Paul Alton MBA

This month we joined with two other couples at Victory Camp. This is about our eighth time here and the first time for both the other couples.

The men worked at repairing some drywall cracks in the dorms and the “General Store”. We also replaced some rotten and termite damaged wood on the General Store and replaced the siding that covered it. We also lowered one corner of the beam supporting the front roof on the General Store by about two inches to make the beam level and to give a bit more pitch to the front roof.

The Ladies worked at going through the food prep areas to remove any outdated or soon to be outdated food in preparation for the annual visit form the health inspector. They worked in the kitchen during meals when there were groups here and doing clean-up after the groups left.

For us it is always good to be in the area. Three of Juanita’s sisters settled in the Houston area so we usually get a chance to see nieces and nephews and Juanita’s surviving sister and her husband.

Our daughters gave us gift certificates for Christmas. The one daughter’s was for a Landry’s restaurant. We chose to go to Saltgrass Steak House on Super Bowl weekend. I think half of Texas was watching the game elsewhere and we had no problem getting a window seat looking out over Galveston Bay. Afterward we wandered around the Kemah boardwalk enjoying being by the water and handing out curved illusion tracts.

One Friday we joined up with Juanita’s sister and her husband and toured the Lone Star Flight Museum next to Ellison Air Base about twenty minutes from here. Lots of neat planes, physics of flight demos and some simulators. Juanita did a much better job at her first try on the hang glider simulator than I did. I went back when it wasn’t busy and practiced until I could do it without crashing. During the week the airplane flight simulators are booked for school children, but it would be worth a trip back on a weekend to get to use one of those.

A reasonable drive to the west of here took the same four of us to the Brazos Bend State Park. There are camping areas and a multitude of hiking trails and a fishing dock. We walked along the path around the lake nearest to the park entrance and admired the alligators napping on the banks.

One of the convoys of wagons headed to the Houston Rodeo passed by the Camp one morning. Of course we all stopped work and went out to see it pass by.

This museum honors the history of the black soldiers in the the American military. It is an interesting place to spend a few hours. If you pick your day to visit carefully admission is free. You don’t need to ask if we picked the right day, do you?

The last working day of the project was the 21^st . There is a further week of free parking available after that. Some years we have taken advantage of that opportunity here and other times we have left as soon as possible. This year there was some indication I might have work at the Regina refinery and some indication I wouldn’t. There are pros and cons either way, but at the end of the month we were still waiting for an answer.