Rices on the Road- January

In September of 2025, we sold our house & bought a 2026 Brinkley 3610!

Randy & I both work remotely, so we are now living in our camper & working remotely from wherever. I say it’s not a “forever” decision, but a “for right now” decision. All of our chicks have left the nest & it just felt right to us! We know there will be ups & downs, but we are feeling incredibly grateful to be able to travel & explore during this season of life. I will be sharing monthly about where we’ve been & what we are up to.

We started the New Year with one last morning walk on the beach before hitting the road! Our time in Gulf Shores was amazing!

Avery & Ethan had already flown home, but we still had Alli, Bethany & Piper with us! The girls took this pic as they were travelling behind us at one point.

I’ve shared before that we like to use our Harvest Hosts membership as we are traveling from one place to another. Our first stop was at Landry Vineyards in West Monroe, Louisiana. The scenery was beautiful!

We snagged an early dinner at El Sombrero, a local Mexican restaurant, & went to bed early.

Piper is an excellent example of how we all felt, ha!

The next day, Alli & Piper went for a morning walk before we hit the road! Can you see them clear down there?

We spent most of the day driving to Waco, Texas. But we got there in time to head to the Silos at Magnolia!!! The $2 sweet tea refills got all of us. We had a great time people watching & wandering through all the shopping areas! It was a beautiful day!!

These two (+Piper) traveled to & from Gulf Shores with us. We had the best time together!! We loved showing them what life on the road is like! When they got home, they both agreed to do it again sometime. yay!!

Piper gets extra spoiled any time she’s with us. She wouldn’t eat her dinner & then Randy grabbed her bowl & she gobbled it right up! Seriously love that little dog!

The next day the girls headed on back to Kansas. Randy & I stayed in Waco another day. I was still fighting the cold/influenza/covid/virus that lasted FOREVER that Alli had shared with us… We planned to find a church to go to, but decided to just watch online since my cough was nonstop!! We did laundry & cleaned the pickup & camper & I rested a lot too. Let me tell you, my heart was so sad once all the kids were gone! We just LOVED having them with us so much!

This is what I wrote the day they left… The camper feels pretty quiet this afternoon.

Having some of our young adult kids with us for an extended time was such a sweet gift. I pray as they head back to real life that they always remember that the world needs exactly who God created them to be! Love them so much!

Apparently, we took exactly ZERO pictures of the campground we stayed at in Waco. The name of it was Flat Creek Farms RV Park. It was nothing special, but worked fine for us. I think we will try a different one next time we are in the area!

We grabbed brunch at The Toasted Yolk & then hit the road for our next destination!

Texas knows how to do rest areas! We have stopped at a couple that are way back from the road & are really lovely & well kept. I snapped this picture at one!

We spent the next two weeks at The Preserve RV Park on Lake Livingston & we LOVED it!!

Randy got a big kick out of the guy that worked in the office. He was always so excited to see us! Randy told him that his parents gave him an awesome name! Yep, his name was also Randy lol!

Have you ever read the Bible all the way through? Randy & I started together in January of 2022, using Bible Recap. We didn’t want to just blaze through it, we wanted to understand what we are reading! Bible Recap is designed to be completed in a year, but we said we would offer ourselves grace. Reading through it all at some point is better than not at all, that’s what we told ourselves. Apparently, we gave ourselves too much grace. Here we are in January 2026 & we still haven’t finished. We love reading it together, but the truth is, we don’t always make it a priority. We get distracted.

We sat by the lake on our lunch break & read it together each day. I’m declaring this is our year! We will make a post in January 2027 saying we finished & started it again. Hold me to it!!

Alli texted us this picture & said that they were 9 minutes into welcoming duty on their first day back to work when Piper left the hallway to go lay down lol!
Poor girlie is having a hard time recovering from her Christmas break in the sun!

I saw this & totally cracked up because I think it’s us! Although we don’t have a bird feeder, so I would change it up a little bit. One minute you’re busy chasing your kids to all their things & the next you’re using an app to identify the birds you hear! What a life!

Listening to the birds there was amazing! So many different birds & they sung all the time!

(I’ve learned I like listening to them, but not necessarily seeing them).

We use the Merlin Bird ID app & it’s amazing!

We did love watching the eagles that loved to hang out just outside our camper. Randy was fascinated! We loved watching them fly, so big & beautiful! However, seeing them mate wasn’t on our bucket list.

The day we arrived at the beach house, I twisted my ankle & fell down the stairs. (My sweet girls who were inside told me they just heard a tiny thud. I’ll tell you it felt much more like a big kersplat! When they came out to investigate, they said I looked just like a dead body laying there waiting for a chalk line to be drawn around me. Ha!) Alli sent this picture just to clarify lol

Well after doing everything Dr Google told me to for 3 weeks & still dealing with pain & swelling, I decided I better get it checked out. Here we are.. a grade 3 sprain & boot for 4 weeks, then reevaluate. Good grief!

A few places we ate:

Miss Jean’s BBQ - we just did carry out & it was definitely less than stellar.

Stella’s Bakery - amazing!!

It was a super cool place! They had an outside area too, but it was raining so I didn’t get any pics.

& the food was delicious!

I grabbed some soup to take home. So good!

Jerry’s Restaurant - we went there for Sunday lunch after seeing the parking lot packed with cars every single time we drove by.

They had two specials, roast beef & baked chicken. So we decided to each get one. Then we found out they each came with 3 sides plus bread & dessert. Gracious!!

Listen, you have to go to Jerry’s on a Sunday because that is the only day they make broccoli cheese cornbread. Now, I was skeptical, but the waitress said we had to try it. I am not kidding you when I tell you that I will dream of that cornbread. It was incredible!! Take a closer look! YUM!!

what I want to remember most:

I had the sweetest time with God at the lake that I will always hold close to my heart. The last few years I have worked hard to really embrace who God created me to be, to lean in to it, to not long for the gifts He’s given to others, but to claim & use the gifts He’s given to me. For me, that has been the gift of prayer. One weekend, I felt heavily burdened as I prayed for the earthly suffering of several close to me. A friend with a recent cancer diagnosis, another whose husband’s lab results were indicating that his cancer had returned, a friend who was holding her mom’s hand, awaiting her entrance to Heaven & yet another who is missing her sweet granddaughter who went to be with Jesus way too soon. It all felt like too much. Then I remembered a quote I recently heard that said there’s a difference between caring & carrying. I’m working on that. For me, the greatest gift of being a prayer warrior, is having that front row seat to see what God will do!

The day we left to head back to Kansas, our friends, Rick & Kelly were heading on a cruise. As we were texting each other, we realized we were not that far apart & would be passing each other on the road. So we picked a town to meet in. Lucky for them, it was a place we had stopped before. So we got to introduce them to one of our favorite treats, peach cinnamon shakes from Coopers Peaches! We got to catch up for a little bit & wish them well on their trip!

Oh I am so thankful we got to see them even for a little bit!!

Randy & I decided to grab a quick bite to eat before we got back on the road!

We used our Harvest Host membership to stay on a farm just outside of Thackerville, Oklahoma that night. The sunset was so pretty! We ate in the camper & watched the Broncos game. Then Randy stayed up way too late reading all the reports about Bo Nix & his ankle. Such a bummer!!

The next day we headed back to McPherson RV Ranch! Randy had meetings for work that he needed to be in the area for.

When we first got back to KS it was in the upper 40s/lower 50s. We thought it was cold! Randy was wearing a big winter coat. Alli was making fun of him & said.. Dad, you know how someone goes for one run & suddenly they’re a “runner”? Well you went south one month & now you’re suddenly a “snowbird!” So funny!!

But then it got REAL cold!! & it lasted for several days! We are talking -20 windchills!! We are thankful to have weathered the storm there where we just got snow & not ice! We burned through propane like crazy, but the camper was nice & toasty, holding steady between 71 & 73. Thankfully, our furnace has vents that blow into the “basement” that keep all the plumbing warm too!

Once again, I did a TERRIBLE job of taking pictures while we were in the area! I am going to do better next time!! We gathered with friends & family often. In fact, our last 7 days, we went out to eat every single evening with a different group of people! It was so good for my soul! A highlight was getting a visit from Jeanie (& Isaiah Euler)! Jeanie was another FarmHouse mom, so she drove down to spend part of the day with Lori & I. We got to tour Lori’s new house, my camper & see the amazing barndominium that Lori’s son, Jori is renovating! It was such a good time together!

We got to make a quick trip to Manhattan to go to church & lunch with Alli & Bethany! & open gifts from the kids. The kids got me this scratch off map that has the state flower for each state. I LOVE it!! We decided to scratch off the state, once we have spent the night in the camper there. I think we are doing pretty well so far, considering we just started traveling at the end of September! I posted it on facebook & several of you have asked for the link, so HERE it is!! Oh I just treasure it!!

So many people have questions for us & we aren’t ever sure what all to share, so we decided to start keeping track of some “fun facts” for you. Let us know what other things you would like to know!!

Fun facts for January:

States we were in: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas

Miles traveled: 3,336

Amount spent on gas: $765.38

Amount spent on campground fees: $1,138.10

Number of birds on our app since we started traveling: 23

Number of audio books we listened to: 1

Your Story Has a Villain: Identify Spiritual Warfare and Learn How to Defeat the Enemy - Randy & I thought this was pretty interesting. It’s a hard topic to understand & we both learned a lot from it!! Definitely not an easy listen.