On July 8th, a year after the Thunderboxes had all found good homes, we were honored to receive this email from halfway around the world ...

"My good friend in Oakland, California, Emily Sparks, sent me an e-mail last year in June including pictures of your Thunderbox exposition.

I was out in the countryside, 30 kilometers east of Helsinki, Finland, where we have our summer house. With me there were my twin grand-children, Daniela & Erik, 9-years old and my best friend, Sari, who is an art teacher and who has lived almost all her life in Africa. When I opened my e-mail, I was amazed by your thunderboxes and called on everybody to come and have a close look.

My grand-children and my friend Sari immediately stated that our outhouse was down-right boring and that we had to do something about it. They started to re-design it a and we in fact went the next day for paints and brushes. We painted the outside of it last summer, now we have re-decorated the inside also.

So this is what I wanted to show you, thanking you for the good inspiration reaching us far up in northern Europe! For our whole family, this was a funny way to reconnect with Texas where we stayed a long time ago for a year and a half (1978-79) when my husband was invited to be a post-doc, doing medical research on renal physiology at the South-Western Medical School at UTD, Dallas."

Barbro
Helsinki, Finland

The Big One - The Museum Move

Finally, it's the last stop for Thunderbox Road before they all find good homes. We completed our set up at The Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, just in time for their annual Roundup Celebration.

The Thunderboxes were on display until the Auction on May 9th, where they were sold for anywhere from $ 400 - $ 2,400 each and helped us raise over $ 10,000 for our two charities.

The funds were awarded to The PKU Foundation and to the Museum of Western Art's Teachers' Workshops.

The Serengeti Resort - Outhouses and Ostriches

The Serengeti Resort is a new African-themed resort north of San Antonio featuring all of the exotic creatures of the African continent, or of the Serengeti region anyway.

The ostriches looked on as we unloaded and set up our exhibit. Because of the Serengeti's weekend events, we were able to help entertain their guests.

For more about the Serengeti Resort, you can click here for a virtual visit: http://serengetiresort.com

San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo Exhibit

After The Menger Hotel, Thunderbox Road traveled only a few miles to welcome guests in front of Freeman Colesium during the 2009 San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo in February.

Thousands ...no, hundreds of thousands ... no, a gazillion people saw the Thunderboxes at the rodeo that The PRCA has voted the Large Rodeo of the year for 5 years in a row. Congratulations San Antonio!

Since most of the Thunderboxes were accessible and folks were able to climb in, it seems as though most Rodeo 2009 photos will include the famous ... "and here we are coming of the outhouse" photo. Great - we love the fact our artists' works could make people laugh.

Images of The Menger Hotel

Top to Bottom:
The Historic Menger Hotel from Alamo Street
The Menger Bar
Ernesto Malacara, The Menger's Historian and Public Relations Director, our host for the January Exhibit and Artists' Reception.

Sonja Howle

The Menger Hotel

Thunderbox Road's Artists' Reception at The Historic Menger Hotel in downtown San Antonio was held Saturday, January 17th. We all enjoyed wine from Grape Creek Vineyard in the Courtyard during the reception, then, many of us went across the hallway to The Menger Bar. By that time it was Saturday night in San Antonio. There's no better excuse to walk by and take pictures of the Alamo, have dinner on the River Walk and enjoy music from an all girl Mariachi Band ...

Front Row, left to right, Sonja Howle, Tami Kegley, Betty Rhodes, Donna Malson; Back Row, left to right, Thom Evans, Gwendolyn Listerman, Ken Malson and Dotti Brundrett.

Sonja Howle

Thunderbox Road Interview on 106.1FM The River in Kerrville

On Thursday morning, January 8th, Thom Evans and I joined Cadillac Jack on 106.1 FM The River in Kerrville.

Cadillac (Roy Holley) had invited us to talk about Thunderbox Road and Thom's Angel of Mercy Thunderbox after reading the story about Thunderbox Road in Hill Country Happenings Magazine.

We had a good time, and another story might follow from Ernesto Malacara, Public Relations Director and Historian of The Menger Hotel, who'll be hosting our artists reception on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 from 3-5pm.

Sonja Howle

Pictured above, left to right: Deb Goia, Thom Evans, Sonja Howle and Cadillac Jack.