Yesterday we met up with Rhiannon and Marianne for lunch. Both gals were in my Girls Bible Study (GBS) when they were in high school many years ago. They are all grown up, and Rhiannon is expecting her first child at the end of this month and enjoying married life. Marianne is working as a physical therapy tech and doing well. It was great fun catching up with them.
The girls from GBS hold a special place in my heart. There were about eight regulars that participated for three summers during their high school years. Many are married, some have children (or on the way), several have graduated from college, and one even flies jets in the Air Force. About half of them remain in the San Diego area, and the others are spread out in the southwest. It's rare that I get to see many of them, so this was a special treat.
As I sit here typing, my memories flood in with such warmth and fondness. Every once in a while, you have a time in your life that can never be recreated. This was one of those times. Each girl was so different in personality, but once a week, we'd gather and share our lives together . I love that so many of them stay in touch and the bonds have remained as they've grown older.
Marianne used to call me Mrs. Mooh-kay. When she'd see me in the distance, she'd call out with an enthusiastic yell... Mrs. Mooooooohhhh-kay! And she'd always ask, "Are we going to do any activities tonight?" Rhiannon was the thinker, always reading, writing, and delving into deep topics. Ashley was our song leader, writing songs to memory verses and leading us in music each week. She was just starting to play the guitar back then. Chandel was our God-cha Girl which stood for God Chat Girl. She was in charge of keeping us updated on prayer requests. Rocky just wanted to fly a plane and get out on her own. She was determined she would never get married, but she ended up being one of the first ones to tie the knot! Sweet Ruthanne was always kind and never wanted to hurt anyone's feelings. She'd always comment on my little "wink." The other Ashley was called Float, because her initials were AW and that led to A & W Rootbeer which led to rootbeer floats, which...well you get the idea. April was 16 going on 30. She was very grown up and often said, "Okay, kids!" She's the one I get to see and interact with the most, and I consider it an honor to call her my friend. Happy sigh here...I love my girls!
After lunch we headed over to The Stockyards which is an historical area of Fort Worth where you can shop and see a real longhorn cattle drive! Okay, so the cattle drive lasted all of three minutes while 15 longhorns were herded down the street by a cowgirl and a couple cowboys. But I'm glad we were able to experience it, after all we were in cowboy country!
The last task of the day was to find a cowboy hat for David. Aunt Karen said he should get a white hat since it was the summer, but he really wanted a black one. We walked through several stores and saw hats ranging from $20 to $300. At one store, the clerk told us the hat could be custom creased. That was the store, that was out of David's price range. At the General Store (which Rhiannon recommended), the perfect hat was found. Mission accomplished.
On the way out of Fort Worth, we hit some rush hour traffic. It felt like home. We had a three and a half hour drive to Shreveport. About 100 miles out, we hit some rain and wind along with a lightning show. After we arrived, we decided to try Whataburger, a popular hamburger chain in Texas and surrounding states. It's open 24 hours and the food was pretty good. We had some trouble understanding the cashier, but I'm not sure if it was because of her accent or that we were just dead tired.
The weather has definitely changed now that we are farther east. The landscape is greener, the atmosphere is much more humid, and there is a musty smell in the air. It's a nice change from the arid hot climate we've been experiencing this week, but now we feel like we are in a sauna.
Our bags are packed with clean laundry and we're ready to discover what Shreveport has to offer. There is a boardwalk on the Red River that has casinos, black light mini golf, and Uncle Buck's Alligator Bayou. The boys want to play mini golf, but I want to see some gators!
No comments:
Post a Comment