This is the fourth year in a row we find ourselves starting off our new year travels by saying goodbye to my family. It does not get any easier with the passing of time. And yet, my folks are eager to get back to their regular schedules and we’re chomping at the bit to hit the road and explore new places. As we leave, we’re usually chatting away about our upcoming plans for the year. Except this time, we didn’t have much of it planned.
Although we sleep in Scoopy while we are at the ranch, we spend many hours of our day at the house, where we also typically eat meals. I don’t think we prepared a single meal in Scoopy in the five weeks we were there. As such, she gets a little dusty and messy as we tend to just throw things down wherever there is room. Getting her ready to travel was a 2-day long process and we still had tons to do when we arrived at Lake Waco. We were so happy to be back in our home that we didn’t leave for three days.
“Death of an Armoire”. We had to purge some things from our storage container during our stay at the ranch.
Steven spent the day reorganizing the bays for our upcoming travels.
All ready to go the morning of our departure at the ranch.
One thing we really haven’t done much of as we head out is explore Texas. We are usually ready to get waaaay down the road. I lived here for years, heck, I was born here! I’ve seen a bunch of it already! But things change, right? So we decided to stick around for a bit longer and planned our first stop in Waco.
Our travel day was gorgeous! Blue skies, no wind, little traffic. We had booked a site right on the water at the COE park at Lake Waco and we were looking forward to just taking it easy. Then, about 30 minutes before we arrived, the park called. “We’re closed,” they said. Whaaaaaaaat? “Government shutdown.” Time for Plan B.
We didn’t have a Plan B, but deciding on what that would be was kind of automatic and in this case, quite practical. We left the ranch with an empty fridge and freezer so grocery shopping was already at the top of our To Do list. We headed to Walmart for a shop and stay.
After we got all our stuff, we settled in at the Walmart parking lot to enjoy our evening. The following morning we headed to the Airport Park COE, since the shutdown had come to an end. We were able to arrive and settle in way before the 3 p.m. check-in time since our site was obviously empty. We were overjoyed with our campsite right on the lake. We had beautiful views in nearly every direction.
Whaaaaaat?? We weren’t expecting to spend a night Wallydocking but at least we got some shopping done!
Our fantastic site in Airport Park COE. Despite the big slope, it was pretty level at the top.
Peaceful nights helped us recharge our batteries.
The only place we visited during our stay in Waco was the famed Magnolia Market at the Silos store.
We did finally emerge on the forth day long enough to extend our stay for two more days. Then we hunkered down again. We cleaned, got caught up on laundry, food prep, the news, administrative tasks and so on. Once that was done we spent time planning our 2018 travels, which we shared with you in our last post. Planning was a lot of fun since we ended up going in a completely different direction than we first anticipated. All-in-all, we’re pretty excited and after a good recharge in Waco, we’re ready to get going!
NEXT UP: More Texas travels!
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You trip to Waco looks similar to ours, not much to see except the COE Park and Magnolia Farms. We did enjoy both of those however!
Can't tell you how ready I am for you guys to get rolling and thrill all of us with your adventures . The header picture on this blog is out standing . I have had my hat & coat on and in the car for two weeks ready to go . I then remember , hey I don't have to leave my recliner to enjoy this trip. So safe travels and thanks for blogging . Vern in Boise
Haha, "Death of an Armoire." That is a perfect portrait of our changing priorities in life. So glad you guys are back on the road, organized and ready to roll! BTW we LOVE traveling in Texas, but you already knew that. Waco is still on our list.
We really enjoyed the park. Magnolia? Meh. Which surprised me, because I thought I'd be all over that, but I didn't find a thing to buy. 🙂 I guess that's a good thing.
LOL, Vern, you crack me up! Thanks for your wonderful comment, so glad you are sticking with us and coming along for the ride!
Waco surprised me, it sure has changed since I was last there! The COE park was awesome! The armoire was a beautiful piece, but it was for a big chunky television, so wasn't configured on the inside to be of any use. I'd had it nearly 30 years, so bu-bye, onto the burn pile it went!
Texas has some real treasures. Down time is not a bad plan.
Beautiful new header!! Waco turned out to be our favorite stop in Texas. Your dead armoire is such a great visual of downsizing and moving on. Would have loved a pic of it burning :-)))
Agree! It's nice to revisit some places from my younger years. Things sure have changed!
I'm guessing that armoire will still be on the burn pile when we return. You gotta make it worth your while to light it up! 🙂