Searching for a Retirement Home: Texas Day one and a half

Other years we have gone to places such as Williamsburg, Puerto Rico, Branson, and Southern California.  This year we decided on a road trip to Texas, with a stop in Oklahoma City to visit LoriAnn's nieces. At 4:00PM on Friday, LoriAnn and I logged off of our work laptops and began packing.   After the third exhausting week of more than 57 hours of work, the two of us were off on our Thanksgiving holiday vacation. 

LoriAnn actually had most of her packing done.  Besides having selected most of her clothes, she also had gathered up snacks and other stuff for the trip.  I hadn't packed a thing. So when 4PM came around, I went into overdrive packing my clothes, computers, and winter wear (just in case).  LoriAnn scurried about putting items into her suit case, bags and what not.  During lunch we went over to the car rental and picked up the vehicle we are going to use.  So we had the car and we just needed to shove items into it and head off. With the trunk almost full and the back sear crowded with necessities, we left home around 5:30 with Des Moines our destination. 

The only exceptional thing about the drive to Des Moines was that the thermometer was constantly dropping.  Somewhere south of Mason City, we started seeing snow on the ground.  It was cold as we checked into the Hotel around 10PM.  Our room was an icebox as we settled in.  Around midnight we went to sleep with the heater blowing hot air, full force.

Saturday morning, around 5AM, I began stirring because it was hot in the room.  Lesson learned:  Don't go to bed with a hotel like window heater going full force if you like to sleep in a cool environment.  Not being able to get back to sleep we started to stir.  We got packed up, had the motel breakfast and got on the road shortly after 8AM.

Austin Texas was the destination for Saturday.  Getting out of Des Moines was tricky because we got caught up in the traffic associated with a cross country race that was being held at the Living History Farm.  North of Kansas City we got off track a bit because of warnings of the road being under construction.  We waved at Sarah and Kathryne as we passed through Oklahoma City. And drove up to the hotel in Austin around 10:30PM.

We had just driven the 930 miles from Des Moines to Austin, making only 3 stops for Gas, Food and Bio Breaks.  When we went to bed at midnight it was 42 Degrees outside, and the thermostat was set appropriately inside. 

Come back tomorrow to read what we find in Austin.