From Florida to California and Back: 6,169 Miles of Adventure in Our Jeep Gladiator There is something special about packing up the Jeep, pointing it west, and watching America unfold mile by mile through the windshield. What started as a road trip from Florida to…
Starting Our New Orleans Morning with Beignets at Café Beignet on Royal Street One of the things we knew we had to do while visiting New Orleans was enjoy a plate of fresh beignets. The next morning, we walked over to Café Beignet on Royal Street in the heart of the…
Returning to New Orleans: A Relaxing Evening in the French Quarter After a comfortable night’s stay at the La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Columbus TX, we began another day on the road heading toward one of our favorite destinations—New Orleans. Before…
From El Paso to Columbus: A Long Texas Drive with Small-Town Hospitality Leaving El Paso behind, we began another long day on Interstate 10 heading east across the vast landscapes of West Texas. The scenery slowly transitioned from desert mountains and rocky terrain…
From Arizona’s Texas Canyon to an Overnight Stop in El Paso Leaving California and continuing east on Interstate 10, one of our favorite scenic stops of the day was the Texas Canyon Rest Area near Dragoon. The rest area is surrounded by enormous granite boulders…
After attending Saturday Vigil Mass at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, we got back on the road and continued our journey west toward Wichita Falls. What started as a fairly normal evening drive quickly turned into one of the most intense weather experiences of our entire road trip.
Leaving Forney, we worked our way through the busy Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex traffic. Even on a weekend evening, there was still plenty of congestion, construction, and constant lane changes to keep us alert behind the wheel of the Jeep Gladiator. Once we finally cleared the city, the drive became much more open and peaceful as we headed northwest through smaller Texas towns.
That peaceful drive did not last forever.
Somewhere between Bowie and Wichita Falls, the weather suddenly turned severe. Dark clouds rolled in fast, heavy rain started pounding the windshield, and Tornado Warnings began appearing directly on the Jeep Gladiator dashboard. Seeing tornado alerts pop up while driving through rural Texas at night definitely gets your attention.
The storm became intense with lightning flashing across the sky and visibility dropping quickly at times. It turned into one of those drives where both hands stay locked on the steering wheel and your full attention never leaves the road. Thankfully, traffic was fairly light, and we carefully pushed through the worst of it safely.
By the time we arrived in Wichita Falls, we were more than ready to stop for the night. We checked into the Best Western Plus University Inn & Suites, and it turned out to be a great choice after such a stressful drive. The hotel was clean, comfortable, and very welcoming after hours on the road and driving through severe weather.
One of the best parts was being able to simply walk over to McBride’s Steakhouse for dinner instead of getting back into the Jeep again. We enjoyed a Chicken Caesar Salad and a Blue Cheese Burger, both of which hit the spot after the long drive through the storm.
The evening also marked a small but meaningful moment for me personally. I had my first Michelob Ultra Zero since becoming alcohol free almost a year ago. I honestly did not know what to expect, but it was surprisingly good and felt like a nice way to relax and celebrate making it safely through another memorable day on the road.
Looking back, the drive from Forney to Wichita Falls had a little bit of everything — peaceful moments after Mass, big city traffic, dangerous Texas storms, and finally a quiet evening with good food and a comfortable hotel at the end of the night.
