We arrived in Austin at about 4:45 this afternoon and were greeted by Olivia, Jackson and Karis (and their parents). It took us a little longer to get here than we originally planned. I think Mr. Jones was distracted along the way ...
Jackson and Karis playing with their trains
It took us an hour just to get out of Houston this morning. There is so much traffic there! We had barely pulled out from our InTown Suites when a van pulled along side of us. It was evidently a church-owned van and had Scripture written in Spanish on the back end of it. I couldn't read the Spanish, but I did recognize the Scripture reference. So I grabbed my Bible and looked up 1 John 5:20: "And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we are in God because we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life." And right at that very moment I remembered there was a funeral taking place in Grand Rapids for a very fine gentleman I used to work with, Mr. Craig. Texas is one hour behind Grand Rapids, so the funeral was taking place right then. I was so thankful to see that van going by and to be reminded to pray for everyone attending his funeral today, that the Lord would give them understanding and comfort them in the middle of this very sad loss. John ends his epistle with the very next verse: "Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts." As we drove along, I thought about this sobering warning! And I thought about Craig, who has entered eternal life with Jesus.
Mr. Jones inspecting the tracks ...
I can picture Rachel looking at this blog tonightor tomorrow and rolling her eyes ...
This is where we were train spotting ...
We had thought the train was going to come barreling through the crossroads right where we were waiting; but instead it stopped several 100 feet short, two guys jumped out and ran over to "get some coffee" at a truck stop (to the right of this picture). I was standing not too far from them, taking these pictures for Mr. Jones. One of them said to me, "How come you aren't out in the woods taking pictures of deer?" And then they asked how could I be so interested in trains? I told them I wasn't, but THAT MAN (pointing to Don, who was on the other side of the crossing) was! "Oh! Is he a train buff?" they asked? Whew! Is the sun yellow?!!
This engine is a GECX 8310(this is for you, Thom!)
This Union Pacific engine was being used for
extra power ...
I don't have a ZOOM on my camera, but I was trying to give the effect that I was standing smack dab in the middle of the rails just waiting to be run down by this train (which was stopped, remember? the guys were getting coffee!)
Mr. Jones STILL scolded me for stopping in the middle of the tracks!
This is just a nice picture of tracks and signals (if you like that sort of thing)
Some time after we stopped to shoot this train (somewhere near Kingsbury), we were driving along and Mr. Jones noticed a sign that we were on 90 instead of 183. How could that have happened? We had turned onto the 183 that was supposed to take us all the way to Austin; but somehow as we were going through the thriving town of Luling at 20 mph (school zones), we missed a small turn to the right, and instead went to the left (which was 90). I think this could be stated to be a "misadventure" but Mr. Jones will not allow for that to be said. Afterall, I was holding the maps in my lap -- if we took a wrong turn -- guess whose fault it was? I'm not going to argue with that; but I still say it should be termed a "misadventure."
We finally made it to Austin, into the arms of happy grandchildren. We played for awhile with the little kids ...
The kiddos have a very nice train layout upstairs in their play room ...
We had a very enjoyable taco dinner, played some more with the grandchildren, did all of our laundry, and now we are happily ready to retire for the night! We are looking forward to the next few days in Austin ...
3 comments:
I'm sure that when Rachel does read that she will roll her eyes. AND you should of told them about old mcd's farm and the deer there, if you even like deer that much your fill was full of them.
We are so excited that you guys are finally here to visit... we've been counting down the days! Jackson loves the pictures by the way.
Yes, Nick. I should have told those guys about Old MacDonald's Farm ... but if you could've SEEN these two fella's, you would understand why I didn't want to engage in a long conversation with them! They were not your typical friendly train engineer type guys. They looked like they lived right out on the street or under a bridge! But Old MacDonald's Farm was my first thought as well -- I had plenty of deer pictures!
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