I asked our esteemed guest to be my guest blogger today. Please say hello to Mr. Michael O’Brien! :clap:

well its hard to believe i’m here in downtown Abilene 3 full days at this stage after a long succession of flights on friday 17 hours in total i was met at the airport by mr and mrs jones who welcomed me into their beautiful home and made me feel right at home …i fell into bed at 5 am irish time having been awake since 7 am the morning before

saturday was a lie in day and kathy and Randy had been to the shops and back by the time i got up by then we all were in need of nourishment and we went out for breakfast ..no sorry not kippers ..just good ol texan bacon eggs sausages and pancakes and nearly boiling water for my tea ..in IHOP …it hit the spot .. we visited Randy’s place of work which is a building that hosts no less than 5 radio stations and having an interest in radio myself i was thrilled to be there.. we saw the beautiful paramount theatre and then went to the Abilene zoo small and compact but great time was had by all especially since it was 27 degrees celcius outside approx 15 degrees warmer than dublin ireland it was a beautiful day.

randy asked me did i want to go for a drive in his honda s 2000 2 seater convertable and i didn’t have to be asked twice we took a trip out to Buffalo Gap a small but quaint little village a few miles outta town…I cannot get over the ‘lack’ of traffic here no traffic jams whatsoever the only way to drive eh …

we had dinner out on saturday and a few beers to round the day off as well a brilliant day had by all

sunday was a little different ..Kathy and Randy agttend a small methodist church about 20 miles away in Hawley a village of around 600 people… Randy’s parents live 50 yards from the church and we had lunch there with the family after the service what a lovely meal and my fabulous hosts Frank and Mary June (Randys Mom and dad ) his sister Lee Ann and brother in law Craig treated me like one of the family during the church service the Pastor Jack prayed for rain which was badly needed in Abilene and within minutes his prayers were answered just before the end of service the heavens opened and it started raining again ..oh no my loves at an end .. oh scuse me got carried away there …..

in fact it rained for the whole day extremely heavily i may add for a lad who comes from ireland where it rains regularly was even taken aback at the amount of rain that fell at one stage later when kathy and i were chatting online we got the wits scared out of us by a ferocious clap of thunder … it was great being in the chatroom with all our friends but sitting right beside chat mommy was a great experience

afterwards we listened to some great music on ‘some’of their gramaphones and then even more music of the supertramp variety on one of their turntables Crises What Crises on LP sounded fantastic through a seriously fab sound system .. although we didnt go out much sunday it was a thoroughly great day extremely relaxing and most enjoyable

monday started with a visit to Walmart after breakfast to get some provisions and some beer …having consumed a lot of beer over the last couple of evenings as a guest i offered to buy the beer today now you must be 21 years old to buy beer in the USA and as a guy who remembers breakfast in america in the charts in my teens i reckoned i was just about old enough to buy the beer but you can imagine my surprise when i was asked for ID by the checkout lady um er i m not sure i have any i replied but i did come up with 2 pieces of ID one with my date of birth and the other with a photo.. she took em and off she went to see i’f she could accept them or not .. now i know i look young ,… i wish … but when i was refused i laughed out loud ..imagine being refused beer at almost 42 yrs of age Kathy and Randy were not too pleased but i saw the funny side of things.. we did laugh about it tho ….Randy ended up having to buy the beer for me .. of course he looks older .. about 23 yo i reckon ..lmao ….we went for lunch to a place called Red Robin where i got one of the best burgers i’ve had in years and fries to die for …they reminded me of my mums from years ago .. they were to die for .. we dd some shopping and then back to base to catch up on kathys blog …

the story will continue …. watch this space .Mick