October 5 – “Comfort and Welfare”

Just found out Seaside has been paired with First Baptist Church in Texas City for the big Prayer Walk over Galveston on October 16th.  That's something I am really looking forward to.  Galveston really needs it.     We left Mansfield this morning and headed for … well, we headed generally south.  We were undecided about going to Fredericksburg or San Antonio.  We found a few back roads to take.  Lunch was at Country Kitchen in Lampasas.  It was that or the all you can eat Chinese buffet next door.  No contest.  I had the best chicken fried steak I have had in years.  It was a real steak.  The vegetables were fresh.  And the bread and pies were all baked on site.  Good stuff.   We noticed several hawks in different places today.  The first three were at Josh's house before we left.  Then we saw them at different places all along the roads south.  I was particularly intrigued by the way they fly around and around in slow circles.  We didn't see any of them swoop down to make a catch of prey, but the deliberate nature of their tracking was amazing.  We also saw some vultures.  Now they have much wider wing spans, and when they fly they look scary, but it's just not the same as hawks.  They are content to sit on fence posts and in trees just waiting for an 18 wheeler to provide them lunch.  Their only worry is making sure they can jump out of the way quick enough.  Patience on both counts.  I like to think I would be more like the hawk.  Being about doing what I know to be God's will while waiting for whatever he has next.  Better than doing nothing and then scavenging off of the disasters of evil.  Heavy stuff.   Our route ended up taking us to Fredericksburg after all.  But when we got there and looked around we saw … more of Eureka Springs.  And The Strand.  Shops everywhere.  Not what we wanted to do the last few days of vacation.  We did go into one antique store, where Chris found just the shelf unit she wanted for her Precious Moments figures.  Only two thousand dollars.  I liked the one that was from an old library.  It covered a whole wall and had sliding glass doors.  That was a bit more expensive.  We didn't get either one.  Surprise.   After walking a few of the blocks and being overcome by the ragweed in the air (me), we decided to head on to San Antonio after all.  We found a short cut and it only took us about an hour or so to get there.  We went through such exciting places as Comfort and Welfare.  And we saw trees.  Lots of trees.  We almost overdosed on trees.  Guess it was just made more obvious by the fact the Galveston doesn't have many left.     We went to the west side of San Antonio to look for a hotel.  That's where Josh and Christi are looking at houses.  We found the area they have been looking at, and even drove down Braun Street, which is where a bunch of neighborhoods are.  Problem was, the hotel we decided to stay at – and turned around in and fought five o'clock traffic to get to - turned out to be not even opened yet.  We ended up at a Hampton Inn on the inner loop not far from I10.  This is going to be an interesting stay since we don't even have a map of San Antonio.  But we'll find something to do.     Psalms 75:1 says, "We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds."   Father, help me be a hawk.  Amen.