JAN 12 page 1
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Jan 20
We left home this Friday morning towards a Sower project, Camp Baldwin, in Elberta, Alabama, just east of Mobile. Instead of driving the shortest route, which would take us through the centers of Louisiana and Mississippi, we decided to leave a couple of weeks early and visit some friends and family, then go south before going east to drive the Gulf shore.
Today, we stayed in College Station to visit first with
an old-time friend, Marilyn, that used to attend Aldersgate Church with us when
we lived in College Station. Then, we drove a few miles south to Navasota to
spend the rest of the day with Dorothy, another friend of the same period. We
were able to park outside her home overnight.
Jan 21
After breakfast with Dorothy, we
headed towards Brenham for a visit with friend Ray and his new wife LaVerne.
Ray and I developed a friendship back in 1987
or so, after each of us had lost our wives to cancer. Ray and LaVerne , his new
sweetheart, were very gracious to us, took us to a great Mexican restaurant and
reserved a spot for our camper at the Washington Fairgrounds in Brenham.
Jan 22
Up and at ‘em. We drove south to
Clear Lake, a suburb of Houston, to spend a short time with son Derek,
daughter-in-law Verr, and daughters Amelia and Eleanor.
Later that day, we stopped at the Wal-Mart in
Friendswood for an overnight stay.
Jan 23
To Galveston Island. Stopped at the Visitor Center on 25th street, and heard about the wood sculptures that were carved from trees fallen during Hurricane Ike. Some of the pictures here of these sculptures.
Apparently, a lady who lives in
this neighborhood saw some men carving trees in Mississippi, and convinced the
City of Galveston to commission them to do the same.
We were able to see one of these men working on a sculpture in a schoolyard, repairing some damage due to children who liked to climb on the piece. He told me how he treated the finished work to protect and preserve it, but was not hopeful that the structure underground would not soon rot. He did think that sometime in the near future, the works would be cut at ground level, placed on some solid surface and so preserved.
Taking a walk on the seawall, we
met a couple from British Columbia, Canada, who were taking a 4-month vacation
in the US with their newborn child. In BC, you get one year off when
you birth a child.
Got to the beach on 8-mile road,
and parked the camper on the sand.
Spend a few hours walking the shore, watching
birds, as well as a couple trying to surf the waves.
Back to
Wal-Mart on 67th
and Seawall to spend the night.