Sunday - 01/17/10

  It took until 10:45 to get breakfast and get everything ready to travel. Thomas’ knee is doing much better this morning and he decided to leave the crutches here with Brother Bill. But between Bill and my own objections, he was out voted. Better to have them and not need them than to have to buy a pair somewhere down the road. Of course Bill had been giving Thomas a hard time about Bill not needing them until he was 62 and Thomas needing them at 59. It is so funny to see these two interact when they get together.
 
  Leaving Hot Springs, we took Hwy 7 South past Lake DeGray. It was amazing that the access areas and COE (Corp of Engineers) Campground on this lake was barricaded. It is a really nice lake. They do not allow houses to be built along the shoreline.

  We settled in for a long drive today. The route was AR. Hwy 7 to I-30. I-30 west will take us through Arkadelphia to Texarkana on the Arkansas/Texas border. In TX I-30 will take you through Greenville to Dallas. Somewhere in Dallas I-30 merges with and becomes I-20. I-20 is the path from Dallas to Fort Worth, Abilene, Midland, Odessa and then merges with and becomes I-10 just east of Kent. I-10 will take us into New Mexico and Arizona, which like the others will merge and become I-8.

  During the long ride we had much time to talk about different things. Among them was: when you are faced with something like this trip has been so far…like:
1) it taking so long for us to be able to leave because of my heath issues,
2) it turning so cold that we had to replace pipes in the trailer due to leaks from freezing,
3) the solar not getting completed on time.
  Then after finally getting on the road…..
4) The trailer door not staying shut,
5) The main road out, I-40, having a detour due to rock slide,
6) The detour you take closed due to a rock slide and
7) It taking too many miles and all day to get to what should have taken only 3.5 hours,
8) The icy, curvy, slow mountain road we traveled,
9) Thomas’ knee going out for no apparent reason.

  What do you do? Follow your “superstitious side” to see these things as signs? Take all these signs as a warning that you should turn around and go back home? OR do you persevere and decide you are going to fight the struggle and go on this trip?
  Well as you can see….we venture on!

  About 4:30pm found us just east of Dallas crossing Ray Hubbard Lake. It had the appearance more reminiscent of an ocean than a lake. There were even pelicans in the water. Now that just doesn’t seem right. Those are ocean birds!

  Just west of Dallas we passed Six Flags over Dallas and also a large water park. Even though they were west of Dallas, they seemed like they were inside the city and they were right beside the interstate. Both of them were closed.

  Dallas merged into Fort Worth. This huge area was a conglomeration of buildings. Traffic was bad enough but at least it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. The interstate kept going from 6 to 8 to even 12 lanes sometimes where extra were added for exit lanes. Thankfully we got through this area on a Sunday instead of during the week and facing work traffic at 5:30pm. Plus with Monday being MLK vacation for some, it also might have made the traffic lighter today. Thomas said, “I don’t like driving in big city traffic – too many opportunities to die!”
 
  Although our plan was to make Abilene for the night stop, we didn’t make it. Instead we stopped in Eastland where we got permission to overnight at the Wal-Mart #561.
Good night for now.