We said goodbye to our little fur family and left our housesit at 8am.

It was thankfully cooler today but still about 35 degrees with 93 percent humidity. But it was overcast and that stopped it getting too hot. It was still really hot, just not too hot.

We stopped at Buccees, a famous service station chain in Texas. We’d already filled up, but we’d heard about their brisket sandwiches so thought we’d give them a try.

This Buccees was jam packed, so we grabbed our pre made sandwiches wrapped in foil and got out of there. On the way I also grabbed some Beaver nuggets which was also a thing to try.

Back in our van we tried our service station sandwiches, not expecting much. It’s not your typical cold sandwich on bread though. It’s actually a broiche burger bun and it’s warm.

Mike had the pulled pork and it was really nice, smoky and moist. I had the brisket and it also was surprisingly yummy. You’ll have to wait for our video to hear about the beaver nuggets.

We only drove 3 hours today and stopped at Davy Crockett national forest. It was a lovely spot to camp, but it was so hot and humid, we plugged our rear air conditioner in and slept for the afternoon.

Around 6pm we ventured out again, this time on our bikes. We rode through the forest and found a lovely swimming spot. A large family group were there, swimming and kayaking, not worried by the water snakes and alligators.

I decided I’d go for a swim in my clothes, but it was like stepping into a warm bath. They told me the water temperature was 33 degrees. I think it was warmer.

I decided it wasn’t worth it for a warm bath as I’d no doubt be left feeling stickier. So we cycled back to our van and had a salad wrap for dinner.

I’ve made a mistake with how long we have to get to Connecticut. I though we had 6 weeks but forgot they’d extended our housesit and we only actually have 4 weeks. And it’s about 4000 kms away! So we’re going to cut some of the places I’d planned to go, and do a few long driving days. Think next time we’ll give housesitting a miss as it’s quite restrictive.

Today, Mike decided he was going to bake bread. He mixed up the dough, got the yeast ready. Meanwhile I noticed it was getting hotter and hotter inside. The dog sat beside me, panting hot air onto my leg. After about an hour, I decided I should check if the air conditioner was still working.

I wandered outside and saw one of my Texas nightmares. The air conditioner had stopped. I ran inside to tell Mike. He checked the fuses and all were okay. We considered this an emergency as the dog is old and relies on the cooling. So we rang Jane in France.

“We’ve got a slight problem,’ Mike said. “The air conditioning has stopped.”

“That’s not a slight problem,” Jane replied. “It’s a catastrophe!”

She gave us the number of the air-conditioning guy and he said he was booked solid, but he could come first thing in the morning.

Thankfully the house is all double glazed and it was still reasonably cool inside. We closed all the blinds just in case, and limited our time opening and closing the front door.

You may think we’re being paranoid, but the temperatures have been a consistent 40 plus and because of the humidity they say it feels like 48 degrees. And I believe that. I mean, we were cycling in 40 degree heat last year, and it was nowhere near as hot as it is here.

Meanwhile the dog continued to pant hot air into the room, and Mike’s bread dough sat on the side, untouched. I refused to let him put the oven on to bake it.

I tried to have a cold shower before bed to lower my body temperature, but the water was tepid, and didn’t feel the least bit cold. We had fans blasting in the bedrooms overnight, and it wasn’t too bad, no worse than a hot night in Hamilton.

This morning the house temperature was 30 degrees, comfortable enough for us, but the dog was a bit sluggish. We waited for the air conditioning man to arrive. I would have thought first thing for tradesmen in this heat would have been 7am. When he still hadn’t arrived at 9.30am, we rang him.

He told us he was booked solid for the day, but he’d try and make it tonight.

F**K THAT, we both said, knowing that by this afternoon it would be very hot.

So Mike started troubleshooting. We’d noticed there was no power to the thermostat, so we double checked the fuses. Mike flicked the AC fuse off, then on again. Nope, still not working.

Mike did some more research into the thermostat. It turns out it runs on AAA batteries and they might have gone flat. But surely that wouldn’t affect the functioning of the air-conditioner? Would it?

We scrambled around looking for AAA batteries, but couldn’t find any.

“The head torches!” I announced. “Maybe they have AAA batteries”

I knew exactly where my head torch was as we’d used it yesterday when Mike was doing some electrics in the van. I raced outside to the van, grabbed the head torch, flung it open and breathed a sigh of relief. They were AAA.

Now to see if they work. Mike removed the old batteries and put the new ones in, and voila! Air-conditioning working again! 

The dog is no long panting all over my leg.

How something so complex can rely on two AAA batteries is beyond us.

Thunder cracked outside the window, jolting me out of my seat. We both raced outside to watch the storm, hoping to get some good footage on my phone. Flashes filled the night sky as we watched in wonder. Then an explosive crack made me jump, swear, and run back inside. I’d never heard thunder so loud.

Then the rain came. We tried to venture outside again, to watch and film. I opened the front door and stepped back as a raging waterfall had sprouted over the eaves. “I’m not going out in that,” Mike said.

We scurried back inside, but we weren’t the only ones. A spider ran across the lounge floor, heading to the bedroom. I almost stomped on it, but decided instead to capture it in a glass, not wanting to deal with spider gunk all over the floor.

I pleaded for Mike to kill it, but he did the humane thing and took It outside and set it free. “It better not come back in here!” I said.

Later on that evening, as we were watching TV, something by the front door caught Mike’s eye. 

“What?” I said, my spider and scorpion radar on full alert.

“I’m hoping it’s just a spot on the mat,” he replied.

My radar peaked. There was no spot there earlier. I jumped up to have a look. 

“It’s a giant beetle,” Mike said. He headed over with his glass to trap it, and I followed close behind.

“That’s not a beetle,” I said.

The giant cockroach sat silently on the mat, like a stone or a small rock. But don’t let looks deceive you, this thing was a nightmare.

Mike tried to cover it with the glass, but the thing ran at his feet. Mike danced on his tippy-toes trying to dodge the critter and I’m sure I heard a little squeal.

He chased after it, backwards and forwards, but this thing was fast.

I grabbed the glass from Mike, thinking I could do better. It scuttled under a towel I’d placed by the door and hid. I picked up the towel, and it darted out, giving me a fright. I screamed and plonked the glass down, but missed. Dammit.

Then it ran into the cupboard. I tried capturing it as it scurried back and forth, but this thing moved at lightning speed. It would give Usain Bolt a good run for his money. 

It fled the cupboard, and I screamed again as it brushed my foot and made a bee-line for Mike’s shoe. I flicked his shoe out of the way, then it started running for my shoe. This time I panicked. There was no way I was going to capture this supersonic creature, and nor was I letting it in my shoe, so I did the only option left to me.

The sickening crunch below my jandal told me I had won. It had its chance, but now it was no longer. I looked down at the flattened mess, feeling no remorse.

I placed the glass over him and said, “Gotcha.”

One advantage of getting up at 6am to walk the dog, we can get out before it gets too hot. Although it already is too hot.

Today we visited some small towns in Texas. First stop, was the Paige Farmhouse and Diner for breakfast at 7.30am. It’s actually a wedding venue but they are also open for meals. I had my usual biscuits and gravy with a side of bacon, and Mike had bacon, eggs, and some hash. No, not that sort of hash, Marijuana is still illegal in Texas. It was a potato hash, and was delicious.

After our breakfast we visited the town of Paige, but it was very small with a population of about 500. But… we were glad we did as a family of Armadillos crossed the road in front of us. They are a weird dinasour looking creature with their beady little eyes, long pointed snout, and that freaky shell of overlapping scales. Amongst my excitement I got tangled up in all my cameras trying to take a photo, but thankfully they hung around long enough for me to capture them on film.

After Paige, we visited La Grange, famous for its Koloches and Klobasneks. More about them in a minute. La Grange was also famous for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas which the movie was based on. There’s that shack outside La Grange, that the famous ZZ-top song was based on. 

La Grange was inhabited by the Czechs who settled in the mid 1800s. This is why there are foods we have never heard of, like Koloches and Klobasneks.

Out first stop was Lukas bakery to see what their Klobasneks looked like. We walked into the bakery but we couldn’t see any on display. We were about to walk out, when a customer stops us.

“You can’t leave without tryin’ the Pigs,” she said.

“We couldn’t see any on display”, we said.

“That’s cos they need to be heated up.” She turns to the lady behind the counter. “Get these people two pigs, on me.”

We both said that was unnecessary, but she insisted, and handed us a bag of ‘two pigs.’

We thanked her very much, and took our treasure to the park to see what was in the bag.

Mike pulls out his ‘pig’ and shows it to me. It was similar to a sausage roll, but in a crispy bread rather than pastry. The Czech name for them is Klobasneks or ‘pigs in blankets.’ Certainly different to our version.

They were quite nice, but I wouldn’t write home about it. Although I am currently writing home about it, so… But I’d prefer a sausage roll any day.

Our next stop was to a settlement of a Czech family to the area which was really interesting. I’ll mention more of this on my vlogs, but we took a stroll in the heat, taking in the stunning views over Texas.

Our next stop was Weikels bakery, famous for its Koloches. These are a sweet treat, kind of like a cake with fruit. It looked similar to a Danish, but instead of pastry, it was soft and fluffy cake moulded around some fruit, or cream cheese. The taste was similar to a donut. Mike chose the lemon curd, and I chose the apricot.

For seconds I chose the cream cheese and Mike chose the peach

My favourite was the cream cheese, Mike’s was the lemon curd. They were so delicious and I’m glad it’s a 30 minute drive to get these otherwise I’d be eating them all day!

A Bard Joke:

Why did the armadillo cross the road? 

To get to the shell station.

The alarm chimes in my ear, jolting me awake. It’s 6am, time to get up and walk the dog.

In my comatose state I put on my clothes, remembering to shake them out first. In the lounge the cat is saying hello. It’s not a meow, he is actually talking, a clear and precise hello.

The air conditioning has been running all night and the house is cool, verging on cold. But as I step outside the heat hits, wrapping itself around me, seeping into every pore, and it’s not even daylight yet!

The angry dogs at the end of our driveway await. My chest tightens as I wonder if this will be the day the brown dog breaks through the fence and comes for us. It’s happened before, it’s only a matter of time before it happens again. And sometimes the owners get sloppy and leave the gate open.

But this time, we’re ready. Armed with pepper spray, air spray, a hooter and an umbrella we walk towards them, quietly so as not to alert them to our presence. 

But it’s no use. The brown dog is already barking angrily at us. Mike has Tootsie on a lead, and walks her quickly past. Once we’re past their section, we know the dog won’t try to escape, so we feel safe… for now. We still have to walk back past them.

It’s random which dogs decide to join us for our morning walk. The last few mornings, the husky has been joining us. I don’t like him to come near me because he’s always itching and scratching. Apart from his evil eyes and annoying habits, he seems like a pleasant chap. But he didn’t join us today, but the little terrier did. 

We have contacted another auto shop about Rodger’s air conditioning and he has managed to source a part for us. Assuming it fits okay, he will install it for us next week. I’ve always thought Americans were lazy for driving everywhere, but I’ve figured out it’s just too hot to walk anywhere. It has been 40 degrees and humid during the day, and not dropping below 30 degrees at night, so crazy weather. And this is why we’ve decided to get our air conditioning fixed.

We went into Austin on Sunday, and it’s a nice city, modern, but not too big. We drove past the sleek skyline and into the centre, thankful there was no traffic on a Sunday morning. We parked right opposite the Capitol building (free to park on Sundays) and had a look inside.

The large domed building loomed in front of us and I snapped a few photos. It was free to visit, but they scanned all our stuff on the way in, and it was like going through security in an airport. We had a browse around, impressed as I’d never been in a Capitol building before. But you’ll see it when the video comes out.

Austin looks like a very livable city, reminding me of Melbourne. We headed to the shops and restaurants in SOCO, short for South Congress. We had tacos for brunch, but neither of us were impressed, which is a shame as Texas is known for their Mexican food. We must have chosen the wrong place. But the place had a cool vibe so that was something.

We’ve had a steady stream of stuff arriving from Amazon. Mike has ordered solar panels and is in the process of wiring them up ready to mount on the roof. But it’s so frikking hot, he really can’t work for too long out there. I’m still trawling through footage and putting videos together.

At 9pm, we take Tootsie out for her final wee of the day and the fireflies are always out at this time. They’re like little sparks of light, flittering about the garden. They are really neat.

Last night I fell asleep to the sound of gunfire and dogs barking. The gunfire was a distance away so didn’t bother me so much, the dogs barking were next door.

There’s some good news and some bad news today. We’ll start with the bad news.

The compressor on the vans air conditioner has broken and they can’t find a replacement part. And even if we manage to find a replacement, it’s going to cost at least $500 in labour to fix.

The good news is, they didn’t charge us to tell us this. Also, we’ve not seen any more scorpions.

I am slowly trawling through all my footage trying to make it into videos. Mike is slowly making progress on the van. He’s putting some curtains up and fixed all the doors that keep swinging open while we are driving. Kevin fell over in the heat and his nose fell off, so Mike has fixed that. You’ll meet Kevin soon in our videos.

We still need to mount some solar panels, and also cover our toilet with something as it’s creepy preparing food so close to the loo, especially since it started smelling. I really want to put a composting toilet in, but they are ridiculously expensive. So we went to Home Depot, the US equivalent to Bunnings, and bought the bits and pieces we need to make a table over the loo. I also bought some spider and scorpion spray and tomorrow we will give our van a really good spray while we’re not living in it.

Everyone down South calls me Ma’am and I really don’t like it. At first I hated it so much I almost asked someone to stop calling me that. But I’m getting used to it now, and have downgraded from hating it to not liking it. But, it’s how they do things down south. Mike gets called Sir. I think he quite likes it.

The cleaner comes tomorrow morning, so tonight will be spent cleaning the house before the cleaner gets here.

The alarm goes off at 6am, and we take Tootsie for a walk, just a slow amble around the block. We are usually accompanied by other dogs. A little terrier, almost always comes with us. She’s a little character and struts along like she owns the place, so confident for something so small. She likes to wind up the other dogs in the neighbourhood who are stuck behind their fences. Another dog which often comes along is a husky, but we haven’t seen him for a few days.

It’s an interesting neighbourhood. It’s in Camp Swift which was an army base during WW2. The people living here are mostly Mexicans, and Jane refers to herself as the “old white lady.” Most of the houses have an eclectic mix of knick-knacks adorning their front porches, and a jumble of cars out the front. Chickens and roosters run free, clucking and crowing, and every house has a few dogs.

There is a “NO TRESPASSING” sign on each house. I asked Jane why they have a need to say that, I mean, in NZ we know not to trespass. But apparently the police won’t do anything about intruders in your back yard if you don’t display this sign. So that kinda makes sense.

As we walk around the block, a stark building surrounded by a barbed wire fence is on our right. We both assumed it was an army base, but it’s not… It’s a prison!

We walk alongside it, a security car patrolling up and down. All is quiet in the prison at 6am, but later in the day we can see the prisoners out playing sports. Sometimes baseball, or tennis. Jane refers to it as a prison resort.

After our walk, we have our breakfast. This morning we had to drop our van off in town to get the air-conditioning fixed. I took Janes car and it was my first time driving in America. It was ok, just weird making sure I was sat in the right place on the road. I found I tended to keep to the edge too much, but used my mirrors to centre myself.

After dropping the van off, we took a stroll along the river, which was very nice. Lots of other people making the most of the cool morning to get their exercise in.

Bastrop is a quaint little town, and we’ll do a vlog on it at some point. We saw an orange jeep in the Main Street with a kiwi on it, and Aotearoa written on the side. It’s nice to know we’re not the only kiwis here.

Today we saw a racoon. Thankfully it didn’t come too close to the house, but the cats decided to check it out. You don’t want to get too close to one, as they carry rabies.

To think I was scared of ticks, when a freaking scorpion just scurried across the kitchen floor. Thankfully Mike noticed it, put a glass over it, then slid some cardboard underneath and took it outside. I told him to kill it, but he didn’t want to. Hope it doesn’t come back in.

But now I’m worried. Are his family here somewhere? Are they going to crawl into bed with me? Holy crap, I knew Texas had scary things but I didn’t expect them in the house!

So, as well as ticks, we need to beware of scorpions, loose dogs, gun wielding people, snakes, it’s terrifying! As well as that, I’m covered in mozzie bites and they just don’t stop itching!

On the positive side, Mike has fixed the windscreen wipers and is in the process of fixing the rear vision mirror. We are still waiting to get the airconditioning fixed, hopefully tomorrow.

The waste tank in our van was starting to smell really bad, so we managed to find somewhere to dump it. It’s not like NZ where dump stations are free. But we found a campground and It was only $5 to dump. It still smells though, so we might have to get some de-odouriser for it.

The dog has a bladder infection, so Is on antibiotics. The only way she will take her pills is smashed up in some cat food. I’m actually hoping the scorpion came in on the dog and it’s a once-off thing. The thought of an infestation terrifies me.

The weather has cooled down to 30 degrees which has been quite nice, but it’s going up to 40 degrees on Thursday for a few days. Hope we get our airconditioner fixed before then!

Today we bought some bikes! We found a couple of cheapish bikes we liked and bought a bike rack for the van, and are looking forward to doing some cycling. Except there are a lot of loose dogs around this area, so we might need to drive somewhere to use them.

The vans air-conditioning packed up today. I think it’s quite common in the hot weather, but a pain for sure. Just hope it can be fixed and doesn’t cost too much.

Jane treated us to dinner. We went to a BBQ place and it was so delicious. The smoked brisket was something I have never had and it was soooo good. They smoke it for around 12 hours and it just melted in my mouth, and oh so tasty. I also had lamb ribs which were also delicious, and sides of potato salad and Mac n cheese. Mike had the pork ribs, but they weren’t like the ribs we’d get at home. The pork was smoked and tasted more like a ham. I didn’t like it.

Jane leaves to go to France on Sunday, so we are driving her to Austin airport. We might have a look around Austin while we are there.

We arrived at our housesit and met Jane, our housesit host. We’re staying in a 2 bedroom house that’s been recently renovated, and the most important thing is, it has air-conditioning. We are on 1 acre of property so quite private, although there are other houses around.

We are looking after a 15 year old Rottweiler called Tootsie, and two cats which are still scared of us. Our job is to walk Tootsie at 6am in the morning, and basically just feed the animals.

Jane said one thing to be aware of, is that in Texas, most people carry guns. So every now and then we might hear gunshot around the place, but it’s usually people in their backyards just firing their guns. Still, a scary thought.

Jane doesn’t go away until Sunday, but has let us camp here and to get used to the animals before she goes.

Mike is working on our van, with a list of things to fix, while I am trawling through all my footage and trying to make videos out of it.