An Epic Journey ~ The Frio River

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The Frio River spoke to me every morning as I stepped outside. It encouraged me to sit and reflect on its beauty as it lent an old tree root for a stool.

I waited for a lesson.

Later, the river taunted me for a walk. While it seemed I was learning how to choose each step slowly, reality told me, Frio was teaching me how to get back up, as I fell time and time again.

I screamed at Frio. I grabbed a tube to float on, giving Frio the control, why did Frio have to be so difficult?

Once again, Frio spoke to me letting me know I hadn’t mastered walking yet, so again I found myself learning how to get back up after walking it’s stoney and abusive path.

Frio witnessed my laughter as it flowed faster and then quieted through my tears, as I fought with its existence. We left not friends exactly, but we’ll try again.

Oldest Daughter-
Redheaded Sister

~Thank You, for indulging me this week. I enjoyed our walk down memory lane. I hope you laughed, possibly learned a little something about me too.~

An Epic Journey ~ Part 4

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(Parts 1-3 can be found here, if you’re willing catching up with us.)

I hadn’t used so many muscles in one day in an effort to stay alive in my whole life. Every single one of us had started this float trip with high hopes of laughter, fun and memories.

We were leaving with memories by this point, we could kiss the other two good-bye.

I have to tell you that our visit to the Frio River had been such a blessing, and truly every step had been fantastic. This destination was a life changing kind of opportunity. The kind of place to retreat to when you need time to think, but also time to just relax. Today the Frio was getting the best of me. Let’s be honest, it had the good, the bad and the ugly by this point. I may have hidden my emotions pretty well, but the silence I was putting out spoke a thousand words. I was nearly shaking with disgust over my weak behavior.

I was tired.  Continue reading →

An Epic Journey ~ Part 3

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(Hey! Welcome! First, march over and read Parts 1 & 2. You have no idea what we’ve been through…)

Them’s fighting words, so I spat back with, “Yeah, well….so what.” She was right. She was still hopeful. She was still crackin’ jokes. 😉

I got nothin’.

This was hard work and we hadn’t floated all but about a half a mile total and we’d been out here three hours, at least. We had walked and walked and walked some more. Did I mention we also carried our tubes? The children were still floating on and off, for the most part, and giggling along. The adults were pulling and carrying tubes. Mostly we were walking over river rocks in shin deep water regretting our idea.

Now and again, a group of people would come by, most of them walking and pulling each other, but at a much faster pace than our crew. They obviously had better shoes or some sort of slime retardent on the bottom of last years Nikes, which kept them from braking their knees.  Continue reading →

An Epic Journey ~ Part 2

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Part 2 – If you didn’t get to read Part 1 (due to WordPress shenanigans yesterday, I’d start back there first…)

We were all in the river and our gear was in tow. We had our river shoes on and favorite cups in hand. The tube with the cooler was attached to my husband’s inner tube, because he’d offered to take on that responsibility, thinking that’s all he’d have to keep up with today.

I mean, how hard was it going to be? The most trouble he was going to have, was making consistent throws as he tossed up a fresh beverage and located the empties into the yellow mesh bag, which dangled from the side of his tube. Yes that’s right we were recycling, too.

It just so happens that the birds were singing. The sun was out and the river water was moving. It was going to be a beautiful day for tubing. We were doing our duty. We were prepared. We were off for some Texas Frio fun. IMG_0437

We all joked with the friends we were leaving behind, as they set up the chairs in our normal spot. It provided a beautiful view of the river and a scenic view of the cabin. It also offered the perfect position to watch the children go to and fro. We decided those staying behind were going to miss out on a lot of laughter. They had determined that we were going to end up wishing we had stayed put. Staying meant getting to be just a few yards from the AC and access to a deep swimming hole, which the others thought seemed logical. A no brainer.

What did they know?

So, I’d been given a final offer to listen to the smart people. The Holy Spirit had whispered in my ear…”Stay, Aud. You’ll wish you had.”

I’d decided to ignore Him, sealed my fate right there didn’t I? 😉 Continue reading →

An Epic Journey ~ Part 1

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The tubes were rented and the sunscreen had been applied, we were ready for the float trip of our lives….

~ The events that are about to unfold are being told from the best of my memory. Some events I’ve blocked out, others are still raw and most of the ones which offer up the nocturnal nightmares are being dealt with appropriately, with tequila.

It had been a great vacation with friends. The open air was surrounding us and we had been appropriately lazy for three days straight. If we weren’t doing a quick load of laundry or whipping up something for the kids to eat, we were sitting in the Frio River water. When you didn’t find us there you could usually locate us up the street, possibly looking for souvenirs, buying ice for the coolers or picking up a pecan pie from the sweetest old woman inside a hut. Someone should write a book about her one day. She’d beat the pants off the Old Woman who lived in a shoe or Old Lady who swallowed a fly. This was the Old Grandmother who made pie.  Continue reading →