In May of 2002, Byron began a report development project at Schlumberger in Sugar Land TX.

While trying to find a suitable campground, we ran across Brazos Bend State Park, about 30 miles south of Sugar Land.

Here's the official web site for Brazos Bend: Brazos Bend S.P.

What a find THIS turned out to be! After about a week, we decided that we like it here enough to apply to be
"Park Hosts". That status gave us a free camp site of our choice, and all the electricity and water that we needed.

-- As for the work itself (remember, Byron had a
day job...), Leigh was trained to work with the staff in the office and -- much to her great glee -- was asked
to tend to the garden area outside of the office.

Byron spent his off-work hours digging out fire pits, tooling around with a John Deere 'gator', picking up around the
camp sites, and tending to the needs of the campground guests.

As you can perhaps imagine, this sort of work was a far cry from staring at a computer for nine hours a day.
A welcome respite, actually.

After having had our new Ford F650 for almost a year, we finally had enough money to get a start on the truck's bed.
Here's a couple of photos of the beginnings of the bed.

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One of the more wonderful benefits of being at Brazos Bend State Park is the wide variety of wildlife.

Here's a few of our new friends:

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Here's some views from the campfire in back of our RV at Brazos Bend.

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On July 7th, Leigh & Byron tied the knot. No, not because of the shotgun in the Park Ranger Superintendent's hands!
But more because we'd been together for three years and ... well ... it was just plain time!

We hope you enjoy the following photos of quiet serenity from a Sunday morning in a Texas State Park as two people
share wedding vows.

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The longer we're here at Brazos Bend, the more we find in the way of natural beauty to the place.

And with 5000 acres to explore, we're FAR from done!

Here's some pictures from around the perimeter of "Elm Lake". There are three lakes on the property. Take a look at
the lilly pads. With pads THAT big, can you imagine the size of the FROGS around here?

Actually, we haven't really seen a frog. Wonder if that's because of the gators? Hmmm...

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One of the projects that Byron worked on while we were in the Houston area was at Schlumberger (Slum-Ber-JAY)
in Sugar Land, TX.

From the pictures below, you might get the idea -- a correct one -- that the company is very proud of itself.
And they have good reason. The employees are extremely well trained, which of course is paramount when you
Consider that they frequently work on offshore oil rigs.

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The couple that mows together STAYS together! Isn't that the saying? Mowing with the big Toros is one of the things
we do as "Park Hosts" here at Brazos Bend.

It takes three of us over a week to mow everything here at the 5000 acre park.
Even then, by the time we get done, it's in serious need of cutting again.

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The park rangers didn't waste any time "checking us out" on the other vehicles...

One morning, we spotted a doe in our campsite. She was very different from the rest, in that she would come right up to
us, eat out of our hands, and let us pet her without any fear whatsoever.

It turned out that the game warden had brought her in that very morning. Seems she had been kept illegally captive
by somebody in a nearby town.

You can clearly see from the pictures that "Missy" (yes, sigh, we've named her...) was severely malnourished.

In addition, she had numerous patches and scars, particularly around her neck where she obviously
had a rope or collar attached.

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And out in our screen room, we frequently found critters of one sort or another chowing down. In this case, it was a mother and baby racoon enjoying the horse doovers!