We started the month of February still in New Mexico. The Carlsbad Caverns National Park came highly recommended, and we loved our tour there. This was my first time in underground caverns, with stalactites and stalagmites, and I could not believe how huge this space was. We walked to the bottom and took the elevator back up (except for Mark who used the climb back to the surface as his workout for the day!).
The next day we started our tour of Texas. As seems to happen at least once every month or two, we had to bring the van in for service, which dictates where we have to be and when. In this case, it meant we had to stick around the Fort Worth/ Dallas area.
Stopping at the Presidential Libraries had been recommended to us so we made our first one the George W. Bush Library in Dallas. Before our visit, the girls had never heard of “Dubya.” Not surprisingly, it tells the story of his presidency through rose colored glasses, and leaves out many details, but it did help me have a new understanding and appreciation for the way he viewed the world and his work in it.
One of our favorite parts of this trip is when we get to stop and see family and friends. We paid a visit to my Uncle Nick and his wife Amy and spent a lovely morning with them, their granddaughter, and two adorable pups. Mark also got to visit with his friend (and former camper) Tyler.
Another amazing stop was our serendipitous lesson in Neapolitan pizza — it’s history, how to make it, what it tastes like, etc. A simple lunch stop at Pizzeria Testa in Dallas turned into a full on educational experience!
When we got to Austin, we spent several days learning about President Lyndon B. Johnson — visiting his library, his childhood home, and his ranch (the Texas White House). I wrote this blog post with lots of thoughts about that experience.
T was very excited about being in Texas so she could see two friends we met last summer who joined us for the wine event in Oregon, but who live in Austin. We got together with them for some rock climbing and BBQ.
One of the hard parts of being on the road all the time, is not having room to spread out, have quiet space, and get stuff done. We found the amazingly beautiful Austin library a perfect place to do this. We found a private room with an epic view, and camped out for a few hours, catching up on work, life, and learning projects.
And we spent some time exploring Austin including walking downtown, Barton Springs area, and Blackswan Yoga!
We have heard amazing things about Texas Hill Country so we decided to spend the weekend out in the area exploring, and using our Harvest Host membership. Heading out to Fredericksburg, we unplanned stop at the “Science Mill” which is an amazing museum, which I highly recommend – make sure you go early and stay till they close… we only touched 40% of what there was to see and do there.
We were told we should enjoy some of the wineries in Texas Hill Country. Maybe we’re spoiled being from Oregon and drinking a lot of Oregon and Washington wines, but Texas wine was not our favorite. Although there were beautiful views and it seemed like everyone was having a good time and the wineries were thriving.
Hill Country beer, however, we found delicious. We stopped at Bandera Ale Project as a Harvest Host overnight stop, and we thoroughly enjoyed their beer and their outdoor play/drinking area.
We spent a few days in San Antonio at a big RV park, which isn’t our typical kind of stop, but the girls enjoyed the pool, and we enjoyed indoor space to do yoga, a pickle ball game and our workout on the walking path along the river.
We also spent a lovely evening in downtown San Antonio dining on the river walk and checking out the Alamo.
We made a point to visit the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park. In addition to being a historic park, it’s also a world heritage site. I was pleasantly surprised to see how the park service spoke about the missions, and how they impacted the native people in the region. It wasn’t a romanticized story about “saving savages” as the missions used to be presented… it was a balanced story that did not shy away from talking about the harm and devastation also brought to the native people of the region.
Just past mid-month, Mark flew the girls back to Portland so they could have some time with Dude and Babe. Mark stayed in Portland for a few days for meetings before flying back to me in Austin. I throughly enjoyed two days of alone time and the spaciousness of the RV solo. I went to three yoga classes, got some writing done, met up with a friend, and did a class on authentic relating with plants!
When Mark returned we had a week together to just have quiet time, meet up with friends, explored, and caught up on projects that require a lot of uninterrupted time. Unfortunately, P was really struggling with separation anxiety while she was away, which was highly unusual for her. She progressively felt better, but it required a lot of FaceTime calls each day, including being with her as she fell asleep each night. She said she really missed being with us in the van.
More RV repairs meant we stayed in Houston long than we would have liked, and didn’t allow us to get to New Orleans before the kids and Babe arrived, but we made some new friends and explored some new areas. We stopped in Beaumont for an amazing home cooked Indian dinner with friends of Mark’s through work and stayed up late into the night talking.
One of the things I’m learning, is that it doesn’t really matter where we are, as long as we’re together. We can be camping in a rest stop, a luxe RV resort, or in a friend’s driveway and I always feel like we’re at home because we have each other.