We are officially now heading south for the winter. For a couple of days we are in Oklahoma City to visit with Gene’s sister-in-law and catch up on the Brunner news. Everything there seems to be about the same. Dot seems to be doing pretty well and does a good job of meeting the needs of her grown kids. They all have their struggles but are managing. From there we traveled on to Arlington Texas where we spent a week in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. We actually did not find much to do there of interest to us. We spent one day in the Stock Yards area. This old area is where the “Old West” cattle drives ended up. Many of the building there are original and have been converted to little shops and eating places. On Saturday, as we do lots of Saturdays, we went to a flea market. We think we have been too so many that we are losing the excitement they bring. In other words, this one was just ho-hum. We almost never buy anything at them. It is just a fun way to spend part of a day. We also went to the Civil War Museum while we were there. Lots and lots of guns that Sue is not interested in at all but they did have a section of women’s dresses from the Civil War era. They were spectacular and showed and told about the different bustles the women wore. It looked, to us, like they must have been very uncomfortable and the entire outfit quite HOT during those times of no air conditioning. These glass display cases, about 15-20 of them, held 2 to 4 dressed mannequins and, also, hats and other accessories. Everything was original. It is a quite elaborate display. We were unable to get any pictures. We ate that day at a Cajun restaurant in downtown Ft. Worth and after walked around the area window shopping. We spent the next week in Mathis, Texas which is about an hour west of Corpus Christi. The population is about 5,000 and It seems to be a very poor area with a big population of Mexicans. The county has put in a huge park with several soccer and baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts, a play ground and picnic area and most important to us, a nice one mile walking trail. So we did walk there every day. We are able, in most towns, to find a walking trail. We wonder if they are able to get grants to build them as we don’t know how some of the small towns we have been in could afford to build them. We did go into Corpus Christi times. It is the closest city with a Wal-Mart for grocery shopping. So we stocked up on groceries one time when we went there. We also went to the beach a couple of times. We love beaches but these were just not great. Part of going to the beach is the people you see there and this time of the year there are very few people there. However on the waterfront in downtown Corpus Christi there is a beautiful and inviting area along the beach to sit, watch and listen to sea. We found very few shells but we did find one that is rare and only found in this area. It is a beauty. One day we went on board the Lexington air craft carrier that is docked on the shores of Corpus Christi. It was fun and informative to learn about life on an air craft carrier and the perils of war there.
