Friday afternoon we collected and processed all our mail, and Deron was happy to discover he’d received a box of belated birthday cookies from the Chappy kids – how did they know Oreos are his favorite? For my early birthday gift, Deron bought the current season of Top Chef on Amazon Prime, so we’ve been having fun this week watching all the episodes and rooting for our favorite chefs.
After an uneventful Memorial Day weekend, we left Lake Livingston (hopefully for the last time this year), traveled around Austin, and arrived in the little town of Johnson City, in what’s officially known as The Hill Country.
One thing I really appreciate about Deron is that he’s always in the moment when we’re driving, and he sees everything. (He says it’s a holdover from his UPS training: “get the big picture.”) He’s always pointing out interesting flora and fauna that I would have missed, and if we’re headed to places we’ve already been, he loves to take new routes whenever he can, so we’re constantly seeing new things.
On this trip, we’re trying to hurry (as much as is prudent), so we’re mostly traveling every day and staying only one night in each location. But even though we didn’t have time to explore, as we drove, we enjoyed seeing all the vineyards, distilleries, orchards and farms that Texas’s hill country is known for.
Wednesday we continued out of hill country to Fort Stockton, then Thursday we drove through busy El Paso and crossed into New Mexico, where we took a break from daily travel to rest and enjoy the views in Las Cruces for two nights.
Interesting story – this is the second time we’ve stayed in this Las Cruces RV park. To get here we cross over the Rio Grande, which, as we all know, is a huge river that starts in Colorado, flows through New Mexico, then along the border of Texas and Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico. But every time we’ve crossed it here in New Mexico, we’ve been surprised to see it’s been bone dry (see pics). However, we discovered today that every year on June 1, a dam off the Elephant Butte Reservoir is released, and the river begins flowing again, until September. So we finally got to see water in the Rio Grande!
If all continues to go as planned, we’ll head out tomorrow morning for two more days/nights in Arizona, then arrive in San Diego on Monday. The San Diego mechanics have been in constant touch with us, to keep apprised of how things are going, so we’re feeling confident they really want to do right by us.
For those who’ve been praying – Deron is feeling much less burdened by all the mechanical issues we’ve faced. So thank you! We’re in this journey for the long haul, until we find the place we’re supposed to plant, and we’re committed to just enjoying whatever each day brings as we listen for the Lord’s leading.
Schutzonthemove 