Texas

Hey y'all,

(because that's the only way to begin a post about Texas, right?)

After leaving Florida, we flew through southern Mississippi and Louisiana, to arrive at our first reservation in east Texas.  We spent the next six weeks traveling to four different places, pretty much making a line through the widest part of the state.

The first place we stayed at was Lake Conroe.  There wasn't much to do in the immediate area, and I didn't want to brave Houston by myself in the one-ton truck, so there isn't too much to report.  The campground was huge and the lake was beautiful.  We fed the ducks a few times and enjoyed having a Kroger grocery store for the first time in a long time.  My family laughed at me because shopping in a store with the same layout and brands as Fred Meyer made me homesick.

 Jeff and I started a new workout program that wrecked us and made us want to sleep a lot.  It's called 80-day Obsession.  It's been rad and we're still doing it, but especially at first, it ruins you for wanting to move for the rest of the day.  So that's part of the reason that we didn't do much in Conroe!

Hollering, "Mom, come over here!  It's so cool!"

Jordan has been teaching herself to crochet for a while, and she made several new things while we were in Conroe.  She started with some cute little turtles...

...moved on to bears and pigs...

...and then Jeff made a request:

How cool is that?  After she finished the blue-ringed octopus, she was burned out on crocheting for a bit.  Now she's back at it, making a sweet pair of baby otters for me.  She says that after she's done, she'll take a break from crochet and do some sewing machine projects that she's been wanting to try.  I can't believe she taught herself to make these things!

Also in Conroe, I realized that Jackson had outgrown his entire wardrobe during our time in Florida.  For the first time in his life, there were zero hand-me-downs to pull from a bin in storage.  With everything at high-water and indecent status, we spent several days doing what we've never done before:  buying him all new clothes.  Ouch.

I mean, we bargain shopped and used coupons and everything, but ouch.  He still needs underthings and socks and a swimsuit for summer, but I need a minute to recover from the shoes and pants and shirts and sweatshirts.  And I have this sneaking suspicion that he's gearing up to have another giant growth spurt, so it's like this situation where I'm watching him like he's Alice in Wonderland and he's just taken a growth potion and I'm trying to hold out until the last second to buy him more clothes.  Do you parents know what I'm talking about?

I guess the most memorable thing about that stop is our visit to Tony's Italian Delicatessen.  We were looking for a great bite of local food and Yelp led us to this place.  It has been #1 on Yelp's best food in America list, so of course we had to try it.  Even though I'm not a sandwich person, I have to say it is one of the very best things I have ever eaten.

The menu is set up so that each sandwich bares the name of a famous Italian person.  The meatball and a few others have normal names, but there's the James Gandolfini and the Al Pacino and about a dozen others.  While it's weird to order your food by saying, "Yeah, I'll have the Leonardo DiCaprio," it did add to the fun.  Of all the big, tough Italians listed on the board, Jeff ended up choosing the "Liza Minelli!"  Lol!

I already told this story on Facebook, but when the woman taking our order learned that this was our first visit, she said, "I'm so excited for you guys!"  Which I didn't understand--until I took the first bite of my sandwich!  This is the food you see on Food Network!  This is what they mean when they say they can't explain the complex flavors being held in such a simple dish!  Wowza, this was good.

A few people in our family want to move to Texas now, just so they can have these sandwiches on the regular.  We went back again the next week and were sad to say goodbye.  Jeff said this was the best thing he has ever tasted in his life.  How's that for a good review?  ;)

If there wasn't much to do at our first stop, the second stop was an isolation chamber!  It was a beautiful, peaceful, no-place-to-be kind of isolation, though, and we loved it!  We met a few other full-time traveling families there, and the kids spent most of their time playing with new friends.  It was a lot of fun.

The park was nearly full with snowbirds, but we were able to get a nice spot near the rec center and courts.  We went for long morning walks with the dogs and just took it easy.  Well, except for those grueling workouts.  Jeff remarked that he understood why so many people come to Texas in the winter.

The park was full of deer!  They don't mind humans too much, as long as you give them space.  

The deer startled me a few times at night, when I was walking the dogs before bed.  Being out in the country, the darkness is so dark, and you really can't see much beyond the flashlight beam.  So there were a few times that Lucy stopped and pointed, and when I lifted my flashlight to follow her gaze, I found myself 6 feet from a herd of deer!  They are so silent!  That made me jump.

One night, Lucy also found an armadillo!  We were way out in the fields, away from the RV's, and Lucy was running around free, when she came upon a rock-like lump.  She stopped and slowly careened her neck toward it, so Jeff and I told her to leave it.  Whatever "it" was.  She obeyed, but just then, the "rock" jumped up and started walking quickly toward us!  Jeff said, "It's an armadillo!", and I tried to determine whether I should stay put or flee, as it was headed right at me.  It's funny because in my mind, I Rolodex-ed through all the armadillo facts that I know (not many), trying to determine if this animal was at all dangerous.  It was a lot bigger than I thought they were!  We headed away from it and thankfully, it didn't follow me!  Haha.

Our last two-week stop in Texas was near San Antonio.  The campground was in a town called Lakehills, which is deep in Texas' beautiful hill country.  I think we had been settled for about two hours before Jeff started searching for property online!  We just love this area and enjoyed meeting quite a few other full-time families who were there at the same time.  One family hosted a fun potluck and I think eight FT families showed up.  The kids played with new friends and practiced their put-put golf and shuffleboard games during our stay in Lakehills.

The Medina Lake deer are very people-friendly.  We enjoyed laying out corn for them and watching as they ate.  The kids learned a lot about deer behavior, seeing how the bucks and I guess "senior" does kept the others in line.

Jordan is like me and doesn't like to see the pecking order in action.  She was indignant when one buck was intimidating the does and eating all the food, so she refused to give him any corn.  Haha.  She held up her hand each time he came near, and he got the message and backed away.  It was funny to see him walk away, all dejected.  Shouldn't be such a meanie if you want us to feed you, fella'!

One day, this white deer was in the group!

Our second week in Lakehills coincided with spring break for public schools.  The Verizon signal tanked, the deer disappeared, the park filled up with noisy partiers, and the lines got very long everywhere we went.  I don't mean to sound like a Grinch, but that was a bummer.  I guess we have gotten used to having the country mostly to ourselves.

The majority of our outings in San Antonio were to Six Flags Fiesta Texas.  We really enjoy having the annual passes!  We can pop into the park for 4 hours during the quiet part of the day, ride a handful of rides, then leave before the crowds show up.  We don't have to feel like we didn't get our money's worth because we know we'll be back in a day or two for more fun.  It's all the fun of amusement parks without any of the headache!  The lines got longer once spring break kicked in, but it was still fun.

This Six Flags was a lot nicer than the one in Georgia, and we even got Megan to ride a few rides with us.  Her favorite was the ferris wheel, of course.  She's not big into amusement parks, but came along for a few of the trips.  Only some of us really love riding the rides, so some people opt out and stay home if they aren't feeling it on a given day.  So Jax, Jordan and I went by ourselves and did the crazy rollercoasters and "spinny rides."

On Jeff's day off, we took a drive to Canyon Lake.  Jeff wanted to look at the area and check out a few houses for sale.  I didn't know anything about this place, but it was amazing!  It was 90 degrees that day, so we drove with the windows down and enjoyed the warm wind.

This walkway had beautiful views.  We were on the green side, winding through the countryside, and didn't even know that there was a lake just on the other side of this hill.  Jackson remarked that he wanted to roll down the hill, so on our way back to the campground, Jeff said, "Alright, let's go see what's up there."  It was cool to have the coastal feel on one side and country on the other.

People were out in their speedboats, sailboats, and kayaks, and there were a lot of swimmers along the shore.  It seemed like a nice community to live in.  We stopped for a burger at a little dive, which turned out to be good food.  It was a wonderful day.

All of us girls got summer haircuts while we were there.  I found a stylist who specializes in curly haircuts and we're all happy with our shorter, easier hair.  Here are the girls' before-and-after's.

I can't believe that we were at Medina Lake for two weeks and I only got my camera over to the Lake for pictures once!  And I didn't even really take pics of the lake.  Dumb.  It was pretty, though, and I enjoyed walking along it during my morning walks.

We were headed to New Mexico after that stop, but that's a very long jaunt!  We decided to do an overnight in Fort Stockton, to break up the drive.  Meg turned sixteen the morning that we left Texas.  I woke up early to make waffles and we did our traditional birthday breakfast.  I think the pile of whipped cream is getting bigger as the years go on!

After breakfast, we went out to watch the sunrise before our drive to New Mexico.  The sky was so big here!  It felt like we could see forever in every direction.

And that was our time in Texas!  This state is huge.  Just the last jaunt out of west Texas was 3 tanks of diesel!  I hope we get to return for another visit sometime.  There is still so much we didn't see!