2026-7-12 A Breakfast Surprise!

 We had planned on morning coffee as usual but several of our members said that they were going to fix breakfast for all of us.  That is not something we turn down!

I wasn't fast enough with the pictures for this one. Nancy, Beverly, and Whit had these platters piled high with pancakes, scramble eggs, bacon, and sausages along with orange juice and fruit. It was a sumptious and delicious feast made all the better because it was unexpected and volunteered from the heart. Thanks so much ladies.

As I said, I wasn't fast enough at taking the pictures but everyone really enjoyed this spontaneous meal.

I think everyone had a great time at the La Grange rally and enjoyed their time at LGRV Park. I expect that it will be on many members lists for future stops.

2026-7-11 Pizza and Games

 When it's really hot outside and women cringe at cooking for potluck, pizza is always an acceptable substitute in our chapter. And when your hostesses score half price pizza coupons, life is especially good. 

We had about 5 different pizza choices but the Meatza pizza was the group favorite. Good thing there were two of them along with cheese, pepperoni, and supreme. Something for everyone.

For this rally, everyone only had to bring food for one of the events. That way, you don't end of with 20 desserts and 20 side dishes that don't get eaten. I set up the different times we needed food and let everyone choose when they wanted to bring either a side or dessert so we had plenty of food but not a bunch of waste.

                 
We had some great salads and sides to go with the pizza along with a couple desserts.

Everyone loves pizza.

Next up was a game that hostess Kathy Shelton worked on putting together. During the early days of the rally, she asked each person to write down something that no one else knew about them.

The results were astounding and great conversation starters. Kathy had to leave early so Barb and I handed a piece of paper to each person and told them to number them from 1 - 22. Kathy had given each person's submittal a number. I read the fact and everyone had to guess who it belonged to and write it on their paper. Once we went through each of the submittals and everyone had their guesses written down, I read the unknown fact again and asked the person who wrote to stand up. We had some really interesting surprises in our group. I won't give away everyone's surprising item but let's just say we had everything from Master Naturalist to Price is Right participant to Ventriloquist along with a lot of others even more unique.

Fran got the most right with a whopping 9.....I told you there some definite surprises that made for great discussion. Here she is with her three prizes including a boob cooler which is why she is giggling.

Judy had the second highest number of guesses and she is making unique use of a chair wine glass holder. We have a unique and hilarious group of women!

This is the second group picture we took which is missing Kathy and Diana. the first picture taken Friday was missing a third of the group which is why we had to do a retake.

2026-7-11 The Jersey Barnyard &Farmers Market

 Saturday morning after coffee, a group of us decided to head out to The Jersey Barnyard for the Farmer's Market.

The place is not far from the RV park but the directions were pretty wonky probably due to some minor construction.

So several carloads of us pulled in but the joke was on us. They only held the Farmers Market out here during Covid and it is now back downtown. The city needs to update their website. We all decided that we really didn't want to pay to trot around looking at a bunch of farm animals in the heat......more appealing to kids.

After a quick tour through their gift shop, we headed back out but took a few pictures along the way.

Cute stop sign.

Who can resist a Texas longhorn wanting to pose for us. Not this group.

He wasn't quite as interested in appearing in the group shots.

Finally he gave us more than his hind end.

Our own "Jersey girl" Barb had to buy a T-Shirt since she grew up in Jersey.

We ignored the GPS rerouting and headed downtown to find the very small Farmers Maarket. 

2026-7-10 Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center

 Friday our destination after morning coffee was the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center.

Some outside things to see and then inside.

This was the original center but they have long since outgrown it.

The next pictures are pretty self explanatory as they are what you would see in an original Czech settled town.

This was further around the back and set up for shows and productions.

This was a separate  Polka Museum but it was closed.

A church which looked like it was still in use. Plain outside.

Plain inside until you look at the elaborate alter which was beautifully curved.

The organ above the door was a pretty elaborate set up too.

This beautiful stained glass window was just inside the main cultural center.

We watched a short video and then toured the main part of the center.

There were several displays of what different rooms in a house would have looked like.

Read the right column carefully where it talks about being proud of being citizens of the United States. That seems to be lacking in some of the immigrants coming to the U.S. these days.

Dolls representing different customs and areas from the old country.

This character is as famous to Czechs as Mickey Mouse is in this country.

From a distance we originally thought this might be a birdhouse but it turned out to be a beehive.

One of our members has Czech heritage and this place has everything you need to trace your ancestry.

Later that day, Jimmie gave a great demonstration about her jackery solar battery. She even set up the solar panels outside to show how the solar charged the battery. She had all sorts of items to test the battery and how much power each appliance took. 

The demo started out with her saying that she originally bought it to run an electric blanket after that horrible cold spell we had in February a number of years ago but her demonstration showed that it could do so much more than even she originally thought. There were lots of questions about CPAP usage and different ways to power the jackery.