Wednesday started very early with the 7:56 am arrival of the 8:15 am flight! We hurried to arrive on time and then came back home after a brief swing through our area where we stopped for a coffee out on the patio of a local eatery. Later we picked up Gerre, went back to the airport for her sister and niece and headed to The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. We spent a full day at the rodeo canvassing the vendors, watching the entire rodeo and staying for 3/4s of The Band Perry's concert performance. It appears if you can stay on the bull for the full 8 seconds, in any riding form, you are in! Only a few riders did. It was a long and enjoyable day for everyone and we headed home.
Thursday we headed to Huntsville to visit the Sam Houston statue and museum. We spent time in town for lunch, introducing Tim to chicken fried steak, and visiting some of the antique stores. Tim found a hand carved duck for his collection and Ted bought me a lamb cake mold. My Aunt Ret (Henrietta) made a lamb cake for all my children's First Communion parties. She also handmade their rosary. I still have my crystal aquamarine one she made for my 8th grade graduation in 1959. Aunt Ret taught a lady I met years later in Michigan how to make rosaries. Pat has just finished Morgan's rosary for her May 5 First Communion. The lamb cake mold will be such a great reminder of those wonderful days when we lived close to Aunt Ret in Cincinnati.
Off we went to George Ranch in Richmond on Friday, another long day. We saw the roping, dipping, hide scraping, blacksmithing as well as touring three of the four houses before we ran out of time.
Our company is so impressed with the wide open spaces and all the livestock so close to the country's fourth largest city. We came home west of the city to avoid rush hour traffic and stopped in Brookshire for pizza. It was late when we got back home.
Saturday we drove east to the Opry in Liberty. The Magnolia Opry shut down and we certainly miss it. We've been wanting to try the Liberty or Alvin one and this was a great opportunity. Tim got a kick out of the political incorrectness of some of the announcements from the stage such as having the veterans stand and then the MC saying "We are going to pray now, these fellows fought for our right to do that, so if you're offended, they fought for your right to leave the auditorium until we are finished." Of course no one left and we said a prayer for our country and our servicemen.
The show was 3.5 hours long and was so entertaining. Again, Tim was amazed that you could have that period of time of live performance for $15. He is liking Texas and keeps looking at all the land with cattle. He'd love to have a small ranch. We grilled some brats when we got back home and put out all the leftovers so far and finished a lot of them off.
Today we went to church and then to the Sunny Flea Market north of Houston. It was like being dropped into the middle of underdeveloped Mexico. Tim got his hat and boots while Cindy bought some gifts for their children. I bought a "bling" necklace to wear to the Junior Forum Gala the end of this month. We ate at a Taqueria but we're not sure just what it was. As much as we've eaten in Mexican restaurants, this was more pointing to what we wanted put into the tortilla and hoped for the best. We spiced it up with pico de gallo and such and it was pretty good. It is a huge market and after almost five hours of walking, we were pooped.
I slipped in my monthly bunco game Monday morning while Tim and Ted put a shelf up in Ted's room to hold his trophies. I ran out of room to display them. Then Tim climbed up and cleaned out the rain diverter above the family room door. It gets so filled with pine needles and he could see them hanging out the ends. He also took the screens in my dishwasher out so I could clean them and touched up the paint on the front fence a bit. His help was much appreciated.
After a quick lunch, we headed to Tomball to check out the little town and antique stores. Tim loves to browse these areas and he found a reproduction of the Remington bronze, Bronco Buster. Based on what we researched on the internet, he did OK on the price. An auction house near them is auctioning #37 of 90 of the authentic Remington and it is expected to go for $200,000-$300,000! They will be loaded down when they get on the airplane.
NASA was our intended trip today but there was terrible weather predicted so we stayed home this morning and had a big breakfast. The radar showed the edge of the storm near Brenham so we headed west figuring we would drive out of the rain and we did!
We walked all around the town square stopping in many of the stores. When it got to be close to 4:00 we drove to Carmine and hit a couple antique stores before eating at JW's Steakhouse. We each had a few packages and everyone was happy with their purchases.
I checked today's flight status and the planes are back on schedule after the delays of the past two days. Cindy and Tim are due back at work tomorrow. We've had a wonderful week with them and they realize there is way more to see in this area. They want to meet us in the valley next winter so I hope they can work that out. We've had a great time showing off Texas to a couple of Hoosiers.
Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.-- Gustave Flaubert
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