HAPPY NEW YEAR from TX

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Howdy Y'all and Happy New Year!

We are currently in New Braunfels, TX. We left Gulf Shores, AL on 12/27 in search of warmer weather. Plus Lynn still wants to travel a little more in the West. He has never been to Bryce Canyon or Zion National Park (I was there in 1978) and he wants to see those. We also want to go to Hoover Dam and Lake Powell and a few other places we have never been. But for now we are in TX through most of February since we plan on going to the San Antonio Rodeo www.sarodeo.com which is 2/3-2/20 this year. We always enjoy that!

We had a great time in Gulf Shores seeing old friends and meeting new ones. We went to two Christmas parades (one in Foley and the other in Gulf Shores) - we really enjoy those, especially since they never have those in NY (wonder why???) We also went to two different chorale Christmas programs at two different churches. They both were quite beautiful. I got to sing in the Christmas Cantata with the choir at Morgan's Chapel which is the small church we attend in Bon Secour, AL. We went to three different gift exchanges, one at Morgan's Chapel, one at Gulf State Park where we were staying and one at Gulf Breeze RV Resort which is where we stayed last year. Friends from there invited us to attend the Christmas dinner and gift exchange with them. That was really nice.

We went to Kinder, Louisana after leaving Gulf Shores and spent three days there getting our Cajun food fix and trying to find some Zydeco music to listen to. But since it was during the week we didn't find much music, (they usuallly have the music on weekends.)

We got to Hill Country RV Resort http://www.hillcountryrvresortnb.com/ on 12/30  but I have been too lazy up until now to send out a message, so I hope no one thought we had dropped off the face of the earth or anything. If you take a look at the link for this place, be aware that we figure the pictures must have been taken about 10 years ago. It's not quite as nice in person as it is on the internet. They also neglect to tell you how close it is to I-35 and all the traffic noise. Thankfully, we have an air purifier in the bedroom which runs all night and almost drowns out the highway sounds. Hopefully we will get used to it. We did go to a New Year's Eve party they had here. There was a country band so we danced a little and it was a snack-to-pass so we ate a little. And met a few people.

We have been enjoying the swimming pool, hot tub, and sauna here, so it's not all bad! We work out in the pool every morning for about an hour. There aren't any good bike paths around here, though, so we aren't able to ride bikes daily like we were in AL.

We have mostly been driving around getting the lay of the land, and we found a small Methodist church that we just checked out this morning and it seems like it will be a good fit for us. It is New Hope http://www.new-hope-umc.org/ in Converse, TX and is about 20 minutes from where we are staying. The pastor told us he had worked for the telephone company for 20 years then went to seminary when he was 59 years old and this is his first appointment to a church. He gave an excellent message about "new things" and not being afraid of change in life. People were very warm and welcoming, which is one reason we like small churches (like at home!)

We hope everyone has a wonderful New Year and that your hopes and dreams come true. I will try to be better about keeping in touch in the future!

Lorrie, Lynn & Pepper


More: http://www.hsengine.com/s_Bryce+Park.html