Texas

My dear, beloved Texas! I feel so incredibly blessed that after nine months of being so far away from friends and family, we were able to spend some time in an area filled with loved ones. Starting in the last days of 2020 and lasting through the middle of March, I took a travel nurse contract in Mansfield, Texas (in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex). The majority of my family lives in that area, and Keith and I both have several friends there as well (read about them here. And here. And here). 

After surviving several snow falls in our travel trailer in New Mexico, and driving 18 hours through ice and snow back to our home base in Arkansas, we were so delighted to find ourselves in 70°F weather when we pulled into our RV park on that first day in Texas. I even told Keith “I bet it won’t even freeze while we’re here. Welcome to mild Texas winters!”

Lolol. 

Mid January I was able to receive my first dose of the Pfeizer COVID vaccine. That same afternoon, while at an emergency dental appointment, Keith was exposed to  the virus. Five days later he became symptomatic, and a few days after that he was confirmed to be COVID positive. Fortunately, despite being directly exposed to him, I never had any symptoms and even tested negative a few days after him. I was able to receive my second dose of the vaccine on schedule, and I have been enjoying the peace of mind that being fully vaccinated brings ever since.

As soon as Keith was finally feeling better after being sick, Snowpocalypse arrived in Texas, and my words describing “mild Texas winters” came back to haunt me. The first night that the temperature dropped below 32°F, our water hose froze. While in New Mexico, we had purchased a heated water hose (actually, we purchased the last one in a 30 mile radius the morning after the first freeze lol) to prevent it from freezing during the multiple 12°F nights that we experienced there. It definitely helped us while in New Mexico, although on occasion it still froze. The difference between New Mexico and Texas, though, is that while some people view Texas as a desert, New Mexico is an actual desert. Which means that even on the coldest nights there, the temperature would return to above freezing as soon as the sun came up, and our water hose would thaw. In Texas, that didn’t happen. 

After some investigation, Keith discovered that although the heated water hose was plugged in, the outlet it was plugged into did not have electricity (we think it might have been blown out by a power surge we experienced a few weeks earlier – surge protectors are life savers!) BUT, even after fixing the problem (by switching outlets), we were not sure the water hose would dethaw. 

Our second problem to solve was that our tank drainage hoses were also frozen. Up to this point in our full-time RVing journey, we had been in the practice of leaving our gray tank open and keeping the black tank closed (flushing it out every few days as needed). And by “we” I definitely mean “Keith”, because ew. 

One heat gun and new gray tank drainage hose later, Keith had fixed the problem. And as a bonus, our water hose even thawed! It had taken us all day, but we had solved our problems. We were so proud of ourselves, relieved, and ready to tackle the rest of the winter storm. 

Oh, what blissfully ignorant fools we were. 

That night it got even colder, and despite our best efforts, everything froze again. And they didn’t unfreeze for about five days. Luckily, we never lost power. And our RV park didn’t lose water, so we were able to use the park’s kitchen for cooking and washing dishes. And we were lucky enough to be living within minutes of the only place that still had propane available for sale in the DFW area (although Keith did have to stand in line for about 30 minutes to get it. I kept the car warm for him), because it definitely took a combination of our two electric heaters, the camper’s propane heater, and Luna cuddling our feet to keep us warm at night when the temperature dropped to 1°F. 

After recovering from the storm, our time in Texas felt so jam packed with seeing family and friends that we hardly had time to do anything else. We took a trip down to San Marcos, Texas to visit some of my friends (read all about it here), I had several photography sessions, and we even took a (very) quick trip up to Arkansas to spend time with family and get a few things done that could only be done at our home base. 

Honestly, Texas was such a roller coaster ride, both emotionally and physically, but we are so grateful for the time spent with family and friends. Also, the ER I worked at there was such a great environment – definitely my favorite travel contract so far. And now, we are off on our next adventure in Washington, and I can’t wait to bring you along for the ride! 

I’m a wife, a dog mom, a foodie, a wanderer, a registered nurse, and a couples/intimate wedding/elopement photographer … and this blog will cover it all! If you enjoyed this post, first of all thank you, and second of all please follow me on Instagram + Facebook to get updates on future blog posts, see sneak peeks of my amazing couples, and so much more! If you have any questions about elopement photography, my journey from nursing to photography, or my time spent as a full-time RVer, drop a comment and I just might write a blog post answering your question (but I definitely will)!

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