October 6, 2020. San Antonio, Texas. Lunch with Robbie and Joyce.

Texas is a big state and their citizens are used to driving long distances. I discovered to be specific when asking about restaurants. I would mention a place and be told it was close only to find that the place was thirthy minutes drive. Close to me means five minutes drive or an easy walk, not a 45 minute drive. So I always ask how minutes driving when I am deciding whether or not to go for dinner. When my friend Joyce discovered I was coming to San Antonio for two weeks she offered to come for lunch even though it is a 90 minute drive. Robbie does not mind driving so yesterday they drove in to have lunch with me. We set 1:00 as the time to meet at the house. When they arived, we sat and talked for a bit, then we went to The Olive Garden for lunch. It was easy to get to and the food was fine, just not fancy. But it was perfect for us as it was quiet and mostly empty. Their lunch specials include salad or soup and hot bread along with the main dish. We all three ordered chicken parmagiona, which was excellent. We ate and talked,and talked some more. We e mail regularly and Joyce reads my blog so we did not have much to catch up on even though I have not seen them for over a year when they visited me at the lake. But things were new. Robbies brother died just a month ago at age 87. His family live a long time so everyone was surpoised when he died. Both parents lived to be close to 100. He was the brother that coached football and told Robbie about the pickle juice. But other than that, both Joyce and Robbie are doing well, still living at the ranch,. We came home at 3:30, just in time for them to miss rush hour traffic in San Antonio. I appreciated their long drive but I did enjoy lunch with them. They are good friends and I miss living across the road from them at the ranch. I certainly enjoyed my time with them yesterday.