Journey to TX

WOW!, glad that it's done!
Ok, there's more to the journey than that, but on the backside of the trip, it doesn't seem so bad.....good thing I wrote things down!
Winding down in Salem was bittersweet.  We were able to say goodbye to family, new friends at work and at the RV park, but with the anticipation of new adventures in TX.  A few days before our long journey, Jason says, "Are you gonna drive when there's a straight road?"....Me: "uh,.....no!!!!"  I'm barely getting over ducking my head going under overpasses!  Although I've accomplished that, now I've moved onto cringing when we make tight turns, fearing we will blow-out our back window from the COW hitting it!  Always fearing the worst keeps me on the edge of my seat....so no driving for me, at least not now!  Knowing that we had long days of driving, I felt bad, but I'd feel worse if I got into an accident or made our trip even longer with going really slow.
We wanted to be in TX in 4 days, driving a total of 2200 miles.  We had figured that we would drive 12 hours/day.  Jason, being THE driver, pushed us 14 hour days, driving 760 miles the first day!  We left Oregon under stormy clouds and wound up having beautiful blue skies with puffy white clouds all the way to Utah.  Because of not knowing where we would end up at the end of the day, we didn't make any reservations at RV parks, but decided to stay at Walmart parking lots.  This was a first for us, but it turned out well.
Here's my "journal" of the trip:
DAY 1 - Oregon to Perry, UT.  8:30am-10:45pm, 760 miles, went further than we thought we would.
-Elwood peed on our bedding! (We had put Elwood in our bedroom when we started out, 2 hours later at our rest stop, we let him out.  I guess he freaked out with the bumps and moving of the COW because all of our bedding was wet!--we were really upset about our new pillows!!!)
-Boys are sleeping, eating and reading books (Alex is re-reading 2 of his books...Andre is semi-reading his book-not making much progress, mostly sleeping---maybe a growth spurt??)
-cold night for sleeping (40*, and we took all the blankets because all our stuff is wet and stinky!)

DAY 2 - UT to Lamar, CO. 7am-9:45pm, 745 miles
-beautiful sunrise in UT, fall is turning trees golden yellow.  Seeing red, flat-top mountains.  Asked boys if they know what "flat-tops" are (haircuts, I mean)----they don't know, but Jason and I remember those!

They looked much "redder" in person

Flat-tops!

Sunrise on the highways!--Beautiful!!!

Golden hues....at 65 mph!

-Stopped at Little America Travel Center in Wyoming.  .50cent ice cream cones at 10am---yes, please!  Huge travel area, a mini-city.  Very interesting!
-Bobble head discussion (we have bobble-head of Alex's that is sitting on the dashboard.  It's making it interesting to look at something else besides the vastness of flat lands or the highway.  The discussion is about different bobble-heads that we need to get (besides the coconut from Hawaii), such as a road runner or a cow---which leads us to discussing that perhaps in the future we can have a different kind of COW (condo on WATER), living on board a boat----very distant future!)

Bobble head from Hawaii---gotta find a new one for the road!

-In Colorado we tried to take ourselves out of the path of flooding areas, but no such luck.  On one highway, we got half way through and found the road closed, so we had to back track.  It added about 45 minutes to an already long day.  Especially since the roads we were on were HORRIBLE.  We spent this time saying to ourselves, "get us off this road!".  (the seams in the road made it very loud and bumpy, especially since we had a 18,000 lb load behind us that seemed to pull us back while it went over the bumps.  Also, the highway was rutted out, not from the rain, but more from use and just patchwork not repaired).  (the highway that was closed was due to flooding over the low part of the road, we should have looked on-line at CO roads, but didn't---lesson learned!)
-here's the JAAR blog highway ratings: CA,OR, ID, UT, WY, NE--mostly 5 stars. CO, OK and parts of TX-- 1-3 stars (at least they were paved!).
-stayed at Walmart parking lot again.  Thank goodness for our great heater and shower in our COW.

DAY 3 - CO to Bullard, TX.  6am-8:45pm, 600 miles
-Gotta admire natures colors!  Beautiful sunrise sky through CO and OK plains.
-the drive has made it easier to acclimate to the time difference
-boys are starting to practice their "y'alls"
-decided that it's an actual town, if they have a Walmart! (just our observation)
-got a flat tire from BAD construction roads in TX....This made my heart beat faster, which made Jason drive faster!  He changed the tire in less than 15 minutes! (Of course this happened in the middle of rush hour traffic north of Dallas, TX.  Stopped at a red light a man pulled up next to us and said you had a blow-out on our trailer tire.  We didn't feel (or hear) anything!  It took us a little bit to find a place to pull into.  Using our hydraulic stabilizer jacks, Jason lifted the trailer and showed the boys how to change a tire-----a bit sweaty, due to the 100* heat!).  No damage though!
-Surprised Mamma in Bullard, TX. (Jason's grandmother).  (We were making such good time we decided to stop by to visit with Mamma---she had no idea we were coming.  The boys kept banging on her door, but she didn't open up until I called her and said the boys are waiting for her to open the door!  She WAS surprised.  The boys got to sleep on "real" beds and we all took a hot running shower, woohoo!)

sunset on the plains looking west

Nature's colors-sunset on the plains looking east

our morning shadow following us, we don't look too big!

DAY 4 - Bullard TX - Livingston TX, about 2.5 hours
 - in Jacksonville, TX---"Largest bowl of Salsa" billboard-----yum! (gotta check this out next time we are there---it's just south of Bullard, TX)
-in Livingston to get "Texafied" (got mud flaps on the truck (a TX requirement), had some sweet tea and BBQ.  Stayed at our Escapees RV park (where our mail is forwarded to/from).
-met a nice couple who used to live in Oceanside, CA, drive a white F450, and use Escapees in Livingston, TX (this was weird).  (We have met SO many people that used to live in San Diego area!)

DAY 5 - Livingston, TX-Austin, TX, 4.5 hours with a pit stop in Houston.
-decided to push on to Austin after having a long nights sleep.  We went to Houston to look at Smart cars.  (This is the only car that seems to fit in our toy-hauler area that is under our length and weight restrictions....and can be a great commuter car with great MPG).
-took 1 hour to drive across Austin (in traffic) to get to our RV park.  It's a huge park.  We found a local Mexican restaurant that is within walking distance....a new favorite probably. 

So after a LONG journey, it was nice to "open-up" our COW and put things away.  Nothing broke along the (bumpy) highways!  We did buy a Smart car the next day.  I've never been inside a Mercedes-Benz dealer, but they are NICE.  SMART stands for Swatch, Mercedes, art---now you know!
It's a zippy little car, very small looking from the outside, but actually roomy on the inside, especially if you don't look towards the back :) (because there isn't one!).

The boys are ready to drive it!

Yesterday we walked around downtown Austin...it was humid and hot!  The boys saw some UT Longhorn cheerleaders in their daisy dukes and cowboy boots.  All I heard was, "Oh, yeah!!!!"  The temp is 90's,with huge thunderclouds.  It did eventually pour, drenching rain!  We were all very cranky from the humidity.  When it did rain, it caused a "river" in our neighbors RV site.  Jason says it rained 2 inches yesterday!  The dog isn't too happy about the weather, or this trip in general.  He is being very difficult about coming back inside the trailer, maybe because of the thunder? (we left music on for him), or traveling has made him cranky too!  Either way, he wanted to stay outside while it was sprinkling on him. 
Tomorrow, I start work and the boys get back to the home-school routine.  As the weather cools off (hopefully soon!), we will get out to explore this area of Texas.  We are looking forward to reconnecting with our friends from Sparks, NV who live close by, and visiting with Jason's grandmother often (about 4 hours away). 

PS- things we learned:
-the new IOS version for iphone is not so great---new features I didn't know about got me frustrated with the map app.---ggrrrrrrr!
-the boys will read books if they don't have their electronics--:)
-we LOVE simple green---it took ALL the bug juice off the truck/trailer without having to scrub!
-Elwood cannot ride in the COW while driving.  There IS enough room in the cab of the truck for him, and he does well traveling. 
-Texas mud is very slippery with flip-flops.

Time and Patience

Sadly, our time here in Salem is fading, but we are all excited about our new adventures to be had in......Austin, TX!  I have accepted a 13 week assignment in Austin at a Women's Hospital, which begins on 9/30 and ends 12/28.  Believe it or not, the only RV park we could find was 30 minutes outside of town at Lake Travis.  Well, we might have been a little-bit picky by wanting a pool, grass and level sites, but we are going to be there for 3 months!  Our new home will be at the La Hacienda RV resort, and the pictures look beautiful.  If we find in a month that something closer to town is more appealing, we might try to move. 
I was getting nervous about finding another position and finding an RV resort for us.  It is hard to wait around until a position is posted for the time frame we need.  Usually travel nurses fly-by the seat of their pants and go off with a minutes notice to a new position. I realize that I don't like that part of travel nursing.  I want a plan put into action as soon as I think about it.  Oh well, thank goodness for a great recruiter who keeps telling me to "be patient". 
I am finding that having something on the horizon helps keep us moving forward and gives us something to talk about, instead of getting on each others nerves.  In our tight quarters we are finding things that we like (having less stuff), we hate (small bedroom), things we couldn't live without (toilets (separate), doors and tv's), and things we don't use, but had to bring (the wii fitness board!---really, who thought that making a 5th wheel shake MORE was a good thing???---oh yeah, me!).  Being in constant contact with our stuff and having it in our face all the time, it might be time to change it up a bit.
This next week will be filled with getting rid of excess weight (food), making sure our things are put away correctly, securing our things (wine!!!), charting our route and prepping for LONG days on the road.  Here's looking forward to safe travels!