We woke up early in Houston and got packed for the trip to NYC. It’s been so great hanging out with Billy and CSean… I can’t remember the last time we had this much unstructured time together. They are so much fun to be with.

They drove us tot eh airport  and the next part of our adventure began. 

We’re flying from Houston to New York city… We had to missions there one was to pick up a box truck and transport a 600 pound fire Oregon that was being donated to our fire Troop by a former professor of maxes… And a practice technical session for the XenboX recording session next week.  
We flew in to Laguardia and I booked us a hotel in Flushing nearby . It was also walking distance from the truck rental whcih should make  for an efficient start on monday. 
We enjoyed walking around the Flushing neighborhood… It’s one of New York’s best Chinatown and it was very colorful.

First we visited the Louis Latimer museum. Latimer was the African-American inventor who worked with Alexander Graham Bell on the design of the first telephone and with Thomas Edison on the design of the first lightbulb. It was an amazing man. It made me happy to see that this birthplace house was so well preserved in the story was so well told

We walked down to the truck rental place to make sure we knew where it was then had a great chinese meal ant one of the many great olaces nerar there.. We also went into a very fun Asian mall call tangram.. lots of bright  shops with chinese, hjapanese, vietnamese, korean and thai stuff

Super fun day.. great start for our adventure tomorrow !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Happy Birthday to my wonderful love and best friend Diane !.   Our goal was to give Diane a special kick off for her special day.. and what better way to do that than a Snake Farm  Birthday ?!?!

We’d seen this place the day before and decided it was a perfect birthday place for our sweet diane. It turned out to be so fun !

We had so much fun at this place.. it was full of animals and was very well run and clean.. not like the  song “Snake Farm” I remember from Ray Willy Hubbard

Max and Becky called to wish diane a happy birthday.. so we showed them around the snakes a bit

From there we headed towards Wimberly in search of the summer camps that Billy and I used to go to in the 70’s .. First stop was our search for Rim Rock Ranch Camp.. our online search didn’t show up anything.. but we found a map reference.. so we drove up in the hill country.. and believe it or not.. we found it !>. It was abandoned.. but some of the structure was still there.. I think we went to camp here once.. and it must have been in the early 70’s.. maybe 1970 ? I remember the music we listened to.. (I remember Mongo Jerry’s “In the Summertime”) I also remember getting stung by a scorpian as I pulled on my bathing suit.. YOW !

It was so cool walking around this place we camped 53 years ago !

We found a chameleon lizard outside.. he wasnt happy to see us.. .. heres how they show they’re angry !

Next attempted stop was nearby El Rancho Cima scout camp.. billy and I went there a couple of years in the early 70’s.. It was a beautiful place. We read online that it had been recently purchased and was being turned in to a wildlife preserve. Unfortunately the road to it was now private.. and it had many signs discouraging trespassers 

We tried to get a good look at where the camp was by going to a nearby devils backbone overlook… That turned out to be an adventure in itself… It is some sort of “haunted Highway”… People put lots of tributes to people who have either died on that highway or at other places. It was pretty spooky and kind of sweet… Lots of really nice tribute. From there we could see where the camp used to be through all of the strange memorials that people have left on the fence.

That overlook was a short  Drive from the devils back bone dive bar… Believe it or not a place I remember. I remember going with my dad to get beer there… Even though beer was not allowed in the scout park.… That was dad 🙂 

We all split a Lone Star beer and a shot of tequila and memory of dad 

From there we headed back towards houston… It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive so we decided to stop and throw a proper birthday celebration for ‘Diane. We stopped at a marble slab ice cream place got a cookie and some ice cream and improvised on the fire and sang happy birthday. 

Happy Birthday my love.. You are such  a wonderful person !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Woke up in our  very nice hotel  right in the heart of the TAMU campus. This place is huge.. The hotel was oozing with Aggie team spirit.. the stadium was just across the street.. the wallpaper , carpet, books… everything had Aggie slogans on them.. Diane and I took a short run soaking in some of the culture. (Who the heck is the “12th man ?”)  It was fun and a little contagious.. I couldn’t help liking the optimism that I always feel around A&M students and faculty that I know. 

Around 11 we met up with Shaun and Bill y and headed out.. Our destination was the Guadalupe river in New Braunfels where Billy’s band “Disco Expressions” had a gig tonight…   Again it was so fun drivign around with Billy and Shaun. 

We stopped at a giant Texas tradition Buckee’s .. a huge rest stop / food shop frequent in these parts. .. there’s nothing like this in our part of the world

We got to New braunfels and found the venue.. It was in a camp right beside the river. We used to tube down this river as kids..  The event was an annual river festival with 3 days of camping , music, food and drink..  we met up with Billys band mateds and there family.. .. Here’s Iris. 

Billy went to work and we ehaded out to take in the festival.. It was really fun.. First was a band reenacting  “The Bands” Last Waltz concert.. The crowd was mellow and friendly.. a bunch of Texas hippies, and city folks  of mixed ages .. brought back great memories. 

Billy’s band came on about 10 and played a great gig. there are about 9 musicians..  horn section (billy on trombone).. two drummers, keyboard, guitar, bass an a fantastic lead man.. paul. He had all the disco moves and really leaned in to it in a fun and crazy way !

 

We stayed till about 1 .. then headed back to our hotel in New Braunfels. 

such a great day !

nite all., nite sam

-me

On the road again !. .. This time  DIane and I left early this morning for Texas.. Billy and Shaun met us at the Airport and drove us to College Station for a meeting Billy and I  having tonight. It was so much fun driving around texas with those two. We just happened to hit texas in the couple of days when it’s really pretty. The wildflowers were out.. especially the bluebonnets (I put on Nanci Griffiths “Gulf coast Highway” and teared up a little)

We got to College station about 4.. cleaned up.. and billy and I headed out. DIane and Shaun had dinner on the campus which is huge 

Billy and I had dinner with some folks from Texas A&M about a project they working on. Cant go in to the details here.. but what they’re trying to do is very interesting and worthwhile.

I’m hoping we can help them !

nite all, nite sam
-me