Balloon Fiesta--Enjoy!

Albuquerque, New Mexico Days 12-14

We flew from San Angelo to Albuquerque--really where this whole trip had it origins. Jim was with Hope Christian School in Washington, DC this last spring; and they invited him to come for a visit. They said we should come during the Balloon Fiesta; so that is just what we did. We landed on a Saturday afternoon and were picked up by the principal of the school who lent us a car to use while we were in New Mexico. On Saturday night we spent the night with two of Glenda's cousins. Now here is the unusual part: Liz is Jeannie Marie's sister (a McClure) and Craig is Glenda's Uncle James' son (a McKinley). Apparently, Glenda's grandad wasn't the only one drawn to a McClure (Grannymac). Keeping this all straight is not good for someone with Ol' Timers' disease. Craig's son told us all about the Balloon Fiesta and told us we better not miss it. They gave us directions to the park, and we were off at 6 a.m. to experience an extravaganza. We got there in time to see the dawn patrol rise into the air--about six or eight balloons to test the conditions aloft. It was something to see them fire their propane burners in their balloons against a black sky. I will show you some of those we were with while on this last segment of our trip, and then I will post several balloon pictures that you can enjoy. While at the school I was given the privilege of teaching 5 segments of 7th graders, and during my first class right outside the school's windows hundreds of balloons were rising in the sky.

San Angelo Days 9-11 Continued

Just a couple more pictures to make our stay in this wonderful town complete: 1) a picture of Glenda and her cousin, Conrad; 2) a picture of the fort; 3) a picture or two of the McClure family get together.

San Angelo Days 9-11

Our longest day of driving was from Perryton, Texas, near the Oklahoma border to San Angelo. We enjoyed the best fellowship together as we traveled by car during this trip. As we made our way south, we pulled into a little Texas town to have lunch to find it greatly depressed. As we continued toward San Angelo, many strip malls were boarded up. Prior to us leaving Oregon we seem to recall that Texas was one place that was supposedly doing better than other places in our nation. The scenery was beautiful, and there sure are a lot of wide open places. Where we had rented our car almost two weeks earlier was welcoming us back. While we were in San Angelo, we stayed with Glenda's cousin, Jeannie Marie and her husband Bud. The weather was hot but pleasant. We visited an old friend of the McKinley family who showed us where she lived as a little girl, and together we drove out to Glenda's mom's grave again. Later Jeannie Marie took us to meet a lady who was Glenda's playmate when she visited her grandparents on Baker Street as a little girl. We toured Fort Concho where Glenda's cousin, Conrad, just recently retired from. On another night we had dinner with a dear friend we palled around with when Jim was in the Air Force school at Goodfellow AFB. It was so good catching up on days gone by. On our last night in San Angelo we had a McClure family get together. This is a complicated relationship: 1) Glenda's grandmother died; 2) Glenda's grandfather (Jim McKinley) married Jeanette McClure, a spinster; 3) Glenda now had a new step grandmother we called Grannymac; 4) Through this marriage Glenda (and now Jim since Glenda was his wife) gained a whole lot of new relatives--hence, Jeannie Marie. We so appreciate her and are overjoyed when we get to visit each time. Jeannie Marie's mom, Francis, came to dinner on our last night in San Angelo. Oh, I should tell you there is one more connection to this whole story. You will discover that on our next blog segment.

Kansas/Texas Days 6-8

Well, our time in Wichita had come to an end, and we headed west in Kansas to Dodge City. (Some of you may well remember the "Gunsmoke" TV show with the Longbranch Saloon.) Our reason for stopping in Dodge City was to meet my cousin and her husband. They drove down from northern Kansas about two hours to have lunch with us on our trek across Kansas. What an enjoyable time reminiscing about her mom and dad who had a dairy farm when Jim visited them with his parents in 1966. After lunch we headed further west and made two side trips to take in some interesting sights. One was in Meade, Kansas where the Dalton Gang hideout was. Yep, we were tourists and enjoy every minute. Then we made our way a little further west to Liberal, Kansas where we visited Dorothy's house before she left for Oz. Unfortunately, it was closed the day we were there, but it was interesting nonetheless. On our final leg of day 6 we headed across Oklahoma again (only about 20 miles at his end) to Perryton, Texas. We were told during our stay with the Ball family that the wind is always blowing here. We had a wonderful respite and marvelous meals before we headed for our final stop in Texas--San Angelo, where it all started for Glenda and Jim 40 years ago.

Texas 2010--Day 3-5

We headed north from Garland, Texas toward Kansas. We had a beautiful drive passing through some torrential rain. Even though it was hot on this trip, we were never rained on while touring. The picture on top was taking while driving through Oklahoma; Glenda loves the scenery pictures. After about 4 hours we arrived in Derby, Kansas where we visited with another of Glenda's college friends. She had a whole tour planned for us to see Wichita. Jim had traveled to Kansas with his parents in 1966 where his mother had been born in Chanute. We attended a Pops concert, walked all around downtown, visited the original Coleman store, and watched the Air Force Thunderbirds perform in the skies above. I must say Glenda got better pictures of their performance than I did. Our nights were filled with playing Chicken Feet, a game with dominoes. Gayle and Ken were gracious hosts throughout our stay with them.

Texas 2010--Day 1-2

Our Texas trip this year began when Jim was invited to visit Albuquerque, New Mexico by a school he guided this spring. Yes, yes, we know that Albuquerque is not Texas. We flew into Austin and had a fabulous night with one of Jim's colleagues from WorldStrides. They picked us up at the airport, took us to their home, fed us, visited with us, and returned us to the airport in the morning. We flew to San Angelo via Dallas. We picked up our rental car and headed for Dallas (weren't we just there--well we don't do anything easily).

We arrived at Jack and Jennifer Ring's home just in time to catch the last ten minutes of a Bible study. We had a wonderful evening talking with Jack and getting caught up on things. The next day we drove to Fort Worth to meet Glenda's college roommate and her daughter. We had a delicious lunch and learned all that was going on in their lives. We prayed that the grace of Jesus would be seen through our lives. So after lunch we headed back to the Rings. We had a dinner prepared by Jack's daughter and then to bed so we could rise early and head north to Kansas.