So, what are we doing between football games?

Well, in addition to bicycling and the Tuesday night book club, Captain also meets Thursday mornings for doughnuts with his high school buddies. 

Sundays we attend the early (like in 8:00 a.m.) church services at Our Saviors Lutheran Church. Why the early service, it’s the traditional one. Knowing we will hear a good sermon makes setting the alarm clock a little more agreeable. Pastor Pat McLaughlin is a retired Navy chaplain with two tours of deployment in Iraq and one tour as chaplain at Camp David. He is the author of No Atheists in the Foxholes. Worshiping with family adds another level to the spirituality that feeds our souls.

Captain has his mom’s to-do list, (only a little over two weeks left in CS, there are still several things left to cross off.)

With help from brother, Rex, the major project of removing the old and building a new planter box has been completed.

ABN is doing most of the cooking (okay, Captain is doing a bit of grilling on The Little Green Egg) and helping a little with the house work. She would happily do more of the cleaning but Captain’s 88-year old mother has a convincing argument that if she quits doing it she might not be able to start again. Taking advantage of down-time, ABN is working on her drawing and other 

craft projects.

When in Kansas earlier in our trip, ABN was gifted this sweet little Singer Featherweight that once belonged to Captain’s grandmother. It was originally purchased in October of 1953. In addition to learning how to operate it, she is having a grand time learning the history of the Featherweight which was produced between 1938 and 1968. Did you know there is a little cult of Featherweight owners and they have their own Facebook page?

We are  playing a lot of pinochle and Texas 42 dominoes.

And, of course, there are naps and/or reading time every afternoon. ABN has finished The Bregdan Chronicle series by Giny Dye and The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck. She is looking for another good read, considering Three Daughters by Consuelo Saah Baehr; have any of you read it? Captain has finished Exodus by Leon Uris and is currently reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (which is an excellent book.) After nap/reading time we watch Jeopardy and then it is nearly wine time, followed by dinner and sports on T.V. Not a bad retirement life!

We have just about recovered from the whipping Alabama gave the Aggies last weekend. The kind words from Coach Saban went a long way toward our healing. Tomorrow the team travels to Ole Miss, hopefully Kyle Allen will be able to find and hit a target.

How's the cycling?

Not bad; indeed not bad at all.

Since College Station is a university town it is bicycle friendly with lots of bike lanes and bike paths.

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The terrain is flat.

It appears to be a large cycling community. We joined a couple hundred other cyclists for the Rotary Charity Bike Ride last week.

Even though there are about 60,000 students on campus, cycling around the campus was not crowded.

One of the many bicycle parking stations around campus.

 The massive 100 year plus Live Oak on campus is a favorite spot for photos.

Seeing the Corps around campus is a site of which we never tire.

We would like to say it is a beautiful place to ride, well..., in addition to the campus, there are a few pretty views.

The Tide is rolling in for tomorrow’s big game. Gig’em Aggies!

Greetings from College Station

Where we will be donning the maroon and white for the next few weeks.

The renovated Kyle Field. So sweet to be there for the win over Mississippi State last weekend. 

Tipsy Tuesday joins The Book Club at Carney's Pub and Grill. And what might the book be?  Wuthering Hops by Emily Brewske.

That's a wrap, Texas style.

On to Aggieland

Since our last post we have wandered across the Mojave Desert of southern California, through the mountains and desert of northern Arizona with a stop at the Petrified National Forest and Painted Dessert. 

(Had to practice restraint to not share the hundreds of photos taken here as it is a spectacular natural wonder.)

As we made our way across the Navajo Nation, over the mountains and through the caverns of New Mexico, we payed heed to the rattlesnake warnings at the rest stops.

Crossing the Rio Grande, driving through the White Sands Missile Range, and over the Sacramento Mountains we found our way to Andrews, Texas where we shared Tipsy Tuesday with good friends.

We meandered through the oil fields and windmill farms of west Texas and through Texas Hill Country on into Aggieland where we will stay put during a stretch of home football games. 

Gig'em Aggies!