Report From the January 2014 Meeting in San Antonio

Use the “Prev” and “Next” links to click forward or backward through the images in this gallery.[portfolio_slideshow]The TCC Texas/Oklahoma Chapter held our first quarterly meeting of the year on Jan. 11 at the the Boiler House Texas Grill & Wine Garden, situated in the historic Pearl Brewery complex on the San Antonio River Walk. Our thanks to Jim and Sue Griffith, San Antonio locals, with their help finding our meeting location and with logistics. Our meeting allowed 25 members/guests from Austin, Laredo, San Antonio, the Dallas and Houston metros, and even St. Louis, to share stories and be “wowed” by our TCC Past President, Pam Barrus, who flew in from California to be our featured speaker.

Following are some highlights from the meeting:

• Pam Barrus, TCC past president, shared her “Overland from Cairo to Cape Town” trip. Many of us recognized the normal travel hassles she faced in getting visas, having small living quarters, and being in places with few tourists. But many of us were also intrigued by her needing to get guides to keep the local children off of her, getting soldiers with AK-47s to go with her to view historic sites, enduring chaos on the Ethiopian buses, and using money that smells so bad it permeates all of your belongings. Sure, she saw the sources of the Niles and other amazing places, but her curiosity seemed to overlook all of the dangers she faced as she soloed across the continent. An inspiration for all of us. Well done!
• Bill Hintze gave an update on his recently approved request to the TCC Board to have Egypt in Asia/Sinai be considered as a new country. Since Pam was at that Board meeting, she offered additional insights into the decision-making process. Several members admitted they “gained” a new country due to Bill’s work. Very nice.
• We have three new members: Tom Weeks of Houston, Paul Clites of Houston, and Dr. Ruth Morgan of Dallas. Welcome!
• Finally, our around the room sharing of recent travels included Bill‘s trip to Saudi, Sue‘s cold stay in Greenland, Jim‘s upcoming trip to his Welsh homeland, Debbie‘s Shreveport car troubles, b’s encounter with father and child in different continents, Odile‘s lost husband in Spain, Philippe‘s upcoming trip to finish up South America, BJ‘s dance contest win, John‘s lucky jay walking in Singapore, Carolyn‘s moving Middle East farm experience with Syrian refugees, Dick and Judy‘s lovely Dubrovnik cruise, Marian‘s Antarctic danger horns in between penguin/seal visits, Cynthia and Jeff‘s Northern Lights overshadowed by snow incident (but luckily no polar bears), Tom‘s war note, Magali‘s Taiwan politeness overshadowed the African port spy issue, Charles‘ impact of the Arab Spring, Jeff’s orangutans in the wild, and Jack‘s penguin rookery.

Our next meeting will be held in Austin on April 12 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. I’ll send out logistics and RSVP requests one month in advance of the meeting. Additional meetings in 2014 are scheduled for July 12 in Houston and Oct. 4 in Dallas.

—Kim-Kay Randt, Area Coordinator