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Grandma, Lillian & Bro

 As our daughter Ellen said in a recent Facebook post, "Well, that was different!" She was referring to the unbelievable difference between this (her second) birthing process and her first experience with baby-having 2 and 1/2 years ago. Five weeks earlier than planned, and a labor that barely gave her enough time to get to a hospital room made Little Bobby's appearance seem slightly surreal. But real he is, weighing in at 6 lbs. 1 oz, born early Saturday morning, March 8th, at 12:15 am.


Robert James Fox III

      Because of that very surprising phone call, our trip did a drastic about face. We were camped at BJ's RV Park near Terlingua, Texas, and were planning to spend a week there. We had toured the east side of nearby Big Bend National Park in the Volvo, traversing gravelly washboardy Old Maverick Road to reach beautiful Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande, an impossibility for the Pickle (we're talking washboardy to the nth degree.) Another day we drove west in the Gherkin along the Rio Grande to the town of Presidio where we ate lunch at El Patio. And we spent some time exploring the unique area of Terlingua with its Starlight Theater and High Sierra Hotel.

    Seeing the east side of Big Bend Park will have to wait until another year because on our 4th day at BJs we packed up and started off on the 1700 mile trek back to Michigan.
    Our first night out we stayed at Michael's sister's in Fort Worth. The next day (Sunday) after brunch and a radiator fan repair (thank you, Gary, for the parts!) we left Ft. Worth and travelled to the Welcome Center on the west side of Missouri. There we got a few hours of sleep. Next stop was my brother's in Springfield, MO, just to say Hi and see their digs. That day we drove until we reached a rest stop near Marion, Indiana. The next morning it was a 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Ann Arbor, where our 3-day old grandson was waiting with his 2-year old sister, Lillian, and his proud parents.
   Yesterday we drove home to northern MI, still a hard and crusty, snowy expanse of whiteness, and a 0 degree temp this morning.
    End of a saga? Yes, for now.  We're happy to know we shared in Little Bobby's first few days. Fond memories of the sunny southwest desert will get us through the rest of this record breaking winter which we almost avoided.