BY JEAN LONIE
Tall Tales of a Tiny Texan
A
loaded down pick-up truck. Cowboy hats. Smokey and the Bandit soundtrack. And … an infant in a car seat. Literally east bound and down, heading from Texas to the Adirondack Mountains of New York via stops at the New Jersey shore and in Pennsylvania. This isn’t a new trip for us. We both have family in these states and have made the trip at least once every year for the past few years. Normally it’s about 2.5 days to get from the Austin area to the north, knowing the first day is just getting out of Texas! We’ve found some fun places to eat, some cool agritourism spots to visit, and play the usual game of “just one more exit” for everything from gas 68
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to rest stops to hotels. And yet this year this very usual trip had a new boss, one who just turned four months old today. For anyone who has traveled extensively with an infant, you know well the difference between estimated drive time and how long it really takes you to go from start to finish. Hint for those who haven’t had this experience yet: when in doubt add a few hours for bottles, diaper changes, and stretch time! While this has been a more planned drive than our usual “let’s see how fast we can make it” journey, it has also been the most amazing trip yet. Because it is an excursion full of firsts: a first dip in the ocean; first trip to the lake;
