On the Road Again - Covid can't stop Joy!

Aloha and Howdy! 

There is a big RV boom going on because more and more people discover how convenient it is to have your own bedroom, kitchen and bathroom with you while traveling, especially during a pandemic. It’s somewhat ironic that we out of all people kept delaying our road trip this year month after month. The risk, the restrictions and a 14 day quarantine were enough to hold us back. Maui was too good of a place to ride out the craziness. We were trying to balance our desire to be responsible with our urge to travel. We were on the fence anyway, so a few hours after Hawaii announced the option to get a pre-travel test instead of quarantining upon return to the islands, we booked our flights to Houston, where Joy has been patiently waiting for us. 

 On Maui, I felt like the Corona virus was not only affecting the respiratory system of humans, but also the rotation of the planets: Time flew by so quickly. Sandra and I went on a walk, I played a little tennis, maybe some ultimate and woosh! another week was over. We’ve only been back on the road for ten days and it already feels like an eternity, filled with all kind of new impressions and experiences. I feel we have already seen more on this trip than in 6 months on Maui. Don’t get me wrong: Maui is still our favorite place to live in the world, but ideally interrupted by long road trips.

What Mark so nicely titled: "An Ode to Joy"

We were relieved when we got to the RV storage place and saw that Joy survived the 10 months without any serious issues. Having to check on her to make sure everything was OK was one of our excuses to justify traveling during a pandemic. Even before we made it any particular place or saw anything really special, we were excited just to be in Joy and on a road trip again. If only because you never know what’s around the next bend or what (or who!) you are going to see the next day… 

To our delight, we found out that our friend Melinda was visiting her family on Lake Conroe, just 20 minutes from our first campground. It was such a pleasure to see Melinda and meet her delightful family. Her dad has actually been to Germany before we’ve ever been there. And how convenient that after happy hour drinks and a delicious dinner, all we had to do was walk down the driveway. Our first historical stop was “Washington on the Brazos”. Even though this is the place where Texans declared their independence, this former capital of Texas had almost disappeared. At least they have reconstructed “Independence Hall”. It’s basically a log cabin, but it is “Where Texas became Texas”, as they say here. Even though we might have heard about it when we visited the Alamo in San Antonio or other historical sites in Texas, I was not aware that the delegates voted to declare independence at the very same time of the siege at the Alamo. 

It could be argued that the massacre at the Alamo achieved nothing and that declaring independence in Washington on the Brazos meant everything. However, the Alamo is a huge tourist attraction with 2.5 million visitors a year; while Independence Hall is an out of the way little historical site with only a handful of visitors when we were there. But our tour guide Chandler (a truly gifted interpreter!) made us feel truly connected to the events 184 years ago. 

"Independence Hall" in Washington on the Brazos, TX
The building might not be as impressive as the one in
Philadelphia, but for Texas history, it's just as important.

We were very excited to see Chandler again the next day when we visited the Fanthorp Inn, another historical site 20 miles down the road. This time he was dressed in period clothes (plus the mask) and knew just as much about the old roadside Inn as he did about Independent Hall. We were the only guests, possibly the whole day, so we got a long, private tour. As charming and interesting as the Inn was, I am glad we are 170 years late and travel in Joy. This way, I know who I get to share my bed with. Apparently it was very common to share a bed with a stranger back then. I wonder whether I would have loved traveling just as much back then… 

The historic Fanthorp Inn

 “Harvest Host” is a club we belong to that connects RVers with breweries, vineyards, farms and museums that let you park overnight for free. The only “price” to pay is to visit the business. So at a brewery, we “have to” drink beer, at a vineyard we “have to” do a wine tasting, etc. It also brings us to places we would never visit otherwise. I didn’t even really know what a “Meadery” is… 

Touring the bee farm

The Bee Weaver Honey Farm has been around since 1888. Our tour guide has been there for over a third of that time! The “Meadery” is a new 2020 addition where they started making mead out of their own honey. Besides touring the bee hive, we got to sample a dozen different honeys and nine different meads. It tastes more like wine than beer, but is officially its own category. Some of those meads are pretty strong. After sampling all the different meads (and then ordering our favorite ones again, of course), it was very convenient to have our own bed parked next door. I’m not sure how other people do it. 

Mead tasting at the BeeWeaver Honey Farm
and WildFlyer Mead Co.

There is only one Presidential Library along our route and we’ve been there before and it is currently closed, but we found two nice substitutions: In Huntsville, we visited the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. Since he was the President of Texas when it was an independent republic, we could count it towards our presidential sites. Sam Houston was a very interesting character, obviously with some flaws from today’s perspective. I might have given him too much credit for refusing to fight for the confederacy and stepping down as the governor of Texas when the Civil War broke out. We had a long talk with the museum curator and he thinks that was more pragmatism and the foresight that the Union was going to win than true loyalty to the Union, let alone opposition to slavery. In a beautiful park setting, the museum also included two of the homes Houston has lived in. 

The Hall of Presidents at the American Freedom Museum

We got another presidential history fix: No, I am not talking about the debate, that was about the least presidential thing I have ever seen. We went to the “American Freedom Museum” in Bullard, TX. This surprisingly elaborate museum tells the story of America mostly through its wars, but it also has a “Hall of Presidents”, where we spent most of our time. So now we know at least a little bit about each and every president (we still like the first 44 the best!). Our next job is to remember what we learnt when one of you tests us or when it comes up in a trivia game. The museum is located on the campus of a ‘Christ centered’ school. It was very well curated, but a bit of a bias could be noticed occasionally. For example, they suggested that the ‘Civil War’ should better be called the ‘War of Northern Aggression’ and that domestic terror, like the Oklahoma City bombing, was inspired by Islamic terror groups. 

Some of the historical places we like to visit are still closed, but many are open, like the Goodman-LeGrange House in Tyler, TX where we not only got a private tour, but were also the fist to sign the guest book in a couple of days. Since we are often the only visitors around, it feels pretty safe. We only skipped a couple of places that seemed unnecessarily ‘risky’. We also visited a small, quirky railroad museum in Tyler. It never ceases to amaze me how many of these sites are run either by dedicated volunteers or enthusiastic staff. They are the reason that we enjoy small little out-of-the-way, third-rate places as much as the popular top attractions. 

A big THANK YOU to this guy at the Cotten Belt Depot Museum
 in Tyler, TX, and all the volunteers in small museums
and historical places who work so hard and make it look
like they are having fun...

Before you are falsely impressed that we study so much history on our trips: We also played some disc golf, ate some Texas BBQ, went on a few smaller hikes, camped on lakes and in forests and paddled a paddle boat:

I want to address two misconceptions people might have about Texas. It is not all vast and barren, in fact for the past ten days, from Houston to theOklahoma state line, we’ve been mostly driving though lush, green forests. We probably took particular notice of that since we had practically no rain on Maui all summer and the island is drier than I’ve ever seen it. Apparently, we just missed another fire above our neighborhood. We much prefer our campfire on the lake here. Both are under control now. 

The other misconception is that everybody in Texas is a Trump supporter. That’s not true. When we drive on the rural backroads here, there is at least one Biden/Harris sign for every 100 Trump signs. I also noticed that the Trump supporters are split between those who want to make America great again and those who want to keep it great. 

Today was our last day in Texas before we cross into Oklahoma. Sulphur Springs surprised us as an absolutely delightful place. The main town square has been revived very successfully. Beautifully restored buildings, red brick roads, an impressive courthouse and the most public bathrooms I have ever used…

The (very) public bathroom on the town square
in Sulphur Springs, TX

Then we took a quick detour to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower and tomorrow we’ll be heading to Southeast Oklahoma, supposedly the most scenic part of the state. Since we even liked the rest of Oklahoma last year and we are just so darn happy being able to road trip in Joy at all this year, I have a feeling we might enjoy it there, too. 

Yes, we miss Maui, but this will have to do for a few weeks...

Life is Good, even in 2020! 

Chris & Sandra