To Mile 3912.  Days 23 to 27, Plano TX, near Dallas. 

We reached Marty and Sylvia’s home in Plano at about 3 PM on Sunday, June 10.  Plano is a very clean suburb of Dallas, where the homes are lovely with manicured, lush lawns.  Marty’s home was decorated by his daughter Arleen, a professional interior designer.  It was great to stop in and see Marty and Sylvia, but we were whisked away to Arleen’s home, about 6 miles away.  Arleen’s husband is a successful builder of upper tier custom homes.  Their home features a lot of open space with beautiful wood floors, a lot of open space, and a nice swimming pool. 

Arleen and Joe’s son Jake is an avid hunter and there are a lot of remnants of animals he has killed in prominent display—a fox, deer, a wild turkey, and others.  Jake is a master of hunting and fishing, a passion he shares with my nephew Sam Rudman. He is also fond of hunting wild boars, animals that are overrunning parts of Texas and Mexico, multiplying madly, and causing considerable problems for farmers.  Jake had just purchased a specialized working dog to hunt the pigs, a yellow black-mouthed cur.  He named his 6 month old puppy, "Seiko."  It formed an immediate, intense bond with Jake, but during the first few days was anxious and surly around other household members and guests.  We dubbed the dog, “Psycho.”  Seiko has since settled down nicely already. 

Things were busy in these households.  Joe was working on several building projects, they were in the process of selling their home and buying another, they were selling a Toyota 4-runner, and Marty had cataract surgery on Tuesday.  Arlene and Joe took us to Watermark Church where they worship on Sunday night .  The building looked more like a concert hall than a church, and the service was more like a performance than a church service, with an outstanding worship team and a fabulous light and sound system.  The sermon was given by an assistant pastor and it was perfect--on topic, relevant, short, sweet, and high-impact.  While the polish and opulence of the service was off-putting, the content was right-on and something I needed to hear. 

From day one, one of the trailer tires has had a slow leak.  I would have to refill with air every few days.  Yesterday, I took the tire off and ran soapy water over it, looking for bubbles from a leak.  There were none.  So I took the tire to a tire dealer and he informed me that the leak was coming from a manufacturing defect in the tire rim, not the tire.  This is not a leak at the site where the tire bead meets the rim; the leak was from a micropore in the wheel itself.  During manufacturing, bubbles can occur that lead to miniscule hole in the rim.  I checked this out on the internet and found a repair procedure in Popular Mechanics.  This involved cleaning the area with solvent, sanding it down with 80-grit sand paper, and applying a thin film of gasket sealant on the inside of the wheel. I remounted the tire, inflated it to specified pressure, and rechecked for leak.  None.  Bingo!  Problem solved. 

Arleen is a passionate and creative cook and we swapped recipes.  Today we baked bread.  On Thursday, we head for Tomball, near Houston TX on the gulf to see Marty’s brother, Sam, and his wife Leslie.  It is really great reconnecting with family while we see parts of the country we have never seen before.