Spring Forward with the Ratliffs 2021

Spring Forward with the Ratliffs 2021

 

Friends and Family,

Looks like we made it through a crazy year and are coming out on the other side.

While the Pandemic gutted our planned trips to Jordan and the Holy Land a year ago March, starting in May 2020 we began venturing out at least monthly, mostly to Daytona where we have a condo, but a few other places as well.

As this year’s video shows, one fun thing Alan got to do was drive a NASCAR car at Daytona.  He hit a top of speed of 153 miles an hour coming off the second turn on lap 5.  They throttle the car a bit limiting your RPMs but it still goes plenty fast.

In terms of travel we also made it up to Northern California before the second big round of fires, we mountain hopped during the summer to avoid the heat in Houston staying for about 10 days each in Jackson Hole, Park City and Beaver Creek, cashing in a lot of hotel and other travel points.  Then, between Christmas and New Years we went to Sedona and the Grand Canyon (our first visit).  The views were not that great as we had a big snow, but the Elk were out and very social!

We also saw family over the holidays and on a few other short visits.  You’ll see Tricia’s mom Carolyn, sister Amy and niece Vivian, and also her dad Larry and brother-in-law Dan in the holiday photos.  Alan visited his mom Elaine as soon as she was released from skilled nursing after Spring 2020 surgeries, and we visited high school friends in a small group when Alan’s class reunion was postponed until 2021 (photos of Alan’s childhood friend Kelley, her daughter Megan and granddaughter Addie).  Also, you’ll see some photos of Alan’s nephew Jack and Alan’s brother David and sister-in-law Amy.

But the biggest almost-back-to-normal activity of our year and in the more-than-we-could-have-hoped for category, was Baylor’s men’s basketball winning the college national championship.  Alan got to go to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4 and Championship all held in Indianapolis in March 2021, including a game in the famous Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus featured in the movie Hoosiers.  While Tricia visited her folks for Easter, Alan’s brother’s family joined him in Indianapolis (his brother is also a Baylor grad) for the last two games.

On the work front, Alan’s firm and Tricia’s school both continue to operate at normal levels, but mostly remotely.  Alan had Zoom depositions and only one in-person jury trial where he testified as an expert, and both of us had too many Zoom meetings, while kids at Tricia’s school (where Alan is finishing up as the board chair) attended classes remotely.  We expect to return in person at work and school by September.

We hope you all have remained healthy this last year and that you didn’t lose anyone close to you.  We know that may not be true for everyone, but we lift you all up in our prayers.  We hope you are able and willing to get vaccinated, but even if you have some concerns about that, we hope you will continue to practice safety by staying away from large, un-distanced group gatherings of others who are not vaccinated or recently tested, and practicing some combination of social distancing, masking and the like.  We know the issue has been politicized, but our only hope is that you will be healthy and that we can all resume having time together with friends and family.

We miss you….keep in touch….let us know if we can see you in Texas, Florida or somewhere else we may both be traveling.    aratliff@stoneturn.com and 832.435.3535, tricia.ratliff@comcast.net and 713.705.7422.

Alan & Tricia

 

Spring Forward with the Ratliffs 2022
Ratliff_2022.mp4

Spring Forward 2021 with the Ratliffs!

 

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1 comment

  1. Hi, Alan and Trish. It’s always good to hear from you!

    Chuck and I had our second Moderna vaccine shot on Feb. 5th in Georgia. We sold our beautiful lake home and bought a condo in an over-55 community in Charlotte, North Carolina. This move is not one I wanted (Chuck said he could no longer take care of a lake house), but the neighbors are nice and there are lots of shops and restaurants within a 20-minute drive. On the lake, we had to drive 40-45 minutes to find shopping and more than 3 restaurants. Our new address is 4933 Polo Gate Blvd., Charlotte, NC. 28216. We no longer have a usable land line, but have the same cell phone numbers that we had in Waco. Chuck’s cell phone is 254-722-0401; mine is 254-717-0136.

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