January begins in Southeast Texas ...

We are back together in our "pack" of 5 .... Jeff, me, Peg, Kent and Trip. Trip is really happier when his "pack" is all together. When we break up and go our separate ways, he misses the group! What a dog! We took route 59 south out of Nacogdoches and got through Houston with no sweat. The trick to most large cities is to plan to hit then on a Sunday afternoon. It works for Houston, anyway. We wound up in a town called Edna ... north of Victoria and closer to the Gulf. Like so many towns in Texas, it looks as though it has seen it's glory days well before WWII ... maybe in the 1920's and 1930's. People still call it home and are proud to live there, but it is really a place that is "on the way to somewhere else". We went out to dinner at a little local Mexican restaurant, and got to talking to one of the other diners. He told us about a place called Brackenridge Park ... a County run recreation area that was just down the road from the campground we were in. Now ... shady Oaks was OK ... it was just a stopping off place for a night or two. But there was not a great deal to recommend it, and it had a bit of a "Deliverance" feel to it.

We hopped down the road about 10 miles and found Brackenridge to be fantastic.

Brackenridge has a HUGE lake that is part of the water management effort in this county. It is a

giant recreation area and wildlife area. There are lots of great campsites. Plenty of space for big rigs, back-ins for trailers and 5th wheels, tent sites, etc. Very well maintained roads, nice gravel paths for hiking or biking, miniature "Gator golf", Frisbee Golf, a Paintball area!!!, basketball, boating, fishing ... AND there is a huge arena / livestock facility just down the road, where there are rodeos and horse events that all the folks in the area attend.

Now, in case you think we were romping around in shorts and flip flops, let me tell you that we were not. It was cold ... and rainy ... and windy.

We watched a lot of movies and read a lot of books. Jeff was getting rather testy.

Here is a photo of Trip modeling the custom raincoat that Peg fashioned for him.

He is such a very good dog, and endlessly patient. But Jeff and I are totally happy to be his "Godparents" and enjoy taking him for walks and bike rides when we feel like it ... and not have to be responsible for him endlessly. We are just too lazy.

But we will hunker down and wait for the weather to improve. It is unseasonably cold here. Folks with no heaters in their homes (and there are plenty of them!) are suffering. Most folks have no need for central heating ... just air conditioning. So, when the temperatures dip below freezing, they can only pile on the clothes and wait things out.

Kent got a call from Kansas City that his Aunt is very ill. He wound up flying there for however long it takes to get her well, or deal with the alternative. His mom is living at the same facility and he needs to be able to help her calm down and deal with what may be the final illness of her sister-in-law and old friend. We are cold ... he is freezing his tail off!! Loads of snow and blowing winds and such. Jeff and Peg and I are just hanging out with Trip and waiting for our "pack" to get back together. We will see what we can get into on our own.

Stay tuned!!!