We got to see my girlfriend Amy who is in her Doctorate program at University of Texas in Austin! It was soo good to see her. I love those friendships that you can go years without seeing each other and you pick off right where you left off. We biked Zilker Park, went to Taco Deli and she showed us around downtown Austin, Texas. She is so sweet, as always and it was a sad goodbye!
(My new kindle and me catching the Postal Man!) A funny thing that happened this day was that Amy's was the last address we would have to receive stuff before our three week trip to Alaska so we ordered a few things like our Alaska road trip guide, a kindle and I had to get a new credit card because I got credit card fraud. All of our items we ordered had come except Brandon's Alaska guide, but we decided to leave without it or we wouldn't make it to Magnolia Farms before it closed. As we left, I told Brandon to just drive the neighborhood and see if we could find the Postal man. Sure enough, we did! We got his book and headed to Waco, TX.
We went and saw Magnolia Farms and got there 30 minutes before it closed score! It was really neat finally getting to see The Silos and eat an amazing cupcake, the Peach Pie one! Yum. After that, since we are on a budget, we scrambled together a few items, drew cow spots on some shirts and got our free Chick-fil-A for cow appreciation day. Sweet! Then we started our drive to see dad in Wheatland, WY.
We arrived around 3pm the next day and got to hang out with my Dad, Ree, Uncle Larry and Aunt Kathy that night. We went to a steakhouse for dinner and it was phenomenal! Dad and Ree then got me a little cheesecake for an early birthday present and a really nice card and gift. I really appreciated it. Thank you! The next morning we woke up early and Dad, Ree, Bran and I went for a bike ride around town. This is definitely one of my favorite parts about all our trips is just seeing small towns and breathing in some fresh air by bike. It was sad to say goodbye again, but I know we will see them all again soon. They are headed to Mt Rushmore.
Next stop was Casper, WY to take our last shower at Planet Fitness for three weeks! Alaska doesn't have a planet fitness so we will be improvising now (update there was one in Anchorage). We ate Red Lobster celebrating our anniversary week. Then we headed to Gallatin National Forest, Mystic Lake trail head that night and got up the next morning and started hiking. It was a short, 6 mile round trip hike; but it was beautiful. I forgot the can opener so Bran had to open the cans with a knife haha! It was neat because Brandon's dad hiked the same exact trail 30 years ago. Below is a picture of him back then and Bran now. Pretty awesome! Now we are off to Banff in Alaska.
I've been reading a book called Miracle Mornings it is incredible. I just wanted to share a quote I read this morning.
"It is time to take our insatiable appetite for what we want and replace it with an insatiable appetite and gratitude for what we do have."