Two weeks after graduating from Vanguard University and one week into my first post-grad job in the “real world,” I decided it was high-time that I take a little vacation (sarcasm intended). After getting a last-minute go-ahead from my boss on Friday, May 22, I packed my bag, tossed it in the old class-C RV and hit the road with my family. The drive to Brownwood, Texas, is about 12 hours long, so we stopped midway in a little town called Dumas to stay the night at a free campground with electric hook-ups. Thrilled at the find and ready to sleep, we pulled into the partially flooded campground and nestled in for the night at about 11 p.m. I think we brought the rain from Colorado with us. It rained nearly everyday of the trip.
Shortly after pulling the couch into a bed and snuggling under my blanket, the harsh reality of this too-good-to-be-true campsite screeched past our windows: a train. After multiple blows of the train horn, we realized why this little campground was free. I suppose sometimes you really do get what you pay for, or don’t pay for. At least we walked away with a good story.
With close to four hours of sleep, my parents woke up and started on the road again. About 6 hours later, we made it to Brownwood. It had been two years or so since I had seen my family in Texas, including my two 92-year-old great-grandmothers, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join in this short trip. And, since I was tagging along, all the typical travel expenses were already taken care of by my family. We stayed with my grandma and, in generous southern fashion, we had more delicious food than we could have ever hoped.
Along with seeing family, we also made the drive to get some rustic home decor items from family and from an old barn to be used for my parent’s house renovation/build. At the barn, we gathered rusted buckets, pulled nails from wood, killed a rattlesnake and found other rustic items for them to use. I come from some money-saving roots as you can see. Taking the old and making it your own kind of new is something we love to do.
It was a great trip: lots of time with beloved family, delicious southern food and plenty of pictures taken. Also, I received some invaluable advice from one of my sweet great-grandmothers. And Piggy got to spend some time with my great-grandmother’s piggy bank. It was fun to see the difference in Piggy’s modern look verses the little old piggy bank’s. Until next time!
