The Trip Begins

Our first day of travel was finally here.  I was so happy.  We pulled out about 7am, even though our intention had been to leave much earlier.    Our goal was to make it only so far.  We had a hotel room for Springfield.  Meaning we would be in Missouri but not all the way to St. Louis before resting.

We think we were pretty cool with our new trailer.  Yep we are in style now. 

When you hit the larger than life (and most buildings) statue of Sam Houston you know you are well on your way.  If you make it that far from home then you are officially on vacation.  We will see him on the return and know that reality is almost back.  We said goodbye to Sam and goodbye to Houston for a few short days.

I am often asked what it is like inside the van when we travel.  I find this question funny.  No matter what it is messy.  The kids all entertain themselves and each other.  There are lots of interesting conversations and several arguments over silly things, (most are me being made at dad for something silly). 

This was a great travel day with one HUGE issue.  Goober's brand new and very expensive computer was left on her seat when she ran into the store.  Jumba crawled over the seat and broke the screen on this brand new gem.  We are all sick over it. 

I was delighted when I saw this shot.  We stopped at the welcome center only to be very surprised at the temperatures.  All day the heat was still on even though we were far from Houston.  A cold front hit at the same time we hit Missouri.  It was chilly now - YEAH!!!!!!!

The further north we got the prettier the trees became.  To my delight there was a gorgeous tree outside our hotel.  More pictures in the morning.

Yep, you guessed it, STEAK N SHAKE.  One of our favorites that we miss.  Yummy

It wasn't a perfect day but it was a wonderful day.  We ended it with a swim or a workout.  We said night prayers knowing that we were going to have a great day tomorrow.