the people... and the places — Kristin Genovese

I'VE BEEN WITHOUT STRONG INTERNET AND WITHOUT CELL SIGNAL ALL WEEK. TURNS OUT I LIKE BOTH OF THOSE THINGS, VERY MUCH. Look for another post soon, an update on location but also on the personal side of going "full-time."

[Also, see more pictures on Instagram by following @thegenoveseshow and get more personal snippets of our days on insta-stories. Live videos coming to our Facebook page too. And an email list! SO many possibilities for us to share this fun together. Where you at?]

After our first stop, we spent 4 days visiting our dear, dear family friend “Oma” followed by 3 pretty isolated days visiting a state park on the Rio Grande river. Both fantastic but Really different.

Oma spends winters at a park in McAllen, TX. The park is a beautiful oasis and full of retired Canadians, Iowans, Minnesotans and Wisconsinites, all avoiding the COLD. Although I wouldn't consider McAllen much of a destination, we weren’t short on amenities or sunshine. The fun included golf cart rides, biking, swimming and LOTS of attention for the kiddos.

We found out we have much to learn (practice) about the logistics of mobile living. It was so frustrating and too much time was spent managing mail deliveries and trying to assemble passport applications from afar.

We did fit in a trip to the farmer’s market and a local citrus farm.

Mostly though, this stop ended up swelling my heart with touching moments between my kids and Oma. One night over dinner I found myself not wanting to miss the picture of this woman in her life. So I took one. I was overwhelmed by the tender way she “grandmas” and how easily kids take to all grandmas. Made me miss my other grandmas and my time in their kitchens.

More logisitcs: route planning and weather. Turns out there is nothing between McAllen and Uvalde (other than at least a 5 hour drive), and rain was forecasted for just about everywhere north of McAllen through the weekend. If we wanted to avoid the rain (and see something new), there was only ONE other option. SO, after our delightful visit with Oma, we headed further west along the border of Texas and Mexico to Falcon State Park.

This park is in the middle of nowhere and we were mostly unplugged during our days here. We’ve also never been disappointed with a Texas State Park EVER and were glad we stayed long enough to soak up everything this park had to offer. Although it was warm and VERY WINDY, we walked (and ran) all of the trails, we played on the “beaches” and toured the Butterfly Garden. AND we watched the javelinas! It’s not the Texas Hill Country but it’s desert beauty was not lost on me. I loved it.