The Longest Road Ends in Austin
We actually made it.
To Austin TX, the fastest growing city in the US and live music capital of
the world. A land of opportunity and
free thinking.
But first…the long road in between.
We efficiently lollygagged around getting our 5 loads of
laundry and other miscellaneous piles of things put into their tiny nooks and
crannies. Ernest Ranglin’s tunes kept me
moving in the “hot house” with the temperature rising with every passing morning
minute. Soon, we were off, goodbyes were
exchanged with my aunt who wished us well on our final leg of the journey.
Like most trips, I hardly sat in the passenger seat,
preoccupied with a little person that simply doesn’t like his boring and
limiting car seat…but I’ve come to expect it by now. We were absolutely amazed,
that the upcoming evening would bring our wheels to one of their final stops,
with one night reserved at the most popular RV park right in downtown Austin. We had crossed the country, and no more
driving days would be in our future.
Except…
When an hour and a half out of Dallas (probably 45 minutes
for all other vehicles)…the engine started popping/chugging again. The dreaded stomach clenching sound we hadn’t
heard since Ohio’s fix on the spark plugs.
A silent look was exchanged, and we exited in Italy, Texas.
As we passed mid-day hours in this place, I felt some kind
of irony as I messaged the folks “We’re stuck in Italy”…sounding a lot more
exotic and wonderful than this hot-paved plains truck stop location actually was. But on the bright side, a McDonalds offered air-conditioning, coffee AND internet all for free.
What more could people ask for? So as I loitered in the cool air with a
squirmy baby and twangy tunes singing about catfish dinners, Corey pulled the
cap off the engine, by now an act of muscle memory, and waited for the thing to
cool down so he could prod around.
I was pretty astounded how calm we both were, as if the
whole thing was just another test of patience, and we were both passing. A shift in perspective beyond my own
discomforts came as I overheard a woman interviewing for a fill-in position at
McDonalds expressing that she wanted out of her current job because of sexual
harassment. As I covered that woman in prayer, I felt a sense of divine timing
that such roads had merged for reasons beyond my doing, and that I happened to
be there at that moment, sitting in my chair of faith and intercession for her
life.
The same spark plug wire that was fried last time, was fried
again. So Corey got out the ductape and
electrical wire to create a temporary band-aid so we could drive (very slowly!)
19 miles to the nearest Walmart in search of a replacement wire. Which they didn’t have (you’d think with a
whole section of spark plugs they’d have some wires to go with the darn
things!)…and caused us to drive up the road another 8 miles to an O’Riley. Yep, that commercial song was stuck in my
head the entire time we were there, and I hope it doesn’t get stuck in your
head for the rest of the day.
Meanwhile, knowing we wouldn’t make it to Austin that night,
I called to apologetically cancel our reservations at the park. Only to get completely cut apart by the woman
on the other end making me feel like I was intentionally causing them to lose
money and didn’t seem to care less that we had broken down and weren’t physically able to make it, the extent of her yelling at me did
tear at my heart…no matter how many times I respectfully explained the
situation, she was plain upset. While I
wanted to criticize her in my mind, Corey stated one of his brilliantly neutral
perspectives causing the issue to immediately be settled…
“The way I like to think about it is: they don’t know the whole story about us, and
we don’t know the whole story about them”
Ahh, the difficult relief of allowing myself to be
misunderstood or misperceived. It’s
probably the hardest thing in my life, but worth it. I know my story, and can’t offer it to those
uninterested, and that is okay.
Fresh spark plug wire and a few other updates and TLC on the
engine, and we were off a few more miles down the road to Waco…and maybe even
Austin if we were feeling crazy.
Unfortunately, the engine did its skipping/chugging thing just outside
of Waco. So, of course, another Walmart
lot was home, again. I’ll just say,
without electricity or much of a breeze…our attempting to acclimate sweat
glands got a major workout.
After the sun went down, and an interesting dinner was had,
we slung the car seat (empty—cos carrying a baby in it is actually way to awkward) over
a shoulder, and carried our baby and laptop down to the nearest golden arches
to snag a few more hours of free internet to do troubleshooting research. We looked quite a site I’m sure, walking down
the edge of a busy road, in the dark, with such an odd assortment of
things. So odd, that one woman even
yelled out her window offering us a ride.
Southern hospitality expressing itself to us.
The breeze came up later, offering all 3 of us delightfully
comfortable nights of sleep. The morning
we hung around as Corey had yet another follow-up phone interview at the same
company (this time he choose the Ace Hardware Store’s air-conditioned and
quiet environment). As we had lunch, a
woman walked up to our house bent over inspecting something for quite some
time. Corey asked her if we could help
her, and she said no, and got back in her car to drive off. Luckily the husband offered us an answer to
what would have forever been a mystery, they wanted to know how many
axles. We had a nice conversation
through our windows, and they were off.
I guess when you’re parked in a parking lot…there are not property lines
and privacy is not an obvious gesture…but hey, meeting new people is always a
charm, as long as they explain why they’re doing suspicious activity!
Another change of the
spark plug wire, and we were off once again.
Every bounce and bang kept us on the edge of our seats, wondering about
our engine and durability of the suspension. As we lumbered down the road, I
had a realization of how fragile a state we were in. Then, came this sobering reminder of the
miracle in which each fragile thing in life holds together, every detail down
to our each breath, shouldn’t be taken for granted the way it easily becomes. And moments living in a vulnerable exterior
environment, are good reminders to be continually grateful for the fragility of
this interior life we hold in our bodies and relationships.
Then, Austin came.
Our guards rose with each hill, listening to our poor engine working so
hard to climb it. And as we got into the
city limits, the popping/chugging began again.
One of my friends commented “maybe it’s nervous!” Indeed...all nerves were in the air, myself included, as we drove deeper into the city, the place where a new life will begin starting from ground zero.
And speaking of ground zero, long story short...life will begin, in a trailer park. Like Mary and Joseph looking for a place...there was no room anywhere we called, until this place came up.
It's not as bad as it might seem (they are going to clean it up for us). As we have spent (now) two nights, the place is growing on us. Despite the neighbor that continually sneezes, or the occasional flight overhead from the nearby airport, or the closed pool from kids dumping hotdogs in it, and other lacking amenities (like internet), it makes up for in charm in experience. The place is managed by one of the most genuine characters, Tim, who continually has headphones on listening to heavy metal, the more we talk to him the more we like him and better we feel about living here. Most of the community are bashful Hispanics who have only showed us great hospitality...our first night, when experiencing overwhelming heat and uncertainty, our neighbor came over concerned about the baby (for lack of electricity on our lot) and offered us to plug into his place and fill up our water jugs. The charm of the rooster's crows every morning at 6 am, come just in time for us to pull up the sheet like a warm blanket, as the house cools down to it's lowest before it starts to heat up again after sunrise. And maybe...just maybe...despite my typical food values...we might have had two meals in a row of tuna fish sandwiches. [Perhaps there are some truths to that country twang about the catfish dinners?!]
Nothing like humble beginnings to start life in a city.
We may not have insurance, jobs, or the American dream housing setup, but we feel incredibly alive. And heck, as a side note, one of Corey's random whims landed him a casual job working out of a fish taco truck (boss and truck in photo below) in the meantime while we wait on the progression of several pending career jobs. For what life lacks in amenities, it will train us to make up for in new gratitude and quality.
This morning I woke up and was prompted into a devotion...here were some of the thoughts of the day:
"You do not serve Him in your spare time or with your leftover resources. The way you live your life for God is your offering to Him. Relentlessly pursue holiness so that your offering to God is unblemished and acceptable to Him."
It became entirely clear, that this is an awesome opportunity to pursue the deeper and more meaningful things that life consists of. Without distraction of internet or a spare bedrooms to clean, I can now, only offer all that I have with everything in me, because that's the only option I have. And that is probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
The long road was made longer with an old vehicle and a new baby, but now that road has come to an end. And here, we establish a life in a very very foreign place and wholeheartedly, learn a completely different mindset.
As Corey says "It's the unexpected moments like these that are why we live."
And live we will, here at the end of our road,
M
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