Some nice hikes near us in College Station TX

Life in College Station has been slow since our time spent has mostly been spent ---+waiting around for my eye doctor’s appointments.. It was also time for my annual physical so we are making appointments around that as well. During our down time we have revisited our home town through the eyes of a tourist.

There are lots of nice places for a pleasant stroll around here. Some of our favorite walking trails will be featured in this blog. The largest and most obvious walking area in College Station is the Texas A&M University campus. With over 5,500 acres of land on the central campus there are numerous different walking routes one can take.

Hiking around the campus allows us to enjoy not only our own personal memories, but the history, architecture and the traditions unique to Texas A&M University. On one trek we stopped by to visit the Corps of Cadet Museum on campus. A&M was originally a military campus with no women allowed but now boasts a little over 70,000 students with less than 3,000 of them enrolled in the Corps.

Also on campus is the George Bush Library which has a beautiful (but rather short) hike behind of the library. Visitors can enjoy the small lake and rose garden gazebo which has become a popular place for portrait photography.Beyond the lake and garden is a small bridge with a path to where George Bush Sr, Barbara and little Robin Bush are buried.

Another nice spot on campus is at the Research Park where there are nice trails around a lake. The park Is also home to a challenging 18 hole disc golf course so we can spend a long afternoon on the trails and playing the course.. The disc course is long and has several holes playing over water. At these holes we typically “cheat” by avoiding the water hazards, yet we still have fun.

We have had fun hiking, dosc golfing, enjoying happy hours and the occasional get together with friends. The last photo was taken at a recent crawfish boil. We had a blast seeing old friends, consuming great food and playing cornhole. If all goes according to plan we will leave the second week of June to head eastward to visit family in North Carolina.

NOTE: We are now in College Station, TX until June 10th

Baseball, Softball and Eye Surgery #3

We came to College Station Tx primarily for me to have eye surgery number three. As you may remember I had my first surgery to my left eye to repair a torn retina. My second surgery on the same eye was a vitrectomy to “fix” my floaters issue in that eye. Well a third surgery was needed because the previous surgery accelerated the development of a problematic cataract.

When surgery day finally arrived Sharon took me to the out patient hospital. She masked up as required and patiently waited for my surgery to end. An hour or so of surgery and I was done. I opted to get a “distant package” lens in my left eye and planned to get the right eye done a year or so later.

This package basically sets one eye to see clearly close and the other (your dominant eye) to see far away. Since my left eye was not my dominant one they set it for close vision. A few days after my surgery I wasn’t overly fond of the eye having only clear near vision now and not any away vision. As a result I went ahead and scheduled eye surgery number four for my right eye to complete the distance vision package.

Since my old glasses were still useful in the interim we took full advantage while waiting for surgery by going to a couple of baseball games to watch the Texas A&M University Aggies take on a couple of non-conference teams. We are happy to report that not only did we have a blast watching the games but our fightin’ Texas Aggies won both games.

Being equal opportunity supporters we also went to watch a softball game at the new softball field. The women weren’t doing as well as the men in conference play but we still wanted to watch them play the first place (in the SEC) Arkansas Razorbacks. Although the lady Aggies were in last place somehow they managed to pull off upset walk off win in extra innings over the Lady Razorbacks! What fun!!!

We still have a lot of time to kill until my next eye surgery. Also, as a result of needing this surgery, we extended our stay here in College Station one more month until June 10th. This became necessary in order for me to make the many follow-up appointments post-surgery. Ahhhh, but such is our life on the Road of Retirement!

NOTE: We are now in College Station, TX until June 10th

Seeing lots of friends and wildflowers in town

Another huge reason we like to come back to our former hometown is to revisit friends.. I failed to mention earlier we arrived in town Easter weekend which we knew would be our first opportunity to see friends. Our friend Cheryl historically has held a large Easter gathering at her and her husband Preston’s place in the country. Their homeplace is just little way outside town and has plenty of space for a shindig of this size.

With Covid worrying everyone around the world these past couple of years Cheryl hasn’t had a Easter gathering. However, one of our friends told us she was definitely hosting the Easter party the weekend we arrived in town. We contacted her to let her know we were in town and wanted to attend if it was okay with her.

As according to tradition this would be a large pot-luck dinner so Sharon whipped up a great dessert to bring to the party. We’ve been gone a long time but we have generally made this party each time we pass through Texas since we usually plan our trips to Texas in the Spring.

It was great seeing lots of friends we haven’t visited with for a good while. It was also a treat to see all the kids, parents and grandparents having a great time together on a beautiful day under the oak trees.There were lots of children at this event and it always amazes us how fast they grow in a year or two.

The Easter dinner was a feast with more food than a 100 plus people could eat. Another tradition is that before dinner everyone gathers in a large circle for a pre-dinner prayer. However, before the prayer a count of guests is made by having each person count off starting with one and going all the way around the circle back to the first person.

After the count Cheryl announced that this was a record crowd of just under 100 people. It certainly was a good thing all the food was there and I can assure you everyone had all they could eat. After dinner the kids and the adults participated in the annual games such as egg toss, kite flying and cornhole. It sure was loads of fun seeing everyone and enjoying some great food as well…

Besides the Easter shindig we have also been enjoying the wildflowers which dominate the landscape here every Spring. One place we like to see wildflowers is the disc golf course at the Research Park near Texas A&M University. It has a nice course we like to play and while playing we take breaks to admire and occasionally photograph the wildflowers,   We know from experience that Spring will soon give way to heat and humidity so we are savoring the season while we can.               

NOTE: We are now in College Station, TX until June 11th

A little eye surgery in store for me

While our plan was to stay one month in College Station our departure date would be entirely flexible dependent upon what we decide about my eye care. The day after we arrived I had an appointment to have my eye examined for a lens replacement. Sharon masked up to take me home from the appointment after they dilated me.

Those who follow our blog might remember a few years ago while wintering in Arizona I experienced a retinal tear while we were on a walk. I had laser surgery the next day as it was a large tear which threatened the sight in my eye. Well a year passed and the amount of floaters in my surgically repaired eye never diminished so it was recommended I have a vitrectomy.

A half a year ago while spending the fall in Arizona I returned to the same doctor and had that procedure done. A vitrectomy is a procedure where the surgeon takes out the fluid (vitreous) inside of the eyeball and replaces it with a sterile saline solution. The procedure was successful as my vision was clearer but I was informed that this surgery would likely advance a cataract forming in the same eye.

The glasses after the vitrectomy became worthless in a few short months so I  scheduled to see a Doctor here in College Station to have yet another (my third) surgery on this eye. This explains the length of our stay being dependent on the outcome of this surgery.

I will fast forward a bit and say that I had the lens replacement surgery done and all is well. However, I have decided to go ahead and have the lens replaced in my other eye while we are here to avoid having to go through this again in the near future. As a result we have extended our stay to June 11th.

While we are waiting to have my next eye surgery we have been enjoying birding at some of the local parks during this spring’s migration. Birding here isn’t as productive as in the Rio Grande Valley on the Texas coastline but there are occasionally days where lots of migrants settle down for a day to fatten up before moving further north.

We had one such day like this while visiting the Texas A&M University Research Park. In this area after cold fronts bring severe weather there are occasionally large numbers of migratory birds settling to avoid the turbulence. On this particular day the migratory birds were in abundance. However, no matter how patient we were in trying to focus our cameras on these tiny little birds we found it a bit more challenging than we hoped.

Today’s photos are from our some of our hiking and birding excursions here in the Brazos Valley of Texas…

NOTE: We are now in College Station, TX until June 11th