A Drive Through the Hill Country

Whew, where has this week gone? In preparation for a mini-getaway this weekend, it seemed like I would never get enough ahead workwise to leave with a clear conscience. Then it seemed like everything that could go wrong did. At long last I slipped the home bonds and Lana and I headed out for the hill country. It was not without some gnashing of teeth and wailing on the part of the wee ones and especially on the part of the heathen cats (they are going through a clinging spell at the moment), but they are all in good hands and I am on the road again.

Being completely worn out at the moment, I am planning to be a slug on this trip. Last year's venture was a mixture of visiting old friends and meeting face to face with some of my distant relatives I had theretofore only known via the Internet. We had a wonderful time. This year is Lana's turn. Tomorrow she is involved in a meeting and I am being turned loose on an unsuspecting community and then Sunday we are headed to meet up with some distant cousins that she has met through the Internet. Isn't the Internet a grand invention? It has enabled us to make contacts we never dreamed existed.

We will, of course, be visiting cemeteries and libraries. We could not possibly go on a road trip without visiting cemeteries and libraries. I hope to visit the graves of my great-grand aunt Fannie Lentz Rucker and her husband and their children. I can dimly remember visiting Aunt Fannie when I was a wee child. She was bed-ridden, having broken her back at some point. This incident had a lasting impact on the grand nieces and nephews. My father was dead against my getting involved with any gymnastics activities when I was a child, because Aunt Fannie had broken her back doing somersaults. At least that is the story I remember and I am planning to get the lowdown on that history at the next family reunion.

Frances Louise Lentz Rucker

Aunt Fannie, about the time I met her

This year's genealogy road tripping is being confined to Texas, so we did not have airport problems or rental car issues or me taking the wrong exit opportunities. Instead we drove Big Red and were at our destination in a little over two hours and even managed to stop in Fredericksburg for a great lunch and small bit of shopping. (I now have yarn for the next scarf ready to go as soon as the needles are free of the current scarf in progress.)

It turned out that our trip coincided with a late cold front, so it has been rainy and chilly all day. But I am not about to complain about the rain. The cold I could do without, but I welcome all the wet stuff we can get. It may create some adventures in the cemeteries we visit, but I have my old grungy tennis shoes in the car and I will slog out in the mud as happy as a pig in slop. Neither rain nor cold nor sleet nor snow shall stay these genealogists from their appointed rounds.

LSW