That’s how long my brother swam yesterday! It was the Inaugural 2008 25K US Master Swimming National Championship, 15.5 miles, five times around a 3.1 mile lake loop. “No Lanes, No Lines, No Walls.” We had the honor of taking turns paddling alongside him as support kayakers … two loops for Steve, two for me, one for Shelly (his daughter, my niece.) Our job was easy. His was not! I think he is nuts and I am totally in awe of his discipline, his committment, his endurance, his stamina… I guess I could just say that I am totally in awe of my brother!

Before and after the swim we camped together on the White River outside Noblesville, Indiana. Steve (brother) brought his pop-up camper and daughters. I love my nieces! Shelly is soon-to-be 14; Jill just turned 12. They are very cool! After Steve (husband) and the girls went for a canoe paddle on the river this morning, we broke camp and headed to my Aunt Dude and Uncle Jack’s house for a visit with some of the Fort Wayne clan. Steve (brother) took the girls to a movie and stayed to camp another night. We’ll hook back up on the road tomorrow and head “home” to Michigan where we’ll move into his driveway for the next couple of weeks. I can’t wait! Mom and Dad… here we come!

We are on our way out of Texas. After 2 plus months … over half of the time we have been on the road … we will finally leave this second-most giant of states (I think Mom and Dad return to MI from the biggest-of-all states today.) We stopped at this creative Texas roadside rest “Picnic Area” before overnighting at Camping World yesterday. Does it make full use of Texas icons or what? The designer managed to incorporate the longhorn, flag and omnipresent Texas star, all in one shelter!

We’re so close to the Oklahoma border that by the time I finish typing this, we’ll probably cross over. (We did!) We are headed to central Indiana where we will provide kayak support for my crazy brother while he does a 25K competitive lake swim. Long-time family friends and my nieces will be there too so it should be fun.

Things have been fast and furious since we closed escrow on our new house last Wednesday. We’ve already had a little party with family and new neighbors as Dennis, Nancy and Nicole drove up from Rockport to spend the weekend with us. The irony is that they have slept in our house and we still have not. It was hard to leave. We wanted to nest.

Folks have been asking for more pictures; click for a slideshow of the house and Canyon Lake. (Bubbleshare is having technical difficulties so this is a link to the same photos on Flickr.)

Our vintage kayaks arrived in Texas with Nicole’s moving truck and they now reside in their new home of Canyon Lake, Texas where they will be reincarnated as lake and class II river boats. Yay!!! Steve rigged a way to pull them down to the water by bike. Ain’t he cute? (Westi…your dad thinks this photo should go on picturesfromabike.com even though it is pictures OF a bike, rather than from. And yes, Ed, this IS the first bike trailer you bought us. I know you lurk even though you never comment!!!)

Since our last post we have helped Nicole get settled in Rockport, and visited with and eaten great meals prepared by Dennis and Nancy. We moved back to Canyon Lake on June 30 to meet the home inspector and deal with closing on the new house, only to find the campground full. Thankfully, we had already met hospitable new neighbors-to-be, JR and Gwen, who allowed us to camp on their 20 acre lakefront property just a block or so from “home”. Thanks to them, we not only had a place to be but we celebrated the Fourth of July with Real Texans. That means we drank lots of beer and Margaritas and ate the most awesome BBQ ribs (Texans take their BBQ VERY seriously!) Everyone was friendly and we began to feel as if relocating won’t be so lonely after all.

The holiday is over and we are back at Potter’s Creek Campground, enjoying being right on the water. Today was deliciously cool (that being a relative thing) with lovely rain showers and wind. We bought some things for the new house while Josh, the builder of our new home, worked his tail off clearing cedars, readying the house to close escrow on Wednesday.

Oh my. We are excited. Who Knew?