February 9th – February 17th

We truly had an incredible week. While the weather seems to continue to follow us across the country, it’s just made us all that more appreciative of sunshine! We saw Indy 500 cars at COTA, we went to see Austin’s Capitol building, we went boating and tubing on the Colorado River, hiked around the shoreline at Pace Bend Park and we even got a little taste of home by visiting the Austin Voodoo Donuts.

We took a break from living out the RV full -time and practically took over Diane’s home for the week. Diane is one of Clark’s fellow colleagues at Bristol and we are so thankful she opened her home to us. Diane’s home is located in the Texas hill country in the rural and beautiful community village of Briarcliff, located in Travis County, TX. There are easements for access right off private property to walking trails and spillways. We still slept in the camper, but cooked all our meals, ate, showered, did our school work and spent the majority of our chill time in Diane’s home. We even celebrated Clark’s 45th bday with a slice of carrot cake for breakfast! It was a lovely break and a very true reminder that living on the road takes time and planning, patience and an adventurous spirit! Thank you for your hospitality, Diane! HUGS!

On Tuesday we took the day off to hit the Indy 500 testing at the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin. It was kind of a bust with considerable rain and wind and it was really, really cold. We spoke to the Firestone Director of Engineering in one of the pits at the paddock and she said that it was really the outside temperature that has the greatest affect on the tires- it needed to warm up a bunch before they would feel good about practicing. We arrived around 10am and around 2pm some of the racers put on traction tires and did a few laps- about 12-15 minutes and a few laps before it started to downpour. The track was really amazing to see as were all of the places to view it.

The kiddos and I wanted to explore a little bit more, so we headed off to Pace Bend Park, which is adjacent to the Colorado River. We walked the shoreline for a little bit and then headed inland to check out some of the hiking trails. Clark did a nice 14 mile bike ride before he decided to launch himself off the bike and sprain his wrist. Not to worry, he was on the mend by the end of the day (nothing a few brews can’t fix).

Hygiene Break! We finally found a salon, Spruce Salon, that was Aveda so I booked myself and Ben an appointment. This is the only the 2nd hair salon that has even known EXACTLY what to do with my curls. I was in heaven. Unfortunately, they didn’t take kiddos under 11, so Izzy went to Ringless and Sass for her cut. LOL. We also got manicures and pedicures at a local nail salon. Awesome day!

Riggs loved his early morning walks with the deer. Speaking of deer, this is one of the most highly-concentrated areas for white-tailed deer in the country. Every time I got in the car or went for a walk, we encountered at least 10-15 deer- they are in the roads, along the roads, eating your flowers, in your driveway, in the backyard, driving the dogs crazy, you name it! Izzy had her first experience witness a hurt deer put down. We all saw the deer struggling and it’s buddy following it around that day. Finally that afternoon, we all decided to call the constable. When he arrived, he admitted he thought he may have been the one to have hit it with his car earlier the day prior; he tried to track it but couldn’t find it. He shot the deer once in the head with his pistol and after 10 minutes, shot it again since the deer still hadn’t died. Izzy was happy to see that the deer was no longer in pain and struggling, but it was the topic of discussion as she processed through what had happened.

On Saturday we headed off to the State Capitol Building in Austin. We spent about 3 hours there before having lunch at Stubbs, dessert at Voodoo and traveling a little further north to race some cars at K1 Speed. Ben and Clark loved it- each took top 5!

Sunday was beautiful and Diane’s friends, the Terrills, took us out on their pontoon boat on the Colorado River. It was partially cloudy and 79 degrees outside, but the water was still very, very chilly. The kiddos still wanted to go tubing after our boat tour and the Terrills were so kind with us. Both Ben and Izzy should have known better than to ask Terry to go faster after a few rounds; he happily obliged. The result was a fabulous kiddo yard sale. We wrapped up the day with a few jumps off the dock.