1-30 August 2026 Finally Finished

 Our contractor finally finished the remaining items on our punch list (Connectors on the Ethernet cables for the TVs, three doors that were out of plumb and the wire conduit by the garage). We are just waiting for the final paperwork to be ready for signing. It’s been 14 months since we broke ground on 1 July 2025. So much for the six months they told us it would take. We have hung curtains in the master bedroom to complement the shutters. David had six tons of crushed granite gravel delivered. He then moved it by hand to the five feet against the house in the landscape beds around the side and back of the house to act as a fire break in case of a wildfire. He moved 4-7 wheelbarrow each morning before it got hot until it was all done. It has been over six weeks since our last rain with temperatures mostly over 100 degrees. As a result, the fields around us are very dry and ready to burn. There have been several wildfires started in Cresson, but the volunteer fire department has been able to put them out quickly. Then there is the huge wildfire 40 miles north of us that has been burning for over a week without getting contained. Our friends Anne and Bill joined us for dinner one night and were so impressed with Kierra, they wanted to take her home! Leslie has been making weekly visits to her mother in Dallas. Her sister Cynthia drove up from The Woodlands a couple of times this month to stay overnight with us before going over to visit with Diane. 

Leslie decided she needed to get out of the house so she interviewed for a job at a shop on the square in Granbury and was hired. She starts in early September. After getting home from her second interview, she rolled he right foot and broke a bone in her foot. As a result, she is back in an orthopedic boot on her right foot. 

16 - 30 July 2026 New Vehicle

 We continue to get unpacked and get our house in order. We got curtains that Leslie had in her apartment in downtown Fort Worth, hung in the dining room and they look great! After looking for several months, we bought an additional vehicle. We purchased a 2026 Bronco Sport at our local Ford dealer. We felt it offered a nice balance between on road performance around town and would hold up to the rigors of living in rural Texas. It fits within the wheel base of the Behemoth! Leslie is very happy to have a second vehicle. It gets almost three times the fuel milage of the Behemoth, burns much cheaper gas and has all the new safety features. Our friends Mona and Wade came over for lunch with their new dog, Leroy. Keirra and Leroy got along great and they had fun running around the house and yard playing. In the meantime, David has started preparing landscaping beds around the house in preparation for the fall planting season. The temperatures drive us to do any outside work before noon since after that it’s too hot for us. We continue to work with our contractor to get the remaining Punch List items finished. We also had some new critters visit our back porch! We walked out one evening and found a small Rat Snake and nearby a large wolf spider.  

Leslie in our New Bronco

Leroy and Kierra resting after playing

Rat Snake

Wold Spider

15 - 16 July 2026 end of our 9 State, 3300 mile loop.

 We headed for home weary from so many days of driving over the last six weeks. We stopped in Joplin on the way home and arrived back in Cresson around 4:30 on the 16^th. We were so happy to be home again! Kiera was very happy to be home and able to run around her yard! Be it ever so wonderful, there is no place like home!

13-14 July 2026 Visiting June

 On the 13^th we drove from Springfield to Indianapolis. I-70 in Indiana is still a horribly bumpy road. We stayed at the Drury hotel on the Northside. It’s the first time we have stayed at a Drury hotel. They did not charge us a pet fee! We had dinner with our friend June and caught up with her life since her move to Indianapolis last year. On the 14^th we finally had a chance to sleep in and catch up with ourselves. After lunch, we went down to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and toured the museum before joining June and her son Joel and daughter in-law Dee for dinner. After dinner we went back to June’s apartment to visit for awhile before heading back to the hotel. 

11-12 July 2026 Visiting our Nephew

 On the 11^th, we stopped by our Cousin Amy’s house and visited with her and Beth. She seemed to be doing better in her recovery form surgery. We continued on to Springfield Ohio and checked in to our hotel. We found a good Mexican food restaurant in downtown Springfield. In the morning, we drove to Jason and Michelle’s house in Wilmington and spent the day visiting with them and having a great Birthday dinner with them (Jason’s Birthday was only a couple of days later). It was great to catch up with them and hear about their upcoming move to Omaha. 

8-10 July 2026 Happy B-Day Veronica

On the 8^th, we went over to Veronica’s Apartment, took her out to lunch and then visited for a while. She is looking better than the last time we visited almost two years ago. We heard from our cousin, Amy, that her surgery had gone well the day before but that her daughter had to go home early. We found out our cousin Beth was flying in late that night to take care of Amy, so we arranged to pick Beth up at the airport and take her to Amy’s. The 9^th was Veronica’s 89^th Birthday and we took her to her favorite restaurant, Twisted Olive, where we were joined by her other step son Bob and his girlfriend Darlene. We had a fun meal. The morning of the 10^th, we picked Veronica up and went down to Bergholz to visit with Aunt Joyce. We had lunch with Aunt Joyce and stayed to visit for several hours. The old family Apple Tree is looking pretty good for being mostly hollow inside. Aunt Joyce reminded David he had a couple of things stored there (Heart shaped medicine cabinet, iron rabbit) which we loaded up to bring home with us. She is still doing a lot of weaving for fun and she gave many pieces to both Veronica and Leslie to take home. Keira got a chance to run around off leash and work through some zoomie’s. We got a late dinner at Pappa Bear’s and dropped Veronica back at her apartment and said our goodbyes. It’s always hard to leave her.

Veronica's Birthday Dinner

5 - 7 July 2026 Heading out to visit Family

 We left home in the morning on the 5^th to Little Rock (a 6.5 hour drive) where we stayed overnight in Lonoke. We found a great Mexican Food restaurant, Mariachi Grill, within walking distance of the Best Western. The 6^th we drove from Little Rock to Nashville (a 6 hour drive) where we stayed in North Nashville at the Salt Ranch. The Salt Ranch is a remodeled 1950s era motel but the central building was a hospital during the civil war. The remodel was done very well and the central building housed the bar and restaurant where you check in. The street the hotel is on looked pretty sketchy but the areas just a block off the street were nice neighborhoods. We went down to the Five Points area of Nashville where we had great BBQ at Edleys. The first room they assigned us resulted in David getting stung by a couple of wasps which had a nest at the front door. Our second room was good. Only complaint we have about this hotel was that they refused to honor the Booking.com price we had made our reservations through (Difference was about $8). On the 7^th we drove from Nashville to Canton (a 8 hour drive).