Bastrop, Texas - July 5th

Cows in the Graveyard

So during our travels we started playing a game that Tom and Diane (from Fredonia) suggested to us.  If you see cows (we use any animals, trains or Buffalo Wild Wings) on your side of the car you get a point.  You keep adding your points along the way, but if you pass by a graveyard on your side of the car you loose all your points!  So we definitely saw the most farm animals during this leg of th trip-- the kids had a blast and Skylar was a good sport with her competitive little brother.  Each day we'd start a new game and would come up with prizes-- like candy at the next rest stop, who gets to pick the bed first at the hotel, etc.

Buescher State Park

Texas is HOT!!! Like humid, sticky, kids get cranky HOT!  BUT-- we camped anyway-- and it was great!  The kids met Jimmy's dad, Grandpa Jim, for the first time and we all had a lovely time catching up and learning all the interesting facts about areas-- including wild life, the fires that happened there a couple years ago, and local geography.  We went to the local American Legion our first night to watch the Women's World Cup Finals-- who would have thought that in south Texas you would have a bar full of people at the American Legion with Women's Soccer on and EVERYONE cheering their loudest, I was shocked, and it was amazing!  

The camping at night was warm and loud-- the cicadas were crazy-- but we loved it!  Grandpa Jim took us hiking where we saw lizards and cacti, we went for a walk on a train bridge that crosses "a" Colorado River (not THE Colorado River) and we got to go swimming in it too.  

It was such a wonderful and heartfelt reunion with Grandpa Jim and the kids definitely got into the spirit of being Texan <3

 Out of Texas

This was one of our longest distances without a scheduled stop or "thing to do".  The kids had been amazing so far-- seriously-- I'm not bullshitting-- they have had a couple mini-meltdowns-- like a classic one from Eliot where the only thing he wanted when we were in Texas was little Caesars cheese pizza!  But overall, they have been the best on the road.  They play together, nap, read, play legos, scrap book, watch movies, and of course play mind craft!

So we decided to treat them to their "favorite" pizza-- Pizza Hut-- blah.  We ended up getting off in the town where Texas Tech University is-- which was pretty cool.  Even cooler, were our outfits as we walked into Pizza Hut-- it was fairly cool that evening and the only "warm clothes" we had within reach were our awesome SUNY Fredonia shirts (oh and Eliot's Raccoon hat)-- needless to say we looked special ;)  

The Original Plan...

We will be visiting Jimmy's Dad in Bastrop, Texas and camping at Buescher State Park a couple days while we are there...hopefully the heat and weather will cooperate!

I think I'll buy a cowboy hat and boots while I'm here :)