Archives September 2007

The only non-smoking rooms they had were two double beds.  Ali and I crammed into one.  I watched The Marine last night.  It wasn’t horrible which I fully expected it to be.  It had some odd humor, and portrayed the latest wrestler turned actor, John Cena as a marine whom is apparently indestructible.  The guy got blown up (twice), beaten up constantly and even took a sledge hammer to the ribs but somehow managed to get through it all just fine and of course, he saves the girl at the end.  B-

I was up late so I slept late, almost till 9 CST which is very late for me.  The nights rest wasn’t great because of the cramped quarters but it was good enough that I don’t feel like a zombie. When I took Nicki outside this morning there actually was a bit of a chill in the air that felt refreshing.  All of the 18 wheelers that were strewn across the parking lot last night had vacated already which was nice. The continental breakfast they served here wasn’t half bad which was a pleasant surprise.  On to dad’s place, whenever we feel like pulling out.  We aren’t rushing.  More pictures are up there, when I get time I will caption some of them to explain what they are.

After this point my internet connectivity, at least from Ali’s laptop will be questionable.  My plans to use my Treo as a wireless modem haven’t planned out well.  Evidently if you are roaming, which I seem to always be, I can’t use the Treo for a data connection.

Oh I forgot to post gas data, the cheapest gas I have seen so far has been $2.46 a gallon in east Texas.  Makes sense I guess, however we also have seen gas for $2.99 a gallon in Texas as well.

Day 3 has been a grind.  After a more or less relaxed evening at the very nice La Quinta in Vidor we hit the road for yet another very long day.  As you drive mile after endless mile you notice repeating patterns of businesses.  It seemed almost every exit off of I-10 had a Whataburger and Waffle House. 

I don’t get Waffle House.  You see them everywhere in the south.  They are always, plain, generic, basically shitty looking buildings.  But that isn’t the strange thing.  You would think with as many as there are, they must do a great business somehow?  Not that I can tell.  I literally never see anyone at these shacks.  It must be a front for the mafia or something.

Another thing I have been surprised with during our 1700 mile journey so far is just how many vehicles wind up on the side of the road with flat tires.  I literally have seen at least a couple dozen, easy.  I am praying the van stays flat free.  I have no idea if the thing even has a spare, a jack or a tire iron, I never bothered to check, my bad.

Our drive today covered about the same distance as yesterday.  Early on we went through the urban areas of Houston and the San Antonio areas.  I wasn’t impressed at all.  Then again I don’t know if I am ever impressed driving through cities.  The overpasses stacked one on top of each other, various run down, visual blight everywhere and the endless crush of strip malls, restaurants and the human beings to frequent them all just is a big turn off for me.

It was interesting as we traveled west, the gradual changes we would witness.  It went from green, mostly flat and boring to green and some hills, to less green and more, bigger hills, to mostly brown with large hills, small mountains and plateaus everywhere you turned.

The speed limit in the middle of Texas on I-10 jumps up to 80 mph.  For a very long time I kept the van at 70 even though I had the green light to push it farther.  Then with about 200 miles to go to our stopping point I decided to push through the 73-76mph shaking region and go up to 80 where things settled back down.  70 was nice, 80 was better.  Going up to 80 knocked 20 minutes of the projected arrival time at our destination, over the span of an entire day, that extra 10 mph would have easily shaved an hour off the days driving.

We got to the motel and I was underwhelmed.  Yea it is clean enough, has internet, takes pets and offers continental breakfast.  But after the near luxury accommodations of the night before, this just seems blah and it is costing me the same.  On top of that, there appears to be a lot of truckers here and I have seen more than a couple individuals walking or in some cases, staggering around that appeared shady.  I’m glad the van is parked under a bright light if you know what I mean.

Nicki still hasn’t eaten a meal since we left Florida.  She has been getting by on dog treats.  She did something similar when we drove up to PA last year.

Ali and I are getting burned out on “travel food”.  We have hit Subway three or four times, a Quiznos, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.  Getting out of my normal eating routine never makes me feel good.  

 So we have about 380 miles to go.  I called Dad and let him know we would be rolling in later in the day tomorrow.  We are in no rush to get out of here tomorrow.  It’s funny how sitting on your ass all day in a vehicle makes you tired.   

Yesterday was a looong driving day, we covered 650 miles and stopped at Vidor, Texas which is just inside the eastern Texas border.  We drove through New Orleans yesterday but didn’t stop.  We saw enough from the van.  The place is an absolute mess, abandoned, damaged buildings as far as you can see.  It looked like the hurricane happened two weeks ago, not two years ago.

Driving all day is tolerable in the party van but not exactly “fun”.  By the end of the day I felt like I had a dull haze all over me.  Even though it was almost 9pm in our native EST zone, Ali and I went to the small, minimal fitness room the hotel has and did some cardio and a few other things just to get some rust off.

Speaking of the hotel, this LaQuinta is almost brand new and it is awesome.  Everything is new and clean.  The LQ in Tallahassee was fine, this place is great!  I stayed up late watching Rounders last night (A) and slept through the night except for a brief episode where Nicki was growling and grexxing at imaginary threats again.  The only problem was Nicki didn’t realize we had jumped time zones and got me up at 5:30 CST. I’m a bit tired.

For a few periods yesterday I pushed the party van past the 73 mph vibration point up to near 80 where the ride smoothed out somewhat again.  However the van felt like it was really working hard to maintain that speed so I didn’t maintain it for very long. 

Texas is very wide, nearly 900 miles where we are crossing.  We are in no rush to leave this nice hotel but the longer we wait, the longer the day will become.

I have an online web album of the pictures we are taking started here.

Watched the 1986 animated Transformers movie.  Much darker than I remember the tv series being.  Transformers actually die in this, a lot.  The word “shit” was even in the dialogue.  It was ok. B

Last night was not very restful.  Ali found what she thought was a dead brown recluse behind the chair.  I later removed a live small toad from next to the tub.  This morning there was another live small frog under the sink. 

It took awhile to fall asleep as Nicki was barking and growling at every little noise.  Nicki is all disoriented by the new surroundings and is acting very skittish.  She only ate a few bites of her food.

After finally falling asleep I was awakened at midnight by the alarm on the clock radio that I didn’t realize was turned on.  Shortly after that I woke up when Ali got up to take off Nicki’s jingling collar that we forgot to remove before bed. Then at 2:30 Nicki woke me up to go outside and pee.  After that it again took me a long time to fall back asleep.  Nicki had no concerns for my light sleep when she woke me up at 7am to start the day. Yawn…..

We will hopefully be back on the road within a half hour or so.