Big Bend N. P. Trip (Day One)

Saturday Feb. 1st

Tom got off work a little early today so we were on the road by 3:00 p.m.  We know it is still the middle of winter however we are hoping for warmer weather as we head southwest toward Big Bend National Park.  We travel along I-20 as far as Benbrook, which is on the southwest corner of Ft. Worth, where we head south on U.S. Hwy. 377.  We prefer to drive on secondary roads while we are on this trip, enjoying different scenery and a lot less traffic.

We enjoyed the passing scenery of farms and ranchland and sparsely settled countryside and small towns with very little traffic as the sun settled in the western sky.

We were ready to stop for the day, find a clean motel with comfortable accommodations by the time we arrived in Brownwood.
Tomorrow we plan to drive via U.S. Hwy. 67 to Fort Stockton.

2nd Annual Saddlebag Stampede

The day dawned clear and cold, blue skies that stretched to eternity, a slight breeze, sunshine so bright that sunglasses (or squinting) was a must.  Amid cries of "I can't walk that far", or "I've never walked that far",  or "I know I can only do maybe 5 miles", we gathered for a group photo before setting off on our 15.7 mile "walk for charity".

I have mapped us a route along county roads (with very little traffic) beginning and ending at my house, with a stop at a local café for lunch just before we are finished.  We have each been raising money by getting pledges from our friends/families for our miles walked today.

                              These feet are made for walking!

                    Here we go!  One step at a time!

That's Joyce and Diane in one of two support vehicles that will track us and offer us water, sodas, snacks, etc. along the way.

We have walked five miles and most of us are ready for a break!

 

 

 What a great day for a walk!

 

Here we are at almost ten miles into our walk!  Everyone is looking good!  Who said they couldn't walk ten miles??  It is mind over matter.

 

 

 

 

A little rest break works wonders!  Not long till our lunch stop now!

 

 

Jeanne found a large chicken along the way!

We began walking at 9:00 a.m. this morning and by 1:30 p.m. we made it to Cozy's Kitchen where we planned to have lunch.  The food was good however it was extremely slow in getting to us from the kitchen!  But we all lived and after eating something, we were ready to walk the final two miles back to my house.

 

 

This was our support crew today--Joyce, Diane, Suzanne, Gill.

 

And here we are at the end--after walking 15.7 miles!  These are a bunch of tough women! (and Paul!)

The money is still coming in and being tallied for the 2nd Annual Saddlebag Stampede.  We are donating this year's funds raised to Never-E-Nuff Acres, a horse rescue and sanctuary in Waxahatchie, Texas.  I know most of us walkers surpassed what we thought we were capable of doing by walking 15.7 miles!  And for a good cause!  What an awesome group of women, and I am proud to call these Saddlebag women my friends!

What a Difference a Day Makes

What a difference a day makes!  On Saturday it was sunny and very windy (southerly winds), temperatures reached 70 degrees, then on Sunday the wind came whipping out of the north and it got colder and colder and this morning it was 14 degrees!  The great thing about living in Texas is that by this Friday it will once again be warmer with temps expected to reach almost 70 again.  Yippee!!

For our wedding, Tom's Uncle Murphy and Aunt Ruth came from Mississippi  and gifted us with a large beautiful hand made crockery bowl from Emmett's Pottery in Brandon, Ms. which began our habit of collecting bowls/platters/serving pieces from potters near and far.  We think of Uncle Murphy and Aunt Ruth each time we make a salad in that big blue bowl, which thankfully is very often!

We are so blessed to spend another Christmas with my Mom who for her age is still living alone and doing so-so.

 We went to her house on Christmas Eve and worked in her yard and burned her gigantic burn pile that had been growing over several years.  Devin, Jacob, and Justice (great-neice/nephews) loved helping their Uncle Tom "play in the fire"!

I was delighted when my son Darrell and his wife Sissy came to visit at Christmas time!!

I am married to the most wonderful man in the whole wide world who makes me feel so special every day in so many ways!  Oh boy does he know how to really make my birthday special!  Am I really old enough for Medicare??!!  No way!  Where did all the time go, all the years go, and so swiftly!

 I am such a sucker for flowers and perfume!

Hope all my family and friends are staying warm during these frigid first days of 2014!

Finding The Good

After my lamenting on the cold icy weather in my recent blog post, I began to realize how much "good" abounds in our life.  I enjoy following Heather Lende's blog, http://www.heatherlende.com , reading her updates regularly, as she always seems to find the good in every situation, even while living in the harsh winters in Haines, Alaska! 

I have so much to be grateful for each day!  Even when we recently had an invasion of skunks under our house, I decided to be thankful to have a house, we are not homeless!

A perennial bright spot this time of year is the annual blooming of our Christmas cactus plants!

I am always amazed when those awesome blooms begin popping out after the green plant has spent all Spring, Summer, and part of Fall outside on our deck.  A couple of years a wayward bunny rabbit has managed to sneak up on our deck and nibble away on the green foliage of the Christmas cactus plants, but somehow they always manage to come back to their full glory by now!

I cherish my Saddlebag women friends and yesterday was our annual Christmas party.  For several years we have had a tradition of wearing a specific article of attire to the Christmas party, such as wigs, hats, boas, etc.  Well this year our hostess decided it would be a pajama party!  What fun!  Twenty nine women showed up and all except one was wearing their pajamas/nightshirts/slippers/robes!

                            Circle of friends!

 That's Diane (with the red hat/green boa), our hostess for the party, sharing her lovely log home with all of us.

We gathered on Diane's front porch and I snapped this group photo of my pajama-clad friends, some of whom I have known for almost thirty years!  Wonderful friends!

Where's the Sun?

I miss the sunshine!  Today is fifth day in a row with gray skies and very damp air!  Today is the fifth day in a row we have a fire going constantly in our wood stove. Today is the fifth day in a row that the temperature outside barely gets up to the freezing mark.  This is Texas.  We are not use to this kind of weather.  Winter weather usually comes for a couple of days, then goes away elsewhere while we enjoy mild temperatures again. 

 This is our pond covered in ice, well it is really just a low spot now that use to be a pond before nature filled it in over the years with silt and trees.

The handle of our push mower at the edge of our carport!

 

 The Nandina bush covered in Christmas lights--and ice!

I guess My Sweetie won't be grilling anything today!

 And the large elm tree in our backyard is dying and losing its large limbs one at a time.

 The large cedars that surround our humble abode are laden with ice.

 And there are real icicles on our icicle lights!!

We do feel very grateful that we were spared the even worst conditions that our neighboring towns to our west and north received.  Unfortunately most Texans are not prepared for this kind of weather because we don't experience it very often.  We don't own snow plows, snow blowers, or road chemicals/salt in abundance since they are rarely needed.  We figure any ice or snow will be gone in a couple of days when the sun comes out and melts it away.

So in the meantime we just make the best of things and keep warm and don't get out unless we absolutely have to.

One incidental about this cold/icy weather is that my brother Wendall, who lives in Indiana,  came to Texas for Thanksgiving with our family and planned to stay at my Mom's house for a few days to do some maintenance projects for her.  Well he was scheduled to catch a bus back home this past Saturday morning however he is still at my Mom's because the interstate highways heading north from Dallas to Oklahoma City and then on to St. Louis are iced over and closed temporarily.  He is hoping to maybe head home today or tomorrow.  We'll see.  The temps are supposed to get above freezing this afternoon for a few hours.  Now if the sun will just come out also, we will all be much happier!

 Wendall looks a lot like my Dad, and he is very talented in building and construction, just like my Dad was.

Give Mom's great-grandkids a tree to climb and they are happy!