Road Trip 2018



Weeks ago Matthew and I had reservations to spend several days at a Bed and Breakfast in St. Augustine. Our thoughts were to hang low, get some sun on the beach and at the pool and to have some down time. Sounds perfect, right? It did sound good to me too. Especially after the past few months of busy. But then at the same time I get super bored...really fast. I am not sure how much quiet I could handle. And on a whim, about 2 weeks ago I saw a tweet with someone's picture in front  of the Magnolia Farms Silos. And I said to Matthew, "let's go to Magnolia Farms instead." And most husbands would probably say no. But mine didn't. We started to map out the distance... yeah, it's 1136 miles to Waco, Texas. That's a long way. It seemed crazy, but then the more we talked about it, the more tangible it seemed.

And so we did it. Yeah, we drove all the way out there. We left super early...in the middle of the night basically, and got to New Orleans by noon. Neither of us had ever been there so we were excited to tour this historic city (who actually was celebrating their 300th anniversary). We ate Beignets, walked the city, took a city bus tour, went to cemeteries and ate delicious Po Boy sandwiches. And we were sweating. It was hot. It was stinky, sweat hot. But we truly fell in love with this beautiful city. It was beyond amazing and could see coming back for more.

 Don't these yummy beignets makes you just want to rush right to New Orleans right now???



 The next day we moved on and kept on driving. Matthew had never been this west before and it had been along time for me. When we hit the Texas border there was lots of exhilaration.

We stopped long enough to check out Houston and to visit with my cousins and my Uncle. It was such a sweet precious time. It's always great to see people in their own element and I loved being in their home, and with their friends.

Now, the funniest thing ever happened. We had some friends message us and were wondering if we really were in Texas. They had seen our pictures.  We hadn't seen these friends from college in about 16 years. Well, they just so happen to be in Houston, in the exact same hotel as us. What are the chances? Such a God moment!!! So, we met up for breakfast the next morning and then met them later that night in San Antonio (they were headed to the same city as us) for dinner. We had such lovely time with them!!!

We spent the next day in San Antonio. What a lovely city to visit.  It has the historical content that Houston was missing, but still with the feeling that you aren't in the country either. We loved the Riverwalk, the Mexican food and the Alamo. The Alamo is just one of those sites that you want to check off on your list of places to visit.

The next day we went to our main...final...most exciting part of our trip. We went to Magnolia Farms from my favorite show, Fixer Upper. It met every expectation that I had for it. The store was amazing and when I walked in I told Matthew that I wanted one of everything. The bakery was amazing and just the feel of the whole place was great. We went to some other antique stores, Clint Harps Design Studios and we checked out some of the actual houses that Chip and Jo designed. I feel well pleased with this visit.

And last, but not least...we took a small detour so I could set foot on the last Southern State that I had not been to. Arkansas!!!!! We were so close and it just seemed crazy not to go there. So we did. And we were so happy when we snapped this picture.

So...was it crazy? Yes. Was it a lot of driving? Yes. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. There is something amazing about seeing the landscape of your country. We saw that we really love the state of Texas with it's sweet rolling hills and beautiful trees. But we don't like the heat there. We love that we didn't just sit on our butts. One day we will look back at this trip with smiles on our faces. It was an adventure...and I hope for more in the future.


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