Day 4 - Kansas City MO - 812 Miles

“What an idiot!”

That’s what I always say when the news shows someone in a stalled car on a flooded roadway. 

“Sure, the dip in the road is now a swift-flowing river, but I can still make it.”

We nearly joined their ranks in Coffeyville KS. The downpour had already caused us to make two detours through town after seeing cars ahead of us caught in the rising water. Let me tell you, seeking high ground in that part of Kansas can be a real trick. We finally gave up and stopped to eat while waiting for the deluge to ease up. By the time we finished, the rain had stopped but the route out of town was still flooded. Another patron suggested 8^th Street as an alternative since it was higher and joined back up with the highway on the edge of town.

We headed down 8^th Street along with many others who felt this was a good idea. Then everything came to a stop since that passage looked equally treacherous. The vehicles in front of us were SUV’s so I let a Toyota Corolla pull in front of me to let her act as my canary in the coal mine. The SUV’s turned down another side street and made it through, but I thought it would be iffy for me. The Toyota and a big Buick followed them so I fell in behind.  Surprisingly they made it so I tried it. Water washed over the hood of the car (which I now refer to as the bow), but we made it. The Toyota turned away from the direction I wanted to go but the Buick headed back toward the highway so I followed. By now we were in an area of open land surrounded by water for maybe 40 yds.  Nothing indicated where the underwater road was. I hoped a local drove the Buick and knew where the road. I followed him. There was one more episode of nearly floating away or stalling out before making it back to the highway. Unfortunately it wasn’t until we were back on the highway that Terry said, “We should have taken pictures.” Therefore yet again I have no pictures worth sharing. Sooner or later I’ll get some, though.

“What an idiot!”

Day 3 - Dallas TX - 240 miles

A consequence of using Priceline for hotels is you occasionally get a hotel that is just flat-out out of your league for personal travel.  Such is the case in Dallas. We ended up at the Hyatt Regency. I went with a low-ball bid to start with and they must have figured, “Hey, it’s Memorial Day week. What the hell. Let ‘em stay.” On top of that, they occasionally mistake you for a high-roller, or at least a mid-roller. Little did they know I hadn’t rolled in years.

Terry went to dinner with an old work friend so I went to the bar for dinner (making sure I waited for Happy Hour to get cheap beer.) While drinking my cheap beer and munching my free salty bar snacks, I overheard the restaurant manager advising three true high-rollers behind me on which of three restaurants they should try for dinner. They we all places high-end enough that I had heard of all three but never eaten at any.

After helping them select, he phoned the chosen restaurant for them and made their 7:30 dinner reservation. Mind you, now, by 7:30 I have long since finished dinner and am getting ready for bed. After finishing with them he came my way. I was eating my quesadillas, which were literally (behind the onion ring tower) the second cheapest thing on the appetizer menu.

“Hello, I’m Nick,” he said. “I’m the restaurant manager. If there is ANYTHING I can do for you PLEASE let me know.”

“Thank you, Nick”, I said. “I’ll do that.” 

Shortly after, Nick brought out the samples of the nightly specials for the wait staff to try so they could assist folks with their dinner selections. At least I’m sure that was the intent. I believe for the staff this was actually dinner since the scene more closely resembled a live goat being thrown into the T-Rex pen in Jurassic Park. After the frenzy, the barmaid brought me a scallop to try. It tasted like a scallop rolled in crushed Oreo cookie.

Then Nick approached again. “How did you like the scallop?”

“It was very good. What was the coating on it?” I asked.

“It was black sesame seed with Asian spices. The spices really make the sesame “pop”.”

“Yes, Chef really outdid himself tonight,” I said.

I’d continue, but it’s getting close to 7:30 so I’m calling it a night.

Day 1 - Dallas TX - 205 Miles

We must be getting better at traveling. On our last big trip we filled the trunk and the back seat. This time everything is in the trunk. I programmed our first few stops into our new GPS (Samantha). I kind of hated to see our old GPS (Jessica) go, but some relationships are destined not to last. Even though this was a fairly easy driving day, it didn't take long before I started questioning the wisdom of this undertaking. I was so content lazing in my recliner watching the Maury show ("You are NOT the father!"). I'm sure once I get off routes I've driven 50 times before, my enthusiasm will pick up.

It seems like the older I get, the smaller the distance traveled by car gets for me to stiffen up like the Tin Man in Oz. Our first stop was in Hillsboro about two hours north of Austin. I felt like it might take the Jaws of Life to pry me out of the car. Someone pulled up in the spot next to me and I considered calling out, "Oil can! Oil can!" I decided against it since he would have no idea what I was talking about and I saw no need to add to the ever growing list of people who consider me weird - or as we call it in Austin, "normal".

We'll be here four days visiting old friends and seeing how places have changed over the past few years.

Day Minus 1 - Austin TX - 0 Miles

This is a chronicle of Terry and my trip to Washington for the summer. I have done this for prior summer trips, but I find the older I get the less enthusiastic I get about anything requiring effort. I may make it all the way through the summer or I may get bored with the whole thing before making it out of the state. Time will tell. I'll probably do more photos and less babbling than I have in the past. That can only be viewed as a good thing.

The general route will be head north until we reach the Dakotas, then turn left. Continue until we reach salt water, then stop. We have no timetable, but since we're trying to avoid seeing the thermometer hit 100, we'll probably be gone for a while. Since I rank somewhere between frugal and miserly, I'll be honing my Priceline skills along the way. We'll buy an annual pass at the first National Monument/Park we see and after that we'll stop at each one we pass to get our $80 worth. Next year I'll qualify for a $10 lifetime pass. I've finally found something good about aging.

I've sent an email to those who might be interested in following our trip and probably to quite a few of those who could care less. That is the only notification I am sending. To see updates (assuming I do any) you will need to periodically check back here, or sign up to get an email whenever a post is added.

I've never had much luck with the formatting or cleanly inserting photos on here, so whenever you're looking at a post and ask yourself, "Why did he make it look like that?" You'll just have to accept it as the best I could do.

Tomorrow is get gas and head to Dallas.