Too much Texas
Yesterday was our last marathon driving day. Since we didn’t leave at 4AM like we did for our first long driving day it made the miles seem very, very long.
We started out the day as we did most days, finding the closest Dunkin Donuts. I drove us there. As I was making a right turn into the lot we felt a jolt. The entrance to the parking lot had the curb extended further than I realized. I was annoyed by my poor judgment as we got out to survey the damage. I managed to crack the outer ring of the passenger front wheel cover as well as scrape the tire a bit. Grrr.
Well there were a couple local cops sitting outside drinking their coffee. They obviously heard/saw me clip the curb. They started asking us questions in a friendly but inquisitive way. Where you from? Where are you going? I definitely got a vibe that they were checking to see if my impact was because of some sort of substance influence. We engaged them normally but it was definitely a bit of a weird interaction.
The drive across western Texas was desolate as ever. The 80 mph speed limit allows you to take down the miles quickly however it also resulted in us getting the worst gas mileage of the trip, in the low 40’s. Cindy and I split the driving time yesterday nearly 50/50 which helped a lot when covering 835 miles.
We wound up staying in Beaumont Texas at a Comfort Suites which was really nice. Unfortunately we don’t get much out of a hotel room during road trips beyond a shower, breakfast and a pillow to lay our head on.
We picked up dinner to go from the near by Cracker Barrel. We had a good but large meal, probably too large considering we didn’t eat until after 8:30. I started listening to the Eagles game on the satellite radio and then flipped it on the tv when we got into the room.
The game did not go well while I was listening to it for the entire first half. It was sort of like last week’s game where the Colts were taking control. The Eagles moved the ball but repeatedly stalled in the red zone, getting two field goals and missing a third. The defense didn’t seem up to the task of stopping the Colts. It was 20-6 midway into the 3rd quarter when I started watching the game.
Well much like last week the team made some adjustments and some big plays in the second half to come roaring back. Surprisingly it was Darren Sproles more than LeSean McCoy that made some of the biggest plays of the game. He is so damn quick, it is amazing. He had a couple fantastic runs. He is a very exciting player to have on the team, he seems like he is always a threat to break a big play.
Nick Foles bounced back once again, calmly leading the team back even after he made some poor throws early on. He just gets the job done. The Eagles were also the recipient of some good luck. The got an interception late that could have been negated by some pretty blatant illegal contact in the secondary. They then had a drive extended when the Colts were called for a horse collar tackle on McCoy that shouldn’t have been called. One of the key ingredients of a successful season is getting lucky once in awhile. Last nights game definitely had it’s fair share of that.
However the bottom line was the Eagles made plays when they had to. Their new kicker, whose name I can’t even remember kicked the winning field goal not once but twice, after the Colts called a last second time out to ice him. Since he missed a short field goal earlier in the game I was nervous however he drilled both of the end of game kicks down the middle. It was a great win. I hope this is the start of a season where the Birds truly return to being among the elite in the NFC, something that hasn’t been the case for nearly 10 years.
Today we are back on the road with a destination of Tallahassee. We are hoping to do dinner with my Ukranian calisthenics buddy Max along with his wife. Max only came to the USA last year after trying to get here for quite awhile. Ironically since he moved to America I have talked to him less then when he lived in Ukraine. He has had quite a shift in his life obviously. His descriptions of Ukraine were pretty depressing.
We only have one more day of travel left after today. It will be nice to get back into my own bed once again. Obviously a ton of work awaits me but with Cindy helping me we can knock things out pretty efficiently. Even though the trip is not over yet I feel safe declaring it as another successful venture.