Thanks everyone! I do not need to learn it in a few weeks I just want to be able to speak and understand someday! I have hung out with his fam on many trips and they do speak enough English so I manage. As for the wedding, we are headed to the Courthouse. Nothing big in terms of a wedding. We both have been married before. We just want simplicity. After we are going downtown (I live in the country in between San Antonio and Austin) to the riverwalk and staying in a nice hotel and having friends and family get together for a fun dinner. We will be eating at a place called Boudro's and my new last name will be Boudreau! Kind of funny!

cynic, We have factory installed built-in GPS in both of our cars. Both units allow the user to choose the type of route they desire. Ours allow for 'Maximize Freeway'; 'Minimize Freeway'; 'Direct Route'; or 'Easy Route'. The four different routes will all take you to the same place. Since you mention "exit", is it possible your friend had a route programed that did not maximize freeways? Mary, We love our GPS units & would never voluntarily purchase another vehicle without them. We've been using marine GPS since the government released it (2001, I think?) with WAAS. IMO, there's no better company than Garmin for GPS. We've got their marine flagship model on our boat & it's wonderful. It's got radar, GPS, weather imaging, 3-D, sonar, & ties into our auto-pilot & VHF radio. We still chart our course the old-fashioned way as a precaution but truthfully it's more just an exercise to keep our navagation skills sharp. The GPS pilots our boat much more accurately than we could ever accomplish with charts. Garmin, IMO, makes the best GPS navigational equipment available & they've been at it for a long time. Best Buy is having a sale on Garmin today. The sale was just for yesterday (Friday) & today (Saturday). /tricia

Drury Inns have free full breakfasts and fast food dinners. The diners are called Kick Backs instead of happy hour like they used to be. It is not a sit down meal but a very popular buffet with hot dogs, salads, etc.. Also the last time I was at one they were still serving 3 free drinks. Never heard a bad word about Drury Inns. Our bus tour guide said they would just tow one behind our bus if possible.

There are all kinds of people everywhere, it's very true. Of course lots of people enjoy visiting and vacationing, even retiring, to less congested wide open spaces. I was just saying that we decided it wasn't a good starting point for us, both from an occupational opportunity standpoint and from an educational standpoint for our kids. Our options wouldn't have included rural or farming communities just as a matter of personal preference and background, but rather more likely a smaller beach town instead of where we wound up. I can see where my limited and abbreviated comments might have brought you to your conclusion but I don't think any of what you're suggesting is the case. About them or me. On the other hand, it wasn't me who first described the existence of and a term for "country bumpkins". My kids are young adults now, very open-minded (perhaps more than I) and all have what I might describe as a compassionate world view. I think the experiences they had living in a diverse and more cosmopolitan place played a role in the development of their views. In the US, it's sometimes difficult (for many reasons, not infrequently economic ones) to be able to live in areas that give familes access to higher rated school districts. Unfortunately, many of the higher rated ones are in areas where housing and the costs of living are higher. What reasons brought you to want to home school your kids? I ask because that too can rob kids of the learning experiences gained when having to interact with lots of other kids. Does any of it matter? Nah, just chit-chat.