Traveling Supremes Highland Tx Rally

On Thursday Ted and I drove north on I-59 to meet up with my stepsister, Carol.  She took us to the Senior Center for lunch and bingo.   The bingo hall was packed and pretty much everyone wins something! They played 3 games of bingo that each had about 100 winners!  I think Carol won 5 or 6 bingos, Ted and I each won one!  Our prizes:  Oxy Clean Rug Cleaner and Jiffy Banana Muffin Mix!  Then for good measure we won a cake and so did Carol.  We took them to dinner Friday night!  I forced Carol to have her picture taken with us and she finally agreed.  I couldn't believe how much more she looked like her Dad than the last time we saw her!

Thursday night we went to the Monument Inn for dinner as a group of 10.  We had to cross the river on a ferry to get there.  It was a short ferry ride and I was nervous because we barely fit, but they put up the wall behind us and everything was ok!  I had baked shrimp, stuffed with crab and covered with a white wine sauce...delicious!  Ted had the beef kababs (no surprise since he's not crazy about fish)!  The ferry stopped running so we took the long way home!

On Friday after I got my nails done; Ted, Max and I took off for Galveston.  It took us about an hour to get there.  It is a nice drive around the island.

Part of the pier taken out by the hurricane

We got back to the campground in time for picture taking and the best beef brisket I think I've ever had!  It was delicious.  Everyone made side dishes and desserts and we were sure stuffed when we left there!  We watched a movie about the Battleship Texas which we were going to tour on Saturday and there were card and Mexican Train games going on.

Saturday morning we awoke to big time fog but were able to get to the Battleship Texas where it is moored.  We had a group of about 25 that were going to do the tour and so Texas Parks provided us with two rangers to show us around and tell us about the ship.  It was an important ship, launched in 1914 and in WWI and WWII.  It was the first battleship and they designed it to have a high bow and then go downhill to the stern.  That didn't work out so well so they only made a few with that design.  She had 14-inch ammunition which was large for that time.  She was also the first ship to launch an airplane from her deck!  It was an interesting tour.  There was one big problem, the area was thick with huge Texas size mosquitos!  We didn't want to tour the engine room because they were thick down there!

Ted and Dave and the Battleship Texas (in the fog)

"The Big Guns"

This is where the enlisted men bunk!

John playing with the guns!

After our tour we went to lunch and home to rest before bringing in the New Year!

Bringing in the New Year..."Ain't Life Grand!"