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| Merry Christmas from Roger and Jeannie Shull |
December 25, 2002 |
Roger
and Jeannie's first summer trip wound up in Dimondale, Michigan, where nearly
all the rest of the immediate Shull family had also gathered. Lodging was
tight between Gordon's house in Dimondale and Terri's house in Okemos, but
that only increased the fun.The group photo was taken on July 4th.
The journey started with a trip up I-35 from Austin to St. Paul, MN, to
attend the National Square Dance Festival, and to visit with their square-dancing
friends, Al and Ginger, in Grandy, MN. The next segment was a drive across
Wisconsin and a cruise across Lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Ludington on
the carferry SS Badger.
In late summer,
Shulls drove to Raleigh to see Katie, Dave, and Sam. They went on to Maryland,
as tourists. On the way, they toured Lake Gaston, VA with their former neighbors,
Jim and Dottie Ford. They cruised the Potomac with Jean's sister Kay on her
friend Mike's boat. They toured the Annapolis waterfront and rode the Walkersville
Railroad with the Mahfoudis. While visiting the Agamaites and Lauvers in
southern MD, they toured the Solomons Maritime Museum and the Patuxent Naval
Air Museum. On their way home, they had dinner with the Moores in Durham,
attended the wedding of former MD neighbor Laurie Jeantheau in Atlanta,
toured central Tennessee with former Texas friend, Eleanor Soltau, and spent
several days in Hot Springs Village, AR, helping their friends John and Martha
expand a room of their house.
As shown in the Christmas card photo, the Volente Lakehaus got a new
concrete driveway this summer, replacing the dirt-and-rock version used for
seven years. The white concrete allows Jeannie to walk to the mail box bare-footed,
even when the temperature is over 100º (which, fortunately, happened
only four days this year instead of 40 days like last year). Roger and Jeannie
also spent several days lining the walls of their basement (a rare structure
in Texas) with recycled Minnesota red barn boards (even rarer). They also
built a lower deck around the back, changing their "jump-out" basement to
a "walk-out."
For a change, the Shulls will be in Volente for Christmas 2002, celebrating with their daughter Becky, husband Mike, and grandchildren Andrew and Tracey. But, in early January 2003, they will be heading back to Raleigh to help Katie, David, and Sam with the birth of a new baby.