Tuesday morning's unwanted wake-up call came at 4:47 am when a monster truck parked in front of our hotel window fired up and revved its engine. I'd had terrible dreams all night long, which wasn't too surprising considering my state of mind as I fell asleep. In some ways, the nightmares helped, because when I woke up and realized they weren't real, the real life stresses seemed pale in comparison.
Our opinions of our ghetto hotel weren't improved by the morning's breakfast. They had muffins, two kinds of cereal, old Red Delicious apples, waffles, and Tang. Thane kept commenting loudly, "This is not a good breakfast!" Finally I had to have a whispered chat with him, "You're right; this is not a good breakfast, but the owner is right over there and can hear everything you're saying, so please keep it down." On the up-side, it didn't take us long to eat.
We packed up and headed out to a different mechanic in town to get a second opinion on the car. This mechanic seemed much more competent. He looked things over and said, "It looks like the problem just happened once. I think you're safe to continue on. We will clear the code, and if it happens again, that's when you can find another mechanic. With that encouragement and the stressful yellow warning light gone, we started on our way through west Texas.
I'd heard horror stories of West Texas and had prepped the kids by telling them, "This will be one of the most boring legs of our trip." I expected it to be similar to the desolate desert landscape you'd find in Arizona and New Mexico. Imagine my surprise when, not long after crossing into Texas, we the scenery quickly became verdant and filled with wildflowers! Sure, we encountered occasional, minor dust-storms, but for the most parts, it was lovely!
We stopped briefly in Abilene to visit the Storybook Museum. We were disappointed to find that it was really just a big room with framed picture-book illustrations on the walls.
They had a small bookstore connected as well. Somewhere, there should be a real book museum. The possibilities for fun, interactive exhibits are endless!
Unfortunately, when we turned the car back on in Abilene, the check engine light came back on. Blast it all! We weren't too far from Stephenville, so we pressed on to our final destination, my cousin Heather's home. I grew up on a 40-acre ranch. On our ranch, my family had a home, my grandparents had a home, and my aunt and uncle had a home. So, we grew up with our cousins who, in some aspects, were more like siblings. They all moved to Texas about five years after I graduated high school, and since then we don't get to see them very often.
Heather and Greg have six kids and live on seven animal-filled acres. Hudson, who is just a little older than Thane, met our car as we pulled in. He and Thane quickly disappeared outside to be adventurous little boys.
Graham joined them for a while chasing butterflies and other insects, but was soon distracted by the horse and the donkey.
The chickens were another huge attraction. At one point, they accidentally let them all out, then set about herding them all back into the coop. They were so proud of themselves once they had them all wrangled.
Bryce drifted back and forth from inside to outside. When he was inside, he and Harper bonded on the piano.
Nellie made a good buddy in her second cousin Kinley. They played long and hard on the outside swing set, then continued with the inside toys. When it was bath time, they were thrilled to be able to play in there together as well.
Heather has two older girls, Bailey and Morgan, just around Aubree's age. When she found out that they played the ukulele, they became instant friends.
All of our kids together make for quite a crew!
After we got the kids to bed, Greg checked out my car. He cleaned off the spark plugs and checked a few other things, but wasn't able to figure out the cause of the trouble.
Heather and I stayed up ridiculously late talking and catching up. My brain kept trying to switch back into seeing her as the teenager she was when I left home so very many years ago, rather than the capable adult that she has become. The late night was especially hard for Heather because her household is up and going well before 6 am every morning.
My kids woke up after their kids went to school. A huge thunderstorm had moved in during the early morning hours. As we ate doughnuts and eggs for breakfast, a blinding flash of lightning hit nearby and the power went out. That slowed us down for a while, but the power company soon came out and got everything up and going again.
Heather watched my kids while Nellie and I took the car into a trusted mechanic. This place was able to figure out the problem - the car was out of oil. They fixed the immediate issue, but, considering I got the oil changed just 3 weeks ago, I will need to watch for other underlying issues (leaking oil or burning oil) as we continue on our trip. Regardless, hallelujah for the moment for having the van run well again!
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