All’s well that ends well (March 30)

I’ll start at the "ends well" – Continuing from where I left off in yesterday’s post,the service shop was great – they had the BBB back in operation shortly after 10 a.m. it turned out that the only thing that was broken was the ball joint (It had sheared off – likely due to a defect – the mechanic said that there was no wear - nothing that would have given a warning signal if it had been checked—just a “one in a million” failure that happens sometimes).

Also for the mechanically knowledgeable –my mind was distracted last night – the bolt part of the ball joint that attaches the “a frame” to the wheel hub sheared off allowing the "a frame" to drop to the pavement. Fortunately there was no damage to the a frame, spring, shock, tie rods, brake lines or the wheel well. They replaced the upper ball joint at the same time to be on the safe side .

It was around 9:00 by the time they had gotten the wheel off and the old ball joint out and had done the assessment of what needed to be done. At that point they said it would be 2-3 hours to get the parts and re-assemble. So I had called Chris to say that we likely wouldn’t be able to get to see them before they had to go to airport. When they surprised me by finishing so quickly, we called back- he cancelled his cab and we were able to pick them up. As we were enroute to airport Tammye re-checked their tickets and discovered they had a 4:00 p.m. flight rather than 2:00 p.m. so we pulled off at a mall, had lunch and meandered around there for a couple of hours. It was a much better way to say goodbye than when they had had to leave us stranded last night and find their way back to their hotel by bus.

Apparently Hunter was crying on their way to hotel because he was so worried about us – and I suppose shaken up by it all. Both Linda and I had our emotional moments this morning after the BBB was well on the way to being repaired and the reality “what could have been if it happened on the freeway really hit us”. So in all this we give God the glory – scary and a bit costly but no serious damage to the BBB and no harm to life or limb. AND we were blessed with more time to visit with Chris, Tammye, Hunter and Camdyn and got to see them off at the airport.

This quote from our son Kevin gives one of the good things that can come from something that seems bad at the time “ You're right though, on the bright side; when you make a wrong turn from now on, you can just remind any who are apt to criticize that some times wrong turns are right choices".

Back tracking to the great part of yesterday. Jim & Joyce and Joseph (on left)– former neighbors of Chris & Tammye’ – who now live in Dallas had come down to meet them at San Antonio – They were leaving yesterday morning but treated us to breakfast. We had gotten to know Jim & Joyce quite well in our visits to Aurora over the past 5 or 6 years so it was good to see them.
Lulu’s diner where we had breakfast. features a “3 pound” cinnamon roll which we avoided but we saw others tackling.

After breakfast and goodbye’s to Jim & Joyce we drove to Boerne and visited the Enchanted Springs ranch (which didn’t quite live up to the descriptions on their website – but was interesting—don’t often see a Texas longhorn up close and personal. There was an eclectic collection of animals including zebras, elks,& llama

Hunter & Camdyn are great kids but I suppose all parents at times may want something to"threaten" their kids with-- but hopefully nothing extreme .....

We had lunch at “Whattaburger” – since this is a southern chain none of us had ever been there – great burgers!!

We went to the Guadalupe River State park for rest of the afternoon. This was a really neat place- river running through a limestone “canyon” == kids had fun running and playing, in playground and wading in the river. Towards the end of the day Hunter & Camdyn talked their Dad into a game of freeze tag -- not sure who got the most tired but it was fun to watch them.
I got brave and climbed a tree - well it wasn't much of a climb --nothing like what my friend John Sanders is learning to do back in Mississippe -climbing trees with a saw to clean up after Katrina

Boys" will be boys and Moms will be moms. Linda scolded Chris as he forded the river above the rapids

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One of the highlights was seeing a real live armadillo. It was a very relaxing time with family. I said to Camdyn “This is really a great day—do you know why?” She said “Nooo?” and I said it has to be great because we are all here together. When she was leaving last night after the breakdown I told her it was still a great day because we were OK and we had had the day together.

When we got back to the KOA this afternoon I crashed for a couple of hours and then spent some time browsing to see what we might do tomorrow – still not 100% sure but likely will go down and do the Riverwalk.

Take care & God Bless
Charlie& Linda

p.s. May not have INTERNET access over next few days sopostings may be irregular again for a while