#NWFBWA, Day 1 & 2

 

Leaving Niceville, Monday morning...

So if I haven't had the pleasure of enlightening you on my life, as of late, or you are not socially connected online to keep up, I am currently sitting in Round Rock, TX(No, I did not move), ending day 2 of a 14 day road trip that I am taking with three friends.

  It sunk in as I woke at 4:30a this morning, that this trip is actually happening, but the two months to think before it happened were not really productive...until I landed in Florida on the 1st of May. What originally started as a trip to be taken with my friend Annalisa and I, has turned into a trip with Annalisa, Jasmine, and Ciarra...all three girls I met at Kanakuk. What started as a trip from FL to AZ, for my sister's graduation, and then to kamp...with some hiking mixed in, has become a trip traveling through 16 different states, still including my sister's graduation, and still ending at kamp.

  Here is a map of our general route and of our tentative stops. Already, we have traveled on different roads, and stopped in different places. On my first night in Florida before this trip, we sat down to talk through most of the trip, but still left some days and stops up for flexibility, fun, and any fit adventure. I will be posting pictures on my Instagram and Twitter along the way, using this blog, and those outlets, to hopefully keep my Facebook from being clogged with too many pictures.

 Thus far it has been fun, on Day 1, we ended up leaving Niceville almost four hours later than planned, in a vehicle twice the size of the one we planned to take. I began driving, and will drive for most of the trip, across FL, AL, MS, LA, and TX, until we arrived last night in the Big Thicket National Preserve, where we hung our hammocks and crawled into sleep. Personally, I had an awful time getting to sleep, trying to avoid being extremely hot when covering my whole self with my sleeping bag, and being eaten by bugs when I did not.

  This morning, Day 2, I awoke after probably four hours of total sleep, at 4:30am. I spent time in the Word and fidgeted on my phone before falling asleep for another hour, in the car mind you. We finally got around at about 8am and headed to Austin, where we ventured down South Congress, and Jasmine got to visit with a college roommate who is from this area. We are staying tonight at the home of Larry and Jeanne Stehr, two longtime mentors and friends of mine, who moved to TX within this past year. They made dinner, medicated Annalisa, who is not feeling too well, and let us disrupt their normalcy for a night.

  Tomorrow morning we will rise, eat a World Famous Round Rock Donut, and head west for a full day of driving across TX. Please continue praying for our safety, energy, and well-being. I will update my blog again somewhere along the way. We do have a trip journal going with all of our adventures and hand-drawn pictures that we will be able to look back on for a laugh in the future.


  Charli