We had a nice turnout of a half dozen for the July Luncheon, just right for plenty of good conversation.  Here are Angie and Steve Rocha.

More pictures are here!

Hope to see everybody next month.

Why don't you join us for the next luncheon? We meet monthly for lunch at Abuelo's on US75 in Plano at 11:30 a.m. on the 13^th of each month, or the first following, non-holiday weekday if the 13^th falls on a weekend or holiday.

Our next luncheon will be Tuesday, Aug 13, 2024 at 11:30 a.m.  

Yes I did make it to the 63rd anniversary of our Dyer High School class of '61 graduation. It was a sparse turnout this year with only 7 classmates and two spouses making the dinner. We had a great time though, and look forward to seeing a larger turnout next year.

Angie and I had a really nice visit with the family in Dyer, and dropped by the old home place and visited with Jim and Susan Hesse, the new owners. We also got our Reelfoot catfish fix, and some good chow at El Vallarta's.

Following this we headed East, stopping by Johnson City, TN to visit with a long time friend, and then heading on North to Roanoke and visiting my cousin, David Carne. Switching into full tourist mode, we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, spent a day in Harpers Ferry, dropped by Salamander Resort in Middleburg, VA, and visited the Jefferson Memorial, Mount Vernon, and Monticello. Our homeward route took us through West Virginia where we stopped to admire the New River Gorge Bridge.

A full album of 188 pictures from the 2024 vacation is here.

Timothy Zee was in town for his 40th high school reunion and we got to visit with him and his wife for a couple of hours at La Madelin in Plano.

My how time does fly! I remember taking him to his first pro baseball game and also teaching him to lick the dasher when we made home-made ice cream. Tim is the youngest son of Dick and Jesse Zee.

We did take the opportunity to view the total solar eclipse from our back yard in Richardson. Although the camera makes it look fairly bright, it was eerily dark. Note what I believe was Venus about 45° to the right and below the sun.

This was the first total solar eclipse I've seen,  and I thought it was pretty fantastic!

Margarita Flores' niece, Fabulosa, was visiting from Mexico, and we were invited out to lunch  with them at La Casita Bakery in Richardson. I had a Cuban sandwich and it was great.

Our neighbor, Margarita Flores, gifted Angie with this arrangement of Roses, 73 in total, one for every year she's lived plus one to grow on!

And no, it's not her birthday; We've just got great neighbors!

63 years and a while ago, after I'd completed my junior year of high school, I boarded a Greyhound bus and traveled to Texarkana, Texas to spend a week with my father and his new young family.

I met and played with my new siblings, a brand-new baby sister, and a brother and sister aged 5 and 4 years old. It was hard saying goodbye, and as I told my sister, she cried when I had to leave.

Over the years we lost contact and went our separate ways. Along came Ancestry.com and DNA tests which suddenly put that once 4-year-old sister and myself back in contact.

This past weekend the stars aligned, the gods on Mount Olympus smiled, and we got to meet again face to face. My sister, Babs Suzanne Harrison, and her husband were in Dallas for a wedding and invited us to join them for dinner. We did and had a wonderful time with a lot of catching up. After 63+ years without siblings, I've once again got a sister plus a new brother-in-law! I'm ecstatic!

We got together with Arlinda Bailey and Bill and Nancy Myers over at the Jalapeno Tree in Marshall to catch up and relive old times. Arlinda had driven in from Johnson City, TN to visit family, and Bill and Nancy are living in Longview now. We had a grand old time reminiscing. We were all amazed that we'd managed to live through all of the dumb things we'd done over the 50+ years.

Angie and I in the Princess Observation car on the Alaska Railroad.

All the picture albums from our Alaskan Land/Sea cruise are posted here on Flickr.

Angie and I down on the river at Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge at Cooper Landing. That's the Kenai river behind us, and we saw numerous folks kayaking and fishing on the river.

At Whittier Alaska we bid farewell to the Grand Princess and took a Catamaran over to Valdez. There we boarded a Princess bus and began the trip to the Princess Copper River Wilderness Lodge.

Angie and I in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. We'd been to Alaska on cruises twice before, but considering the weather, the price, and the chance to do the land tour for the first time, we decided to go.

Sadly, while we were in California our good friend Marion Dilley passed away in Harker Heights Texas. Upon our return to Texas we attended visitation, memorial, and burial services for him at the Texas Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, Texas.

While visiting in California we dropped by the California Nursery Historic Park, one of our favorites. Here's Angie at the Park with a "natural picture frame".

The next part of the surprise Birthday was spending two nights at the Carmel Valley Ranch. Here are Angie and I there at dinner.

We joined Angie's family at the Monterey Plaza Hotel to celebrate Hsu Whey's 70^th birthday.

L-R: Mr. Chu, Hsu Whey Chu, Angie Harrison, Jim Harrison, Ping Sun Chu, Lucas Chu, and Kevin Chu.

Shortly after returning from Tennessee, we were invited to visit Angie's family in Caifornia and help celebrate her sister's 70^th birthday. We met the family for lunch at the Monterey Plaza Hotel on Cannery Row. As you can see, her sister was suitably surprised!

While in Tennessee we stopped in to visit the folks who bought the old homeplace on Broad Street after my mother's passing. Here I'm on the back porch talking with Susan and Jim Hesse. Jim is working on an outdoor kitchen just beside the new brick garage he recently completed. Inside they've added even more new innovations.