Back Home, Safe and Sound

Actually, we've been home almost a week.  Got home last Wednesday, July 29th. Only took two days (one night) to drive back. The whole trip was just over 3,900 miles. We actually wanted to see if we (I) could do it.  It's about 700 miles one way and the longest drive I've ever done is about 250 miles.  But trying to find an RV park that has space not only for our RV, but Jeff driving the car towing the boat, is not always easy. Since we plan to make this trip each summer we want to find a fast and efficient route with an overnight that will accommodate us.  We took a similar route home by I did NOT want to drive through downtown Dallas again in the RV.  Once in a lifetime is enough for me. We came down through western Arkansas, then headed west through Oklahoma, and turned south off of I-40 near Checotah, OK and then spent the night Colbert, OK just across the Red River from Denison, TX.  It was a 332 mile drive and very doable.

The massive Red River - just under flood stage

The place we stopped was fabulous: friendly folk, well-kept place, and they just let us park the car/boat in a vacant RV spot. It was right on the Red River which creates the border between OK and TX.  They've had a ton of rain there too apparently. The area that looks like it was a swimming area almost got washed out. One of the lamp posts was knocked over and the debris was hung up in the railings and bushes along the bank.  Huge River!  And definitely red.  I remember when we drove through Wichita Falls, TX where the same river flows and was amazed at how red the river looks.  

Cabin for rent - cheap!

It's all that red soil in OK. Sandy Creek feeds into the river right at the RV park and the recent flood has undermined the ground under one of the cabins. Definitely needs to be relocated. Jeff said we could probably rent it real cheap at the moment - lol!

Of course, the farther south we came the hotter it got but the humidity seemed to dissipate some. After we got parked, Mya decided she was going to take a shower and heads back to the back of the RV to get her towel and clothes, etc. but comes running back up front saying "There's something back there that is either a big ugly leaf or something!" She was a bit freaked out.  So brave soul that I am, I walked back there and she pointed to something up on top of the cabinet doors.  It was a FROG! A tiny Arkansas frog! A stowaway! He must have been on top of the slide as we pulled it in that morning.  Poor thing (the frog).  But I wasn't touching him.  Jeff had to come back and get him.  Jade, of course, wanted to play with him so we gave him to her but did she put him in the river like we thought she would?  No.  She tosses him out the RV door into the dry, dusty Oklahoma grass. (She said he jumped out of her hand - riiiight!)  I just hope he made it to the river eventually. 

That's Texas there on the other side of the river.

The second day's drive was 370 miles because we took the outer loop around Dallas rather than head straight through.  My gosh - this entire part of Texas is under construction!  Amazing!  Of course, it's needed because the roads are crap but it's miles and miles of construction.  Anyway . . . we didn't tell the girls we were going to be home on the 29th.  We had told them we would be home on the 30th and wanted to surprise them with an early arrival. I kept waiting for them to realize that they were going to be home a day early but talk about dense! Of course, they asked me where we were going to stay that night, what town, the name of the RV park and I just gave them really vague answers and told them Jeff had planned this segment of the trip so I really didn't know.  

Great Blue Heron looking out
over the Red River.

But they didn't really question that and I tried to change the subject quickly. But I figured by the time we got to Austin they might realize that we were really close to home. We even started seeing the I-10 road signs saying San Antonio (although many of those were just exit signs) but even when we saw the mileage signs they weren't paying attention. Jade finally says, "So what time will we get home tomorrow?" and I said, "Well, google it and figure it out" She gets out her phone and uses Google maps and says, "Well, it's says we'll be home in 43 minutes but there must be a glitch (her exact words!)". I started smiling and Mya looked at me and Mya said, "Is that true, only 43 minutes from home?" I just started laughing.  They were jumping up and down and screaming, Jade saying "thank you, lord". You'd think they'd just been released from a Siberian labor camp, not been on a fabulous 7-week family vacation. Geesh! They even called Jeff to tell him they'd figured it out.  So funny!

We told them they had to help us unload the RV before they did anything. You never saw two kids move as fast and efficiently as those two did. So sad really. Jeff and I, of course, were sad to have to leave "paradise". I miss Chip and Dale and their buddies(our chipmunk friends), Chuck, the woodchuck and his buddies, and the Great Blue Herons that are always flying somewhere around the lake. But life moves along and we are settled back in to our "other" home. Time to start thinking about school and work and all the hubbub that goes with it. We have such a beautiful home here, especially our backyard, our mini-paradise, with all the birds and bunnies and squirrels, etc. It's just a matter of making the time to sit down and enjoy it.

And really, the adventure does continue.  Just a different kind, if we remember to have the eyes to see it.