At Home with Rick and Vicky

The trip back to our "ancestral" home in the Dallas/Ft Worth Metroplex took us on Interstate 20 through Pecos (no pleasant surprises here.) We needed an extra day in town to take care of our state vehicle inspections. Our permanent address is in Livingston, TX, so our TX registration requires an annual inspection whenever we are in-state. Then it was on to Abilene for the night. Here we had one of those "unpleasent" surprises that occassionally happens when traveling cross-country. Abilene is home to Dyess AFB, an active flight training site with at least one B1 bomber wing as well as large cargo planes attached to air transport operations. They practice touch-and-go's at all hours of the day and night (especially the night) and our RV was parked right on their approach pattern - a mere 500 feet below. Guess we were lucky to be on the landing side - the take-off end would have been REALLY loud.

We arrived at Cedar Hill State Park in the rolling hills of suburban south Dallas county on the shores of Lake Joe Pool. It is a very pretty area and only a few miles away from the home of our dear friends from our previous life - Rick and Vicky Bartosek. Rick and I worked together at the "bomber plant" for many years. While I bugged out after 25 years, Rick stayed on through retirement a few years ago. Friends and family ties keep them in their beautiful home - a really tough life.

Lots of time for some Wii games together. Rick has traded in his briefcase and computer manuals for a chef's coat (it's a real one) and a direct line to the Food Channel celebs.  The coat was joke from Vicky, and he really only digs it out only for special occassions. But it is a well-deserved accolade. No wonder his grilling at all those group get-togethers so many years ago ended up so much better than mine. "Come on over - I'll burn some chicken ."

Even got in some shopping/browsing/dining at a very nice local outdoor mall.

Oh, yeah....and lunch with my beautiful sister, Dr. Judie Gammage and one of her many grandkids Samantha Haney. We started making plans for her joining us along the road somewhere when she (FINALLY) retires from teaching next year.