Second WindAdventure Club

A comic trilogy by Grant Mabry

The council
has voted.
They're going.

The Resident Council of Second Wind Ranch has spent three years voting on pudding. Then somebody asked whether that was all they were ever going to do.

Meet the books
The Great Kolache RunBlue Ribbon or BustLast Dance at the Gulf
A gavel that's really a meat tenderizerA treasury in a coffee canA bus called the Biscuit

The books · in reading order

Three adventures.
One very determined quorum.

The Great Kolache Run by Grant Mabry

Book One

The Great Kolache Run

Five seniors. One bus. Ninety miles for a pastry.

The Resident Council of Second Wind Ranch has spent three years voting on pudding. Then Winnie Pruitt, ninety-one, looks up from the window and asks the only question that matters: Is this all we do?

So Dottie Mae Culpepper, retired principal, bangs her gavel (a borrowed meat tenderizer) and moves that the council have an adventure. Reverend Tom, who has never finished a sermon on time, wants just one thing: an apricot kolache from the bakery in the town where he grew up.

The outing on the calendar says scenic drive and Dairy Queen, twelve miles. The council has other ideas, a quorum, and a bus they call the Biscuit.

A warm, laugh-out-loud Texas comedy about old friends, second winds, and the things worth driving ninety miles for.

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Blue Ribbon or Bust by Grant Mabry

Book Two

Blue Ribbon or Bust

One pie. One secret. One very slow parade.

Winnie Pruitt won the blue ribbon at the Dewberry County Fair eleven years running. That was a long time ago. She is ninety-one now, she lives in memory care, and she can remember exactly one ingredient in her buttermilk pie. It's the buttermilk.

That's good enough for the Resident Council of Second Wind Ranch. They're entering the pie contest, the chili cook-off, and the Grand Parade, all in one weekend, against the fancy place across town with the fountain, the harp, and nine straight ribbons on the sign.

The recipe comes back one ingredient at a time, and only when Winnie plays the piano. There are seven hundred hymns in the book. There are nineteen days until the fair.

A warm, laugh-out-loud Texas comedy about old rivals, last chances, and the things worth standing up for.

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Last Dance at the Gulf by Grant Mabry

Book Three

Last Dance at the Gulf

Two hundred fifty miles. One bus. One more first time.

Winnie Pruitt is ninety-one, and she wants to put her feet in the Gulf of Mexico again before she forgets what it is. All the Resident Council of Second Wind Ranch has to do is get her there.

They have fourteen days. After that, strangers from Ohio arrive with a clipboard to decide whether an old folks' home in Dewberry, Texas, really needs a bus.

They also have a new neighbor. Sal Moretti drove a city bus in New Jersey for forty-one years without a scratch. He takes one look at the Biscuit and announces that she will never make it. He's right. That's when the trip gets interesting.

The warm, laugh-out-loud finish to the Second Wind trilogy: a story about old friends, new ones, and what a person has to look forward to on a Tuesday.

Coming soon

Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon. Formats, prices, and availability are listed on each Amazon page.

The resident council

The people
running this outing.

  • Fictional character portrait of Dottie Mae Culpepper

    President

    Dottie Mae Culpepper, 84

    Retired principal. Runs the council with a meat tenderizer for a gavel.

  • Fictional character portrait of Earl “Hoss” Brannigan

    Vice president

    Earl “Hoss” Brannigan, 88

    Old roughneck. His scooter goes faster than it should.

  • Fictional character portrait of Rosa Delgado

    Treasurer

    Rosa Delgado, 79

    Former bank teller. The adventure fund lives in a coffee can.

  • Fictional character portrait of Winnie Pruitt

    Church organist

    Winnie Pruitt, 91

    Forgets Tuesday. Knows every back road in the county.

  • Fictional character portrait of Rev. Tom Oakley

    Chaplain

    Rev. Tom Oakley, 86

    “Two Sermons Tom.” Has never once finished on time.

  • Fictional character portrait of Kayla

    Activities director

    Kayla

    Drives the Biscuit. Accomplice, mostly by accident.

  • Fictional character portrait of Fenwick

    Executive director

    Mr. Fenwick

    Has a form for everything. Worries for a living.

  • Med aide

    Ruthie

    Knits through every emergency. Has seen it all twice.

Welcome to Dewberry, Texas

Hill Country.
Population 2,104.

Second Wind Ranch is assisted living and memory care on the edge of a small Hill Country town, with a carport, a fish tank in the Bluebonnet Room, and a fourteen-passenger bus that has been to the Dairy Queen more times than anyone can count.

Dewberry, Second Wind Ranch, and everyone who lives there are made up. The back roads, the kolaches, and the people who still have somewhere to be are as real as it gets.

The author

Grant Mabry

Grant Mabry writes comedies about serious things. He is the author of The Long Ordinary Good and The Second Wind Adventure Club, and coauthor, with Brook San Miguel, of The Hollis Wedding Wars. He lives in Central Texas.

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