Sunday, June 24, 2007

Day 2: El Paso to Allen (Dallas)

All Texas, all the time!

Another day on the road. We started in El Paso. My who weren’t pictured yesterday got their photo ops this morning


Joe (left) and Derf (right) have watched the country go by through the backseat window on the drivers side.


Baxter smiles at me every time I look in the rear-view mirror. I at least see his ears in the center of the backseat every time I check my mirror. Boy, that's a terrible picture. I'll try to do better tomorrow.


About an hour out of El Paso, we had to pull over for a Border Patrol inspection station. I was stopped instead of waved through, but all the guy wanted to know was if I was a U.S. citizen. I guess a woman with four teddy bears, an obviously American accent and a packed-to-the-gills car doesn’t look much like a potential immigrant.

I-10 wasn’t so bad, but lemme tell you … I-20 is boring as all crap. I’m really glad I had books on tape on my iPod, or I might have given into the temptation to jump out of the car while it was still moving. Yes, I was that bored.

No interesting photos. I drove through Odessa and realized why my very favorite soccer player at Akron had nothing particularly flattering to say about his hometown. It’s the home of Permian High School, the school upon which Friday Night Lights is based, but Erik (sorry, I can’t remember his last name) never had much good to say about Odessa.

I also passed through Midland, Texas, and wasn’t quick enough on the draw to take a picture of the sign on the side of the road denoting the hometown of George W. and Laura Bush. Oh well.

There literally was NOTHING exciting on the drive until I got to Fort Worth.


Where I saw Six Flags over Texas. I also drove past the Ballpark at Arlington, but couldn’t get a decent pic of that.


The route Jon, my host for this evening, gave me was also the tourist/sightseeing route. I got the view of downtown Dallas that was straight from the TV show. I took this photo in a mini-traffic jam while changing highways.

At the end of that freeway change, I noticed a sign off to my left. For El Fenix, a restaurant that Chris and Jon enjoyed the last time Chris was here. I tried to take a picture, but got a little screened at the last second …


Sorry, Chris! I tried! :)


I thought this was a little over the top, but hey, it’s Texas after all!


Saw this at a stop light on the way to Jon’s house. Thought it was fun/cute.

Jon and I drove by the South Fork ranch from the TV show Dallas, then went out to dinner for some yummy barbecue. Sorry. No camera at dinner. I’ll try to get a pic in the AM when he’s all spiffed up for work.

TODAY’S SOUNDTRACK
* The end of the BNL concert in Santa Monica from December 2005
* Two episodes of Wait Wait
* The first four hours of “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson
* A little more BNL as I had to pay attention to directions getting to Jon’s house

TRIP STATISTICS
Today: One state (Texas), 651.6 miles, 9 hours, 25 minutes
Total: Four states (CA, AZ, NM, TX) 1,453.5 miles

LICENSE PLATE GAME
Today: Seven new states- Alabama, Oregon, Louisiana, Indiana, Kansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma
Total: 21 states (Ala., Ariz., Calif., Col., Fla., Hawaii, Idaho, Ind., Kan., La., Mich., Mont., N.M., Nev., Ore., Okla., S. Car., Texas, Va., Wash.)

TOMORROW'S ITINERARY
Allen, Texas, to Oxford Mississippi for Monday, then a day off with my friend Bill on Tuesday. Woo-Hoo! :)

No comments: