We soon arrived and I put all my groceries away. We then drove to the other side of Lake Medina to help friend's of ours unload their moving truck.
Dirty Sally and 3 Fingers are Cowboy Action Shooter's and we met them last year in California at a shooting competition along with Mad Dog McCoy. Mad Dog left California last year and bought a home just a half hour away from Sally and 3 Fingers in the town of Medina.
We all helped and it went lickity split and soon we were done. Sally made us a nice lunch and we soon headed home.
Ralph stayed with me until the evening and left after the wild busy rush hour around San Antonio was well over.
Over this week, I walked a lot! George and Joannie have a nice treadmill on their back deck with a roof over it and this has made it nice because the sun is not beating down on me.
I walked 9 miles one day. 2 miles in the morning on the treadmill and 7 miles round trip walking to Lake Medina RV Resort. LMRV is where Ralph and I have been spending part of the winters over the last 8 winters. It is on the Leibolds-Grothues Ranch.
Most days I try to do at least 2 to 4 miles. This area is called "Hill Country". I have spoken about this area in our blog in the past. You either go up steep hills or down steep hills. Hill Country encompasses about 25 counties of tall rugged hills. This is why I did not bring my bike, besides the constant hilly terrain, the roads are winding and have no shoulders.
I am able to get a good work out just by walking on the roads around the neighborhood where it is quiet and traffic is light.
Every morning and evening I sit on the back deck sipping my coffee while enjoying my nice view and watching the hummingbirds.
I have planned on coming home every week on Friday's, so Friday, April 25th I left George and Joannie's home and headed to the Herbert Ranch. I have George's nice Toyota Tundra pick up to drive.
I did a couple of errands on the way home and picked up groceries that Ralph needed. We had a nice evening at home.
Saturday, April 25th, we got up at 4 a.m. We were having a heck of a storm, lots of rain and hail in the area. The Herbert Ranch is 3 miles from the small town of Somerset.
We turned the TV on and it was showing the radar. We were in the red and purple area. We were really worried about the damage hail could do on our truck and RV. The newsman stated that hail damage had broken out house windows on a few homes in the town of Somerset.
Several times the rain pounded on our roof and I thought it was hail, but when I peaked out, even though it was dark, it turned out to be just heavy rain. We were lucky and the storm soon ended.
I was worried that I would not be able to get off the ranch. There were a few inches of water laying all over the ranch including the driveway. The roads are dirt and we are in the bottom land.
I really wanted to go to my WW meeting, so I packed up the little Toyota truck up and told Ralph if I spin what so ever, I will just stop and come back.
Well to my amazement I creeped up the grade of the driveway and made it to the ranch gate about a 1/4 mile away.
I got to my WW meeting and lost 2.6 pounds! My total in 14 weeks is 30.8 pounds! I now weigh 173.2. Just 9.2 more pounds to go and I will make the maximum goal that WW has set for me, but for my personal goal, I will lose an additional 12 to 14 pounds.
Everyone has heard of the BMI, Body Mass Index. For my height and my weight, I can be anywhere from 132 to 164. So I settled for a "Happy Medium" and that is in the low 150's. I was there about 5 years ago before I went "Hay Wire" and fell off the wagon.
I did some errands on the way to my house sitting vacation job. I will head back to the RV next Friday for a night.
On Sunday, April 26th, I walked to the "Cowboy Church" about 2 miles away. I have written about the Cowboy Church before. When we were camped at LMRV for the winter, I would ride my bike there.
I want to back up a bit and tell the following story: When I was little, my family would all go to Catholic church. All I remember is I was constantly having to "sit, stand and kneel" over and over and over again. I thought to myself when I get older, I was going to find a religion where you could just sit there the whole time!
Well I found it! It is Cowboy Church! Not only can you just sit there, but you can eat a fabulous breakfast there and during the service you can drink coffee!
I love Cowboy church in Texas!
Years ago when this church was raising money for their permanent building, they had church services under a big carnival type tent with open sides. During the winter time, folks brought along blankets to stay warm.
The church ladies got together and served up a huge hot breakfast. The band had a little stage set up and there were hay bales and chairs for people to sit on. Best of all, folks could bring their pets with them. Many people brought their dogs with them and on the 3rd Sunday of the month, folks trailer their horses to church for a trail ride afterwards. Hopefully on the next "3rd Sunday" I will have pictures to show of the trail ride.
Pastor Cliff as he is known, kind of reminds me of a "thinner" Wilford Brimley and he has a very distinctive speaking voice. He wears his white cowboy hat on stage as he gives the sermon. Matter of fact there are many cowboy hats in church along with the cowboys wearing their boots, spurs and big belt buckles. There are many ranches and working cowboys in these parts.
The ladies still get together and make a superb breakfast in the huge professional kitchen. These gals could easily be on the "Food Network". Next time I will get a picture of Pastor Cliff and the beautiful kitchen.
For a donation on whatever you want to give, you get a delicious breakfast. Many of the congregation bring a sweet to share and that goes on the dessert table. I of course did not partake in the breakfast, but maybe I will on the last Sunday that I will be house sitting.
The mess hall is just beyond the doors that lead inside of the church. It is beautifully decorated with western and cowboy decor. Check out the Barrel Racing print on the wall.
Here on this sign you see the word SLACK. This is also a term used in Rodeo competitions. Slack is where there are more cowboys entered in a rodeo than there are slots for them to compete. When this happens, cowboys who are not scheduled to compete in one of the regular performances post their times or score during slack, which is generally held the morning of or the day before the rodeo.
Now for the beautiful Cowgirl rest room. Next week I will get pictures of the men's room.
I like how they did this. Painted flowers and grass on the wall and then added a real picket fence over the painting.
This paddy wagon and homemade rocking horse is inside the church itself. The inside of the church is huge. Before church services start, you will often seen little cowboys and cowgirls riding their trusty steed while their imagination gallops off into the sunset.
Take notice of the garage door. There are 4 of them along the church wall, 2 on each side. During Christmas Eve services celebrations, they have a live scene featuring camels and they are brought into the church through the garage doors.
I hope next year to be able to see the Christmas Eve service.
If anyone gets a chill because of the AC and the plane propeller size fan overhead that makes a nice breeze, well there are nice blanket wraps to keep you warm.
The cowboy band plays wonderful music before services start. In the back ground you see the giant screen that keeps flashing pictures and the words to follow along. Also what I like is that the band sings traditional songs and then replaces the original words with religious messages. This day, they sung songs from Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson.
This is Ty, he is the Preacher Cliff's son. Chatting with him is Dan. Dan and his wife Betty are staying in their Motorhome at Lake Medina RV Resort.
Until next time.............Happy Trails to You!
No comments:
Post a Comment