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Earlier this year, we decided it was time to add a second pooch to our family canine collection.  After much study, it was decided that a Labrador would be a great choice.  Research found a nice mom-and-pop kennel located between Austin and San Antonio, just a 45 minute drive away.  It turned out to be a great choice. Chris and Linda Gray at Seven Oaks Kennel  seem like the perfect, caring, non-puppy mill family.  Turned out, a new litter had arrived in early January, and there were a couple of female yellow labs still unspoken for.  We made a deposit ...
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Each year Dorothee and I ponder over a locale that can provide a respite from Austin's brutal August Summer.  This year, on the basis of recommendation from our friends the Mericas, we chose Guadalajara, and it turned out to be the perfect choice. For the curious, Guadalajara, at a population of 1.5 million and growing, is the 2nd largest city in Mexico.  More importantly to us, the elevation, similar to Denver, assures moderate summertime temperatures (daily highs between 75-85), all the while its latitude assures mild winter time temperatures as well.  The city seems much smaller (population-wise) that statistics would ...
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With Fall comes anticipation of another semi-annual bike trip with my good biker buddy, Nathan Gibson.  This year, our route was devised back in June, and would be a variation of a prior trip we had taken through the Big Bend Park area.  On this iteration, we chose a 3 BR Air BnB house right in downtown Alpine, which provided the perfect gateway to the points of interest in the area, most notably, Ft. Davis and the McDonald Observatory, Marfa, Terlingua, and Marathon. As an added treat, there would be two additional participants for the trip:  Nathan's girlfriend Susie, would ...
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Come July of each year, Dorothee and I start scheming on ways to escape Austin's unbearable summer heat.  For this year, 2019, we chose as our first-phase escape, to take a driving road trip to the East Coast.  This would be our second trip in our Porsche Cayman, which once again proved itself as a great road car.  The mid-engine layout provides a surprising amount of luggage space, both in the forward "frunk", as well as a large storage area underneath the rear hatch, located behind the engine compartment. The Porsche seats lend themselves to long duration travel, while the ...
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My biking buddy Nathan Gibson and I have typically taken at least 2 multi-day bike trips annually for the past 5 years.  Our most notable trip was in 2015, a 3 week/3,000 mile adventure trip to the Sturgis bike rally in South Dakota. This spring, Nathan suggested we ride to Branson, Missouri.  Given the old saying "it's the journey, not the destination", I was immediately on board with his choice. Our trip to Branson would be a 2 day ride, first to Paris, Texas, then to Eureka Springs, Arkansas (just an hour from Branson): Thus it was, in mid May, ...
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