6 April 10 – 12 April 10

Another week with a move on Friday causing some problems. We were on our start of what was supposed to be a short day – 3 hours at most. We were going from south of Houston to northwest of Houston – a total of about 110 miles as we were going to drive it. We didn't want to go down to the center of town on the Interstates so it was going to be going over roads we had been on in the car a number of times. The whole story is – we were not on the road for more than 10 minutes when I was cut off then the car stopped. I had to use the brakes hard to keep from an accident. The ABS warning light came on within a couple of minutes and all bets were off. We stopped and checked everything and nothing was visible.

We kept going but at a slower speed – 15 minutes later you could smell brakes getting hot. We stopped in a parking lot and started doing our checking of where we could find someone to check everything out. Call the GMC dealer closest – no we do not do that. He suggest another dealer 40 miles away – they could do it in a couple of weeks. Call Camping World, a national chain of repair shops - “Is it a class A ?” - yes - we are not certified to do the work. Call this repair shop – yes we can check it out this afternoon. Now the only problem is – we are 40 – 50 miles away, yet when we start calling we were less than 3 miles. When I called Camping World – voice mail answered and I started in the direction they were in and they did not call back for over an hour.

The fellow who could fix it – a Christian – asked when we arrived: “Is the chassis Ford or GM?” I knew the answer – GM or Workhorse and he was happy about that, but said “Can you find me the VIN?” I knew exactly where the title was and while I retrieved it he was on the Internet getting information. It seems our chassis has recalls on the brakes. He said he could not fix the problem but directed us to shop that could. Here is a fellow Christian who said he could have the job out tomorrow afternoon at a cost of about two grand($2000) saying go to this shop and get it checked under the recall.

There are still a few good people in business in our world! We went to that shop and they could not do anything until Monday. We used it over the weekend and arrived there Monday about noon. It looks like this will be a MOTEL week.

Our weekend did allow us to see Attwater Prairie Chickens in the wild. They are an Endangered Species with less than a hundred at this refuge and less than a couple hundred in all the refuges in TX. There are about 200 in captive breeding programs at a number of different places in the state. At the turn of the 19th century the population was estimated at over a million. O what man can do to habitat.

We also had a chance to see lots of wild flowers in bloom. This is the time of year to see Texas.

I would ask you to pray for a fellow we met at the church we attended in League City – this weekend they have a bike ride for MS. Just a short little jaunt – 150 miles. They expect to have more than 100,000 riders. His name is James. Thanks

Pictures:
A snake Miriam found on a walk.
Pied-billed Grebe – how do I get in the air, again?
White flower
Ruby-throated Hummer - Its mine – all mine
Yellow flower.