In June we made our annual trek back to Tennessee to participate in my 62^nd reunion of the Dyer High School class of 1961. A few more are still around, but they couldn't make it to the reunion for one reason or another.

Those who did, L-R: Patsy London Reed, Sue Mabry Cochran, myself Jim Harrison, James Meadows, Melba Owens Gilmore, Russell Watt, Carol Stockton Mannon, John Taylor, Alice Ball McCutcheon, Jerry Mercer, Cleatus Woods, and Tommy Finch.

In May 2023 we invited some of the neighbors over for a visit and a bite to eat with the purpose of their meeting our new nextdoor neighbors David and Jen Hanger and Jen's mother Jin Lin. From the looks of the plates, I think they liked the food!

At the kitchen table clockwise from left: Lisa, Alyssa, and Paul Boisvert, Jan and Claude Marist, Mrs. Lin, Jen and David Hanger.

And in the sunroom you can just make out Angie with Nora and Wayne Russell..

Friends Eric and Daisy Su invited us to the May 2023 wedding of their daughter Loura Su to Doug Jow (pronounced Joe) at Nottinghill in Little Elm. This was our first time at this wedding venue, and it was quite nice.

Here Doug and Loura are ready for their first dance as husband and wife..

One of the highlights of the trip to Japan was a visit to the Mt. Fuji area. That is some more beautiful mountain! The next day, 14 Feb 2023, we caught a flight from Haneda airport and returned home to Texas.

I've finally finished processing the 6-8 hundred pictures I took and you can view the best of them via this Flickr page.

While in Tokyo we accidently located a great Sushi & Sashimi bar. In fact we enjoyed this so much that we returned a couple nights later!

We ended our cruise in Tokyo where we stayed at the Prince Park Tower, almost in the shadow of the Tokyo Tower shown here. The Tokyo Tower reputedly is 9 m taller than the Eifel tower in Paris. We did visit it and went up to the mid level observation deck for a great view.

This was our ship, the Diamond Princess, shown here docked in Guam. The policeman at left is returning a billfold someone left at the security check point. It was our second cruise on the Diamond, and it was almost like coming home.

Angie was ready for a vacation, and the next thing I knew she'd booked us on a cruise to Tokyo via Hawaii and Guam. Here we're on board the Diamond Princess with a nice sunset in the background in San Diego prior to sailing the evening of 12 Feb 2023.

Angie's mother passed away October 1, 2022. Angie went home to Taiwan for the funeral and to help settle the estate.

We were happy to have the Chu family visit with us over the Labor Day holidays. After taking in the sights from Fort Worth to Dennison and on to Oklahoma, Lucas was convinced that Buc-ee's was the highlight of the visit to Texas!

More pictures are here on Flickr>.

Another momentous birthday! We helped Natalia celebrate becoming a teenager on her 13th birthday

My gosh but they go from cute to mature looking teenagers overnight!.

It's hard to believe, but Lucas just celebrated his THIRD birthday! Here he is with his parents and grandmother.

Before we left Dyer on the 2022 trip we stopped by to see Tommy Finch who is recovering from successful heart surgery. Angie snapped this shot of Tommy's Cat which took an immediate liking to me, and sat in my lap the entire time. According to Tommy, he had the cat before he and Reba married so it's well over 25 years old.

The primary object of the trip to Tennessee was to meet up with my old high school friends for our annual reunion. We made it! So for 2022, here is the class of '61 sixty one years later! There are a few more of us left than this shows, but many were unable to attend this year for one reason or another.

Front Row L-R: Carol Stockton Mannon, Melba Owens Gilmore, Patsy London Reed, Alice Ball McCutcheon, Ms Brewer (Teacher), Frank Bailey, Gary Fesmire, Jim Harrison

Back Row L-R: Cleatus Woods, Jerry Mercer, Russell Watt, John Taylor, Jim Meadows.

Staying in Dyer with my cousin, Natalee Reed, one night after supper I told the old joke about dishes being "as clean as 'Cold Water' can get them". Joe and Max thought that was a great idea, but Natalee and Angie nixed the idea! 

Angie and I usually head to Tennessee in June of each year for my annual high school reunion. This year, 2022, we decided to be different and do some touristing along the way. Angie wanted to see Savannah, GA which she's encountered in several books, and I picked out a couple of places along the way. While we were in Savannah, we decided we might as well go see Charleston, SC again since we were so close. And then there was Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach, Chattanooga, etc. After all that we decided to stop by Lynchburg, TN and say howdy to Mr. Jack and his folks. As a great bonus, an old college friend lived just down the road in Scottsboro, AL, and he was nice enough to meet and treat us to dinner at Miss Mary Bobo's in Lynchburg. The food was superb, and it was great catching up with Ben again.

Pictures from our "Southern Vacation" trip are here.

2021: Angie's mother celebrating her 95^th birthday.

2021: After jumping through all kinds of hoops, Angie is off to Taiwan to visit her mother on her upcoming 95^th birthday. She sent me this picture of the cleaning and disinfecting crew at the TaoYuan airport shortly after her arrival. There are more cleaners and disinfectors than there are passengers - by a long shot! They're taking no chances.

She has to spend two weeks in solitary confinement, or quarantine, before getting limited freedom to be outside. Then one more week avoiding public gatherings and public transportation. She plans on getting a lot of reading done.

Some of the pictures she's sent are collected here.

2021: We got up to Farmersville to visit with Bill and Jane Harrison before Angie took off on her trip to Taiwan. They're still going strong if a little slower. Bill took us out to a local watering hole for a good dinner. Since I didn't get a pictue when we arrived, I took this one as I was leaving.

With apologies to Bill Anderson, "I was walking out backwards so they'd think I was walking in!"

2021: While on our 2021 Pacific coast trip we got to visit with great nephew Lucas Chu. I gave him one of my old cowboy hats and he looks like a natural. Here he is after a hard day of ridin' the range on that palomino horse.

2021: We went on vacation in August touring the northwest and visiting old friends and family. This map highlights the trip and some of the places we stopped. If you're interested, pictures from the trip are posted on flickr in the album at 2021 West Coast Road Trip | Flickr.

2021: It happened to be Angie's birthday while we were in Tennessee so we went down to Boyette's at Reelfoot lake for a catfish dinner to celebrate. It was goooood!

2021: Angie got to catch up on her reading while we were in Tennessee in 2021. Here she is with her new best friend "Max" standing guard. Needless to say, she wasn't disturbed!