June 6-13 2026 Peyton /Luke Huntsville State Park

 We got Peyton and Luke on Saturday.  It has rained so much they really couldn't do much outside, I set up an old TV in my study so they could hook up their x=box.  Luke can play video games all day but Peyton not soo much. We spent Sunday loading the truck and trailer to go camping. Susan was headed to a quilt retreat and the boys and I were headed to Huntsville State Park. We left Monday morning and got to the park about 1:00 pm. We got set up pretty quickly. Peyton loves to do stuff like that but Luke not so much. We had a nice shady waterfront site .  All the boys did for the next 4 days were bike riding and swimming. Peyton fished a little bit. We went back home on Friday and I took them back to Rhondas on Sunday.

August 12-16 Lake Georgetown and Austin High School Volleyball Tournament

 We left on Wednesday headed to Cedar Breaks COE on Lake Georgetown.  We are staying there so we can watch Sammi play volleyball. They have a 3 day high school tournament in Round Rock even though its called an Austin Invitational tournament. We stopped in Chappel Hill and ate lunch, this is one our favorite places to eat. We rolled onto camp about 3:00 pm, It was about a 101 degrees. I was totally soaked by the time I got the trailer set up,  We had a nice shady site which helped. We didn't go anywhere that evening, once I cooled off and took a shower I was wasted. Luckily we had leftovers from lunch. Thursday morning we had an 8:00 game, 11:00 game and a 1:00 game.  as usual things got backed up and we didn't get back to the trailer till 5:00.  We lost all 3 games. It was 102 when we got home. I took Cooper for a walk since he had been in all day and there wasn't a dry thread on me when I got back.  It was too dang hot to cook outside.  We just had sandwiches for supper. We were back at it again Friday morning. Another long day, we played 3 games and finally won one. Saturday started at 8 am.  We went 3-0 and finally looked decent playing.  We got up Sunday morning and came home. Just too Hot to be camping.

May 6-11 Mackenna"s Graduation

 On Wednesday we met Kenna for brunch in College Station. After that she drove us around so we would know where to go and park for her Nursing Ceremony at Rudd Auditorium and then later at Reed Arena.  That evening we just chilled around camp. Thursday morning we got to Kennas condo at 8:30 am. We took her car to the nursing ceremony because its much easier to park than my truck. There were 150 in the school of nursing.  Mackenna received the " Daisy Award" for the nursing school. She was very surprised as no one knew. After that we went and had lunch on campus. After lunch I drove all the old people to Reed Arena. Kenna and the rest of the family walked. We had Susans Handicap placard so we were able to park very close and get right in.  It was a full house and took about 3 hours.  After that we all went back to Kennas condo for a family supper. Mike/Kristi had Rudys Bbq catered in.  It was a great day. Lots of pictures but I'm only going to put a few on here. Friday we were pretty tired and didn't move much all day. For some reason my left heel started hurting and I was hobbling around.  Saturday was not much better, I pretty much stayed in my chair all day. I was somewhat better Sunday morning.  We decided to load up and go home.  There was supposed to be bad weather that night . Thought I would get loaded up while it was still dry.  It was an easy drive home. My foot was too bad to unload anything but I did unhook the truck. When we got up Monday morning we had about 2 inches of rain. Somerville had received about 5 inches I was glad we missed that.

May 4-5 On The Road Again Lake Somerville

 It"s been a rough year so far. Susan has had health issues with two hospital stays and our house AC finally died after 26 years.  We put a complete new AC/furnace and duct work in. Susan is improving steadily so we are making our first trip in awhile.  Our oldest granddaughter is graduating from Texas A/M so we are staying on Lake Somerville and then going to graduation from there. We got on the road Monday morning. It was an easy drive. We stopped in Chapell Hill and had lunch. It"s one of our favorite places to stop as the little cafe is good and I can pick up a little sausage for the trip. There is also plenty of room to park the truck and trailer. We pulled into the park about 2:00.  We got in site 15 which is nice and long, shaded with a great view of the lake. It was overcast with a nice breeze. I didn't have to cook supper as we had plenty of leftovers from lunch. Tuesday was another nice day.  Cooper and I took several walks. We saw lots of deer feeding thruout the park.  We drove over to Rocky Creek Coe Park to look around. It's a much bigger park the Yegua where we are staying. After that we drove to the Nails Creek campground in the Lake Somerville State Park .. You definitely have to be going there to find it. Its an equestrian park and most of the campsites have corrals for your horses. There is a 13 mile trail to the other campground which is Birch Creek. Verizon has no cell service in this area so we wouldn't stay here but its well kept.   We just chilled around in camp the rest of the evening. We just ran to Dairy Queen in Somerville for supper.

Jan 27-31 Unexpected Surgery

 Susan has been having problems since June. She has had heaviness in legs, fatigue, chest pain at times, dizziness .  At first we thought it could be altitude sickness as we were in Wyoming and Colorado till Aug 1.  After we got home it came and went for awhile. She started having issues walking. We started seeing doctors in September.  Our family Dr ran all kinds of blood tests and she had high iron. He also sent us to a cardiologist to get a complete heart checkup. By January her blood levels were normal and all the heart tests finished and they were fine. She continued to get worse with walking and some imbalance.  She got in to see a neurologist on Jan 13 ,  He sent us to get and MRI of her brain and spine. We got both of those done on Jan 22.  Monday evening we had a voice mail we didn't see untill about 7:30 pm from our Neurologist saying  he had just read her MRI and we needed to go to the nearest Herman Memorial ER and check in and have them contact neurosurgery to read her test results. We decided to wait till the next morning and go to Herman Memorial in the Woodlands.  We showed up the next morning at about 9:30 am. We showed our message to the ER Checkin person. They checked us right in. The ER doc came in and we showed him the message and told our story.  A neurosurgeon PA came in and read the tests. He said they would be admitting her to the hospital. She had a cervical spine compression. Basically she had a disc pressing against her spinal cord. They said if she fell or was in a wreck it could really damage the spinal cord leading to being paralyzed.   Kristi came and while she was there I headed home, got some clothes and Cooper. I took Cooper to Kristis and head back to hospital. She was ina room when I got there. They did surgery Thursday morning, She got some new hardware in her neck. Everything went well. After getting out of recovery she said the heaviness in her legs were 90% gone. Friday morning Physical Therapy got her up and walking. She is using a walker till she gets her confidence and strength back.  She has to wear a neck brace for 6 weeks. She doesn"t have to wear it sleeping. We checked out Satruday and went home.  Things are looking up now. The only downside is we are probably done going to volleyball tournaments with Sammi this season. Susan cant afford to get bit in the head with an errant volleyball. If you have ever been to a tournament you will know what I mean. Also no trips for awhile, hoping to still make a spring break trip but its still up in the air.

Jan 15-19 2026 Lake Georgetown and Austin Volleyball Tournament

Wednesday was a little chaotic. Normally I have most everything ready to travel. We just had so much going on I had to load everything in one day. We also had been without cell service for two day because Verizion was having problems. About 2:00 pm I went to put my hitch on my truck and somehow I had misplaced the sleeve I needed. My truck is a 1 ton and has a 3 inch receiver so I need the sleeve to fit the trailer receiver. I headed to town hoping Tractor Supply would have one. I got about 4 miles down the road and it was shutdown due to a wreck. I could see it would be awhile so I turned around and went back thru Raywood to Liberty. Finally at Tractor Supply I got the only sleeve left that would fit my truck. I headed back home , took a chance that the wreck would be cleared up but nope still shut down. Turned around and went back the long way. Finally got everything hooked up and loaded except our cold goods. Thursday morning we got on the road about 9:30 am. Traffic was pretty good so it was an easy drive. We stopped in Giddings at the Dairy Queen for lunch, it has trailer parking in back so its easy. Filled the truck up with gas and headed on. We got to Jim Hogg Park on Lake Georgetown about 2:30 pm. It was our first time to stay here and it was really nice. We got a great spot right on the lake. Great spot for winter camping but would be hot in summer as no shade. There were not many folks here and they were mostly snowbirds. It was a beautiful day. Friday morning was pretty cold and the wind picked up pretty good. We stayed in camp all day. Susan did some sewing and Cooper and I took several walks around the park. Sammi"s volleyball games started on Saturday but we were in the evening wave so our first game didnt start till 4:00pm. They played poorly andonly won 1 game and lost two. We got home about 10:15 pm. Luckily our first game Sunday started about 11:30 so we didn't have to get there early. We played a little better and won both our games so we finished 3-2 for the weekend. We got back to cmap about 4:30. Got up Monday morning and headed home. Lots of traffic coming home but we made it. We go back in three weeks for another tournament.