Texas Interlude (4) - Time to emerge

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly - from red-spined black caterpillar to spotted beauty. (Photos by author)

After almost four months of a welcome shelter at my mom's house in Corpus Christi, Texas, we're beginning to plan our re-entry to the road.

We hope to re-start our travels on July 7 (to miss the Fourth of July weekend traffic). Doug, Isabel, and I will head first to Arlington, Virginia for a couple of weeks of catching up on appointments (doctor, dentist, optometrist, salon, and veterinarian) and catching up with friends (socially distanced picnics!). We also hope to participate in our church's Youth Mission Week (daily local service, replacing the previously-scheduled trip to West Virginia) and to check in with Doug's and my respective offices (if they're open by then).

Our next stop will be New York City, to settle Isabel into a new apartment prior to the start of her third year of college, and then Boston, to see our older daughter Madeline.

Hopefully, our travels-for-travel's-sake will begin in mid-August, with a trip up to Maine. If you have any recommendations for what to see and do, let us know!

We have been very fortunate to have enjoyed our time here in Texas. I will miss the neighborhood birds: the cheery call of the Kiskadees, the soaring flight of the Laughing Gulls, the industriousness of the Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, the stalking forms of Great Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets on the canal, and the small flock of White Ibises and the family of ducks and ducklings pecking for insects in the yard. I'm glad to have seen Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars metamorphose into butterflies, and various lizards shed their skin.

My mom's poppyseed cake recipe, baked for the first time in years. (Photo by author)

There also have been game nights and TV show binge-watching and many, many neighborhood walks with the dog - my mom and I have really gotten to know her neighbors! I have indulged in cooking and baking more often, and have plotted how to translate that from my mom's big oven to the rig's little oven when we're back on the road.

Banana bread, baked with a foil divider, because some family members like nuts, some not so much... (Photo by author)

The electrical kit I bought for this project will be coming with us in the rig. (Photo by author)

I've enjoyed the home repairs (soon to be replaced by on-the-road RV maintenance) that we've completed in my mom's house: installing a flagpole bracket; fixing a leaky garden hose faucet; installing a new curtain rod (including reinstalling one of the support brackets a few weeks later after an unfortunate wall bolt failure); replacing light bulbs in hard-to-reach ceiling fixtures; adding touch-dimmers to two new wall sconce lamps, then installing the lamps; replacing broken dishwasher rack wheels; updating the TV/cable/VCR/DVD connections and remotes; adding the printer back into the home network; recycling glass and metal at the city processing center; moving a potted yucca to the front yard; and so on.

I hope that your time has been safe and healthy and with opportunities to explore new habits or hobbies. And I hope that we all may be able to follow our own roads more easily soon!