TEXAS AIRSTREAM HARBOR AND BEYOND

On the Monday morning, March 3rd I left the ranch and headed North to Zavalla, TX. My destination was an Airstream Only RV Park on the shores of Sam Rayburn Reservoir. There are several Airstream Only parks around the country. They have been bought, built, and are maintained and staffed by fellow Airstreamers - as volunteers. So you have the camaraderie of fellow lovers of what my son calls "Aluminum Beercans" AND incredibly low rental rates.

I Blogged about my stays in other Airstream Parks in Christmas, Melbourne, and Mystic Springs,FL in March and April of 2007. I'm always looking for someplace to "winter", maybe on an annual basis. I'm on a waiting list for the Melbourne park.

This one was more of a residential park as several of the Airstream Owners had purchased single and double wides as permanent residences. But they all still owned and traveled in their trailers as well. Winters are too cold for me to consider this one - they got a light frost TWICE last year ! But it was a beautiful place to spend a few days in the spring.

And SPRING has arrived here - a field of yellow wildflowers




Close up




A view of the lake



I took a half day to ride the Honda through the "Piney Hills" of Texas. The forests are managed, I guess to grow power pole stock. Regular controlled burning keeps the underbrush down so there are miles and miles of what appears to be beautiful pine forest parkland.

Memphis had been the next planned stop. But it was only a couple of hours off route to stop at Hatfield, AR. It's the home of the Christian Motorcycle Association. I joined the Roanoke Chapter last fall after attending a couple of meetings and a Rally with Morris Figueiredo. In November I completed my training for the Children's Ministry and received my Certificate in March. I haven't been to any activities yet, but I'm looking forward to going to a lot of them very soon.

I arrived in Hatfield during a raging snowstorm. Not something I had ever planned to tackle with the Airstream in tow. The folks at Headquarters were very friendly and offered to let me stay on their property. But they also said that they planned to leave early and wouldn't be in on Friday because of the snow. So I bought my "Colors" to put on my jackets and headed to a WalMart. This is what it looked like the next morning.



I stayed at WalMart until Saturday morning. The ride through the Ouachita Mountains was spectacular. As the temperature went up a little, the snow started dropping from the trees and it was like driving through a giant pillow fight.

ON TO MEMPHIS !

SARA AND SAYLOR

My last Blog was about the 5 days I spent on a ranch near Houston with friends. Our hostess was Teen Corey. One of the people I am privileged to call a friend was her 14 yr Grandson, Saylor. He was born, with his twin sister, Sara at 26 weeks, 1 lb 3 oz. each.

Grandma talked about holding them each in the palm of her hand and their little feet resting on her wrist. Their Dr. wasn't encouraging but he told Grandma, "No one else here believes this, but I KNOW that these babies need human contact, especially for the first few hours of life. Please sit and just touch their tiny finger. YOUR LOVE WILL FLOW into them and, if they're going to survive, it will be a major help." He told all the nurses to let this lady and the twins' Mother (who in a few days was back on her feet after delivery)to stay in the Neo-natal unit any time they wanted. So she sat there, day after day with an incredibly small finger between hers. Sara actually dropped below a pound before she started gaining weight.

I was Blessed to spend a week with them three years ago this June. Saylor is blind. Sara has a mild case of Cerebral Palsy. They are both incredible, typical young teenage kids.

Saylor's grandma told me he wanted to be a DJ. I talked with him about it. I told him girls just didn't "dig" DJ's and he has a great singing voice. Why did he stop singing and practicing his guitar? He said he just got lazy. But when I asked him about being a DJ, he said that was just a step to becoming a radio station owner. I asked him, "Where would you like to do that?" And he said, "Lots of stations in lots of different cities." He talked about having some stations not only carry the music across the air waves, but to gear towards the needs of the blind, by having scheduled air time to read the daily newspaper and to have "novel readings". And I believe he will do it.

We went for a long motorcycle ride. I learned that I couldn't make any really quick turns because although he KNEW that he was supposed to sit right behind me and lean with me, his reactions took over and if I leaned quickly, for just an instant he'd lean the other way. I thought about what kind of a passenger I'd be on a motorcycle at 60 mph with a blindfold. I don't think I could do it.

Grandpa got a 10 hole putting green for his birthday. Saylor and I did a little putting. I'd line him up and then tap the pole in the cup.

He beat me.

What an inspiration for all of us.

And two real, LIVE reasons to say "OH YEAH???" to abortionists who say we aren't killing babies at 26 weeks.