Friday

Hello Spring!!

I drove around Lufkin a little before leaving town. This are the azaleas on the side of the house I grew up living in...boy, have times changed!

I then drove to Nacogdoches to go to the Azalea Festival that I had seen advertised on a billboard driving up from Houston. Nacogdoches is where Mike lived for several years before his family moved to Lufkin when he was in the 9th grade. It is the oldest town in Texas and still has brick streets in the downtown area.

I got some information and drove one of the three driving tours through out the town. Some many of the homes were full of color...this is just a sample.

Then I went to an 8 acre public azalea garden...again so many beautiful colors and so many varieties of azaleas as well as hydrangeas, magnolias, iris, etc. It was pleasant to be able to walk the trails and enjoy God's magnificent beauty in the flowers and in the gorgeous weather.

I then headed to Tyler where I was staying with Mike's aunt. Along the way, I stopped at a Texas landmark...Dairy Queen!

E and I had a great visit and a good meal at a cafeteria before we returned to her house for a piece of delicious homemade lemon pie. It's always fun to be with her and be the beneficiary of her warm hospitality. Sorry I didn't get a picture of her to add to this.

Thursday

This morning, we went to the pig barn is shifts...Payne and Jon first, Kelly and Jackson 2nd, and finally me. Our first order of business was to see their cousin show his pig. The judge told him that his pig was "too tight", so we put all of our chips on Jackson and his pig!

We went back to the room and packed up and got ready to check out...a miscommunication on the reservation. Kelly and Jackson on the tram ride to the arena.

We went back to the pig barn and spent our time doing various things. Such a variety of activities going on...washing heifers...

playing "king of the shavings pile"...

chicks being hatched...

Payne being the rodeo clown...

the family before Jackson time in the show ring...


Finally, it was time for Jackson and his "dark cross" to show their stuff. He's in the long-sleeved green shirt.

This time the judge said "too fat a belly", so Jackson's pig was sent to the truck like so many others!

It was time for goodbys before they drove southwest and I drove north. I got to stay with great friends in Lufkin.

Wednesday, Part 2

We were back over at the pig barn to learn that the remaining pig was having some intestinal issues so Jon was giving him Kaopectate and hoping that would help him feel better. After walking around a little ...

we were ready to go to the rodeo for the evening. Most of the events were on one end of the arena or the other but the barrel racing was in the middle.

At the end of the rodeo, there was a calf scramble and a mutton busting...both were lots of fun to watch.

Then it was time for the entertainment...Gary Allen was on tap for tonight. The lighting for the stage wasn't working for my camera, but was able to get one of the big screen.

We stayed for about 20 minutes of his concert and then headed out. Jon and Payne went back to check on the pig and the rest of us came back to the room so we could get ready for another day!

Wednesday, March 18

This morning Jon went early to the pig barn to get the pig ready to show today. Kelly and Payne followed later and Jackson and I went to Micky D's before going over.

Payne showed his pig around 10:30 he wasn't in the ring too long before the judge said that his pig was "too round". Jon had thought that was a good thing, but obviously the judge thought otherwise. (Sorry that the pictures are too dark...I don't have Picasa on this laptop.)

So Payne's pig was sent to the truck and everyone was disappointed. Now we'll wait until tomorrow for Jackson to show his pig.

We rode the tram back as far as we could and then walked to the hotel.

Everyone was getting hungry so we went to Pappasitto's for Mexican where we all (or at least I did) pigged out! After a rest, we went back over to the Stock Show.

This will be continued tonight after the rodeo.

I'm Here to See the Pigs

This morning I flew to Houston where Payne and Jackson are going to be showing their pigs at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. After I arrived at their hotel, we walked over to Astro Hall here the livestock is penned. We went to their pigs pen where the pigs were fed, watered, weighed, and walked. We walked around the area that had a variety of things for sell from cowboy hats, pots and pans, jewelry, clothes, sparkly things,boots, food,etc. We stopped for a Marble Slab Creamery cone and cup and walked around so more. After dealing with the pigs again, we came back to the room.


It was time to fill out the March Madness brackets as the games were beginning tonight. The younger generation goes about it in a different manner:

For dinner we went to Rice Village where some went to Chinese and some went to La Madeline's where I had tomato basil soup and Cesar salad. Everything was very good.

Time for bed...Payne shows his pig tomorrow morning sometime.

Day 4

After breakfast at the hotel, we drove to Dunedin where we drove thought their historic town. We then went to Honeymoon Island and walked on the northern most part of the beach that was all shells, no sand.

We tried to take the ferry to Caladesi Island, which has been named the #1 beach in the US, but it didn't work out for us. The noon ferry had just left and the 12:30 ferry was sold out so it would have been 1:00 before we could have gone to the island. Instead, we went to another beach on Honeymoon Island, rented chairs and an umbrella and got to use them for 2 hours. This gave us plenty of time to read and take naps!

When our time was up, we drove back to Tarpon Springs and went to the Greek Orthodox Cathedral...a beautiful and ornate facility.

We noticed on the top of the bell tower, there was an osprey who had a fish up there. Not sure if it was breaking off pieces for babies or for itself. But it was interesting to watch.

We stopped for supper at Cody's...yes, that's where we ate last night. We were eating around 3:45 p.m...we may be the Seinfields but we did not have on white tube socks or white tennis shoes with velcro! Mike had a steak with a baked potato and I had some steak bites with a baked sweet potato.

After we got back to the "resort", we were able to get in a round of golf.

It's going to be an early night for us because we have a 7:40 a.m. flight back to Tennessee. This has been a fun few days...especially the warm weather which we may not have when we get back home.

Thanks for coming along with us.

Day 3, part 2

Yesterday we went to see the Braves play the Phillies at the Phillies spring training site. We were there 1 1/2 hours before game time so we could watch batting and fielding practice and walk around the stadium.

Chipper wasn't there...playing the World Baseball Classic before he got hurt. Jeff played along with the other starters for 4 innings when the score was 10-2.

We saw many new faces and names with Jason Heyward standing out. There were several of the players who wore their pants pulled up, so they quickly became my favorites! (I'm old school!) We had good seats that we got when we got there at the ticket booth...4 rows from the Braves dug-out. The weather was great..sunny and from 75-80 degrees. It was a sell out game..8,300, with the majority of those being for the Phillies. The final score was 12-10...Braves win, Braves win.

We had made connections earlier with some very dear friends from our days in Waco. Our girls are the same ages, so we did lots of things with them during our time in Waco and we have all stayed in touch through the years. We met them for supper last night at Cody's Original Roadhouse. The wait was long, but that was OK since it gave us time to visit.

After a wonderful dinner of fajitas, we continued our visit.

It was a good day but late when we got home. Old people need their sleep, so that's why this is being done on Thursday morning before we head out for another great day.