Food Bank, and Lunch, Tube River Float, Texas Party

Food Bank, and Lunch, Tube River Float. Texas Party 

Friday April 29, 2022

This a.m. Jim was awake at 5 a.m. and in the shower. We got ready for our first trip of the day was the food bank. Texas is #2 State for food insecurity.

Todd made a great speech to their staff about our group and what all we stand for.

They separated us into groups based on what skills we wanted to use. There was about 35 went to the warehouse packing and lifting heavy. A group went out to the Garden to mulch and weed. Another group was picking fresh produce from the garden. And

 I was in the kitchen group with Chef John and Chef Art. 

First they got a group that was going to clean unfortunately with bleach. So I walked down to the chef Art he had two of our people chopping sausage. I asked him what I could do to help, cuz I'm allergic to the smell of bleach and get a headache. So he had me help him make a Cajun roux for gumbo. He added the oil as I stirred in the flour and make sure it didn't burn. Kim was down there with me and she added  60 lb of lean  turkey burger to the soup pot.. And STIRRED.  Once It was no longer pink she added onions and peppers. Later they were going to add the rest of the ingredients for 360 servings.

Here are pictures of the garden, above

 the warehouse, with Jim. They were finished, the guy was thanking everyone. Jim was so sweaty. 

Inside warehouse 

Later they served us lunch you had a choice of ham sandwich a turkey wrap or roast beef with a cookie, chips and fruit cup. Extra sweet tea since we're in Texas no thanks stuck  to water. They were selling food bank t-shirts for us to purchase. We made a donation to the food bank. They gave us all the stats of how much food we package. I hopefully to get those numbers later. It was huge for them, they never had such a large group volunteer together at one time. 

We drove our truck over with Eric and Anne.  we had met in Florida. He was the one looking for a cricket they loved ours. He actually found one here he's going to be purchasing.  love it when things work out.   We picked them up and we drove to where we were going to tube in the river I didn't start until 2 so we have plenty of time to change get situated. Sign waivers in case we disappeared in the Texas river never to be seen again.

 It was a lot of fun we almost backed out I was afraid it was going to be cold but it was perfect. There was three chutes you had to go through, the first being the worst, so we walked around. So the first chute we actually went through was fine but Jim got dumped over and his head was all wet. Luckily his phone case kept his phone dry.

 Then the 3rd Chute we both did well nice relaxing float. There was some party people stuck amongst our group a bridal party and a whole bunch of guys whooping it up  they each had a bottle. They were drinking their wacky juice. 

When it was time to exit the water two and a half hours later, went so fast. A few Guys in our group were helping people exit.

 First they helped me get out semi gracefully. And then Jim stepped on the Slippery Rock and went down all the way under again, great test for the phone case. He said it's really deep there. We walked out we had a ride to and from the water where we had to sign the waivers. When we went back to get on the bus and they were working on it cuz it wasn't running. Sounds familiar. We got on the smaller bus as we pulled out we heard the other one running, although it didn't sound that great. 

We got back to the RV took showers had a quick snack through the wet  clothes in the washer and the dryer and then we went down for our Texas Barbecue Party. 

We got to have a great barbecue and sausage, brisket and pork, potato salad cream corn, all the fixings and peach cobbler for dessert.

The guy in the Hat give Todd a Woody costume to put on, hence the Western theme and Todd does love his costumes. Someone donated the blue boy in the picture also they gave that away . 

Then they had country music playing Megan taught everyone a line dance called the switch it up Shuffle. She's a ballet dancer, she made the dance a lot harder than I thought she would for newbies. We practiced it for a while made for a very funny evening. Jim is feeling pretty good tonight so we actually got to do a few line dances.  Dellynn from Our Not So Perfect Life,  offered to drive people up in her golf cart. Jim and Eric went first. Ann Nettles and I stayed and chatted a bit longer.

 Then she took us back to our RV'S. She almost killed us on a a speed bump She didn't see. We sat outside a bit with Ann and Dixie her dog. Was a beautiful evening about 8:30 by now. 

What a GREAT day. Jim was in bed pretty early.