We started this year with a domino party at Lee and Ellis Winkler’s along with Bettye, Bart Daly and Irene, Bernard Kleman.   The weather was cold and misty but we had a good time.
    The first of February we took the Vanishing River Cruise with the Winklers.   This is a cruise (near Burnet, Texas) to the north end of Lake Buchanan and part of the Colorado River.  Bald eagles and golden eagles spend the winter here.  We got to see both kinds on the trip.  In mid February, we were visited by Pat and Fred Young.  Fred and Chuck were classmates from the ninth grade in Galena Park through graduation from the University of St. Thomas.  We had several enjoyable hours together.
    We drove to Santa Fe, Texas to see our granddaughter, Beth, receive her First Holy Communion on March 31.  It was a nice day and many attended the Mass.  In April, Carol bought a new house in Pearland, Texas. Also this April, we participated in the Passion Play at the Good Friday church services.  Chuck did some consulting work for Space Exploring Engineering, Inc. in Colorado.  He wrote a Mars parachute descent program for them.
    Something had been opening the cat food storage can, that we keep outside.  On May 4, we trapped a raccoon and stopped that activity.   Cousin Arlie and Barbara Harmon visited a few days in May.  We took in the Fall Creek Winery and toured the hill country back roads.
    On June 1,  Chuck logged two hours in the Zenith factory demonstrator airplane like the one he is still building.  We picked up a preformed airplane windshield from the factory and drove to Janet and Gene Bell’s in Ozark, Mo.  As usual, they showed us a good time.  We took in a local bull riding rodeo and a nice dinner cruise on the Branson Belle Showboat in Branson, Mo.
On June 5, we went to Johnnie Mae Bishop’s funeral with burial in Midway, Texas.  Driving back to our daughter Carol’s home, we realized that tropical storm Allison had formed with about 10 inches of rain in six hours there.  Not being able to get through the high water, we went to our good friends Joyce and Ed Pavelka, who came to the rescue and put us up for the night.
    On June 15, Chuck’s airplane engine arrived from Australia.  We drove to Carol’s for the Forth of July.  We went with Carol, Gini and the grandkids to the Friendswood parade and fireworks.
    We decided to escape the August heat in Texas and drove the motor home to Pennsylvania and New York.  Were we fooled.  A heat wave was occurring when we got there.  We toured the Gettysburg Battlefield, Saint Elizabeth Seton’s Basilica and St. Mary’s Mountain Grotto, the latter two are just over the state line in Maryland.  We parked the motor home behind Ducky and Harris Appelman’s home in Bloomsburg.  We had nice visits and meals with Ducky and Harris.  Cousin Larry and Jo Deiterich had us for supper and a couple of visits.  We visited with Aunt Bea (Larry’s Mom), she’s doing fine.  Cousin Bill and Tink May invited us for a nice supper and to my surprise his sister Dorothy, who now lives in Bloomsburg, was there, as well as her daughter and several of Bill’s kids and grandkids.  We drove to Bastress, Pa. to see and photograph the Immaculate Conception Catholic church there.  Chuck’s Great Grandfather, a stone mason, had built the church in 1863.
After leaving Bloomsburg, we drove to upstate New York and toured around Vermont and Massachusetts, especially nice was the National Shrine of Divine Mercy at Stockbridge Mass.
    We drove to Fishkill, NY and stayed with Stan and Sue Lavendowski.  Stan was building a Plane like Chuck’s and they had exchanged e-mail.  Stan cooked several outstanding meals for us and also took Chuck to the Rhinebeck Aerodrome.  There vintage aircraft are flown during a very good airshow.  A really neat place.
    We then drove to Sandy Pond on Lake Ontario in western New York to visit with Arlie and Barbara Harmon at their lakeside cabin.  They took us for a boat ride on the St. Lawrence River to see the "Thousand Islands" and tour the Bolt Castle.  A very picturesque trip.  After some time on the sandy beach at Sandy Pond we left for Dayton Ohio.  There we toured the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB.  What an outstanding display of Air Force history and aircraft.
    In September, we attended the all class reunion at the University of St. Thomas, and enjoyed the company of  several of Chuck’s classmates (Larry Ross, Fred Young, Vic Dulock and Sam Sacco).  Also, in September, we went canoeing and sight seeing at Garner and Lost Maples State Parks with the Winklers.
    Our kids, Bill, Carol, and Gini, and grandkids came for Thanksgiving dinner.  The next day Betty and the girls went shopping at Fredricksburg while Chuck and Trent climbed Enchanted Rock (a granite dome just north of Fredricksburg).  We will spend Christmas at Carol’s in Pearland.

Have a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,                                         web site: http://pages.tstar.net/~cfd/
Chuck and Betty Deiterich