August 4, 2001: Birthdays for Fred and Ron Mathis
	June 26 - July 4, 2001: A Summer Trip to Canada
	Return to the Index for 2001

Last year, our good friends, Prudence and Ron Ruckman, made the decision to move from Arlington, where Prudence had been living when she married Ron, to San Antonio, so that Prudence could fulfill her dream of running a bed and breakfast. This January, Fred and I have made a trip down to stay with them for a weekend, and give what help we can in the work they are doing.

You've probably seen a map of the route from Dallas to San Antonio before. It is pretty simple, for once you get on the Tollway south from my house, and merge onto I-35 South, it is a straight shot for about 280 miles all the way to downtown San Antonio. See the map below, left.

Once in downtown San Antonio, all you have to do is follow I-35 South until you come to the exit for San Pedro Avenue. Once off the expressway, you just take San Pedro Avenue north.

Finally, you just take San Pedro Avenue by San Pedro Park on your left, and, one block past the park, you turn left onto French Place. Prudence and Ron have bought the house at the end of the first block on your right.

Prudence and Ron have been hard at work getting the house ready to become a bed and breakfast, and everything is nearing completion. The construction is all done, and Prudence is in the midst of getting the rooms decorated to her satisfaction. Ron is doing everything necessary to get the licenses they need to open for business, and he is developing some special dishes that he can cook for the breakfasts.

I have been talking with Prudence about doing a website for the bed and breakfast. I have just gotten "into" working on Internet websites, and have been practicing my techniques on my personal one. I figure I have enough skill now to develop one for Ruckman Haus, as the bed and breakfast is to be known, and I want to talk with Prudence and Ron about some ideas I have for it. We can't really do much yet, as the rooms aren't quite ready for photographs, but we can lay out some of the pages.

Actually, the rooms are completed enough that Prudence has also invited her sister, Nancy, and Nancy's husband Karl to come down as well. In addition, they have brought with them Prudence's mother. Also invited are Dan and Vicki Pier, the longtime accountants for the Lucas family, and Debbie Zimmerman and her husband. Debbie is a longtime friend of Prudence's. Finally, one of Ron Ruckman's sisters, Laurie, is down in San Antonio as well.

It is going to be the largest gathering yet at the new house- at least when Fred and I have been there. While everything is not quite done, it is going to be something of a housewarming for the bed and breakfast.

When we arrived, Karl, Nancy, Prudence's mother and Laurie were already there, so we were able to have breakfast together on Saturday morning. We were served by Prudence and Ron who were getting a chance to practice their routines.

While Fred and I arrived Friday evening, some of the others didn't arrive until Saturday, so the first time we were all together for one of Ron's breakfasts was on Sunday morning. We took a number of pictures at breakfast, and the best one is at right. Going around the table, left to right, are Laurie, Fred, Debbie and her husband, Ron Ruckman, Pru Lucas (Prudence's mother, also named Prudence but usually called "Pru" to avoid confusion), Prudence, Dan and Vicki, Karl and Nancy.

We didn't have the tripod with us, so Fred and I had to switch out taking pictures. Below are clickable thumbnails for a couple more breakfast pictures:

We spent most of the weekend just hanging out with everyone, although Fred did some puttering around outside in the area that Prudence wan't to turn into a garden. I did a few mockups of some pages for the website, and in general we just enjoyed everyone's company. The only other pictures we took this weekend were a couple of shots of Debbie, Laurie and I joking around in Prudence's kitchen after breakfast one morning. You can have a look at those pictures here and here.

Fred had to be back at work on Monday morning, so we left to head back to Dallas in the late afternoon. It was a nice visit down there, and I must say that everything is coming along very well at Ruckman Haus!

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	August 4, 2001: Birthdays for Fred and Ron Mathis
	June 26 - July 4, 2001: A Summer Trip to Canada
	Return to the Index for 2001