A Family & Travel Blog
This Illinois weather is for the birds!!! Last week it was 103F in Cotulla, TX where we were gate guarding. Tonight, the low is predicted to be 19F!! At the moment, we have pulled in the three slide-outs of the…
Update on our whereabouts… We remain in Springfield, Illinois. As you hopefully read in our last post, we cancelled a planned five-week visit to Portugal, Spain, and Italy, including a seven-night cruise of the Mediterranean, because of a family medical…
BAD NEWS UPDATE: This post was scheduled to post tomorrow morning (Tuesday). However, yesterday, on Sunday afternoon, after driving up to Joliet to start the journey, we had to make the disappointing decision to cancel the entire trip. Without going…
A trip to MEXICO!!! On Monday morning at 9:25am, another gate-guard couple arrived at our gate to take over for us. Our days of guarding a multi-million dollar (insert gloating) drilling facility had come to a close. We were absolutely…
The Pros and Cons of Gate Guarding~ First, an update- Two weeks ago, we thought we had just a few days left at this site. The drilling crew had made record time getting to “TD”. TD is the “total depth”…
This is just a quick hodgepodge post. As most of the US braces for back-to-back severe winter storms, we seem to have landed in the right spot this winter! We are just an hour north of Laredo, Texas, well south…
This is a story about a dog. Meet “Brown Cow”. “Brown Cow” appeared at our oil rig gate a few days ago. He is friendly, affectionate, and cute. But he has a devilish side to him. “Brown Cow” approached the…
Happy New Year!!! If you sent us a tray of Christmas cookies, cakes, or a stack of $100 bills to our temporary residence in Whitsett, Texas, we never received them!! We hope that 2026 is an amazing year for each…
Whew…This Texas heat is something else!! We had to put up our sun shelter! We are definitely enjoying this weather as opposed to the Arctic north!
From Whitsett, TX we’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Today, our savior is born! Hallelujah!
Roadside Adventure~ On the drive from Springfield, IL to Pleasanton, TX for this gateguarding job, we stopped at the smallest Catholic Church in the WORLD!! St Martin’s Catholic Church is located in Warrenton, Texas, just about in between Austin and…
Answers to your questions about Gate Guarding… We really appreciate your engagement with our posts! We received numerous questions about this gig. Our answers are below. We’ve also added a few photos with some photo captions. Enjoy!!! 1) How do…
