The Texas Trials
After our delays in Mississippi, we were so ready to be exploring, in the parks, and out in nature. We had laid out a few National Parks in Texas that we have driven past before but never spent any real time in. Our plan was to drive straight from New Orleans to our campsite right outside of San Antonio, then continue west to Big Bend NP, Carlsbad Caverns NP, and Guadalupe Mountains NP.
We knew going into this trip that it would be fun, but really hard. We had new gear, we had never taken a trip this long before, and it’s just the two of us. All of those are incredible blessings- that we were gifted a large majority of our gear and the Lord provided unique ways of attaining the excess remaining, that we have the flexibility in life to pursue our dreams, and that we found a spouse that enjoys the same activities and core desires so much so that this would be not just tolerable, but incredibly enjoyable for both of us together. We really, really prayed about whether or not this trip would be a waste of our time, stability, and money prior to going or if God was truly nudging us to pursuing the desires of our hearts because He had a bigger plan in mind. But we would be blind to spiritual inclinations if we didn’t acknowledge the fact that if we truly believed that this is what He was leading us to do, there will inevitably be obstacles to overcome.
We thought we had everything good to go when we left Mississippi. But the Texas heat very quickly let us know that it would be in control of all the electronics and battery systems Connor had just installed to keep our Dometic cooler working properly. As soon as we entered the state, the temperature began rising quickly from the humid 92 degrees that Louisiana was holding, to 104 in the shade. Connor had set up a monitoring system within the truck that would allow us to view the battery life and charge cycle, as well as a temperature reading on the cooler. After a couple of hours of the Dometic’s temperature rapidly rising, we knew we were about to waste all of our groceries (and potentially ruin our cooler) if we spent the next few days in the Texas heat exploring the parks that we had planned.
So, we rerouted.
Instead of heading south to San Antonio, we decided to get to Colorado as quickly as possible in an effort to ditch the heat and get to higher elevation with cooler temps. By the time we were approaching Dallas, we were absolutely exhausted from the long drive, irritated at having to alter our plans, and not speaking to each other because of the high tensions. Writing this post a month later, it seems stupid that we were so mad at each other over having to change our plans when, at this point, that’s almost a daily occurrence that we agree on and don’t think twice about. But we did not handle that day well. We pulled into the cheapest hotel that we could find with mid reviews around 12:15 that evening, had a snack, and went right to bed.
The next morning, we woke up and still weren’t talking to each other. That quickly changed when we walked down to our truck at 7:30 and realized it had been broken into.
The back passenger window was shattered. The back window pane of our Softopper had been cut out. Our battery pack was stolen. A third of my clothes were missing. Our new groceries had been rifled through, a few tossed out over the fence we had parked against. This was our home and it was incredibly violating to know that someone had decided they would give themselves permission to damage it, take what the wanted, and leave us with the mess.
Our anger towards one another immediately dissipated. As we collected ourselves, called our families to fill them in, and made the police aware of the situation, we sat together and apologized, acknowledging that we have to act like a team if we are going to manage to sustain a healthy marriage, enjoyable trip, and honor Christ within our relationship. As we waited for the police to arrive, we prayed together, shared breakfast from Waffle House next door, and researched the best options for getting our windows replaced.
By the time we had arrived at our camp spot that overlooked a canyon outside of Amarillo, we had plenty to be thanking the Lord for. We were grateful that out of the thousands of dollars worth of gear that we had in and on that truck, only about $600 worth was stolen. We were grateful that we found a mom and pop shop that had our window in stock and were able to replace it that same afternoon for $125 when insurance was telling us the replacement would be $450 and it would take two weeks to get the window in stock. We were grateful that the temperatures had cooled, as well as our tempers- that we were able to calmly and sincerely apologize to one another and talk about ways to avoid conflicts of that nature as we continue to move on in our lives together. We were grateful that we were rewarded with a Buc-ee’s stop and a Texas-sized sunset to end the day on a beautiful note.
We woke up the next morning in a much better headspace after watching the sun rise over the canyon. Connor made coffee, I made the bed, and we both made the decision to explore Angel Fire for a small taste of New Mexico prior to heading on to Colorado. But that’s a story for the next post.
Onward and Upwards,
Alicia
