Travel days are usually the worst part of the trip. All the time, none of the joy. Today’s ferry ride was foggy, but on time. Even a smooth trip through the airport is a headache, and today was crowded. It is the beginning of the cruise ship season in Seattle. I arrived at the airport early so I wasn’t bothered by the long security line. I even had time to grab a quick sitting massage and a cold drink.
I arrived in Shreveport nearly on time and made it to the first nights hotel smoothly. Kerry arrived about an hour later and we got the dogs and ourselves settled. Our adventure starts tomorrow.
Happy trails
Sundberg Sighting 
So, preparation week for the trip wasn’t too shabby . And, work was actually accommodating, in that I was so busy that it made time fly by .. SWOOSH! So not fun when those last few days drag out. Day One of travel for me was a tad interesting. The truck was loaded and the oversized (I would learn later) tarp was on .. or so I thought. Turns out bigger isn’t always better. Fortunately, I have some of the best neighbors one can hope for. Walt had the right size tarp AND bungy cords. What a Godsend he is! Traveling in flash flood rains, one must really be prepared, which I learned. I also am coming around to the thought that a $400 Tonneau cover is worth the expense. It took a few stops, with one being at Lowe’s for some more bungy cords, to get the tarp in a reasonable shape for the 400 mile drive. Finally, we were set to get some road under us.
The first 120 miles took us almost four hours to complete. This is a major UGH in Kerry’s driving book 🙂 For those not in the know, I have a big lead foot. Twenty-three speeding tickets since I turned 16, not really something to brag about and maybe I should have looked at being a race car driver, instead of working in Sales. The winds were strong and the rain wasn’t horrible, but it has been one heck of a year for us down here in Tejas. The rainy days here remind me of my days in Seattle! With all the traffic trying to get out of San Anton and the nearby towns of Austin, the spray from the other cars had one’s attention on trying to stay safe. So much so that I missed my first turn off to continue on Hwy 21. That was 30 minutes of the first four hours.
On our merry now, the rains had stopped and the speed picked up. And, I was most happy about the latter. Just a few more stops for food, potty breaks for me and the dogs, and gas. A little side note on the food. I saw a couple billboards for Ryan Nolan beef. Seems that one of the uses for the beef he breeds (not sure thus is the proper terminology) is burgers. I had heard some years ago he had is own cattle but did not know about the burgers. And, I missed the two TX Burger places to try one. This will be one of my stops on the way back to San Antone from Shreveport.
Well, we finally made it to the hotel around 930-945 pm. Kat and I unpacked almost everything. Take Kat’s 90 item list and add for camping equipment, three dogs, and a girl who lacks to pack for “just in case.” 🙂 hope this finds you all well and .. sweet dreams!
P.S. Please excuse any spelling and grammatical errors.
Have a safe a fun adventure! Can’t wait to hear more about it!