We’d planned to be off not too early on Tuesday but wanted to meet a friend in Dallas around noon. In typical southern fashion my aunt couldn’t let us leave hungry even though I’d told her we don’t eat breakfast! Fried eggs toast and jam, I’d already been bad so what the heck. I had the eggs, my most missed thing since going plant based and second hardest to quit right after cheese. Amanda has never liked breakfast nor eggs much so the dogs got her egg portion! I made my rounds finding all the dogs to pet goodbye, it took a minute but I finally found my favorite Boston terrier snoozing on the living room dog bed. We said our goodbyes then on the road stopping at the closest Starbucks for our mornings boost.
It was nice to get back to Texas speeds and good highways. Amanda was napping but I woke her about half way to Dallas with my rustling through the snacks, eating breakfast made me hungry! We met our friend in Dallas for another Starbucks, it was good to catch up. We’d planned not to eat lunch and get an early dinner but the breakfast had us both hungry so when coffee didn’t do it we grabbed some grilled portobello bowls at a Mexican restaurant close by.
Amanda needed labs on either Wednesday or Thursday mornings and had to be back Friday for an ENT follow up. We’d been contemplating just getting a hotel room in San Antonio and that’s what we decided was best while eating lunch. It would break the trip up nicely, with sit down lunch and dinner and potty breaks it’s usually a 10 plus hour drive home. The San Antonio overnight would shorten that by 2 hours and save us a trip back up. We know all the stops along this route well so no GPS needed. We stopped at a newer Starbucks next to a Bucees in Temple, yes our 3rd of the day but for lemonades not coffee! Amanda wanted a photo with her quintessential very berry hibiscus lemonade and McDonald’s fries, this combo kept her going the first weeks out of transplant. The lemonade had been discontinued but just brought back, she was excited.
It was smooth sailing from there especially once we got on the toll road around Austin, a godsend for trips this way, with 85mph speed limits. We rolled into San Antonio just in time for dinner, Amanda uncharacteristically knew just where she wanted to go. A burger place we frequent in Houston, they have sweet potato sage hot honey fries that are our fave. Shopping for a good rate where we could get points we stayed at hotel just north but still only about 15 minutes from the hospital. It was off to bed and up early for labs.
Amanda was holding on to some extra fluid, we hadn’t got our scale out but it was noticeable. Our indulgence on out of the norm salty fried food was starting to show, literally, I was a little puffy as well. The basket of hushpuppies we devoured the night prior was catching up with us! We got the labs and coffee then off to Costco to fuel up and load up on food for ourselves, the cupboards were empty at home. Costco has really saved us this trip with just gas averaging 20 to 25 cents cheaper than anywhere else, all in all it saved us the membership cost alone just in fuel savings. We loaded up with veggies and stuffed them in the already loaded car.
My turn was getting close to leaving town for work so I had to make the decision if I’d take another day off or go to work. I chose work so we promptly got back on the road. We’d made it almost all the way home without incident until Uvalde, about 40 miles from the house. The wind had been blowing hard all morning and blew some debris on the road, a pickup pulling a trailer ran it over and slung it against the car. It knocked the paint right off a spot close to the window and made a scratch down the side!
Planning on being home Tuesday night and not Wednesday afternoon I had a chiro appointment scheduled for that afternoon. We got home unloaded the car loaded the pups up, we couldn’t leave them behind, and went to Del Rio for my appointment. As we were leaving town I checked the mileage nearly 4100 miles on the road trip, only 1000 more than I’d projected! A stop by Starbucks for some teas and puppuccino for the kids. My train was approaching quick so as soon as we got home I packed my things then got a quick nap, the phone range just after dark. I’d come to regret the decision to go to work! I had an all night trip up and the same coming back, I still feel exhausted.
This short story of a conversation with my engineer whom I just got out with sums this trip up well. I’ve worked with him on and off for over 18 years now he is also from Brackettville, I’ve explained to him many times before how bad things were with Amanda and he’s kept up with us. I’ll leave you with this as a perfect end cap to our amazing journey over the past 12 days. This engineer was telling me how he’d been laying in bed showing his wife pictures off Facebook of our trip. He particularly liked the one with the heart we got took in Houston, he said it encompassed our heart journey well. Showing his wife the hiking photos she said I don’t know about all the outdoorsy stuff! He said, no you don’t understand, explaining how bad Amanda had been and how awesome it was that she could even do those things now. As I write that I get teary eyed thinking of how far we’ve come and oh how we’ve prayed for times like these over the past 15 years. If you’ve only minimally followed us you know how big of a deal this is. I’m so glad to have carried those of you who have followed us so closely over the years along on this journey. It was one for the books and I hope only the first of many more to come.