Road Trip - August 2014

Set out from home at 3 am Saturday headed for Birmingham and my 50^th high school reunion. I don’t like to drive in the dark, but I knew I’d still be in Texas, and therefore sorta on “home turf” by sunrise, so wasn’t all that concerned. Because I was traveling alone, I kept to my normal schedule of stopping for breaks only at welcome centers; they are patrolled and there’s someone looking out for my best interests 24 hours a day, which gives me a sense of safety (ok, well not totally, but then I’m always hyper aware of where I am and who might be around me no matter my location). Gasoline is always purchased at a known station, so that’s within my comfort zone, too.

One of the biggest problems with being on the road alone for more than 8 hours is that I tend to get bored. NOT a good thing. Plus, knowing I would be driving another 12 or more hours coming home on Sunday, again leaving pre-dawn, I prepared myself for the long haul. I keep the radio on until I run out of decent fm reception (no way Jose am I getting on the am band), and was fortunate enough to hear a 93.7 broadcast of the Pledge of Allegiance done by a children’s class. When there’s finally too much static to bear, I switch to my own music, choosing from travel kit CDs, each with at least a hundred mp3 files, all songs I enjoy hearing, or comedic skits to laugh at, old favorites to sing along with, or amusing myself by conducting my own personal private orchestra performance of Grofe, Stravinsky, Chopin, Beethoven, Strauss, Copeland, and Souza (can’t imagine what the folks in the lane next to me think of that!); it keeps me awake and involved but doesn’t divert my attention from the task of driving.

Several bottles of coffee in the cooler and a plug-in mug to keep it warm (thank you, hubby) along with half a case of water and other assorted liquid refreshments kept me hydrated, cheese crackers and yogurt raisins kept me from starving to death, and thoughts of “oh thank God it's only another 100 miles to the next rest stop” kept me sane. Hahaha!

Another thing I discovered is that with this new camera I can take pictures while I drive; just set it on the steering wheel and push the shutter button.  Got some interesting shots of sunrise in Louisiana. The low-lying eerie bayou fog topped by a rising neon sun was amazing. The bugs on the windshield not so much. Running out of washer fluid even less so. Huge thanks to the service station attendant who did NOT charge me for not only refilling it but also showed me the hood release button when I stopped for fuel. (Yes, we've had the car since December, but I rarely drive it and some things I just simply don't notice until I need to notice.)

This sign always makes me smile. And then I say a prayer for him, wherever he is, whatever he's doing, and the young men and women on active duty.

Because people worry about me when I travel, I take a picture of the current rest stop and send it as a text message to the three most involved with tracking my progress. Sometimes they respond, but they know they don’t have to, and it makes everybody feel better. Unfortunately not all the rest areas have adequate cell service within the rest room stalls, so I sometimes have to take a few extra minutes, shooting random pics while I wait for confirmation that my message was successfully sent. The drought in the US has really affected the level of the Mississippi river at Vicksburg, way down below where it should be; poor pilots had a hard time navigating the barges.

I also record verbal notes on my phone, and then play them back after I return home to remind me of things that particularly got my attention during the trip. For example: the pungent reek of freshly-riled polecat somewhere around Tyler; the merest sliver of a moon both mornings in a sky dark as a Cracker Barrel dining room at 4 am; little one-interchange-towns that waft the smell of old grease from the ubiquitous always-open truck stop; Monroe still smells like money; a bloated javelina pig, feet in the air, on the shoulder just west of Marshall; the warning sign with a blinking light above a picture of a bear (no, I’m not at all sure what it means and was not about to stay around to find out!); a long line of cars sporting National Guard license plates exiting the highway in Meridian headed for a Sunday morning drill; front bumpers severed from automobiles in what must have been ghastly accidents and then abandoned by the owners; the absolutely positively frightful condition of one I-20 welcome center contrasted with the well-appointed, nice-smelling, CLEAN beauty of another in east Texas.

And this trip something new; the signs may have been there for a while, but it’s the first time I noticed that two of the I-20 interchanges are named for local soldiers fallen in combat. Sgt. Joshua Tomlinson and Sgt. Josh Madden. God bless the government for saying yes to this tribute, for the folks who raised the money, and to all those who remember them; I thank them and their families for their ultimate sacrifice, made to keep my home (of the brave and land of the) free for me and all who travel through it.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20120703/NEWS01/120703053/Sgt-Josh-Madden-Interchange-dedicated

http://projects.militarytimes.com/valor/army-spc-joshua-a-tomlinson/4635354/