January 12 – “22 miles from … here”

After home group Thursday night I had a hankering to go to Waco and see Luke and Caleb play basketball.  I knew Zak’s games are during the week, so that was off the table.  I had just breached the subject with Chris when a text came over my phone.  It was from Josh.  There was a video of Luke practicing his hook shot.  It was a sign.  We had to go. 

We made it all the way to our half-way point/lunch stop (Buc-ees) without incident.  At least I think it was without incident.  At least Chris didn’t wake me up screaming uncontrollably.  After our chicken salad wrap (with bacon) lunch, we got back on the road, but the wandering bug hit me.  Why not try a different way?  It took a bit of convincing, but Chris finally relented.  She was looking forward to the impending 75 mile per hour speed limit.  Google Siri wasn’t at all happy with our choice, either.  She kept insisting we get back on her choice of routes, but we held out.

And then …

What can I say?  A short cut within the short cut suddenly presented itself.  Chris saw a sign for Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park.  Now, neither of us had ever been to that one.  She asked me what is there to do at that park?  As the true navigator, I stayed faithful to my calling and replied, “It’s 22 miles from … here.”  “But what can we do there?” she insisted.  “I don’t know.  That’s your department.  I’m just the navigator,” I replied.  And then there was the turn and she said, “Well, what do you want to do?”  And I answered, “21 miles now.”  She turned. 

It was a rather quaint little park.  They had one of those working farms where the people where period clothes like those from the 1850’s.  Even had animals from the 1850’s.  Yep.  Sounded strange to me, too.  Actually he was referring to the same species that would have been around back then.  We didn’t go there.  There was also a museum, but our time crunch limited us from seeing that one as well.  The final structure of interest was a recreation of the old building where the folks met who drafted some of the earliest governmental structures of the Republic of Texas.  And it was right off the banks of the Brazos River.  Now that sounded interesting, so we took off to see that one.  Only it was not accessible by automobile.  We had to … drum roll here … hike.  That’s right, folks.  I hiked in a state park on uneven, gravel ground.  Uphill and down.  The down was kind of weird, actually.  Pretty steep for the new knee guy.  Chris offered to hold onto me.  I told her she was always welcome to hang onto me, but I requested that if she fell, she not take me with her, because I wasn’t sure I could hold both of us up.  We completed the trail with no problems.  I’m kind of sore this morning, but not too bad.  My physical therapist better be impressed.

The building was an interesting reproduction.  The view of the river was great (But then I have always been a water guy).  Oh, and we picked up a new friend.  Little red fox named Farquar.  He went with us on the hike.  Cute, cuddly, ornery little bugger.  Come meet him sometime. 

Even with our unscheduled short cuts, we made it to the Waco cousin’s house before Zak and Caleb got home from their homeschool Co-op day.  After a relaxing afternoon of shooting baskets (actually, around that house the basketball shooting and dribbling is a non-stop, 24-hour-a-day activity.  Brought back lots of memories), we watched some of Star Wars Episode One before bedtime.  Once the kiddos were off to their assigned sleeping areas, the adults talked into the wee hours of the morning.  Chris was in her element.  It was good to have the uninterrupted time to talk with Josh and Christi, though.  And to top off the evening he introduced us to a new Netflix show for our consideration.  The Idiotest.  Pretty fun stuff.  Like Visual Verses on steroids.  I’ll have to watch it a few more times to really appreciate it, though. 

Psalms 126:3 says, “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”

Father, thank you for that most recent short cut.  And of course thank you for the end result – getting to see this part of our family.  Bless them.  Amen.