TLDR; for anyone in a hurry, here’s the preface. I decided the best way to spend part of January was to take my furbaby Courage on a Tour de Tejas ending in Hill Country — namely, Kingsbury, TX at the Wahwahtaysee Resort. For the sake of transparency I must disclose that the Wahwahtaysee Resort did host me and Courage for our two-night stay in Kingsbury in exchange for my honest review of their new resort.
This article is about my trip as a whole, you can read my feature article on Wahwahtaysee Resort later this week.
Moving along to the fun stuff, this is hopefully going to be the cutest story you’ve ever gotten to scroll through because it features my fluff ball, Courage the Cowardly Corgi. Plus, a few gorgeous cameos from my dear friend Erika Klein of Deeper than Diet. We hit the road Thursday morning with Amarillo on our minds and a tinge of anxiety for the 6-ish hour drive ahead of us. We were trying to make it town before sunset so we could catch Cadillac Ranch during Texas’ most beautiful show. Safe to say, pit stops, the time change and crazy wind had us pulling up to the ranch right as the sun was dropping down. Did I mention the crazy wind? It was still whipping, so we decided “maybe sunrise will be pretty, too.” We headed back to our hotel and had a good night’s rest with Coco-bean before waking up at sunrise-ish to a very cloudy, dreary sky. Just our luck. But we would be damned if we didn’t still visit the dang thing, so the three of us made it back out to Cadillac Ranch for a quick photo-op. The wind and cool breeze did not let up and the cars made for a decent shield. The art exhibition was honestly very neat attraction to pull-off for if you’ve been driving the long stretch between Denver and Dallas. It’s a decent flat walk so you can get your legs moving and it’s interactive, what more could you ask for?
We hopped back in the car and flipped it, headed south for Dallas. Erika and I spent a night in the city visiting with some of my old friends and relaxing before we would make the final hour and a half drive to my Mom’s home in Cleburne, TX. Yes, this blog is getting pretty long and the first three paragraphs have been pretty much nothing but driving. Not only is the drive from Denver to Dallas about 12.5 hours (without traffic and not including the time change), the vast majority of that is just Texas. It only takes about 3 hours to get out of Colorado, another 1 hour through New Mexico and the rest is just wide open Tejas.
I am still so eternally grateful to Erika for driving that leg with me as it’s usually the hardest! We made it to my Mom’s eventually that afternoon and I couldn’t be more stoked to let Courage really roam free and spend time with my Mom. Erika is a great sport and the perfect companion for a trip like this, because she’s everyone’s Mom’s favorite kind of friend. Also, big shout out to Erika for reading this blog and reminding me that I forgot to mention in here that it occurred to me about 5 hours into this trip that I had left my bag at home with literally everything for my trip in it except my camera and laptop. Apparently, I forgot about it again. I’m forgetful.
Plus, my Mom has a serious flair for interior design so I knew this would be an awesome opportunity to force one of my model friends into some poses in our house. It’s always fun bringing people that have never experienced your nostalgia into those memorable places, especially since none of my friends from Colorado have ever seen my home! Did I mention Texas is very big? lol Either way, it wasn’t very long until Erika obliged my Whataburger request and we stuffed our faces after having a mini-shoot with our trash food. Delicious trash food, but still. The next day we wouldn’t have much time to shoot since Erika would have to biggity bounce on home, but that didn’t meant we wouldn’t do something epic.
My mom has a gorgeous clawfoot tub, so we decided a milk bath shoot was a must. Something neither of us had done before. They always look so gorgeous, but I’ve definitely seen a handful of poorly executed versions so I was nervous they wouldn’t turn out well…but they definitely did.
After that mid-morning fun, we would pack up and head to Fort Worth for a pit-stop at Velvet Taco (so good!!) before I’d drop Erika off at their airport. For me, pretty much the only worthwhile things to do in the DFW area is eat. I know a ton of great spots and Velvet Taco is one that speaks to my heart every time I return home. Delicious gourmet tacos that have been Americanized to the max with options like the “shrimp & grits taco” and my favorite, the “picnic chicken” which has pulled chicken mixed with fried potato wedges and it’s just too good, y’all.
It was so bitter, not bittersweet at all, to drop Erika off at the airport. She was leaving early to handle some serious family situations that I won’t go into, but if you know Erika you know she’s the sweetest, most compassionate and also totally kickass woman so it was heartbreaking to have her leave. Partially because I’m selfish and just didn’t want her to go, but also because damn life is hard and I hate seeing my friends deal with situations I can’t do literally a thing about. So, I saw Erika off and then headed back home to my Mom’s, this is where the story takes a short turn for the worse.
I came back home and Courage wasn’t behaving normal, he seemed uncomfortable and extra needy. The dog Mom in me is like, “hell yeah, come cuddle!” But he couldn’t get comfortable and just kept crying, so I knew something had to be wrong. Then the vomiting started. My poor little Coco Bean was clearly sick, not just “oops I ate something wrong and here it is!” but full on SICK with something. He wouldn’t sit still and the moaning and crying started getting worse – yes, my dog was full on moaning he was in so much pain. Mind you, I’ve had Courage for 5 years and I’ve literally never seen him in so much discomfort other than when he broke his foot. Hours passed and he kept throwing up, about every 30 minutes to an hour and the Mom in me was freaking out. Some friends were saying it’s a blockage, but he didn’t seem to have any discomfort when I pressed on his stomach — actually, rubbing his tummy seemed to be the only thing to calm him down. I called the vet, he told me to wait it out since it was a Sunday. Hours kept passing and the little dude kept throwing up, so we made a towel pallet in bed with me for him so he could be sick but still be with me.
I’ll say, that was one restless night and his behavior mimicked mine when I had the norovirus almost exactly. A lot of my friends think I’m crazy, but I’m like 60% certain that I gave Courage the norovirus. It can be passed from humans to dogs and well, yeah. After 24 hours he was finally fine and back to being an asshole, but he’s my baby!!
The original plan was to head to Austin the day after and then hit San Antonio shortly after that, but the last thing I wanted to do was put Courage through more stress. So, we decided to stay at my Mom’s a couple more days (which was honestly so nice) before we’d head straight to our stay at the Wahwahtaysee Resort between Austin and San Marcos.
I don’t want to go into major detail about the resort here, it really deserves its own place, but I’ll give you just a little sneak peek at this incredible place tucked away on the San Marcos River. In the dark, I sure had a hard time finding it, but that darkness brought with it so many stars in the sky, it was incredible. The tent itself was beyond anything someone could imagine with a king size bed, a kitchenette, a living room (with TV!!) and of course – A BATHROOM. If you go camping a lot, you know that sometimes bathrooms are scarce and you just kinda get used to relieving yourself in the wild. This would be my first time (even my other glamping experiences didn’t have this) to poop in a tent. You can’t imagine my excitement when I entered the bathroom and found a huge, gorgeous shower, an equally huge and gorgeous soaking bathtub and of course, the crowning jewel — a beautiful, clean toilet. All for me. So, if that wasn’t enough of a tease to make you want to read more about my stay at Wahwahtaysee Resort stay, you must not appreciate the finer things in life! 😉
After my stay at the resort, instead of heading on to San Antonio –> Marfa –> Santa Fe, I decided to just turn around and head back north. Courage’s incident was not only super scary, but I can’t imagine how I would handle it if he got sick again during the longest drive I’d ever do by myself. So, we cut the trip short for the interest of his health but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t still incredible. I hope he had an awesome 5th birthday, I certainly enjoyed celebrating it with him and spending some serious 1-on-1 time with my heart baby. <3 Be sure to check out my article exclusively on the Wahwahtaysee Resort, Texas’ best pet-friendly resort!
