On the Road with Maya: Moving On... Again

On one of our trips across Texas, we took Silver to leave in Odessa

so we wouldn't have to drive a U-Haul, two cars and a RV at the same time.

East Texas is so green!

And it rains in East Texas too! Gonna miss that.

From my perspective, April of 2018 was the fastest month on record. I think it was just one long, never-ending day. But now that it is May and I am surrounded by mountains of boxes in our new house in Alpine, I have a little time to reflect on the past month of our lives.

Camping in Abilene State Park on our way out to Odessa.

You can't tell but the cars and RV were loaded full.

Let’s see. Besides endless days of packing, we made four trips across the state of Texas in April in multiple vehicles. If I didn’t know it before, gosh, this is a big state! The best thing about all those trips was seeing the wildflowers from east to west and from early spring to later spring. Red clover dominated the early part of April in the east, followed by bluebonnets, paintbrush and primrose all over the state. Then later in the month the yellows and reds of the composites such as daisies and fire wheels dominated the landscape, becoming especially abundant in the western part of the state. It made the long drives a lot more fun and certainly more colorful.

Packing is so much fun. Can you tell how much fun I am having?

Fire wheel -- a beautiful composite flower of late April.

We ate out a bit more than usual our last few days in Nacogdoches. (Oops, did we already pack the pots and flatware?) But that gave us the opportunity to enjoy some of our favorite restaurants before we left. Smaller towns often have restaurants with great atmosphere and some good food too. CC’s Smokehouse, Butcher Boys and Dolli’s Diner ranked high on our list of places to enjoy a good meal. You can tell from the names why we have gained a little weight here in Nacogdoches.

Chicken fried chicken and chicken fried steak with fries and gravy -

Butcher Boy's specialty.

Dolli's Diner, best breakfast in Nacogdoches.

David's a little wiped out though. Hurry up with the eggs and pancakes.

There is always someone interesting in Dolli's.

Before we knew it, moving day came. The U-Haul was loaded, and we said goodbye to our little house and all the green of East Texas. One last trip across the state. From Nacogdoches to College Station the landscape was still lush but as we continued to San Marcos the trees got shorter and the thickets gave way to smaller pockets of green. After a night in San Marcos with friends, we continued westward and as we followed I-10 towards Ft. Stockton things got browner and browner. The west part of Texas has not had much rain so far this spring and it shows. Still, there were many wildflowers blooming and some yucca and cactus too.

Goodbye little condo.

Head'em up, move'em out!

Finally, late in the afternoon we arrived in Alpine and pulled the U-Haul up to our new little house. We were exhausted! But we unloaded our bed, so we could get a good night’s sleep in our new place before the movers came to help us unload the next morning. What a not-so-fun surprise to find that one side of our Select Comfort mattress had a flat. It wouldn’t hold air. Bummer, David had to sleep on the floor. Well, I wasn’t going to. Oh, but luckily, we had a plan B and our aerobed was with us, so David didn’t really have to sleep on the floor after all. Good thing too, all the floors are concrete in this little house.

Arriving in Alpine

Now our bed is all fixed and we are unpacking and settling in. We made a quick trip to Odessa last weekend to check on my parents and will go again this weekend for Mother’s Day. It is nice to be able to go often to see them.

Mom and TJ

We are going about the business of unpacking, settling in and trying to find stuff that we may have lost forever. Why is it that no matter how careful you are, you always loose something when you move? If only I could GPS our lost GPS.