Hanging out with my peeps

After I left the Dancing Tree Festival at the Heartwood community in Blue Ridge GA, I knew I wanted to spend time with my dear friends Susan and Fred so I intentionally headed their way.  I didn't realize that the 2 Rivers Campground where I stayed to re-charge was less than 5 miles from their new home in Calhoun, TN.

So, I had the opportunity to hang out with them for 2 days before heading to the Farm community in northwestern TN.

I met Susan and Fred 10 years ago when I delivered several Train the Trainer workshops in Jakarta and Bangkok for what was then Unocal.  Fred was one of the participants and I got to meet Susan one night when we had dinner.  Susan took me under her wing and showed me around Bangkok the next day.  She's one of those people with a bright, shining countenance and an adventurous spirit and I was immediately drawn to her and spending time together was a highlight of my first (and what I thought would be my only) trip to SE Asia.

Several years later, Fred and I were both hired to work at Chevron in the Drilling Learning and Development group.  I was delighted when he and Susan moved to the Heights and we got to be neighbors for a short period of time before they spent two expat years in Angola.  Since then, Fred has been working rotation spending half his time in Houston and the other half in the foothills of TN with Susan and Gunny (their German Shepard) in their brand spanking new custom home built especially for them.

I was lucky that Fred was home when I visited so I got to spend time with both of them exploring their property, enjoying their home, watching movies, shooting my new handgun, eating out, eating in, sleeping in, hiking (see photo below of Susan and I on the hike), meeting Susan's mom and step father and joining Susan and her mom for a class on Hinduism.

Thank you Fred and Susan.  You really know how to soothe my soul even in the hot heat of summer.

Hanging out in the Heights, TX-  Fall 2010

Hiking in Calhoun, TN Summer 2015