A new adventure for the family was a trip to Killeen, Texas.
A total of 13 people are traveling in a pickup truck with a camper shell mounted on the truck bed.
These included the mother, father, their eight children, two grandchildren, and a son-in-law.
The family was taking their daughter and granddaughter to be with her husband, who was stationed at Fort Hood in the Army.
The truck was full of everything the family needed for the trip: food & clothing.
The daughter had brought several boxes with her.
A full-size mattress was placed on the truck's bed. The father and son-in-law took turns driving, stopping only to eat and use the restrooms.
The women took care of the children and food.
Killeen is a city in Bell County, Texas, southwest of Waco. Killeen is a ranching village in a cotton-growing region that is home to Fort Hood Military Base.
It is 759 miles, which will take about twelve hours. The family left late in the afternoon, which meant driving all night.
The family had been riding for hours, and when it became too dark to see, they all fell asleep on the mattress.
The father was doing the driving, but he felt himself drift off to sleep.
The father was awakened by a loud horn honking, which alerted him that he was swaying on the interstate. He was so frightened that he stayed awake the rest of the night.
There were no video games during this time, and the kids had to make up things to do.
The kids would look at the tags on cars and trucks to see which state they were from.
Another fun thing was reading billboards.
Texas is a big state, and when the father said we are in Texas, the family rejoiced, but needless to say, they still had to ride several more hours.
The family did not care much for the flat state of Texas, with its oil wells everywhere.
After several long hours on the road, the family finally arrived at the son-in-law's home.
He lived in a three-bedroom trailer outside the army base.
The kids could not wait to get out of the truck and stretch their legs.
The food and clothing had to be unloaded and taken inside.
The kids played outside until dark, when the mosquitoes started to bite.
That night, the smaller kids slept on the floor. The mother and father had one bedroom to sleep in. The two couples with their six-month-old babies also had a bedroom to sleep in.
They were not kidding when they said the mosquitoes swarm like flies, and they are as big as elephants in the state of Texas.
The next day, the family spent a relaxing day swimming in the lake near Belton.
That afternoon, the women went shopping, checking out all the small shops nearby.
The next day, the family loaded into the truck, leaving behind one daughter and one granddaughter.
They started their twelve-hour journey home. No one fell asleep.
The family had a great trip, even though they rode hundreds of miles in the back of a pickup truck, and they were bitten by mosquitoes.
Their father almost wrecked the truck on the interstate. Taking a trip to the big state of Texas.
None of this mattered to the family because it was a family vacation, so much like the Vacation movies that Chevy Chase made.
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