The rain that missed us the last two days has caused problems all over. THE MIRACLE RESCUE: When the powerful storms hit near New Braunfels in central Texas and dumped up to a foot of rain, one family was swept away from their campsite by a huge wall of water that came from somewhere upstream and seemed to come out of nowhere. The mother held on to a tree for a couple of hours before being resuced, the 11-year-old daughter put on a lifevest/floatation device that came floating by (believe in miracles?), and was in the water for over 2 hours before a retired firefighter from Colorado rescued her.The father, himself currently a Fort Worth firefighter, was swept 32 MILES downstream by the waters before he was rescued. It was several hours before each family member learned the others had survived and they were eventually reunited. Yesterday the flooding continued just south and east of Dallas, including in the Hillsboro area where flash floods closed some highways and one county announded the entire county was underwater and travel was impossible. Imagine that! Now that same storm has moved across Arkansas where I understand it has hit another campground like the one in New Braunfels. I don't know if they've found everyone yet. I was so frustrated when the rain missed us, but then horribly relieved we didn't have the very heavy rains here and all the problems that come with it. I hope they find all the folks from the Arkansas campground. Moni, I caught tons and tons of rain (about 600 gallons) from the last big rainstorm here in mid-May, using my one rain barrel, 5-gallon buckets, tons of cat litter buckets that I've save for years, Rubbermaid roughneck totes....anything I could find and set out to catch the water. I thought that 600 gallons would last forever, but with three weeks of no rain and a couple of acres of plants to water, it didn't last long at all. My poor old rain barrel has been empty for so long now. Our granddaughter doesn't understand why the ground is 'broken' (cracking clay) and offered to fix it by pouring dirt, water and birdseed down it. I told her that I thought we should just wait for rain to come and fix things. The question is, when is that rain going to come? We have fairly good subsoil moisture from rain earlier in the year, but the top 6" or so are drying out pretty quickly. No matter how much I water, just a day or two later you can't even tell I watered because the ground is as dry as a bone. I am sure this dryness is going to result in reduced yields from the veggie garden. At least the trees and shrubs shouldn't suffer because we have great deep, deep moisture from last year's near-record rainfall. That's how it is here for us with rainfall---feast or famine. Already, some of the gardeners here that we know are saying they won't water....if rain doesn't fall, their gardens will die. Water is so expensive and it takes so much to keep clay well-watered (once it is dry, water just rolls off of it like it is concrete) that they feel like they'd spend more money on water than their garden produce would be worth. I have hit that point before, and sometimes as early as mid-June if the drought began in winter, but I'm going to try to keep watering as long as possible...at least until mid-July. That's assuming no watering restrictions. Some folks who water with well water are having trouble maintaining enough water pressure to water. That's not good. A lot of Oklahoma is getting rain, but we aren't, and it doesn't seem likely to improve. Ironically, I've decided I don't want for any rain to fall here until after I harvest the peach crop at mid-month. If a heavy rain falls now, it will water down the peach flavor and make the peaches and plums split. Since I don't 'need' or want rain this week, watch it show up now.

I certainly am enjoying your travels with you, I hope you're having as much fun and adventures as the trip sounds. You guys are real troopers to put it mildly!!! Continue in good health and have no problems. Susan209 in Valparaiso, IN

Hey guys..I am getting no time in towns when there is a library open or else I have no time. We spent 2 days in Austin and had a wonderful time but I never got to a library and also it was too fun to be inside :) I really appreciate the cheers from everyone. We are in Wimberly TX tonight at an EMS station that lets cyclists stay with them. I can only have these few minutes. Maybe in Del Rio I will get more time LOVE YOU GUYS ! c

I am taking a break from loading the last minute stuff. I can hardly fill up one fridge never mind two. When we stop for lunch we will use the garage (not taking bikes this time) and lower the couch down and set up the table to make our sandwiches on and eat there too. The cats will be able to roam around and use the kitty box if they need it. Will also give them some water and food. I am putting all the bread and lunch stuff in the garage fridge. It also has a space in the door for cans of soda. Mike said that the RV weighs 15,000 pounds dry. It weighs a lot more than that now with all the other stuff we put in there. I was careful not to put things in that we don't need. There is a WalMart wherever you go so we can get things if we need them. We are taking the 3 cats with us. They have a huge kitty box that won't spill litter all over. We are also taking their big gym with the sisal rope poles and the cubby hole housing in it. We won't be able to take that along when we have the bikes. I have already packed their toys, brushes and food. Yesterday we put them in the RV so that they could get used to it. I think we are going to have a wonderful time. Bobby is going to get to meet one of his half sisters. She lives in Fort Worth with her mother and step-father. We visited them a few weeks ago when we picked up the truck. The mother and I have written back and forth for years but that was the first time we ever met. Alisande, I will never get up to 100 mph because I am too chicken. I will get up to 80 mph I am sure but that is enough for me. Well break time is over so back to work.