Sunday, February 22
After talking and dreaming about everything that happened Friday and Saturday, we both woke up this morning with the thought that the land deal we were looking at south of town just wasn’t for us after all. For what we would be getting (including a lot of personal labor and not much security for Big V, the Vibe, and the Voyager), it wasn’t going to be worth it. Besides, we were going to get information this afternoon about lots in the park we visited last night, and that looked like something that might be doable, even if it wasn’t the best place in the world.
While I was getting cleaned up to go to church, Barbara said she found another possibility for a lot in a different park, so we decided we’d hurry up and get ready, drive out to the park (about 15 miles from Mineola), and then return to attend church with the family.
The minute we drove into the main parking lot at Holiday Village Retirement Community, we were impressed with the spaciousness and layout of the place. We went into the office and met Josh, who proceeded to give us an overview tour of the area.
By the time we had finished the short tour, we had already decided that we wanted to know more, so we made arrangements with Josh to return this afternoon to look at specific lots and sections of the park. We told Josh what we were looking for and he promised he’d prepare a list of lots to show us when we came back.
One look at this park convinced us that the park we visited last night was definitely not for us, so while I was driving back to Mineola, Barbara called the realtor she had talked to last night and told her we wouldn’t need to meet with her this afternoon after all.
Back in Mineola, we attended the morning service at Harvest Acres Baptist Church with Mother, Ernie, Billee, and T.J. Harvest Acres is a small church and when the pastor introduced us, he
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commented that he loved it when Mother’s family visited her because we fill up an entire pew.After a great sermon on the importance of church unity, we all went over to Mother’s house where Billee and Barbara fixed lunch (Billee taught Barbara how to make salmon croquettes) and Ernie and I visited with each other and tinkered with the motorcycle. T.J. joined us later and we enjoyed a great lunch and visit with everyone, for our part, telling them what we had found out last night and this morning.
While everyone else settled in for their Sunday naps, Barbara and I drove back up to the park to meet with Josh. True to his word, he had selected a variety of sites for us to look at. We knew we wanted some trees, but the first couple of sites we saw had large, well-established trees that would make it difficult to park Big V and have room to set in the outbuildings we thought we would need. He also showed us a lot that was very large and that will soon have a great view of Lake Fork, but it was way out of our price range.
Along the way, Josh drove us to Lot 121 on Geronimo Street, and we knew immediately it was what we were looking for. It had a kind of serpentine drive that led into a copse of trees that would be large enough to park Big V and the other vehicles, set in an outbuilding for storage and a washer/dryer set (we’re thinking large here), and nearly everything would be hidden from view.
We went ahead and looked at a couple of other lots, but soon asked Josh to take us back to 121 for another look. This time, he also showed us the community center that is within easy walking distance of the lot. With a restaurant, large gathering room, swimming pool, game room, fishing pond (Josh’s little girl hooked a 5-pound bass in the pond) and a miniature golf course, the community center looked like the perfect place to take grandkids whenever they came to visit.
We spent time asking Josh more questions about the place and then drove back to Mineola, talking all the way about the possibilities that the park could have for us.
We were so excited about the place that when we got back to Mineola, we convinced the others to come back out and look at it with us. T.J. came over and picked up the others in her car and we all drove back to the park and once again asked Josh to show us around the lot. Luckily, he was on duty until 5:00, so we had some time to spend with him before we drove back to town in time for Ernie and Billee to attend the evening church service.
Monday, February 23
Today was a whole new adventure for us. Faithful readers will remember that we have been carrying on an email correspondence with Betty Boone, a woman who became Barbara’s Mary Kay lady just before we returned to Artesia in November. Although we have never met Betty in person, we felt that we knew each other pretty well because of all the correspondence we have shared. Today, we had a chance to finally meet Betty. When Barbara told her that we would be in Mineola this week, she invited us to come to Longview to meet and have lunch. So, after visiting Mother for a few minutes and stopping by the post office, we headed east on U.S. 80 through Hawkins, Big Sandy, Gladewater, and White Oak, arriving in Longview just in time to find the Red Lobster.
Betty was waiting just inside the restaurant and, even though we had never even seen a picture of her, we instantly knew who she was. She was exactly the kind of person we expected her to be, and by the time we were seated, it was almost as if we had seen each other only last week and were picking up a previous conversation.We all shared the condensed versions of our lives, finding along the way that we had many similarities in our lives and shared quite a few common interests. In fact, we talked so much that it took much longer than we normally would to eat our meal. Luckily, there wasn’t much of a crowd today, so we never felt rushed.
After a couple of hours of eating and talking, we finished our visit, promising to return as soon as possible so we could come see Betty’s house and have lunch there. Today was just one more example of an answer to the Prayer of Jabez that we have invoked so many times since our retirement nearly three years ago. God has truly allowed us to expand our horizons and to meet His people along our journey.
After leaving Betty, we just goofed off for the rest of the day and checked in to a motel to spend a quiet night contemplating what we wanted to do about buying land.
Tuesday, February 24
We took our time getting around this morning and after having a leisurely light breakfast at the motel, started on our way back to Wood County. Along the way, we called Josh at Holiday Village to see if we could meet him again today before making a final decision about the property we were looking at.
Even though it was his day off, Josh had to meet another prospective buyer around 10:30 this morning, so he said it wouldn’t be any problem to spend some time with us. So, we drove and drove, stopping in Mineola just long enough to give the Vibe a drink of go-juice before going on up to Holiday Village.
One adventure we did have as we journeyed back to Mineola was in Big Sandy where we stopped for something for TJ…we got there just as the police had arrived…seems as though they had had a break-in robbery overnight…must say it certainly damped the attitudes of the clerks!
Josh spent all the time with us that we needed, and we eventually returned to the office where we sat down to draw up a contract and finalize a deal. By noon, we were the proud owners of Lot 121, Section E of Holiday Village in Wood County…something we never saw coming; in fact, something that we had quietly denied would happen for quite a few years. Still, we felt good, even if a little apprehensive, about our decision. We now have a plot of land to call our own…something we can develop to suit ourselves and our travel and lifestyle, and a wonderful place to keep the grandkids whenever they come to visit.
Since Holiday Village sits on the edge of Lake Fork, one of the greatest bass fishing lakes in the United States (eat your heart out, Wes Fox), we guess we’ll eventually have to get into the fishing mode. But for now, we’ll be satisfied with cleaning up the lot and making arrangements for the necessary improvements to make it our East Texas base as we continue to have a New Mexico base.When we were finished with business, we returned to Mineola to let everyone know that the deal was done. Then, we settled in to making arrangements for a huge family dinner tonight at T.J.’s house. In addition to Ernie, Billee, Mother, and us, T.J. had invited Ladd and Angela over for a meal of brisket and all the trimmings.
Around 4:00 Ernie and Billee went back out to “our land” to help us measure a possible section for a concrete or asphalt pad for Big V. Our hope is to pour a 50’ X 20’ pad that will eventually have a cover and a storage room on it, but that will depend on how we can lay out the plot.
When we returned to Mineola, everyone went their separate ways until we finally all met up at T.J.’s house for another great meal and an evening of catching up with each other’s activities.
Wednesday, February 25Happy Birthday to Cousin Donnie Sandley in Irondale, Alabama!!!
It was another travel day for us. We packed the car and, after a short visit with Mother, Ernie, and Billee, struck out for the drive to Cleburne, where we planned to visit with Barbara’s sister, Nancy, and her family.
We arrived at the Days Inn in Cleburne around 2:00, got checked in, and settled in to rest for a bit before beginning the evening’s activities. Nancy called and asked if Barbara wanted to ride with her to pick Keylin up at her school in Joshua. Barbara agreed, so while they went up there, I took a short nap until they returned and we all went over to Tom and Nancy’s house to visit.
Tom wasn’t feeling well today, so he was already home when we got there. We all visited for a while and eventually their daughter, Brandi, and her husband, Paul arrived, starting several more rounds of talking and catching up with each other.
After a great meal we all (except Tom) loaded up in our respective cars and made the short drive to Bethel Temple Assembly of God for the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and Bible study. We’ve visited in that church several times and have always enjoyed the services, and tonight was no exception. The preaching, prayers, and Bible study were so
tightly interwoven that we couldn’t really distinguish which was which. What a fantastic way to spend an evening!When the service was over, we said our goodbyes and returned to the Days Inn, only to find a fire truck, EMT vehicle, and police car parked in the front lot with all their lights flashing. Obviously, something important was going on, but no one was talking about it. We walked on in and went up to our room, but left the window open so we could see what was happening. Before long, six more police department vehicles arrived and the place was crawling with officers, detectives, and evidence technicians. We don’t know how long they stayed there, but it was still busy when we fell asleep around midnight. It wasn’t until we checked out the next morning that we found that two men had robbed the place and roughed up the manager and his wife just before we got back from church. It was strange, because this was the second time this week that we have been somewhere where police were present and investigation a robbery or burglary…sure hope someone isn’t taking note of the fact that our car is present at all these places!
Thursday, February 26
Happy 40th Birthday to son John Colwell in San Antonio!!! (I don’t know who was more anguished over this event…John, for turning 40, or Barbara, for having a son who turned 40).
It was another travel day for us, but since it was a relatively short journey from Cleburne to Richardson, we weren’t in any big hurry to get on the road.
We decided we’d just take U.S. 67 out of Cleburne and drive through downtown Dallas to try to locate the Dallas Convention Center, site of this weekend’s cheer competition that Randi and Jaycie will be competing in. I can’t say that it was the most pleasant adventure we’ve ever had, but we did make it through all the downtown traffic safely, mainly by following my “big city traffic rule,” which is to “stay ahead of the vehicle behind you and behind the vehicle in front of you.”
We got to Richardson a little after noon, grabbed a couple of sandwiches at McDonalds, and then found one of the local Lowe’s stores to scout out ideas for setting up our new lot. After that, we went on to Heather and Andy’s house, let ourselves in, and began unpacking the car for our visit.
The kids got home from school around 6:30 this evening and w e had lunch, visited, and played with Alexander and Abby until time for them (and us) to head for bed after another busy day.Friday, February 27
Today was “pajama day” around the Dondis household. It was pajama day at Alexander and Abby’s daycare and Alexander had some concerns about missing it, but when we convinced him that they could celebrate it at home with us, he decided that was a good idea. So, even though he came in and waked us up a little before 6:00 this morning, we all stayed in our pajamas and watched television and played while Andy and Heather went off to their respective schools.
I, of course, had to take time to figure out how to turn on the television and DVD player so we could watch the kids’ favorite shows. After 30 or so minutes of flipping switches and pushing buttons, I gave up and placed a call to Andy to ask for instructions. He didn’t answer, so I left a message telling him what I needed to know. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I hung up and started pushing some more buttons, I hit the secret combination, and within a couple of minutes we were watching “Igor.”
Now, I haven’t been much of a fan of animated movies, but we are learning that some of them come across a lot better than the highly touted “blockbuster” movies. It didn’t take long until we were totally engrossed in the storyline and humor of “Igor.” In fact, we didn’t even mind when it was Abby’s turn to pick the second movie and we ended up watching “Madagascar II,” another gem of animation.
Around 1:00, we convinced the kids (and it didn’t take a whole lot of convincing) to change into “regular” clothes so we could go to McDonalds to eat and spend time in the indoor playground. Both kids ate their entire meals before hooking up with other children in the area to hit the slides, tunnels, steps, and other assorted entertainment features of the playground.After all that excitement, we went back to the house for nap time and then had more play time until Andy and Heather got home from work.
After a wonderful dinner, we had an early celebration of Abby’s birthday, complete with presents and cake. Abby won’t be 3 years old until March 7, but since we weren’t going to be able to be with her at that time, we thought we’d at least be a part of the warm-up act for the great day.
Since tomorrow was going to be another big day, we called it a day relatively early and let Heather and Andy have a rare night out together while we stayed home with the kids.Saturday, February 28
Today was one of great excitement for all of us. Around 9:00, we loaded the kids in the Vibe (in their car seats, of course) and drove to downtown Dallas to the convention center and arena to watch Jaycie and Randi perform with their cheer teams. Andy loaned us his GPS unit, another piece of technology that we’d never used, to help us negotiate our way through the maze of one-way streets and boulevards that we encountered after getting off of U.S. 75.
We were supposed to meet Jimmy, Cathey, and Jaycie at 10:00, but their plans changed, so we took advantage of the block of time we had until John and Randi arrived to walk around the inside and outside of the convention center complex.
Unfortunately, it was a cool and very breezy day, so it wasn’t as much fun being outside as it might be on a warmer day. Alexander and Abby didn’t let the cool breezes slow them down very much and enjoyed running through the old cemetery that is on the grounds and climbing on the Confederate monument.When John and Randi arrived, we went inside with them and found a parking place for the rest of the day’s events. Both kids immediately took to John and he ended up being the surrogate babysitter for most of the day, allowing Barbara and me to get out, take some breaks, and figure out how we were going to find our car when the day was over.
While we were out trying to figure out a closer route to the car, Abby needed to go to the bathroom so John texted Cathey and asked her to come help Abby. We arrived back inside the center just as Cathey was escorting Abby so Barbara said she’d take her. Abby immediately let Grams know that Cathey was the one who was supposed to have this honor!
After watching Randi’s and Jaycie’s teams compete, we walked a few blocks down the street to a McDonalds (a very crowded McDonalds) and had some lunch. Along the way, we spied a set of sculptures of a herd of longhorn cattle crossing a river. Even though it was cold and windy, we were able to take time out for a photo opportunity with Alexander and Abby sitting on one of the steers while Randi and I stood guard.
After lunch we made our way back to the convention center to find our places and sit out the rest of the afternoon until Randi had her second performance (one of Jaycie’s teams had to cancel for this competition, so she had only one performance today). We asked Alexander and Abby if they wanted us to take them to meet their parents, but they said they wanted to stay and watch Randi. We don’t know how they did it, but both kids stayed alert and active all afternoon, fully enjoying their time with John and us.By 7:30, Randi’s team was finished with their performance and she met all of us outside the arena. We had just enough time to give her some hugs, take a few more pictures, and then wander through the huge convention center complex to find the car. I went to the parking lot, got the Vibe, and then drove over to the pick-up area to get Barbara and the kids. Not surprisingly, Abby was fast asleep in her car seat before we had driven even a block.
Back at the house, we got the kids inside and Heather and Andy got them to bed. We visited for a short time, but Barbara and I were both beat, so we went on upstairs to read a bit before dropping off in a sound sleep…what a great day we had!
Exercise daily...walk with God. (a patch on a biker's vest)
From Heather and Andy’s house in Richardson…Jim & Barbara
