Bob ran an aviation company in Dallas and served on the NATA Board of Directors with Jeff. They retired from aviation but are now running a small cattle breeding cattle ranch north of Dallas. We all seem to find our own way to get on with life!
Chuck and Janet Koehler are dear friends from the 10 years we spent in Sterling-Rock Falls Illinois in the 70s. We have vacationed together skiing Colorado with and without kids and had a lot of great memories to relive. They and their daughters' two families all own a 40' cruiser that they keep at a marina up on Texahoma lake about 50 minutes north of McKinney that has a campground. We spent a great Easter weekend with them on the lake.
For a change we then headed to Oklahoma City to see more friends and have the motorhome and Honda serviced. Other than the 98 degree temperature the day we arrived we had a great week including with Dave and Geneva Hobza, more old aviation friends who are partners in one of Jeff's customers.
We spent the week parked at Jerry and Jane Hill's east of Oklahoma City. They own 17 beautiful acres that includes a campground in a grove of trees above their home. What a tranquil week enjoying our time sightseeing OKC including an afternoon visiting the Federal Building Bomb Museum, riding the Brickyard canal system and having dinner on the canal. It was hard to leave the Hill's but we were running out of time to meet our deadline for Illinois.
The first evening east of OKC was spent at one of the nicest Core of Engineers parks we have visited on the banks of the Toad Suck, Arkansas lock and dam. Jeff now carries a Golden Age Passport that entitles old farts like him to half price camping at Federal facilities so it was an especially enjoyable stay.
We detoured through Arkansas to visit some of Sue's mother's sisters. We spent the evening with cousin Gil & Tammy Freeman and visited Sue's elderly aunts Lizzie and Ellen the next day. It had been some time since Sue had been back to her childhood home and it was a good opportunity to drop by.
After Arkansas the call of our granddaughters was getting really strong so we made an overnight in Centralia Illinois to have dinner with more old aviation friends, Les & Marion Erb and then on to the Chicago area.
We are currently parked at a small campground on the Fox River in Yorkville which is a convenient 14 miles west of Laurie and Roger's home in Plainfield. If there is any question why we are here this was our second night in town when oldest granddaughter Payton wanted to spend the night in Grandpa and Grandma's motorhome.
The next day and a half Sue spent babysitting her newest baby and so today we have stayed home and recuperated from the excitement! The weather has been windy and wet for the first time all winter and it was a great day to veg out. We'll be "off the road" for at least a month here with the kids and getting doctor and dentist visits out of the way.
