Texas - Dallas

 

Life at the International Linguistics Center (ILC), Dallas

As some of you may recall, we were here in September, 2022.  Dave and I volunteer with SIL/Wycliffe, an organization that works in language development and Bible translation. Dave is part of the AIM team (Analytics, Information and Mapping), specifically the mapping part.  He’s been volunteering remotely, for a number of years.  The team was planning a series of meetings and as we wanted to be snowbirds we came for these meetings and stayed on for a couple of weeks.  

As part of the meetings, we all went to Mt. Lebanon Bible Camp near Dallas. We spent two days of reflection, worship and team building  It was beautiful weather to enjoy God's world.

While Dave was busy with his work, I volunteered part-time at the Boutique, a thrift store of sorts.  It is actually a free store with everything one needs to set up a household from bedding to dishes, clothing to craft supplies.  The campus is home to university students (home of Dallas International University), missionaries coming and going abroad, as well as retirees and they appreciate the price point and enjoy the treasure hunt at the Boutique.  The Boutique also has a sewing room where volunteers do alterations.  I ended up helping with sorting and organizing the fabric stash and craft supplies.

After a bit of sorting it looks more marketable.

Making order out of this chaos

Life settled into a comfortable routine of living in our trailer in the RV park on the ILC campus.  We met some of our camper neighbours, attended some of the campus events, and went exploring and shopping in Dallas.  Driving the big freeways was always an exhausting experience.  Thankfully, we could get to some local shopping areas without too much stressful driving. 

Time to do some crafting

It's still chilly in the evening so we enjoyed the fireplace.

Our friends from Cameroon invited us to their home for a Cameroonian feast. 

Our RV neighbours invited us to a St. Patrick's Day party. 

The shopping malls are outdoor malls here.

Texas - Getting There is Half the Fun?

 

 Getting there is half the fun.

 I’m not sure how true that was for this trip.  We were more interested in getting there than the journey to get there.

First of all, we’d thought we’d be on our way by the end of January but life got in the way and it wasn’t until March the tires hit the pavement.  By then, the mild winter had ended, it was bitterly cold again, it had snowed a bunch and the trailer was at our friend’s shop, stuck in a snowbank as it were.  Thankfully, someone with a bobcat was plowing out the neighbouring shop.  Dave quickly went over and asked if the he could plow out a path for us.  He did!  At no charge.

We got hooked up, slowly eased the trailer out of the snow, fastened the bicycles on the bumper and were on our way.  Moving all the clothing and other gear out of the backseat of the truck would have to wait.  We were on our way to Dallas.  The first night was at our friends in Coaldale.  The next night at a hotel in Billings, Montana.  We were slowly making our way out of the snow zone.  When we entered Wyoming, the forecast promised some 100 kmh crosswinds so we turned east on the I90 and crossed into South Dakota.  

Years ago, we’d driven through Sturgis during Bike Week.  Now it was a sleepy little town in the Black Hills.  All the road signs pointing the way to Wall Drug kept us entertained, and it seemed like a suitable place to stop for the night.  At the beginning of March, Wall is a sleepy little prairie village and all but two hotels and one restaurant are closed for the season.  Wall Drug Store was open for business and proved to be an entertaining diversion before hitting the road again.  

By now it was starting to look like spring as we passed fields upon fields of snow geese on their way north.  The snow was definitely gone except for some drifts in the hedges.  Just before we’d crossed the entire state, we turned south.  It was interesting to watch the transformation as the further south we went, the greener it was getting.  We stayed at a hotel in Nebraska and then next night just outside Oklahoma City.  It was a beautiful day, and we were very much tempted to camp, but since everything was in disarray, we stayed in a hotel once more.

The next morning, we crossed the Red River and were in Texas.  As on other trips, it’s fun to find the unique little town coffee shops, and this trip was no exception.  We needed some fortification because we knew that from that point on, it would be crazy Dallas traffic as our destination was clear across the city. Whew, we made it.  It was good to be back again.