Waxahachie, TX …and Wouldn’t it be Safer Inside, Folks?

Happy Monday, peoples! Grab that steaming hot cup. For those of you back at the rockpile today, be sure to have a work page running in the background so that you can flip quickly back to it when the boss walks by.

Yesterday was a travel day, which historically on the trip has been pretty uneventful for us. But yesterday started off with a bang! You may remember that the HB and I were jarred from slumber by the alert alarm sounding off on our phones. A thunderstorm warning. 80 mile an hour winds. Stay inside. Away from windows.

Wait. What?

How do we do that? We are in a rolling window.

We prepped. Storm came. There was a significant amount of water and some lightning. After about an hour it passed as predicted by our magic phones.

As we were packing up the RVs to move on, Samantha’s family showed up to surprise us. They brought us breakfast sandwiches and donuts! These people are just too much! They sent us off and told us to come back soon. They needn’t worry about that, the HB and I have decided to be adopted into their family.

As we left, we picked up a hitchhiker. Samantha’s sister jumped in their rig for the ride to Texas. Tink. I’m gonna call her that in honor of the Tinkerbell PJs she wore when she saw us off at the Kohl's parking lot 7 weeks ago.

Wow. SEVEN weeks. With the same people. Wow. Just wow.

And then of course, there was a second wave of thunderstorms to hit as we pulled out of the park. Driving in the south can be exciting, y’all. And not the fun type of excitement, either. Thank goodness we were able to drive through the storm and about an hour later we were in sunlight.

A road sign popped up letting us know that a Buc-ee’s was only an hour away.

“BUC-EE’S!” Samantha squealed over the radio.

Of course, the obligatory Buc-ee’s stop was made and our convoy created our own parking spots, blocking one lane of the road. Something I didn't notice last year, because it seemed we had always been able to find a place to park, Buc-ee’s is not really equipped for RV parking. Oh well, park as park can and run inside for pulled pork and brisket sammiches.

Running out of Buc-ee's, we found an extra RV parked behind us! I guess they had the same idea we had. Then, as it turns out, we’d met that same couple on our stop in Virginia! What a small world!

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Forty miles later, we were in our spot for the next four days. Now time to rest. Driving is hard work, folks.

So we’re kicking it, laid back, watching The Covenant, (two thumbs and a snap in a “Z” formation) when a Texas size thunderstorm hits! This thunderstorm made the Louisiana storm we'd witnessed that morning look meek in comparison, and it had all of the crew members cowering.

I put in a call to my former good friend Captain Carmen San Diego, former because I strongly believe he should be prosecuted for the attempted murder of your hero last night and Carmen San Diego because I never know where in the world he is. Anyway, Captain Carmen SD actually went to school in the hopes that he would one day step into the shoes of the famed Dr. George and Dallas Raines.

With all that schooling in his background, I figured he’d be the one to ask, “What do we do now?” I face-timed the captain and showed him live video of the thunder, lightning, hail and rain we were enduring.

“Oh. You’re good. Nothing to worry about,” the captain tells me.

We relaxed and all the crew members were hanging out, looking at the light show, laughing and giggling and sharing stories about what we’d just survived. That was up until it started all over again. Stronger (or worser) than the first! That’s where I believe the attempt on my life occurred. Of course, I was running, at a dead sprint, back to the safety of my RV. It was every man for himself, at this point. "Save yourselves!" I yelled over my shoulder.

You have to understand Captain Carmen. He thinks of himself as the Bill Paxton character in the movie Twister, and I guess he thinks everybody should be excited about storms as him.

NO, CAPTAIN CARMEN! After I had retreated to the relative safety of my motorhome, I sat back and imagined the captain with that goofy grin on his face and his eyes all sparkly like the first time he saw Mrs. Carmen San Diego back in middle school.

Don’t you worry, Captain. You’ll be hearing form my legal-beagle.

Drink ‘em if you got ‘em

One band, one sound.

#coffeehousechronicles