Flag Day

On June 14th, at 9:30 am,

Sandpipers will be celebrating

Flag Day

 at the Memorial Garden near the entrance.

 There will be an honor guard along with a flag raising and brief history of the American Flag and the MIA/POW flag.

We encourage everyone to attend

 to show their respect for the flags.

Before the ceremony, there will be coffee and donuts

served in Flip Flopz from 8:30 till 9:30.

Cowabunga!

Two and a half days to exit Texas, then we whizzed thru Oklahoma, Kansas and into Nebraska in one day.

What tiny states!

We've been driving on our very own road, Hwy 83.

At least it feels like ours alone...hardly any traffic-just cows.

Lots and lots of cows.

Hey, here's a question for you cow-savy-pokes.

When we pass a herd of cows with calves sometimes I'll see an Auntie cow with a whole passel of young-uns while their mama's are out doing cow work...

you know grazing and cud chewing and such.

Is that baby cow day care?

Or my imagination grasping at something, anything to pass the time?

Still in Texas!

How is it possible that we have been driving for two days

yet we are still in Texas?

We have been taking the back roads...highly recommended!

The wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country were replaced by purple roadside flowers and golden waves of grain...well maybe hay.

We've seen our share of turkey buzzards and roadkill du jour.

I miss the Caracara's which are really just

turkey buzzards with makeup.

The Texas Panhandle has loads of goat farms...err..ranches, as this is the Goat BBQ Capitol of the WORLD!

And it's so clean!  Why is our area so trash ridden?  Other places may have a smattering of trash occasionally but on Seminary Road?!  I feel we live near a landfill!!

Tomorrow we will whizz thru the western corner of Oklahoma and stop in Kansas or Nebraska.  Maybe it'll be cooler. 

Still in the mid 90's here-ugg!

On the Road Again..

Jim & I left Sandpipers this morning for a summer journey thru Canada to Alaska, then back down thru the CA wine country before arriving home sometime late Sept, or early Oct.

We plan to meet up with Annie & Bill in Yellowstone

in a few weeks and tour together.

Today's driving uneventful, monotonous...

until we hit the Hill Country.

Can't post a picture 'cause Jim don't stop, no how, no way!

I saw (and wanted) peaches, blackberries...

no stop, no room, says the curmudgeon.

We drove north thru Fredericksburg along Hwy 87.

 OMG!

Wildflowers galor!

Like someone had dropped a painter's box of colors. 

Vast fields of golden yellow, red, orange, purple.

I had thought, naively, that once bluebonnet were over that the wildflowers just stopped.

not true..it was gorgeous!

Maybe tomorrow we might actually stop occasionally?!

Summer Book Club

The Summer Book Club will meet on

 June 14th at 7PM at Lot 43 (Kelm's) at 7PM.

There is no designated book.

We will just talk about what we have read recently,

both good and bad.

Wine, coffee and dessert will be served.

******

Now, my two cents...

I've just finished a series of trilogies that I LOVED!

It is fantasy...

now don't get all in a tizzy!

I am not a fantasy or sci-fi fan...AT ALL...but I loved this series.

Author is Robin Hobbs, the first book is The Assassin's Apprentice.

It is available paperback, hard back, and Kindle.

I can not praise this author enough.

A true wordsmith.

Sue P and Jim have also read it, and Catherine got us started.

None of us have been able to function normally for weeks as we can't put the book down!

Try it, you might be a surprised.

Memorial Day Weekend

What a nice weekend we had at Sandpipers.

Hot dogs, watermelon, root beer floats, lots of water volleyball, and of course, lots of sun and heat....and now humidity.

The crowning achievement was a wonderful presentation at the Court of Honor by Stan, Mike, Karon & Steve.

They read from the brass plaques that surround the flagpole, with the brass bell tolling after every name..

If you have a loved one, an ancestor, a heart-felt expression you want immortalized this is where to do it.

Most, but not all, of the plaques remember a military relative,

fallen or not,

 still with us...or not.

 Contact Stan Croonquist via snail mail. 

 He is a tech dinosaur and proud of it!

But you can reach him at #30...

you MUST know the rest of the address!

To give you a rough idea of cost...

$10.50 for the plaque, $0.15 a letter, 8.25% tax.

You can expect to pay between $15-$20 depending on how wordy you are.  Military symbols cost an additional $5.

Ask Stan for more info, or to send you a form.

There are sentiments such as "My heart belongs to Sandpipers", honored war dead from both sides of the Civil War, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, even the World Trade Center are all well represented.

I got two, one to honor my father, a career Air Force officer and a fighter pilot in the Pacific Theater during WWll...the other to honor the memory of my great, great,grandfather, who fought on the Union side during the Civil War. 

This feels very special to me.

Ooooh...Movie Recommendation1

David and I went to see a wonderful movie yesterday.

"The Best Exotic Marigold Motel"

It stars Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith

 plus other great actors and is about a group

 of retired Brits who go to India to live in a hotel.

Great plot and a movie made for "mature" adults.

Watch for it on your travels this summer.

Sandy & Dave