Month: October 2016

The first word spoken from the moon was "Houston… Eagle has landed." Did you know LBJ put Houston on the map by moving communications with space capsules to Houston and that is probably responsible for the spread of Houston across Interstate 10 for miles of complicated and FULL freeways. As we drove for about 50 miles on I10, I kept blinking my eyes in the rush hour traffic we just came through…. This is Sunday!!! But when we finally cleared Houston and got out on to Clear Lake that opens to Galveston Bay… I realized those were holiday travelers getting back "home" after a weekend "on the shore." We are now on the shore at Clear Lake, Seabrook and Kemah (resort towns east of Houston and on Galveston Bay). I booked two nights here at a complimentary rate of $0 because we stayed 4 nights at Choice hotels on the trip preceeding San Antonio! Tomorrow, we will go up to San Jacinto and celebrate the last battle of the war for Texas Independence where Sam Houston "got lucky". He defeated the forces of Santa Anna with his men yelling "Remember the Alamo." San Antonio was beautiful and the reunion was a lot of fun. We are now on a week long journey to visit the south coast of Louisiana and Pensacola and then begin the south bound road to "home." God bless you!

I’ve been watching a little television and it really seems to me that the "news" people don’t really want to talk about how a President would effect change on the issues like the Supreme Court and what we want Congress to do, tax laws, health insurance, market prosperity, etc. Rather the talk is pretty volatile, mean spirited, and getting worse. Hope we all vote, hope our vote is counted, hope we get through this election to better times.

Today 2 busses full of submarine sailors and companions traveled north east out of San Antonio to visit the LBJ Texas White House and I got a better picture of LBJ. He was a big man 6′ 4" over 220 pounds. Big broad shoulders and I thought I remembered that Kennedy really didn’t like the big brash Texan but his home is Texas… Big. Bold. Proud. God bless Texas. God bless the USA.

Then we drove south to Fredericksburg TX to the museum of the Pacific (home of Admiral Nimitz). The museum is full of memorabilia: photos, guns, parts of ships and planes… From 1941 the end of the war. Also a peace garden contributed by Japan in honor of Nimitz’s gentlementally treatment of Japan after WWII. Enough war stuff so Chuck and I headed for Main Street and found an art gallery/wine bar that also sold draft craft beer. Beer in hand, we strolled through the gallery. I could breathe again, "Make art… Not war." One day ask to see my pictures taken within the gallery!! Sailors got onto the bus, and were counted. Back to hotel for more fun with sailors! Hotel full of high school students on a Year Book weekend. Out to a Riverwalk restaurant for steak. God bless you.

Yesterday I meant to talk about the saints! We walk all around San Antonio, and the city and River walk are full of Saints and Missions. San Antonio of course is St Anthony of Padua, St Mary’s is the longest street and a beautiful big church, St Joseph is a German church with Sunday Mass in German, and I’ll be going over to the Cathedral of San Fernando today for noon daily Mass that I will attend with a Catholic friend I met in the pool. Bells ring all day long from the various churches!

The sailors are coming in today with hospitality room open at noon. I’ll miss that gathering by going out to the Cathedral. I am sure I will hear plenty of stories in the next 2 days! Last evening we walked to Paesano’s Italian restaurant on River walk. The entire walk from hotel to the big River walk restaurant area can be made below the streets on the River. The walk is punctuated by decorative murals, trees, flowering bushes, ducks, and the meandering river. Weather is beautiful. God bless the areas of our nation still flooding and help us to tone down angry political voices. One prayerful heart at a time. God bless you.

I keep saying "I love Texas!" The weather is dry and warm, the streets are maintained, albeit confusing due to one way nightmares… We call driving here an adventure! Penny and I are boot shopping for her and we found a Jerry’s artarama! Buy only 3 tubes of paint get one free and a paint brush "on sale". We have spent the last two days walking down in River Walk. And I swam in the hotel pool in freezing water. How can the sun be SO HOT and the water SO COLD? Stayed in "moving around a lot" and will continue swimming daily if I can! We have been running into a lot of veterans on our walks and this morning talked with first Quillback veteran who was on with Chuck and Rick. Ok! Time for some Mexican or Texas barbeque! God bless you.

When we left Miami, I had done some research into what’s happening here in Texas and I originally settled on a town called Fredericksburg but later in the research game decided on Kerrville. They are small towns on the rivers of Texas.. Kerrvilled is situated on the Guadaloupe and has many beautiful parks where we have enjoyed hours of peaceful sitting. Kerrville has a small town center where they have the art festivals I’ve spoken of. Next weekend they will have chalk drawing on the street. They can block off two blocks and not cause a major artery blockage as Miami experiences. We do have a small community in Miami – it’s Pinecrest, and I intend to do more in that area. We went 6 miles away towards Ingram yesterday to the Celtic festival where Americans celebrate Scottish and Irish heritage with song, athletics, and food. The music was wonderful! We opted for music rather than story telling… and ate Scottish food (sausages and a meat pie). Today I’m going to do laundry while Chuck packs up the car and then…. off to San Antonio for the reunion. Rick Hartman and friend Penny arrive Tuesday and we will show them around. With submariners we will visit the War in the Pacific Museum in Fredericksburg, the Johnson Ranch and Library, and the Alamo among other things to do with the reunion. I’ve watched snippets of the debate last night. I like to see how they present themselves, I watch faces, and listen to words. Both candidates "looked" Presidential. I wonder about the mass quantity of white Hillary wore. I don’t know who helps her dress and I think it’s interesting to watch the "presentation" of the first woman candidate for the Presidency. I am deeply concerned about the rights of unborn children which neither candidate addresses. If we save the babies to birth, then we have to offer child care. If we are going to keep our country alive, we have to stop killing babies in the womb. Think and pray on this please. God bless you!

When we stop in a town, I always try to research all the stuff going on so I can see everything before we go. In Santa Fe a few years ago, I had a schedule for about 4 days where I noted events, opening hours, days closed etc… and as we went… I would cross things off or move things to different days. Get a town map and just go! Same here in Kerrville. Yesterday we did everything I planned and still had time to laze on the river eating barbeque sandwiches and beer…. From the Art gallery to a crafts show which was really a big flea market…. Good thing we don’t have the big van. As it is, we are a little bit heavier now. To the river and then to the Nature Center which is a glorified wild garden with a lot of wild butterflies! Back to town to get me to Mass while Chuck visited the American Legion. Back to the hotel to watch the UM v Florida State football game. Miami Lost… boo hoo. I was so ready to win 5 in a row. It is no fun to lose, but I guess when we play sometimes we lose. Better to play. Today is the Celtic festival and a mini Stonehenge in Ingram, Texas! Weather has been hot and beautiful. God bless you. Hope our east coast neighbors are unharmed.

In Miami, I seem to miss events like art walks as thousands go and parking is a night mare… excuses galore I know (shame on me). Yesterday we visited the Museum of Western Art and the American Legion where they gave us free beer for being from more than 100 miles away, and we took a leisurely stroll and picnic lunch on the Guadaloupe River with a bunch of fat geese as companions… Then at 4pm we picked up a friend we met at the homecoming parade the night before and then we found street parking and diagonal parked within a 1/2 block of the "art walk". The town of Kerrville blocked off 2 blocks in front of the Cultural Arts Center and artists were setting up to paint for 1 1/2 hour in a contest… We set up our 3 folding chairs on the sidewalk, poured glasses of wine, and began to stroll and visit artists set up along two blocks of the street in front of the Arts Center. Painting started with the ringing of the town clock and the bells over Notre Dame Catholic Church at 5pm. Wine sharing was going on at one end of the street. As we walked we chatted with the artists and "judged their work". I picked about 5 artists I liked including a friend I had made under the bridge the day before… Jesus Toro Martinez (with a gallery in San Antonio) paints giant canvases and true to his nature, he had a giant blank canvas (really just a sheet of canvas) spread out on the street. As I watched him for the next 1 1/2 hour he rolled and splotted that canvas and the end result was wonderful! Another wonderful artist gave me her card with palm trees painted on it! And I said, "I paint palm trees! I love the play of light and colors on the palm fronds." I wish we could be fast friends, but Emely McConkey lives in Tucson which is such a long way from Miami…. (I actually cut this trip short…. the driving time to the Grand Canyon for example…. 3 days west of San Antonio… it is too much for me. So I can only dream of Western art and sky!) The goal of last night’s art in the streets was to showcase the downtown area. Artists were painting the umbrellas over tables at Francisco’s restaurant, certain store fronts, little alleyways, pots of flowers, and Hallowe’en decorations. As we strolled, several "locals" said "I never looked down that alley before,"… so the show is a good idea for a small town. This could easily be done on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables… Do it near a parking garage so people could just "walk the street" and peer down the small never seen alleyways created by the spaces between buildings. It helps that drinking on the streets of Kerrville is allowed. I met one of the "wine share" ladies and shared my idea for painting a mural on the bridge we sat under the day before…. Maybe one day, "Put a brush in every hand," will catch on here in Kerrville and the bridge mural will be reality. We are off today to see the inside of the cultural Arts Center and the Riverside Nature Center which is a farm turned into gardens with butterflies and flowers… I will paint someplace and then go to what Chuck calls "cheater Mass" at 5pm. The University of Miami plays Florida State tonight at 8pm on ABC but we are in the heart of Texas…. might not get the game on TV… Hope so. God bless you!

I always search for water and the Guadeloupe River is beautiful. Yesterday we picniced under the bridge in Tranquility Park in Kerrville. I watched an artist paint on a big at least 3 feet by 3 feet canvas… He is showing tonight in the art festival here in Kerrville. If you follow I10 out west over San Antonio you find Kerrville. They have one high school and last night we took our chairs and wine and sat and waited for the Homecoming Parade. The VFW float threw a tee shirt to Chuck who was wearing his cowboy-submarine hat! We ate great veal saltimboca last night at Bella Note restaurant and today, after a visit to the American west cowboy art museum, we visited the VFW For a few beers… … We are picnicing once again on the Guadeloupe. News of the horrible hurricane Matthew makes us sad and we turn our faces into the wind and ask God for peace. The Guadeloupe is calm, if ruffled a little by a front coming in. Thank heaven as this is lowering the Texas heat. So… We are waiting for a few more hours until we return to the town square for the art festival tonight. God bless our family on the east coast of Florida (Jacksonville) and then up the coast. Get thee gone storm. God bless you.

When we crossed over the state line into Texas, the scenery and road immediately changed. It is pretty obvious that Texas is a well managed state with money… and Arkansas … isn’t. We went to the information center and picked up a lot of paperwork on the hill country of Texas which is where we will spend 5 days before going to San Antonio. So we will have almost two weeks in hot weather in Texas! The pool was not open at our hotel here near Austin because they are painting it… I looked real sad and I asked if I could swim over at the Best Western (across the parking lot.) I continued to look sad so the desk girl upgraded us to a room with jaccuzi… The small jacuzzi pool calls and I must go. God protect the east coast of the US and let us pray for the Bahamas… they are taking a beating. God bless you.

Chuck and I are driving through middle America. Tennessee is long from east to west leading into Arkansas which leads into Oklahoma which has tornados. On I 40 (the old route 66) we discovered that Tennessee maintains the road, and Arkansas does not! You know sometimes when you go over a state line, the road changes, well this Arkansas part of I40 really is torn up. The speed limit was way under 70 and Chuck was pulled over as we bumped over the interstate… "You passed me," said the police officer… "Do you know how fast you were going?" he asked …. Both Chuck and I kind of shrugged… I would say, but didn’t say, "Interstate speed… " for Chuck about 80 miles per hour…. We don’t know how fast we were going… we were listening to a really exciting part of a Clive Custler novel on DVD… and I am sure police don’t want to hear that!!! The policeman took drivers license, insurance card, and registration back to his car and we sat waiting… feeling a little sad. I was thinking, "the ticket will be the cost of a few dinners on the road…" The police officer came back and said, "Drive slower, sir." and handed Chuck the license etc back. We hung our heads in shame… and drove off slowly. We don’t know why he let us go, but it went into the "Gratitude" book…. "Thank you dear Guardian angels"… We get off I40 here in North Little Rock and get onto I30 south to head into Texarcana and south past Dallas and into the Texas hill country. Tomorrow we will go to Luckenbach, Texas where Waylon, Willie and the boys sang!!!! The weather channel is full of Hurricane Michael and we hope our friends in Bahamas and on the east coast of the US especially my sister in Jacksonville are ready for the big blow… God bless you all and take care of you. Keep your powder dry.