Continuing on with the real life of full-time RVing as a family. One realization this week is, although my children are really great together and get along very well, their close quarters and togetherness 24/7 has caught up. We have had beautiful weather and have been outside a lot but all of the time side by side in all things has led to a bit more of the petty arguments. Shaun and I have decided to take more one on one time with the girls to A. separate them a bit and B. get some one-on-one quality time with them. Lesson learned!

The second realization of this life we’ve enveloped is that I hate “packing up” when it’s time to relocate. Actual hate! Now that we have learned to stay in one place for more than a few days, it’s a bit better. However, it still sucks packing the counter items into safe places, putting the bars in the refrigerator so food doesn’t go flying, emptying the “tanks” from the bathrooms, undoing the fresh water hoses and cable lines, cleaning the floors where the slides go in, putting the bikes up on the racks, securing the chairs, taking down the tent and lights, removing the tables in the living room, and all around making sure every…single…thing is stored and stowed away safely.

One of the biggest, and unexpected, highlights of the trip so far happened on Friday. Shaun was working from the RV, it was raining, and it gets teeny tiny feeling on days like that. So, the girls and I jumped in the truck, drove about an hour, and landed ourselves on a real Southern plantation. I decided to pick the Laura Plantation because they still had slaves quarters as part of their tour. I was also told that they informed and educated about slavery but wouldn’t scare the crud out of the girls. Just for informational purposes, Laura, who the plantation was named after, wrote her memoir around the age of 70 called Memories of the Old Plantation Home: A Creole Family Album by Laura Locoul Gore.

While driving not far from the plantation I was really hoping that this mamma and her two little girls didn’t break down in this section of Louisiana. During the tour we were informed that there were projects built outside of the plantation for the emancipated, uneducated, non-English speaking families to go to. Therefor, a generation or two of these families still live there since they had to move off the grounds in 1977 and the area was still not flourishing economically.

On a lighter note, we parked and the grounds were just breathtaking. To our delight we arrived just as a tour was about to start so there wasn’t too much waiting around in the gift shop for these love-to-shop ladies. We met our amazing tour guide, Camille, and off we went. Camille was so informative, quippy, energetic, historical, and passionate about the history. As soon as she started talking, we were all enveloped in the history and lifestyles of those that lived there. After, we hit the gift shop and bought a book so we could better remember what we learned, learn some more, and relive the tour. The girls couldn’t wait to tell Shaun everything we learned and saw.

Our trip from Baton Rouge, LA to the Houston, TX area on Sunday was an anticipated 4 hours 45 minutes, without stops. I downloaded an app called Roadtrippers so we could find cool things along the way. With the apps assistance we made a stop at the World’s Largest (former) Fire Hydrant! In Beaumont, TX right off the highway we saw what is now the second largest fire hydrant in the world.   

About three hours into our house move and we drove right into heavy rains. Now, in New Jersey we get some heavy rains but this was completely different because everything is so flat and therefor was scarier. As I started following the weather and subscribing to the local alerts, my phone started blowing up. Stream flooding, heavy rains, and thunderstorm alerts started flashing red. My heart started beating hard. Shaun drove slow and steady and eventually we arrived to a beautiful and mostly dry campground. To our great surprise, and this doesn’t happen often but when it does it’s a treat, we got to pick our campsite. We found a fairly dry, close to the showers, and quiet spot. It was now dark, pouring, and muddy. We were tired, excited to watch the Celebrity Big Brother finale, and hungry but we still had to do the obligatory set up process. After about an hour we sat down to our show, ate dinner, and were ready for a rest.

As we drove through the Houston area we were surprised by how many people had RVs in their driveways, almost every house. Then it dawned on Shaun and I that these weren’t RVs to vacation in but this is where the disastrous floods happened and most of these people were living in these RVs because they couldn’t live in their sticks and bricks. It was really heart wrenching to see such devastation and for a long distance of our drive. We all said a prayer that these people get their lives, homes, and normalcy back soon.

Monday we recouped from Sunday’s moving fun and Tuesday we had a normal day of Shaun working and us schooling and exploring. Then Tuesday night we went to the first day of the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the rodeo itself because the tickets were combined rodeo and concert tickets and that night Garth Brooks was performing. Not being a country music fan, there was no way I was paying concert prices to see a rodeo and there’s another one to see on our next stop anyway. We did see a lot of livestock and a huuuuuuuge bull! We checked out some cowboy gear, watched a cow/livestock award ceremony, collected cards to learn about the different stations/animals, went to the petting zoo where the animals roamed freely around us, rode some rides, and more. It was a lot to take in and a lot of fun!

Shaun is traveling and will be home today. It makes me uncomfortable when he travels and we aren’t home, actually when we are home too. However, we have the nicest neighbors here which made me feel a lot better. We are excited for him to come home today and looking forward to exploring the Houston are some more! Yeehaw!