Texas - July 2023

After our fabulous trip to the Galapagos, we spent a week in Texas getting organized, catching up with friends and celebrating a few family events.  Most of our stuff was put in storage but we had our clothes and about 15 boxes of stuff at Keith's parents house - so we got all of that organized, putting some of it back in the storage unit to access later when needed.  We split our time in Texas with a week trip to Louisiana to see Shawna's mom.

While in TX, we spent time doing the following:

• Possum Kingdom Lake - We spent a day at the lake with the Rixens - Christine, Graham, and Jackie - and Keith's parents.  We drove down in the morning, arriving around noon, and got a tour of the house since we had not been there since they had completed some remodeling.  It was fascinating to also see how many new houses had been built in the area.  We had a light lunch of cheese, bread and salmon, went for a boat ride, swam in the lake and did a little paddle boarding.  We then had dinner - chicken and salads that we brought with us - and drove back to Dallas.

The Rixens at Possum Kingdom

• July 4th BBQ - We celebrated at Peter and Jen's house and got to see the entire family.  We swam in the pool (or rather stood in it to cool off) and then had a yummy lunch of bar-b-cued brisket and salads.  We got to see their new RV which is beautiful and enormous!

Phoenix Clan

• Belated Father's Day - We took Dick out for a belated Father's Day dinner to Quarter Acre in Dallas - a restaurant that Graham had recommended as he knows the chef.  Margaret also joined us.  We shared a couple of nibbles and sides and the 48 hour ribs for  an entree - everything was very good.  The chef sent out a few items comped which was very nice. 

Dinner at Quarter Acre

• Belated 80th Birthday Party - Jean's friend Lynn threw her a belated 80th birthday party so we went along with Margaret to join in on the fun. It was great to catch up with several of the people there - some of which we had not seen since our wedding! We dined on heavy appetizers and had a few glasses of wine.

Jean's 80th Bday Party

Our last two days in TX was spent packing up for our next adventure - 3 weeks in CO and WY followed by 2.5 months working at Graham's place. We originally were only going to pack everything in the car but then realized we needed to rent a trailer and then Keith upgraded the size of the trailer from a 4x8 to a 5x8! So with everything packed, we headed out on Sunday morning to drive to Graham's where we were going to drop off most of our stuff before heading to CO.  Dick joined us for the drive as he was going to spend a few days at Graham's setting up a few things for him.

Pulling away for CO and NM adventure