A new adventure for the family was a trip to Killeen Texas.
A total of thirteen people traveling in a pickup truck with a camper shell attached to the top of the bed of the truck.
These, included the mother, father their eight children, two grandchildren and a son-in-law.
The family was taking their daughter and their granddaughter to be with her husband who was station in the army at Fort Hood
The truck was full of everything the family needed to make the trip, food, & clothing.
The daughter had brought several boxes with her.
A full size mattress was placed on the bed of the truck. The father and son-in-law took turns driving only stopping to eat and to 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 and is a cotton region, which houses 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 the honking of a loud horn by someone letting him know he was swaying on the interstate. He was so frighten that he stayed awake the rest of the night.
There was no video games during this time and the kids had to make up things to do.
The kids would look at the tags of the cars and trucks to see what 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 it’s Oil Wells everywhere.
After several long hours on the road the family finally arrived at the home of the son-in-law.
He lived in a three bedroom trailer outside of 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 mosquitos 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 months old babies also had a bedroom to sleep in.
They were not kidding when they said the mosquitos swarm like flies and they are 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 with everyone except one daughter and one granddaughter which they left behind.
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.
All this did not matter to the family because it was a family vacation. So much like the Vacation movies that Chevy Chase made.
