Why do they stay?

It's so hot down here in the south, I am asking myself daily "Why do the people stay here?  Don't they know that it's not this hot in other parts of the country."  Then I stop and think, why does anyone stay where they are at?  The answers are many but here are a few: family, friends, jobs, community, education, religious connections, etc.... 

What grounds a person to a certain area is a personal reason or choice which must be stronger than any feeling of wanting to leave because it is too hot.  We are visitors to this area and as such, it is easy for us to say we are done with the heat.  For many, that is not an option.  The kids and I are adjusting to the intensity of it and you figure out when to do certain things.  Any physical activity we try to do in the morning...it's not much cooler, but the sun is not beating down on you.  We found an area in the lake that is actually cooler than 90 degrees...this is not a joke, the lake is heated by the power plant. 



In a way we are learning to adapt to our environment.  When the sweat is rolling down my face I push through it and find something to take my mind off of the intensity of it all.   I wonder how anything stays green here.  Tatum is very beautiful and full of pine trees,  very tall trees in fact.  I have missed the trees so much.  Utah is beautiful but they cannot compete with the tree's in other places.  I have always loved trees and their beauty.

Isabella on her raft..the turtle popped within 5 minutes of her having it. Bummer!

Last night we blew a fuse and had no A/C for about 2 hours.  It was the most miserable experience of not knowing what was wrong and of being hot.  Rye and Cory said we would go to a hotel.  OH NO WE ARE NOT!...that was me.  We started this adventure to have unique experiences and to give the kids a sense of what other family endure daily, we were not going to so easily give up.  My family is stronger than that and we were able to figure out that the trailer has a fuse box, who knew...LOL  We quickly returned to normal and life went on with happy faces and sweet demeanors.

Our other difficulty has been the language.  You would think that we were in a different country.  We had a family staying next door and they needed our help with a tent.  I swear that what they were speaking was not English, but it was.  The accent is so strong down here.  If I have to say "huh?" more than three times, I feel so dumb.  I am not sure if it's the Texan mixed with Cajun...or the fact that some of their teeth are missing.  This is not meant to be a joke, the people down here are very poor and lots of them do not have teeth.  The guy with the tent, was heading to Tyler,TX to try out for American Idol.  He was beside himself.  To the people in this part of the country it must seem like a golden opportunity for them to try and make it in Hollywood.

We are having the best experience and meeting the most interesting people.  This week we are in the park by ourselves and so far from any big city.  This week we are trying to figure out where we should go next.  Cory may be working from home and we have a window of opportunity to travel for a week.  We are thinking South Padre Island or New Orleans, LA.  We probably won't make any decision until Thursday, and we will leave on Friday.   The unknown is part of what makes this trip so fun.

Rye and Ann at the lake, we are about a 100 feet from this area.

Drake said to me this morning that he was so glad that we did not have a big house to clean anymore.  I have to agree.  We are learning to live with out,  to be happy with what we have and finding that it is possible to survive without so many worldly possessions.  Our life is simplified of stuff, but enriched by our surroundings, the people we have met and the call of the road.