Saying good-bye to Texas

August 10: We said good-bye to the Hill Country this morning to return to the USO in San Antonio to meet with another group of awesome scholarship recipients. This group included Robin Butcher who is close to achieving her life long dream to be a RN. She described how both the ThanksUSA scholarship and her two darling kids have helped her go back and complete her education with an active duty spouse.

We also met with Candice Corte and her mom. Candice is attending the University of North Texas and is active ROTC. She has a sister who starts college next fall, and the ThanksUSA scholarship is helping her family achieve their educational goals.

Finally, we met with Courtney Banayad -- a world traveler already -- who is finishing at the University of Texas at Austin. She was so appreciative of having financial assistance to help her make ends meet while finishing her education.

Before walking out of the USO we were approached by one of the volunteers who helps keep the USO looking clean and inviting for visiting military personnel. This volunteer had listened to the girls talk about why we started ThanksUSA. He described his own background and said he did not put an emphasis on education when he was younger, and learned the hard way about its importance. But rather than feeling discouraged, he is now back taking classes and tests to better himself. We wish him every success and than him for all he does to take care of the troops.

We then went to the famous San AntonioRiver Walk and had a TexMex lunch with Sonia Medina of the AT&T Foundation. The AT&T Foundation has been a generous supporter of ThanksUSA and we thanked Sonia for her instrumental role in helping military families everywhere.

Remember the Alamo? Well, now we know a little more about the imporant role played by the Mission in the Texas Revolution. The knarly trees and fortified walls of the Mission gave us an appreciation of how the battle might have gone for those freedom fighters who lost this battle, but not the war for independence.

Now we're on to Interstate 10 across Texas and into New Mexico to start our swing northwest.

Sorry, no photos today. Deanna has tried unsuccessfully to find a wireless network that would let her upload photos. Perhaps we'll have better luck at our next stop.

FInding Heart and Soul in Texas

August 9, San Antonio. It was hard to leave Jackaroo Ranch, in the heart of the Hill Country (Thanks, D'Anna, for the great digs!), where we were surrounded by Texas Longhorns, the beautiful Blanco river, and herds of deer, but we had a busy day ahead.

The day provoked powerful emotions for the entire family. We began with a tour of the Brooke Army Medical Hospital at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio. We were thrilled to meet our former neigbor, Lt. Col. Lanier Ward, who had recovered at this very hospital from severe wounds that he received in Baghdad in '03. The picture is of Lanier with two of the Physical Therapists (Amy and Heather) who helped him recover (he can now jokingly refer to this as the "House of Pain"). Amy and Heather are still helping wounded soldiers today. Lanier was one of our primary inspirations when we launched ThanksUSA nearly two years ago, and he remains an inspiration today. We were delighted that he would come all the way from Kentucky to show us around and we hope he can make a return appearance at the ThanksUSA gala in Washington, D.C. on October 3, 2007. Last year he made wonderful remarks and provided a terrific introduction of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Meyers.

We toured both the hospital and the recently opened Intrepid Center. Wow, if you ever though you were strong or tough, think again. These wounded warriors are courageous heroes. Seeing this center truly made us appreciate how much these warriors, and all those in uniform, love our nation to risk life and limb so that we can live the life we want in this country. To see so many who had lost legs or arms or suffered severe burns and other injuries, but whose spirits were strong and still fighting touched us deeply. Although it was only a small token, the girls delivered some beautifully decorated letters to many of the wounded.

With a stengthened commitment to do whatever we can to help thank the troops with the gift of education to their families, we went to the USO in downtown San Antonio. Thank you, San Antonio USO for your hospitality! We met with four wonderful ThanksUSA scholars today, and as Rachel said, "They blew us away like a tumbleweed in the Texas wind."

Johana Dowell, with two small children and an active duty husband getting ready to deploy to Iraq, was in a car accident last year with the children and all hope of college seemed to disappear at that time . . . until a ThanksUSA scholarship letter arrived in the mail and gave her the funds to rekindle her dreams to pursue her education at UT. She told us how important our small idea was to her and her family. WOW. It was a double bonus to hear that she is playing the ThanksUSA American History Treasure Hunt with her kids and finds it a terrific family project. We will be thinking of her and sending our prayers for her husband's safe return.

We also met James Johnson and his parents (His Dad is active duty Air Force -- 25 years -- Thank you, Sir, for all you do and God bless!!). James's smile and ideas are bright enough to light up the San Antonio sky. Keep an eye on this Baylor University scholar. He is going places, big time!

Joshua Heaney is an army "brat" now attending Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in part with a ThanksUSA scholarship. He plans to go to flight school and we are sure that when he gets his wings he will rule the sky!

We are so grateful to Ashley Neves who lives and works in San Antonio. She drove all the way to Austin to see us yesterday, and came back to the San Antonio USO today. Ashley, you rock!

Back to the Hill Country to recharge for tomorrow.

Everything is Bigger in Texas - Even our Blog

Bigger blog, but slower, as we have been chasing wi fi connections at various coffee shops without much success. Hope this one stays with us long enough to post blogs from the past few eventful days.

August 8: We awoke in a place called Hope . . . Hope, Arkansas that is. Birthplace of former President Bill Clinton and home of the 150 lb watermelon seen in the photo. Our long drive southward, to Texarkana, took us to Austin, capitol of the Lone Star State.

We met with 2 outstanding young ladies, both ThanksUSA scholarship recipients, at the Austin Recreation Center. We desperately wanted to dive into the Center's big swimming pool to cool off from the 100+ degree heat, but instead we sat down inside with Ashley Neves and Jasmine Jones. We captured their remarkable and heartwarming stories on video, fortunately, and will be putting together a video. They really hit it off with Kelsi and Rachel, who have two new big "sisters" to add to the ThanksUSA family. Ashley, who drove over an hour with her friend Krystal just to meet us, promised to drop by the San Antonio USO tomorrow where we will meet some more scholars from around Texas.

Dinner at the Rio Grande authentic TexMex restaurant, a walk by the waterfront awaiting the flight of the bats under the Bat Bridge at sunset and then a drive to rural Wimberly, located in Hill Country, concluded another marathon day . . . but it was all worth it just to meet Jasmine and Ashley. We all will sleep like babies.

Finding Grace and Hope

This one's for our beagle, Miles: "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog, crying all the time..." Who sang that timeless tune? (We have to have trivia wherever we go right? :) ) Why, none other than Elvis Presley!! Checking out all things Elvis at Graceland, TN was lots of fun, though it was over 100 degrees once again. As our Treasure Hunt clue book last year noted, The King, was born in Mississippi but lived and died in Tennessee.

Now THANKS already covered Elvis, but in the universal game of life, a little more info never hurts! Did you know......

• Elvis's favorite food was fried peanut butter and jelly

• Even though he was famous beyond measure, he will always be remembered for using his talent for good by using his profits to quietly pay off struggling neighbors' debts

Then we left the land of country music and gooey pies and headed west on Interstate 40 and into Arkansas.

We wished we had time to stop and join the thousands who were pouring into the ENORMOUS Little Rock Pentacostal church because we're sure it would have been a great experience, but we were just too hungry for real, rather than spiritual, food so we opted for the turn into downtown Little Rock instead.

This beautiful sculpture, titled Carpe Diem, can be found outside one of Little Rock's newest and finest eating establishments, The Copper Grill. We interviewed lots of nice Arkansans who sent along their warmest wishes for the troops and their families. In fact the owner of the Grill lobbies in Washington, DC with the National Restaurant Association. Now that is grassroots lobbying at its finest.

We ended our day in Hope, Arkansas; birthplace of former President Clinton. We thought it fitting that our motel is right across the street from a WalMart as Sam Walton was from Arkansas. Our distinguished board member Gen Norm Lezy would be proud of us...he used to be an executive with WalMart. Too bad we will miss the Watermelon Festival this weekend in Hope. We did get to see a 150 lb melon displayed at our motel, though.

Back on the road to meet in Austin, TX with several of our Texas scholarship winners. How exciting!

Feeling the Music in Tennessee

Meeting Nashville singer and songwriter David Ball (composer of the Ballad of ThanksUSA), Andy Leftwich, awesome fiddler with Ricky Skaggs and the Kentucky Thunder and his beautiful wife, Rachel, in Nashville, Tennessee really brought "Music City" to life for us as we journey across the United States. We predict that Andy will have a great solo career one day, and we can say we knew him on his way up the charts.

We hope that our home video captured our sing along with David Ball as we all belted out The Ballad of ThanksUSA. A tour of Opryland in 100 degree humid heat followed by a visit to the awesome Nashville aquarium kicked off our first full day on our drive for dollars for military scholars. One of the hostesses at the Aquarium restaurant had a family member in the National Guard so we gave her a ThanksUSA treasure hunt clue book, with the website so she could visit it and check out the scholarship opportunities. We've also met lots of nice folks from all over the country who are visiting Nashville, like members of the Knights of Columbus who are attending their convention.

We really hope that Andy and Rachel Leftwich and David Ball (and his wife and daughter) attend our second annual ThanksUSA gala on Oct 3 in Washington, DC to raise funds for the next round of military family scholarships. We even managed a call-in radio chat with Tara , hostess of Army Wives Talk Radio. What a great service her radio program each day is providing to the families of the troops across America. Sorry for the noisy background, Tara.
We've gotten to know the fine folks at Army Wives Talk Radio through America Supports You, a wonderful organization that acts as a clearinghouse for the many varied military support organizations around the country spearheaded by Allison Barber and her team in Washington, DC.

Next stop, Memphis, Tennessee...."We're going Graceland" (to quote Paul Simon's famous song) to help celebrate the King's birthday!

Our next entry will be from Texas....Austin and San Antonio (we hope to visit Brook Army Hospital) and meet our former neighbor and one of our inspiring heroes, Army Lt Col Lanier Ward. How is your summer Allie? We will meet several of our Texas scholarship recipients in those two cities. We can't wait. That's it for now.