Retracing our steps in West Texas

After we left Bowie, we left Arizona, drove through New Mexico, and trucked on into Texas. We were staying at the same places we had on the way to California, so it was a familiar--albeit dusty and pricky--journey.  The first stop was Junction.  The kids picked up right where they left off.  

Mark worked on fixing the dog leashes.

Judah braved the prickers to pick me some flowers.

He felt bad because I was stuck inside grading.  Just like our last time through this part of Texas, I had 50 10 page papers to grade in a very short period of time.  So, just like last time we stayed at these RV parks, I spent most of the time in the RV working.
 

 We left early the next morning to drive some more.  We got to Fort Stockton a bit before sunset.  They were cool about washing RVs there, so we ran to get some brushes and soap and the boys scrubbed three months of dirt off the Bounder as the sun set. 

Beans and I went to work using up the food in the fridge.  We would have to empty everything out when we left for Christmas, so we had some eating to do.  We made banana cake, guacamole, and nachos.

The next morning, we worked on eating it.

Then everyone played outside while I got some more grading done.

While doing a once over, Mark noticed that one of the tires had lost a bunch of air.  He thinks that maybe when they were washing the wheels, the cap came lose and the air leaked out overnight. 
 

Once again, AAA came to the rescue.  They sent out a repair guy with a giant air compressor.

Judah loved it.

Before long, we were all filled up and ready to hit the road again!

A few miles into the drive, Mark stopped to check the pressure.  Everything looked great, so we continued on.

Our final stop was the econo lodge parking lot.  Once again,the boys played while I graded. 

That night, Beans got an early Christmas present--a guitar!

And all three boys jammed together.

Then the kids painted while I worked some more.

The next morning, Judah doctored his pillow pet to prepare him for another long day for driving, and we were on our way.