I spent last Thursday through Sunday on the road, traveling to Bloomfield Hills, MI. Why? Well, to get Day Sailer Class# 3335. She's a great little boat that needs only a mast and perhaps sails to get her sailing. Here's the pictures I have of this nice boat. I don't know if I'll be able to part with her after she's rigged up. My friend Jim was good enough to help me bring her home.
We left about 8 am or so and I promptly remembered I forgot my camera... so we turned back (we weren't far from home) and grabbed the camera. I'm a really bad photographer, so the pictures I took were few, and poor, but I haven't looked at them on the screen yet, so perhaps some are worth posting.
We took Texas highway 146 north out of Clear Lake with the intention of getting onto Highway 90 and then state route 321 to reach US 59 at Cleveland, TX. Well, we missed the turn - I recall we were in conversation. Before I knew it, Highway 146 turned into a dirt road under construction, and we were behind semis carrying dirt into the construction area to build up the road bed. Flagmen were letting cars through one lane at a time - half of the time southbound, half of the time northbound...So there we were, sitting stopped on the road waiting our turn. Not exactly the high rate of speed we had hoped for. Finally, we got through the construction, made it to Livingston, and got onto US 59 headed toward Texarkana.
I was really happy to have a care package from Kathy, and it included a two disk CD album that is partly classical music and mostly narration of letters written by classical composers. And yes, it was better than it sounds here. I enjoyed hearing the thoughts of these guys who were able to produce such amazing music. That helped pass the time before lunch which was necessarily quick, so quick that I don't recall what it was... Wendy's, I think. We pressed on and made excellent time through east Texas to Texarkana. We turned on to Interstate 30, and headed towards Little Rock. I-30 used to be a really rough road but they've finished rebuilding it and it no longer deserves the title of "Worst Interstate Highway in the Country". I-94 in Michigan ought to get that title. We passed through Little Rock and continued on I-30 East in the late afternoon and early evening, turning onto I-55 west of Memphis. As the hour was late - 9:00p.m. and we were hungry, we hoped to find a restaurant open in Blytheville, AR. Riiight.... We eventually found that KFC was the only place open and stopped there. 9:00p.m. in Blytheville, AR is like 3:00a.m. anywhere else. There was not a soul in the KFC except for us and the staff cleaning the place. We were still able to get something to eat. It enough to keep us from passing out, but it didn't rank up there in my Top Ten Epicurean Experiences... We pressed on, still not sure how far to proceed. I had thought I'd continue until I got sick of it. That happened shortly after we turned onto I-57 and crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois. I think it was Carbondale, but we stopped for the night there. Excellent progress for one day.
Posted by Bob at August 26, 2003 09:20 AM