The Ranch

We got a load offer shortly after I settled in and was prepared to stay in Houston. Our load was a military load picking up Monday at Lackland AFB and delivered Tuesday in Florida at another AFB.

Lackland AFB is in San Antonio. And since this was Friday we drove over to Tate and Shirley’s ranch to spend the weekend. Oh Boy, I am so totally happy now, except for one thing, Shirley is away for the weekend. She had traveled to her family’s home in Mississippi for her nephew’s graduation.

Oh well, I am still going to enjoy this weekend. I love it here.

Tate had made plans to rent a backhoe for the weekend and he had some projects lined up for himself. So Pops and I occupied ourselves. But we did not mind one little bit.

We got there Saturday morning at about 1am. So we slept until around 8 in the morning when Tate got awake and was ready to work.

The dogs ran around and just loved the freedom and exercise. They totally wore themselves out this weekend.

Pops and I relaxed and enjoyed the sun, the wildlife (we saw turkeys, coyotes, rabbits, turtles, and saw signs of the wild hogs.) I also got to do some homecooking which I love to do.

Tate worked from early in the morning until almost dark. Then he came up and ate with us. He is working on his pond. He is trying to make it deeper on the one end and keep it from drying up in the summer. He is also doing some landscape work around it that will make it look really good when it is all finished.

Shirley has wild turkeys there that come around and she does not allow hunting of them so they aren’t bothered by human presence. Pops had such a good time keeping track of the hen and gobbler that came around several times while we were there. We did get some good pictures of the gobbler.

At one point while we were watching him strut around with his tail all fanned out, he suddenly ran away. We looked behind us and saw a coyote running across the field. Hmmmm.

Sunday morning, after much thought, we decided to go to a new church that had been started that was a lot closer to Tate and Shirley’s place. We sure did have a hard decision to make because we really like Evers Road Christian Church, but we decided on the new, closer one.

It is called Lifebridge Christian Church and it is in Schertz, TX. They are meeting right now in the Senior Center in Schertz. It is still a small congregation, but everyone was really friendly and nice.

The evangelist there is doing a series on improving one’s self and this week he was talking about Being a good parent. He brought out many good points and his sermon was very good. Next week his sermon is about Excelling on the job. I would really like to hear that one also.

I liked this church and we will attend there whenever we are at Tate and Shirley’s for the weekend.

After church we went to the grocery store to get some stuff for lunch and supper and some other supplies that we needed. I was so proud of myself for finding our way around. But that all dissolved when I was sure I exited the store by the same door that I went into, but I couldn’t find Pops or the car. I walked all over the lot, pushing my cart of groceries until I was almost in a panic. Now I can relate to early Alzheimer’s disease. I finally had to call Pops and tell him that I couldn’t find him.

He told me to walk back to the door with the blue awning. That is where I came out, he walked to the same door. It turns out that it was the right door, but it was a corner door with parking on both sides of the store and I went to the wrong parking lot when I came out of the door. Oh well.

We finally retraced our way back to Tate’s ranch and had lunch with Tate and James, the young man that helps Tate at the ranch.

After lunch Pops took a short nap and I read my book and soaked up as much real sunshine as I could. The day went by so quickly.

Toward evening I fixed supper of homemade spaghetti sauce and cooked some spaghetti noodles. I also sliced some cucumbers and made a dressing for on them. And I baked some bread. Oh yeah, supper was good.

Shirley’s plane was getting in the next morning at 9am and we told Tate that we would pick her up so that he could stay and continue his work uninterrupted. But her plane wasn’t getting in until 9:55 which is 10:55 eastern time and if she was delayed at all or had any trouble collecting her bags it would cause us to be late for our pickup at the military base. So Tate had to go get her.

So we used the morning to watch the turkey and then to fill up our water tank. And allow the dogs a little more runaround time. All to soon it was time to go.

We got to the AFB and of course drove all around the place until we found the right building to pick up. The paperwork always takes so long on these military loads and then there is extra computer work too because of the satellite surveillance. But we got moving after about 1 ½ hours since arriving there.

We were meeting up with Shirley for just a few minutes so that she could give us some stuff that she had for us. We each got a new Fedex shirt too.

It was good to see her. But this is two times in a row that I only got to see her for a few minutes. We really would like to go to the flea markets so we NEED to get together soon.

Pops and I agreed that I would drive to exit 59 off route 10 in Louisiana. What a coincidence that is where I buy boudin when we go through here. I was worried that it would be all gone when we got there because it would be around 9pm. But it wasn’t. There was plenty.  Oh, jalapeño boudin balls are so good. I also bought some cracklin’s and a Cajun blackberry pie. Yum yum.

Right before I went to bed Pops stopped so I could take the dogs out one more time. He pulled on the edge of an exit ramp. I looked up and noticed the road sign. It pointed to a destination called, Infinity. I thought that was funny, so I took a picture and put it on facebook with a caption that read, We are going to Infinity and beyond.

When I woke up Pops was calling my name. He said he called 4 times. I was sleeping good, haha. We were only 8 miles from Hurlburt Field AFB. So I got up and made some coffee and took the dogs out. When we got to the base, they searched our truck and checked our ID and gave us the password to get through the next guard gate.

So after spending forever at the pickup, we got unloaded and left this base in less than 15 minutes.

We were offered Mobile, AL as our layover. So we drove there. We were offered a few loads on our way there but none of them were interesting to us. We have to keep in mind that we are going home so we have to work that direction. I sure hope and pray it all works out. I can’t wait to see my kids and sleep in my bed.