More than a week ago, yours truly was headed to Gulf Shores, Ala., a long way from Uvalde, Texas, this quaint western town where many come to hunt trophy bucks.
Just 37 miles north is Garner State Park and a little beyond that Junction, as in the place Bear Bryant took his Texas A&M football team to train that led to the famous book, The Junction Boys.
A week ago Friday night, in Mobile, Ala., the news said a state of emergency was being declared for Gulf Shores because of Tropical Storm Alberto.
The owners of the condo in Gulf Shores, two ladies from Springfield,Mo., basically said if there was no mandatory evacuation -- the final and extreme reaction to bad weather -- they would be keeping my money.
The company that contracted for beach chairs called and said they had been ordered to cancel all business for several days. The captain of the deep sea fishing vessel immediately refunded the deposit.
There was no way yours truly was driving into danger and while it didn't hit until Monday, it hit hard with 45 mph winds and all that goes with a tropical storm.
By then, we were leaving New Orleans on the way to San Antonio and Garner State Park.
Instead of watching the NBA division championships at the infamous FloraBama bar, we watched from hotel rooms.
We survived an hour-and-a-half delay in Baton Rouge because of a wreck on the bridge over the Mississippi, and we were in awe of the Beaumont High School football stadium that appeared to seat about 30,000.
San Antonio was hot and humid, but Mi Tierra's cafe was almost as good as remembered. The Riverwalk was crowded and commercial. Did see a lot of Houston Astros T-shirts.
There are many great things about the Lone Star State, including 75 mph speed limits. But if Garner State Park was any indication, Texas does almost as good of a job with its state parks as Arkansas.
About 30 years ago, the daughter, Whitney, was asked what she wanted to do for the summer and immediately responded, 'Go camping,' which came as a total shock. But a pop-up camper was bought, and many weekends were spent in our state parks.
Most were great places and about half the visitors were from Texas. So the question had always lingered: Were their parks not as nice so they traveled to the Natural State? Nope. Garner was beautiful, with shaded camping sites and a river perfect for floating.
The wait to add on to Lisa and Mike Carpenter's site -- Monica's aunt and uncle -- was only $24 per night for three, and the long wait to register was almost worth it.
Last Wednesday morning, the call came from my dermatologist. The biopsy of a place on my head was back and it was Squamous cell carcinoma. It needed attention immediately and within minutes Dr. James Keane's office was calling, offering to get me in that day.
Being 700 miles away was a stumbling block, but 7:30 a.m. on Thursday was doable. It took 10 hours to drive home. The surgery was a success, it took a second slice of the damaged area and that night, at home, we watched the first game of the NBA Finals. Dr. Keane called to check on me.
It appeared LeBron James was going to carry the Cleveland Cavaliers to an upset victory, but a missed free throw and mental mistake by J.R. Smith -- many believe he thought his team was ahead by one when he grabbed an offensive rebound and headed to midcourt, but it may very well have been he was confused about which goal he was under -- and the Golden State Warriors won in overtime.
Yours truly is feeling blessed.
Sports on 06/03/2018