Road Warrior Momma: Visiting Old Friends in Dallas

Days 23 & 24 – July 21^st & 22^nd, 2016

Odessa, TX – Dallas TX

389 miles – 6 hours

Truth be told, I couldn’t not get out of Odessa fast enough. I was mildly curious about the area – mostly due to my love of the show, Friday Night lights. From what little we experienced, I don’t think it’s my kind of town. It was a long drive to Dallas, but about three hours in we reached the “hill country” and that made for a much more scenic drive.

It was HOT in the BIG D. It was 96 degrees when we arrived, which was not as high as our previous stops – but the humidity made it a tad muggy. After we checked in, Hunter, God bless him, had to go for a run. When he was finished, we headed to the Bernier’s house. It’s been three years since we last saw them and we were all very excited.

I met Barbie in our first neighborhood in Alpharetta, right after the boys were born. I’ll never forget how we met. We’d been in our house for around six months. I had to stay inside for the first couple months (winter) because the boys were so premature. Then the long hot summer arrived and I was in no hurry to try out the double stroller. When I finally did adventure out, I walked past a house where a woman was out front gardening and she waved me down. She told me her daughter was pregnant with twins and insisted I had to meet her. She ran inside to get Barbie and the rest, as they say, is history.

Barbie & Jeff moved their family to Dallas ten years ago. It’s very hard to believe it’s been that long. Barbie and I talked ourselves silly and we still only covered about 10% of what we had to talk about. We also tried to watch Donald Trump’s speech – but ultimately we found each other more interesting.

The next day the kids and I drove to a different part of Dallas to see some other old friends of mine, the Calkins. I went to middle and high school with Cheryl and met Jerry when I was in college, working at the Ritz. I was honored to be I their wedding 23 (!) years ago. They have three kids and have been living in Dallas for two years. We were trying to determine just when was the last time we saw each other (they moved to Illinois in 1998?). I finally concluded that the last time I saw them, I was pregnant with Barrett and Hunter.

I love, love, love, visiting with old friends! SO much so that I’m going to write a Latchkey Mom post about it. So you’re spared more detailsJ!

We went back to the Berniers for dinner and landed back at the hotel around 9. We have a very long drive home tomorrow…

Day 25 - July 23, 2016

846 miles -13 hours!

We made it home after a long 13 hour drive. My longest ever. And there was rain. And construction. Oh - it was not fun. But I wanted to push it, so I would have all day Sunday to do laundry. Back to work on Monday!

I'll be back next week with my Road Trip Superlatives. Thank you so much for reading.