We finished our 3rd summer at Woodland Trails on September 16th, after a really nice 4 months. Mary’s diabetes seems to be at bay, due in part to her daily walks. She walks in the morning with Dawn and after dinner in the evening with Tom. Definitely helps. We will continue the walks when we get south.
We had a pretty good fishing year, though we still haven’t caught any walleye. Plenty of sunfish, bluegills, and some really big bass. They are all in the freezer for this winter. We didn’t do as much sight-seeing as usual this year but we had plenty of time to relax and visit with our friends.
We have decided to go back to Llano Grande Resort in Mercedes, Texas. We were there in 2015-16 where I worked in their I.T. department. They have so much to do their and we have friends there also so it seemed like a good choice for us. We don’t need to be there until October 28th so we made a few stops on the way.
We left Woodland Trails on 9/19 with driving rain, thunder, lightning and some heavy fog, all the way to Yankton, Nebraska. The next day,with a break in the weather, we stopped in Creston, Nebraska, to visit the grave of Mary’s great-grandmother. It was located in a tiny cemetery out among back roads and cornfields, much like her grandfather’s grave near Broken Bow that we visited last year. After paying our respects we continued on to Salina, Kansas, staying at a very nice KOA. Rain started again during the night and continued all the next day to Oklahoma City. We stayed again at the Roadrunner Rv Park. In 2015 it had been almost completely destroyed by tornadoes but they did a beautiful job of rebuilding and now it is one of the nicest we have stayed in. Rained all night again.
We arrived in Roanoke, Texas, still raining. We were there for a week, taking the opportunity to visit with Mary’s niece, Deanna, and her husband, Peter. He is an award-winning gourmet chef so you know we always eat well with them. Kismet, Deanna’s sister had flown in from Chicago so Mary was able to spend time with her also. The Dallas area has a public transportation train system much like the one we used in Minneapolis. We used it to go downtown to the Perot Science Museum. Nice museum but we have seen a few others like it so it’s hard to differentiate one from the other. We did have a very nice dinner at El Fenix (Mexican), then Uber back to the train station and home. Uber has been an excellent mode of transportation for us at many stops. It is not real easy to get around in a strange city with the truck but a quick entry on the Uber app and we go where we want, when we want, and in most cases for less money than driving.
While in the area, we also visited a Buddhist Temple complex, the Fort Worth arboretum, Fort Worth stockyard district, and had dinner at Babes in Roanoke. The day after we arrived, Peter fixed a killer brunch for us at his studio, then the night before we left had a fish fry (with Strawberry Lake fish!) that Peter also cooked. Really delicious!
We left Roanoke and traveled to LaGrange for a couple nights, visiting the local antique scene in nearby Warrenton and Round Top, then on to Rockport, Texas, for a month. Our friends from Woodland Trails, Ron & Nancy are right next door, while Sherry & Larry are right across the street. Nice to be near friends for awhile. The 3rd couple from WT, Wayne & Betty, won’t be down until the first of the year, so we will miss them. They have said they might come visit us down in the valley.
One of the high points so far in Rockport was the fish I caught. It was a red drum which measured 40″ and about 30lbs.
Lots of fun!