After a few weeks at home, we made use of Karissa’s appointment in St. Louis with Super Doc to get back to the RV and resume our road trip.
Being home was so great – in terms of seeing family & friends and the happiness/development of our kids – that we seriously debated ending the trip. Another option was for me and Emerson to have a boys’ trip to get the RV, enjoy a bit of Texas, and then come home. What got us all on the road again was the realization that this is probably our only window of time for a very long time to have this kind of extended road trip adventure. Adelaide starts pre-school in the fall and kindergarten in a few short years. So we semi-reluctantly decided to resume the trip. After all, we can always head home if we really want to at any point.
Our route still really isn’t set. After being cold at home, we’re ready for some warm weather again. Going back to Florida, while enticing, would be a cop out. So we’re headed west to New Mexico and Arizona. Where, when, and what comes after that is still up in the air. Avoiding freezing overnight temps and not repeating any places are the two major constraints. I think we’ll get back into the swing of life on the road pretty quickly.
After the visit with Super Doc, we drove another 6+ hours. That got us to Vinita, Oklahoma, and just 6 short hours from Waco, Texas, where we left the RV in storage. We spent a rough night in a cheap motel and got back on the road.
Seeing the RV, we were all excited. We pulled it from storage onto our site a few hundred yards away and quickly headed off to enjoy the pool on an 87 degree Texas day. We decided to spend 2 nights there to recover from the long drive, re-pack all of the laundry we brought home, and get ready for more travels.
We explored nearby West, Texas, on a cold 37-degree day. It’s a small town just north of Waco that has a Czech heritage. Folks there say they’re from “West comma Texas” so it’s not confused with Western Texas. That’s my kind of humor!
Tomorrow, we head westward. Our current plan is to spend the night in Abilene, Texas. Mostly because of the Buddy Jewell song, “Abilene On Her Mind”, and it being at the limit of our kids’ range of 3-4 hours in the car.