Freedom!

Yesterday at four fifteen we arrived at The Ronderosa, Ronnie and Nita's ranch in Dripping Springs. Ronnie was outside cooking his briskets when we pulled up and we really surprised him, because I had told him earlier yesterday morning that we couldn't come to their party because we had no one to babysit the rescue ranch for us. Then Ben volunteered and we took off for some fun with family and friends.

As soon as Tone had unpacked Buttermilk, Ron, Nita and their daughters Katelynn and Callie visited with us in their kitchen and it was non-stop laughter. Then an hour later Billy Upton, a dear friend of ours, and his lovely family arrived!

Ronnie and I go way back with Billy. He was our next door neighbor in Fort Worth and he and Ronnie are a year older than me. In the summers and winters as kids, we played everyday together. We roller skated, walked on homemade stilts, played football, softball, croquet, climbed trees and rode bikes together and he and Ronnie were in the same Cub Scout troop together. In other words—we knew each other.

After high school Billy and I were in a jug band with our friends and then he went up to Crested Butte, Colorado to live—the same time that I was living up there. Through the years Ronnie and Nita have stayed in touch with Billy and the last time that I saw Billy was over fifteen years ago right after Jim died.

I had so much fun catching up with Billy and visiting with his wife, Diana and their daughter Molly. Then an hour later the party started when everyone else arrived, including my nephews Adam and Tom Roche along with their girlfriends Christie and Nicki. Here is a picture of Billy and Ronnie that Tone took.

After we ate Ronnie and Nita's delicious feast, the guys grabbed their guitars and mandolins and everyone went into the big room to listen to some great music. My nephew Tom and his friends played first, then Ronnie, Tom, Jerry and Joel joined in and the music was absolutely incredible! Near the end of the night Joel Johnson and Jerry Hill entertained us. They play both mandolin and guitar and they took turns switching back and forth from their instruments.

When Joel started singing Billy Joe Shaver's song, Fast Train From Georgia I grabbed my camera and shot a video of them performing, but unfortunately when I watched it this afternoon I couldn't see them because of the low lighting. So, you will just have to take my word for it—they were great.

This morning at six o'clock Tony and I quietly slipped out of Ronnie's  house and jumped into Buttermilk and took off. We arrived at the rescue ranch at five minutes past eight o'clock and we were pretty tired, but we had some work to do.

After we unloaded Buttermilk we ate and drank breakfast and then we went outside to do chores. While T. fed the dogs I cleaned their pens and then an hour and twenty minutes later we returned to the trailer to clean ourselves up. After we were sparkling clean T. took off to Vanderpool for his family reunion and I stayed home. I stayed home because I had laundry to do and needed to take care of some paperwork and also because I was pooped. After I did all of my chores I took a short nap with our dogs.

This afternoon when I checked my e-mail I had three nice surprises that made me smile. My friend Rick Reichenbach the lighthouse keeper down in Port Aransas made me smile first. In his note he asked me to read yesterday's article in the Corpus Christi Caller Times about a twenty-year-old, one hundred and twenty pound injured Loggerhead Sea Turtle named Lydia Ann, II that he rescued a year ago, because she has fully recovered and this morning at ten o'clock on Independence Day she was being released back into the ocean!

I could feel the excitement and joy in Rick's note when he wrote: "Now, that's what I call Freedom!" Like Rick I love turtles and I told him that there was a story in my new book about Cindy, Tone and I rescuing four turtles from a pet store on the Fourth of July and setting them free two years ago today and I know exactly how good it feels.

My next e-mail surprise was from our dear friends, neighbors and super volunteers Charlie and Ellen Cooper. Charlie wrote that he and Ellen had a couple of gifts to bring us, because they love us and appreciate what we do for the critters. Tone and I think the world of Ellen and Charlie and we feel honored for them to count us as friends, so I wrote them back and we are hoping to see them tomorrow.

Last, but not least was the great e-mail with pictures that I received from our friends and volunteers from Port Aransas, Pete Hartje and his sweet wife Kelly Bloomfield, that made me laugh out loud. They are the couple who adopted Smilin' Jack from us back in October, that our new volunteers Lisa and Sha drove down to Port A. and hand delivered to them.

Pete is a great writer and in his hilarious note he told me that they had decided to get Smilin' Jack a Lion-cut for the summer. "We left a mane on him with big tuffs of hair on his feet and a fly-swatter tail." Here are the two pictures that they sent of Smilin' Jack with his new Doo.

                                       

Early this evening I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky. While we were sitting outside near the Friedman Family Bone Orchard visiting Kinky challenged me to a game of pool, so we went inside. In no time flat I accidentally sank the eight ball and he won, so I came home.

Y'all have a great evening!