Texas Travels

Last Thursday I left on a trip to Texas to spend some time with my parents and sister.    I broke up the traveling into 2 days and made a stop overnight in Joplin, Missouri.   As I had posted in my one of my previous posts, I was actually driving someone else's car.  Two hours into the trip I made a stop at a Walmart to give the car I was driving an oil change.  When I picked up the car the owner told me to check the oil level (he wasn't there when I picked it up).   I checked the level and it was half way between the bottom of the dipstick and the Low mark on the dipstick.     The car ran great though!

On my driving, as I am on the road a lot now a days, I spend my time doing a variety of things.  I sing, pray, worship, listen to sermons, music and teachings, listen to podcasts and such.  I really enjoy the Phil Visher Podcast (he's the guy who started Veggie Tales), and I also really enjoy the Car Talk podcasts.  

I arrived at my dad's apartment down in Georgetown, Texas on Friday evening.  I spent the weekend with him and then headed out on Monday.   Abi, my sister, had a band lock-in at school that Friday night, so she was unable to make it down to us then.  She came down late afternoon after she woke up (the lock-in ended at 6am I think).   We went to a variety of different restaurant, which was pretty cool.  My dad and I also on Friday evening drove around the area where we used to live,  including out by the school we went to and the house we lived in.  For those who don't know, my family lived in this area for nearly 4 years when we were all younger.    We moved to Texas in 2003, and then back to Illinois in 2007.  We also went out in search for the dinosaur tracks that we always went to when we were kids - yes real dinosaur tracks.  I love hiking to them and looking at them, but we were not able to do it in the time we had.   One place that we use to always go to get to them, was so built up that the public trail to them was now private property.  The whole area is so built up that it's really hard to recognize places.  The town/city we lived in, Leander, is a booming & blooming city now.  In 1990, the population of Leander was 3,425. When we moved to Leander in 2003 it was 13,973.  And last year, 2016, the population of Leander was 46,761.  

On Sunday we went to my parent's/sister's church, Antioch.   I loved it.  It reminded me a lot like Koinonia, back up in Canada.   Great worship, great teaching, great fellowship!  Abi had invited a friend to come to church with us and he came for 1st service.  I was there for both services.  My dad was in first service as he was teaching the grade 5/6 Sunday school class during 2nd service.  My mom came for just 2nd service.    Abi and Alex, after first service went to Barnes & Nobles after 1st service to wait for us until after 2nd service.  After second service all of us, all 5 of us, went out to eat at a stir fry place (kind of like Flat Top).    Afterwards Alex drove home, mom drove home and Abi, dad and I drove back to my dad's apartment in Georgetown (about a 90 minute drive).  

Monday morning at 6am Abi left Georgetown to head back to the town of West, Texas (about a 75 minute drive) for Band practice at her band camp.    Later on that day, after lunch I left my dad's and drove up to West to my mom's place.  We went hiking yesterday which was fun.  I will be with her and Abi until sometime on Wednesday (tomorrow) when I will leave to head back to Illinois.  

Here are some pictures from the hike with my mom along a river in Waco, Texas.

Part of this area has a large amount of Bamboo growing all over.  You can see some of the bamboo growing in the background behind my mom and me.