Dallas Tour Cont.

Ruth decided to show us this outstanding group of sculptures that reside in a little park in the downtown area of Dallas. First Ruth and Helmut admired the cowboy on his horse driving the cattle over the little bluff and down a stream. Ruth figured that we could have a better advantage by going to the other side of the stream to view the herd and another cowboy on a horse. So Helmut crossed over on the stones in the stream followed by Ruth who offered to help me - I said I could make it alone as the stones appeared quite flat and not far apart. Ruth made some comment about me being careful with the camera or that it was a good thing I didn't have it ( I never heard the comment). Actually Helmut had the camera which was a very good thing. I stood on the first stone and put my foot to the second stone and some how missed or slipped off the side of it and fell into what looked like a shallow stream - it turned out to be enough water to soak me from head to foot even getting my face wet even though it was facing the sky. Both Helmut and Ruth rushed to my rescue and helped to pull me out - quite a task because I hurt my knee and shin and had trouble getting my footing again in the water. Finally you see me standing on the pavement soaking wet with the herd of cattle looking quite undisturbed.

It was a good thing that the weather was warm - at first the water seemed quite chilly but once I was out of it I warmed up quite quickly. ( No worse than a swim in Lake Winnipeg in June) We changed our tour plans and went back to Ruth's apartment so that I could get dry and have a change of clothes.

We continued our tour and the pictures and details will be on the next post.

Dallas Tour - Wed. Dec. 19, 2007

Day Three of our trip will be spread out over several posts because we did so many different things that I want to share. The first thing after breakfast Helmut and Ruth took Ruth's car to the Honda dealer because she needed the brake shoes changed. They returned to the apartment for me and we set out to tour Dallas.

First stop was the Dallas Theological Seminary campus part of which you can view in these pictures. It is close to the down town area of the city. We also went inside the library of DTS but didn't look around in too many buildings.

The grass was still green, many trees were green and many flowers were blooming through out Dallas. Pansies were prevalent and made a bright spot every where. It is hard to think that Christmas is just around the corner (six days) when everything is so lush and green. It was also a nice warm day in the sixties and perhaps even seventy by afternoon.

Trip to Dallas - Day Two

Snow and ice - why would Manitobans want to take pictures of snow and ice? We were asked such a question when one of the family was looking at the pictures that we took on our trip to Texas. Snow & ice are not so strange to us but finding it where these pictures were taken was unexpected. This herd of cattle were grazing on a north central Kansas field. The trees were delicately trimmed in ice as well as the grass and the snow likely had an icy crust. Thankfully the roads were as dry "as a bone".

One of the points of taking these pictures was to capture the beauty of the ice covered trees in the sunshine. I do not think that this goal was achieved.

We left Lincoln, NE right after breakfast Dec. 18Th. there was snow on the ground but the roads were very dry. It had been well below freezing when we left Winnipeg and remained that way until we were in the southern part of Kansas.

We reached Dallas by 8:30 or so in the evening - it wasn't too difficult to negotiate the super highway system and eventually find Ruth's apartment according to the directions from Google.

We were happy to spend the remainder of the evening relaxing with Ruth and planning our sight seeing for the next day.

Dec. 2007 Trip to Dallas Day 1

We started out from Winnipeg at about 2:30 AM because the main driver couldn't sleep due to travel fever or something of that nature. We had a very good night and day of driving as the roads were clear and dry. So early in the day the border crossing was a snap as there was no line up. I 29 was not busy from Wpg. to Omaha so we moved right along and arrived in Lincoln, NE about 3 PM the same day. Then as you can see the principal driver had to get a nap.

My dear sister had to finish her Monday afternoon job. We were earlier than she had expected.

We had a very good evening and visit with P. & J. and a good sleep in their guest chamber.

You can see P. & Helmut checking out the directions and map to get out of Lincoln the next morning.

Back to Summer

Aug. 24th. - Our 39th. wedding anniversary.

These pictures were taken at Lac Lu in western ON not far from Kenora. This is the place where Helmut's sister Hanna's family cabin is. The cabin is on an island that is shared by several different cabin owners. we arrived here after dark on the 23rd. and were met by Achim & his son who had been at the cabin for several days. Two boat loads brought all of us to the cabin.

On the 24Th. Achim & family went on their way back to Chicago. We spent the day with Hanna. One of the high lights of the day was a canoe trip around the lake. Hanna used the
kayak the long yellow boat that you can see Helmut trying out near the dock. We used the canoe that Helmut is carrying in the other picture. The large stone that is visible in both pictures is where I fell into the lake while trying to keep Abby from sliding into the lake. this is where the camera got drowned.

The beautiful water lilies were picked at the far end of the lake and you see them in a bowl on a blue table cloth.

Good Bye Germany

May 30th. our last full day in Dusseldorf - a very relaxed day. Helmut wanted the car to be spic and span to be returned to the rental company the next morning. Since doing your own car washing is not allowed in Dusseldorf - has to do with water consumption and pollution - he took it to the closest gas station where there was an automatic washer. Ursula & I went along and then walked back to the apartment for our morning exercise. We also spent time getting our packing organized.

After lunch we took an excursion to the Neanderthal Museum which is quite close to where Ursula lives. Of course this place stresses evolution and discounts Biblical creation but we did get to see how the society is being strongly influenced away from God. A walk in the woods was refreshing after some time in a stuffy museum.

Late in the afternoon Renate invited us over for our last "coffee" time and to say good bye. Wifried was busy with his tutoring so we only saw him for a brief minute as we were leaving. Renate had a number of pictures to give us and also showed us pictures from family things long ago. the picture of Renate, Wilfried, Ursula and myself is in their front entryway with the kitchen door behind us.

On May 31. we departed Germany after a very fine month. Ursula had a funeral to attend and Renate had to go to Colon to babysit her grandson. So we took ourselves to the airport.

Our view from the plane window was mostly of clouds as you can see. It is about an hour from Dusseldorf to Amsterdam and then about 8 hours from Amsterdam to Minneapolis; another hour gets us home to Winnipeg. However, the time spent in the different airports adds to the time of the trip.

Ruth met us in the evening when we arrived in Winnipeg. Very glad to be home after such a sleepless day in the air.

Tid Bits

I think my fan club is asleep. The only comment on my last two postings is something I don't understand., Ha! It is in Spanish or Portugese.

I am currently without pictures because some of us fiddled around with the computer so long that we "lost" the access to the pictures. Mr. Fixit hasn't taken time to "find" it yet. We got a new camera but also have to learn how to transfer the pictures from it to the computer.

Today was largely taken up with getting the annual letter and family picture out. It is rather pleasant outside and I had a walk to the shopping center to buy stamps and mail the letters.