Traveling with Teens

Mya is wearing the perfect shirt for the trip.

Thank you Theresa and Scott for our "heading out" photo!!  We have the best neighbors ever!

Here we go! Mom, you would
have totally freaked out - lol!

Whew!  Day one was a nail biter.  Headed out about 9:30 a.m. Both Jeff and I talked about how we were considerably more nervous on this trip since we are driving separate vehicles until we get to our spot at Table Rock Lake. My biggest concern was getting through downtown Dallas - I've never even been there before.  Jeff has to stop more frequently for fuel than I do so it's not like we were following each other.  The girls did a good job of keeping me awake.  Mya asks lots of questions and Jade played with the dang radio the whole seven hours we were on the road.  I now know the lyrics to about six songs that kept playing over and over again on the different stations as we made our way north through Texas.  My favorite song now is "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon.  I'm going to be the coolest middle school librarian in town because I'll know all the songs and who sings them.  (Today, Jade kindly told me to "Shut up and Drive" - such a smart one.)  There's one song none of us get, something about "my face being numb when I see you"???  We'll have to listen to that one again to figure it out.

Proof I really drove through this mess.
No, it's not photoshopped.  Notice the white knuckles.

Anyhoo . . . driving through Dallas was crazy! Such beautiful buildings; we were in awe.  But it seemed like every road was under construction and even though we were there around 3:30 p.m. I swear the entire world was on the roads.  There was a cloud burst.  The GPS came through though, we made it through the turns and loopydiloops and the sun came out!  I was worrying about Jeff, he was worrying about me but all was well.  My favorite area along the way was Waxahachie just south of Dallas - lush, green rolling hills.

The place we were headed for the night was in Melissa, TX and of course, the exit for the place was also under construction so we had these funky instructions about getting off here, doing a u-turn there (yeah, right in a 35 foot RV).  Thank goodness we google-earthed it before we left so that when we got to that spot I could visualize what I needed to do.  When I finally made it through all the construction and onto the service road that led to the RV park I just looked up and said "Thank you Jesus and GPS".  We are thinking of naming the GPS "Jesus" (the hispanic pronunciation!) It sounds sort of the same.  It has saved us time and time again - lol!  Jeff missed the turn the first time around but showed up about 10 minutes later thank goodness.

Today we crossed into Oklahoma around 9:35 a.m. and all was quite because the girls were still sleeping.  Kind of dull all on my own though.  Jade fixed that when she got up and got the tunes going.  Heard the same dang songs we heard all day yesterday.  There have been some good 60s and 70s stations that I love and know ALL the words to the songs (remember John Mellencamp's Hurts so Good" anyone?) Jade couldn't believe I knew all the words - she laughed at me!

Today was a fairly short day.  We are sitting in a dumpy KOA in Alma, Arkansas right on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border.  Hence the dumpiness of the place.  Sorry - I just haven't seen anything in my trips through Oklahoma to recommend it for much.  It's Jeff's birthday so we've got presents and cake for him tonight.  We only have to drive about 130 miles tomorrow to get to Table Rock so we'll arrive around noon and can get settled.  Looking forward to it!!  I think it's pool time - it's 96 degrees - whew!