Wednesday evening…. well I enjoyed my day off yesterday driving around seeing new towns and in the evening was treated to some southern hospitality by family of friends that I know from the restaurant. It was a lovely evening and they were very kind to me. The photos are from where I stopped to have lunch. Today was driving day again and I took Gerry to the hospital in the next town about one hour’s drive away. He is fun to be with and the stories he can tell are so interesting and before his wife passed away they went on many trips to all parts of the world. Of course on the way back he wanted to stop at McDonalds for a breakfast muffin and I couldn’t let him dine alone now could I???? In the afternoon I took Pete with her dog to the vets, Pete is a very interesting lady, 85 years old, a published author and a hoot with her stories, anyway we are sitting in this large vet’s office (Don’t forget everything is big in Texas)…and we are chatting and in the waiting room is a very large cage with a parrot inside and one free on top, we are about 10 feet from them and for the longest time the parrots were sleeping. Anyway Pete and I were talking when we heard this loud voice say “shut up” we looked at each other and said was that the parrot… Sure enough the parrot was shouting, “shut up” this was so funny, he kept on repeating this. On the way home about 5pm Pete said to me do you want to stop for an ice cream and proceeded to tell me that the participants when they go out with the volunteers on errands like to buy the volunteers ice cream as a way of saying thank you because they are not allowed to give us anything, so this is their way of saying thank you with out getting in trouble, so being a gentleman I allowed Pete to get me an ice cream. I shall put on pounds as I am driving for the rest of the week. Just want to explain a little bit about how I am feeling, last week I was going stir crazy because I am so active and when not working there is really nothing around to see or do, but now I have a different perspective and know that I came here to work and the times that I am not working or on call I am doing things that I haven’t done in the past, watching the stars at night, listening and identifying this mocking bird that can sing about 7 different songs, when I run, I pass 4 horses that now when they see me come up to the fence on there own. I am looking at all the flowers, I spend hours reading and thinking about kind of motor home I am going to buy, planning the next months, I guess what I am saying is that these 4 weeks have been different for me, weeks that I have really enjoyed and it has grounded me and given me a better understanding of many things and I know when I leave here on April 9th I shall be seeing some amazing countryside and then for the summer running around the soccer fields…so life is good thanks for reading this…Les