as we reached the top of the escalator!  First time I've ever seen anyone pulled right out of their shoes on an escalator!  She was wearing open-heeled clogs!

7:00 P.M.
We are boarded and ready for take-off in the largest plane I've ever flown in-a 767!  A very full flight!  Some stand-by folks could not board!  Norma and I are already tired from this long day of travel!  This should ba 7 1/2 hour flight from Chicago to Dublin.  When we arrive in
Dublin it will already be 8:00 a.m., Thursday morning, which is six hours ahead of our Central Time.  I hope to get a good nap on this flight!  While in O'Hare Airport, we met a young gal from Belfast, Ireland, who has been in the U.S. for three months working and visiting friends.  I called my Sweetie while we were waiting for this flight and was disappointed to get the recorder, and not get to hear his voice before I left the U.S.

   My sister, Donna and me, when she came to Texas for a visit in March. ( I think we favor one another! ) That is my brother, Don, in the background, as we were in his Dry Cleaners shop in Huntsville, Tx.