Visiting in Brookshire, Texas

Yesterday morning we got up fairly early so I could get ready to attend a Weight Watchers meeting in Katy, Texas. Jim went along and waited for me, as the plan was to have breakfast and do some shopping after the meeting.

I got checked in and weighed at the meeting. I was happy to find that all the eating at the gathering in Kerrville did not derail my program, and I have reached my official Weight Watchers goal. Just a little explanation here; I set a goal weight with WW which is a few pounds higher than my personal goal. The reason I did that is both financial and psychological. Financial, because as long as I don't go more than 2 pounds over that WW goal, I can attend meetings for free. Psychological, because I really want more than 2 pounds of "wiggle room", and I have learned from other members that it's pretty comfortable to continue a slow weight loss after reaching the official goal. I still plan to follow the same way of eating as I have for the past five and a half months and attend meetings.

After the meeting, Jim and I went in search of a place to have breakfast. Uh-oh, not much of a choice in this area! We ended up at a little bagel shop, where I had half a bagel breakfast sandwich and coffee. Then we went to the local Petco store and I bought new grooming clippers for the dogs.

Next stop was Camping World to see if they had the Coleman fire pits we were looking for. Yes - they had 2 left. One was the display model, so we made sure they had all the parts and were willing to sell it. They did and they were, so we called Mark to see if he wanted us to get it for him. He was at a store in Kerrville, looking to see if they had one, so he told us go ahead and get it for him. We did just that, now we just need to get back together with them to deliver it!

Time to get back to the Castle and do a little cleaning up before our dinner guests were to arrive. Of course, I needed to vacuum, so Jim all of a sudden figured out he needed something at Walmart, and he left me to do my cleaning in peace.

Ellie and her husband, Ron, arrived around 6. We visited and got caught up with each other's lives since we last met up with them. Then we enjoyed a pork roast with apricot glaze, hoppin' john and rice, broccoli and salad. I fixed berries over chocolate angel food cake with ice cream for dessert. Ellie brought a wonderful green salad. We were stuffed!

Picture time!

The 2 Ellie's with BoJangles:

Ron and Ellie with Jasmine:

Too soon, it was time for Ellie and Ron to head home, and for us to head to bed to rest up for travel day.

Our first challenge of the day, once we got on the road this morning, was to get across Houston. We'd finally decided, after much discussion and talking to several people, to go straight across on Interstate 10, after rush hour. I think that was a good decision - we made it across with no problems or delays.

Our next challenge was a dead stop for over 45 minutes just east of Beaumont, Texas. We finally called the local T-DOT number and found out that instead of the construction we thought was the cause, there'd been an accident and the eastbound lanes were closed. Finally, traffic started moving again, and we are are once again underway.

The planned stop for tonight is in Breaux Bridge, Lousisiana. Stay tuned for more adventures, justravelin.