vacation trip

I could talk about Genesis 25, there are a few things that come to mind. Abraham marries again after Sarah dies. If you have not read Genesis carefully you may not know that. Abraham lives a whole extra life, dying at 175. Both of his older sons come to grieve for him, Isaac and Ishmael come together in their shared sorrow. We know they live far apart, we do not really know if there was animosity between them or simply between their parents.

But anyway DW and I have been traveling around Texas between Houston and San Antonio. I could share pictures but mostly they are of the mundane, rural life and small town life. We have seen old buildings and old houses. The most spectacular sites are of the old county courthouses. It seems each new county vied to make the most showy even outlandish county courthouse, home of the county government. This was most one hundred years ago or more. If you don't know every county seat has a central square and the courthouse sits smack dab in the middle. Around it are eight square, the storefronts facing the courthouse are the oldest commercial buildings. Depending on how sleepy the county some of the storefronts still house old businesses. Actually is some places the old businesses are now empty, the old went out of business and new ones never replaced them.

In many places the old businesses are replaced by antique stores. But in Luling and LaGrange where we are this morning the courthouse square is still pretty busy. The people here are conducting county business. Things look much slower but people are checking out at five. Almost all the businesses also close up at five. There is free parking in the square, not all the spaces are filled.

We saw the coast the first and second days. The theme is Texas independence. So we have seen a lot of places where battles took place and lot of signs where people are buried.

We started out noticing all the gambling places. If anyone tells you gambling is illegal in Texas, don't you believe it. These near slot machines are everywhere. They have people using them. There are no garish casinos just gaming halls. The "games" are mostly look like video slot machines. How they do payoffs I don't want to know but I'll bet the return is much less than that which would be expected from regulated casinos. I am really not in favor of casinos. I am in favor of closing down these gaming houses. I'd call them gaming dens. DW and I have been praying against the spirit of these places. I guess it is greed and boredom.

We got a new battery for the car a couple of days ago. But the car almost did not start yesterday. So I think there may be other problems. Maybe it is simply the drain on the battery from a/c use and the radio I play waiting for DW to visit a shop that I do not want to visit.

We pray for rain. A lot of people tell us the rain has been better this year. But it seems the corn and sorghum has failed in the fields. There are lot of field with dead corn. Then there is soy beans next door. They are nice and green but I cannot tell if they are producing much. But the grass looks nice and green. The rain has been enough for grass but not enough for crops in seems. Up here near LaGrange the land is mostly used for ranching. Closer to the coast people are trying to farm. It is fun to see all the rain cells in the distance. We have run through a few showers. Mostly we have seen them or passed the results of wet ground. Despite the weather reports to the contrary we have seen less rain these past two days. I hear it's been raining a lot in Houston, not so out here about a 100 miles west.