Mallory's Big Adventure

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!