The Michigan Trip

We left for Michigan on Jan. 17, flying into Detroit Metro, expecting to comfort our family as my brother-in-law Butch (aka Enoch) is on hospice for an "always fatal" brain tumor. That evening we arrived at his home and found he was able to sit up on the edge of the bed and was eating spaghetti as his wife Deanne lovingly fed him.
It seems we had gone to Michigan to witness one of God's miracles. Before we got there, Butch had his feeding tube removed and had not been able to eat anything solid for two weeks, when he awoke one evening as Deanne was fixing chicken for dinner and in a low whisper said "chicken". Deanne ask him if he wanted chicken to eat, he indicated yes and she said if you want to try we will feed you, he ate chicken that night.
We stayed three weeks and every time we saw him he had made progress; first sitting on the bed and eating pizza feeding himself, then getting out of bed, (with help of course), and sitting on the couch or wheelchair. The day we left, he had burgers for lunch, was sitting at the table to eat from his wheelchair, was standing from his wheelchair and pulling himself up with the walker (with help) and said he wanted to walk next. Then he sat on the couch with his brother Billy, (who is also undergoing chemotherapy for his bone cancer), and was laughing so hard his sides hurt. Watching them made me really see that laughter IS the best medicine!


It has been three weeks since our return to Texas from Michigan and we have been fighting an upper respiratory infection, but Butch has continued to improve!
We have also continued to improve. By the time we got back to TX, we hadn't walked much in MI due to the weather, then promptly got sick for 2 weeks, and are just now getting OUR strength back! It's amazing how weak one's body gets when you don't use it! We are now able to relate a little with Butch and Frank, as they fight to regain their strength.
All in all we had a great visit with our son Eugene and his precious wife, Lynn, as well as some of our friends and other family members. It was good to be able to visit with Bruce's brother Frank and encourage him.
The birds were glad to see us get back so Lynn could fill the feeders. Looks like we'll be putting out the hummingbird feeder in a couple of weeks! The weather here in Texas is looking like spring. Some of the trees are actually getting new leaves! Only a couple more of those below freezing nights, I hope!
We are expecting a visit in a few days, from some of our Michigan friends who were wintering farther south. It will be good to see Fred and Barb. We met them in Yuma, AZ last year! We've made many new friends here in Texas, as with anyplace we go it seems!

Cowboy Church Lakehills Texas

As we travel about it has been our practice to stop and worship on Sundays even if we stay an extra day...Hey! We got the time! This works out well for several reasons, we need to spend some quality time with our Lord and Savior, we meet some of the nicest people, and it gives a day of rest if we are running the roads. It has been our pleasure to worship from Bread of Life Church Ocala, FL. to Faith Chapel in Tok, AK, when stopped for the winter we try to find a church family we fit into.

When we headed to Lakehills TX to spend the winter as we turned on to FM1283 we spotted the sign:

COWBOY CHURCH MORNING WORSHIP 10:30 AM BREAKFAST SERVED AT 9:45 AM

Being an eastern Yankee who always wished he had grown up a cowboy, I told Lynn we should try that church. It turned out that the park we were staying in, Lake Medina RV Resort, was only about 4 miles away and the church served breakfast!

We have been attending Cowboy Church ever since that First Sunday when we worshipped under that red and white stripped tent in Eddie Leibold's front pasture. Most mornings the cattle will be close by but there is a fence around the tent and worship area. The Western Heritage Cowboy Church has been worshipping here for three years and has started a building on the church land next door to the pasture. The congregation is a wonderful loving and caring group made up of real cowboys to businessmen and librarians and a few winter Texans like us. Pastor Cliff Hargrove is the real thing, a cowboy born and raised in the Texas panhandle... a rancher called to serve the Lord in this special ministry.

The WHCC Band is very good in the traditions of Texas Country bands and has done some rewrites on some classic country tunes to

We love the Lord, the people and the worship, Ya'll come by and "listen now".

The Band at work praising the Lord

The Hard Part of the Adventure

Full time RVing is a wonderful thing, meeting great people, seeing the awesomeness of God's creation and not being on a schedule. I think you all would agree.

But now the hard part, today we came face to face with the fact that my brother-in-law Enoch aka "Butch" Baker is dying of brain cancer, hospice has been called in. As we sit here in Lakehills, TX, is we want to put our arms around the Baker family and laugh, love and share the time until Butch goes home to be with Jesus. The hard part is our arms aren't 1500 miles long. So we make the phone calls and do the Internet thing to purchase tickets to get on the way Detroit.

Enoch "Butch" Baker was a college professor in history, he had worked 25 years plus to get there. More importantly he is a man of faith, integrity, courage and great humor. He (with Deanne's guidence) helped raise four great childern Erin, Kelly, Shannon and Kevin as a quality loving dad. He and I had many great conversation around the campfire especially about the Matteson women, (our wives' maiden name). I love him like a brother and will miss him dearly.

Well this is the hard part of being a full-timer, I can't think of a plan to avoid this, it's life in action. I guess a song by Garth Brooks says it well "always tell them how much you love them" Butch would love that even though, HE HATES COUNTRY MUSIC.

Even this hard thing has a good side, I will be able to visit my brother Frank who has recently suffered a stroke and is still in recovery. I had hoped to visit him in warmer weather but you can bet he will know that I love him before I come back to Texas for the rest of the winter.

2008 A New Year a New Thing

We have been talking about a blog ever since we hit the road in July of 2005, finally today 01/04/2008 we begin. We have been RVers for 35 years going from tent trailer, motor home to 5th wheels.

Traveling from Maine to California and Florida to Alaska, Alaska to Arizona and a few Canadian Provinces along the way, we have hardly scratched the surface of God's creation.

With over 4000 pictures already, we will be posting some of the old and be sharing the new as we go along. The idea will be to keep friends and family updated on our adventures, not really a daily diary, but a way to let you see our pictures and comments about our travels.

We had a fun New Years' Eve with the folks here at Lake Medina RV Resort. They "roped" us into doing a parody of Donnie and Marie Osmond. It was funny and silly. Pictures soon.