Friday morning it was finally time to pick up my baby (who
is 19 but she’ll always be my baby so let's not go there) and bring her home
to Austin. I took Brodie to the dorm so
he could have an adventure too and announced our arrival with a picture:
Mallory was all packed and ready to go even though it was
fairly early and again, I’m really impressed with how well she’s handling
school, grades, tests, friends, being away, and you know, adulting. Big regret – I didn’t get any other pictures
of us around the dorm. Damn.
The original plan was to leave Friday and spend two nights
on the road, arriving in Austin on Sunday afternoon. We quickly realized that if we all buckled
down and didn’t complain (#imtalkingtoyoubrodie) we could make it in two days, spending only
one night on the road and that appealed to everyone. If we did it in two days Mallory would have
one more day of spring break at home and we could get the rig back a day
earlier to give it a deep cleaning. And
I mean Deep. Cleaning. Learning as we go – aside from daily sweeping
and wiping down, the RV needs to be cleaned thoroughly every four to five days to
keep it from smelling like a travelling kennel.
So we’re stocking up on more cleaning supplies, a Swiffer wet jet,
laundry soap for when we find a laundromat and other essentials.
Friday on the road went by rather smoothly with dogs
settling into their respective riding spots and Mallory snoozing in the back
bedroom while we got miles under our belt.
We were going to stop at the KOA in Amarillo for the night so to pass
the time, we turned up the jams on Spotify and sang our way through tiny Texas
towns.
And now we’re all crystal clear on why I’m not avidly pursuing
my singing career…..
I noted that the closer we got to Amarillo the more
threatening the weather became. There
were some terrific lightening storms and we saw tons of hail scattered around
the roads.
What is it with us going to or from Colorado and hitting
hail storms? On our way up in August we
hit one in Dalhart, Texas that was so bad my windshield was smashed in the
upper right corner and Mallory, with noise cancelling headphones on, blissfully
slept through the entire mess.
By the time we were almost to Amarillo, the hail was the
size of TENNIS BALLS and the wind and thunder were seriously frightening. We pulled off the highway to hide under the
overpass and ha! Each one we tried was
already packed with motorists and there was no room for an RV to squeeze in. Our main concern was that hail would smash a
window and we’d be in big trouble but thank god that didn’t happen.
We made it to the KOA, which was closed for the night, and
they’d left us our slot number outside the office so we pulled in and
waited. Dave, understandably, was not
excited about going outside in an electrical storm to hook up the electricity
so he waited patiently in his rain gear till things died down.
Mallory was funny, pleasant and easy going during this
entire ordeal and honestly, I really couldn’t ask for a cooler kid. I told her she was being super chill about
this and she goes, “Actually it’s going much better than I thought it would!”
and we both cracked up.
I made some pasta on the propane stove since we didn’t have
electricity and Mallory got in the mosh pit with dogs to reassure them.
If you look closely at the picture of Mallory, you’ll see
Brodie. But can you spot Bellicia who is
hiding under a blanket with her nose tucked in the bed so she can pretend the
world doesn’t sound like it’s ending outside?
Maiya stayed close by too.
We finally got electricity and water up and running and
everyone went to sleep to prepare for our long day tomorrow. Dave and Mallory apparently slept like babies
but I was awakened every thirty minutes by obnoxiously loud horns from the
steady stream of trains that roll through Amarillo in the night like an angry
gang. Man was I ready to head home.
Saturday was a long day with Dave and me trading shifts
driving but the dogs were pretty well behaved so we just kept plowing our way
home. Brodie became exponentially better
behaved once we gave him a few squirts with the water bottle when he whined. Sorry but we’re on a mission here,
buddy. We stopped at Dairy Queen in
Aspermont, Texas and also stopped for gas and to walk dogs but other than that
– beeline home. And it was totally worth
it! We made it back to Austin by around
4:30 Saturday which is a full day earlier than we’d anticipated.
Now if you can believe this, once we arrived home and the
dogs saw they were on familiar turf, Bellicia ran right back into the rig and
got in her crate. It’s like she was
really feeling her Sasha Fierce and wouldn’t come out of the dressing room because
there were too many brown M&Ms in the bowl backstage. I ended up hauling her out of the RV while
she was still in her crate and even then she refused to budge.
I left the crate in the living room so she could have her
safety spot and it took several days for her to venture out for very long. We’ll see how eager she is to hop back in the
RV once it’s time to go again.
We’ve had a wonderful week with Mallory home, laughing,
eating too much, sharing stories and enjoying being together again. She’s been freezing in Boulder for months so
we went to Barton Springs to warm her toes and boy did we pick the right day to
do it.
Once she heads back to school (on a plane!) Saturday, Dave
and I will start the prep for our next venture.
We’re heading east this time and plan to hug the coast so we too can
have warm toes. That RV is not well
insulated and all of us are eager for some sand and sun.
As always, we’ll keep you posted on all the shenanigans!
