Austin-based writer Clayton Maxwell and her family found relief from the pandemic this winter by borrowing a camper van, loading up their dog, and heading out on a six-day expedition from the Oklahoma border to the Gulf.

The story of her trip, “The Ties That Bind” was featured in the May 2021 edition of Texas Highways.

Their trip was inspired, in part, by the words of Texas’ pledge of allegiance, wh…