Texas, Ted, and Operation Finally Home

We're back from our trip Texas with Operation Finally Home. We had a great time, got to see all kinds of cool things and meet some really cool people. Dan Wallrath the founder of Operation Finally Home, Dan Vargas and Cindy Schoening are amazing people doing an amazing job for our wounded troops, I'm really proud to be a part of the cause! Thank you so much for inviting us to Texas and giving us a first hand look at what you guys do.

Some details of the trip included a Houston Dynamo professional soccer game that honored our military and spotlighted Dan Wallrath and some of our wounded Veterans! Budwiser provided a great tailgate party and a $5000 check for Operation Finally Home!

The next day I went with Dan Vargas to attend a pre concert organizational meeting with folks who run the Pasadena Rodeo! These folks did a stellar job organizing everything from parking to mosquito eradication! Everything is bigger in Texas and mosquitoes are no exception. Also fire ants are a serious threat too as my wife found out while at a park at Clearlake.

After the meeting with the Pasadena Rodeo crew, it was on to a radio simulcast in Houston with Jim Dutton at Tile Outlet. Jim does a home improvement show on KTRH News Radio. I helped Cindy set up the Operation Finally Home table and Dan did an interview with Jim about Operation Finally Home. It never ceases to amazes me the generosity of people when it comes to our veterans. Texans are about the proudest and most patriotic people I've ever met. I even met a guy from Pittsburgh working there named Stan McCarthy, Steeler fans are everywhere!

The Concert with Ted Nugent was on Sunday. The folks at the Pasadena Rodeo had everything ready for the event that included things to do for the kids and adults. The VIP area had lots of food & drink as well as exhibits. Bands played throughout the day culminating with the main acts, the Charlie Lucas Band followed by the Motor City Madman Ted Nugent. Ted is as wacky as he ever was, acting more like a teenager than a 62 year old man, the guy can still rock and has tons of raw energy. We unfortunately missed the chance to meet and greet with Ted because we took a ride on a tracked military transport from the Texas Military Museum! Oh well, he's coming to Pittsburgh later this month, maybe then. His right wing politics aside, he did get 5,000 people to come out to the concert and that money raised will go directly into building homes for our wounded warriors!

Speaking of the homes for our wounded warriors, we visited with Donny Daughenbaugh, USMC, his wife Sarah and their 2 kids in their new home. Donny was wounded in Iraq and has a bullet lodged near the base of his skull. The homes being built by Operation Finally Home are beautiful and want for very little other than some personal touches that the Daughenbaugh's are already adding to make it their own. Donny and Sarah are wonderful people and I wish them many happy years in their new home. These homes are mortgage free and the state of Texas takes 30% off property taxes for veterans!   

Some of the places we visited in the Houston/Galveston area are worth noting... Galveston Island even though it is still rebuilding after the devastating visit by Hurricane Ike a few years ago is a wonderful place with many unique and beautiful buildings and monuments. If you go, take the Ducky tour, it's well worth it. George our driver was most informative. Seawolf Park is a interesting place with a great view of Galveston Bay with all it's activity. The main feature of Seawolf Park is the submarine USS Cavalla and the Destroyer Escort USS Stewart. Both vessels are WWII Veterans. On board the Calalla, we met a nice kid who was helping his dad paint in the coning tower. He gave us a nice tour of the sub and really surprised me when I told him about the sub we have in Pittsburgh. He got this sad look on his face and went on to tell me how much he loved the Steelers! When we left he yelled God bless the Steelers and God bless Pittsburgh! Texans are just amazing people! We visited the NASA Johnson Space Center, it was interesting, but I don't have much interest in that sort of thing. If you go, skip the one hour tram tour, especially if it's hot. The highlight of the tour for me had nothing to do with space. There is a herd of Texas Long Horns at NASA! Incredible beasts, they don't call them Long Horns for nothing. The Clearlake area where we stayed is really nice, lots of water, lots of boats and for our visit, we had nothing but blue skies! One place you have to visit down here is the Kemah Boardwalk, Kemah means "Wind in the Face" and it didn't disappoint. Kemah has lots of cool shops, restaurants and things to do including an amusement park with an old school roller coaster and an observation tower with outstanding views of Galveston Bay. The food at the Lighthouse Buffet was excellent! The last place we visted before heading out of town on Southwest was the San Jacinto Monument and the Battleship USS Texas, I wish I could have spent more time there, but home was calling. We had a great time in Texas, I want to thank Dan Wallrath, Dan Vargas, Cindy Schoening, the wounded Veterans and their families, the Houston Dynamo, Budwiser, the Pasadena Rodeo, all the voluteers, Charlie Lucas Band, Ted Nugent and the people of Texas for making our visit so much fun! God bless you'all!

Reporting live from the heart of the Aluminum City...
-YD