It was a low, slow day for Mrs. C', Romeo and me today, so I'll make this brief and focus on a bit of catch up on a few stray thoughts from the past days. The battlefields of the Civil War are behind us, there don't seem to be any World Heritage Sites nearby and the weather was perfect today (low overnight in the upper 50's, high in the 80's, dry air, no rain, light breezes... we could use more like this). Best of all, this was the first day we didn't hitch up and drag the trailer across some forsaken stretch of America!
Taking the day off reminded me how hard some of the routes we've taken have been on man and machine (and woman... and dog). The worst of all thus far had to be I-20 in Louisiana. Among the Airstream community online, Louisiana has a reputation for damaging hardware and breaking the spirit of travelers. Most of I-20 was concrete. You may know that concrete highways are cast in place in slabs that abut one another... thousands and thousands of slabs. The spacing of the joints in those slabs and whether the slabs stay in a plane over time makes all the difference for the comfort of the long distance traveler. When Louisiana put down the roadway for I-20 (I'm thinking that was sometime in the Eisenhower Administration) they asked themselves two questions: 1.) what is the worst possible spacing between joints to set up a nasty harmonic that will shake loose anything not bolted, glued and bungee corded down in a 20' long truck pulling a 25' long Airstream moving at 65 miles per hour and 2.) how can we compact the underlayment for this road such that every slab sinks two inches on its eastern edge while remaining in place on the west? Despite what you may think about the people of Louisiana let me say this concerning those two questions: On #1: NAILED IT! and on #2: NAILED IT! At one point I was driving 45 mph in a 60 MPH zone purely to keep the truck and trailer from going airborne like a porpoise at Marineland. You may know that doctors and nurses who work with children in clinics, pediatrician's offices and hospital ER's are trained to look for the signs of physical abuse of children. Sad, but necessary and potentially lifesaving assessments are made and caregivers asked questions like "Has someone been hitting little Mary?". Well, in Louisiana if a child is examined and shows signs of bruising on the back of the head, elbows, buttocks and backs of the thighs a doctor may well ask "Y'all haven't been drahvin' this child in the cawr on an Innahstaet, have y'all?". Last year I wrote about the very visible effect that the legalization of recreational marijuana has had on the roads of Colorado. Tax revenue well spent is a wonderful thing. If I get a vote on which state most needs that extra shot of road-juice my vote goes to Louisiana!
Anyway... back to Texas. East Texas where we are now is the site of the earliest serious efforts at oil exploration, extraction and refining. The pride still shows. I even noticed little oil derricks over each picnic bench at a highway rest stop on I-20 in Texas (much smoother than Louisiana...and it was done with oil money... no weed needed). There were oil pumps set as if they were stone pillars marking the entrance to a gas station near the park.
Today we went into Tyler for a few errands and some chow. I was struck by a thought that hit me in Tallahassee, Shreveport and who knows how many other towns. Avid readers (ok... avid reader) may recall that last year I described a rural pattern that repeats in virtually every state in the US that we have visited. It mixes formerly tilled farmland with modest houses, flashing yellow traffic lights on county roads and long abandoned gas stations with the occasional Dollar General store. I called that pattern "Americountry" and we've seen it everywhere on this trip just as we have on others. Well, today while driving down South Broadway in Tyler, Texas to coin a term for its grown-up cousin. There is a pattern on the outskirts of the old central town space where new businesses cluster. This is where the Home Depot, Marshalls, KFC, Holiday Inn Express and countless other businesses land. I'm sure you got this in your town. The road is predictably three travel lanes in each direction. Sometimes there's a median, often there is a left turn area shared by both directions and in its most advanced form there are left turn lanes (yep... more than one!) at intersections to keep it movin'. Here's a pic I grabbed from Google (that's a picture credit) to show you what I saw today:
Just to make sure we had an authentic Tyler experience we left South Broadway... I mean... the Americle Mile of Tyler and headed in to the old part of town. The attraction was what I understand to be the oldest continuously operated family run bar-b-que joint in Texas. Trust me on this... there's a lot of bar-b-que joints in Texas. Even if they have to get awkward with the definition, its a superlative in a huge field. The reviews were great and I was impressed when I saw this as we approached:
In case you feel like I do, here's a close up of that bar-b-que (close your eyes if you're a vegan... this will be too close to eating meat for you!)
OK... so it wasn't brief. I'll try to make up for that tomorrow. And what's on the agenda? Well, we pack up here in Tyler, hitch the wagon to the tow and continue west. We will take the southern route around Dallas which means going through Arlington and Ft. Worth. I'll hold my breath as we pass AT&T stadium (the stench almost got me last year) then we enter the plains and head for Wichita Falls and Lake Arrowhead State Park. We were supposed to stay there last year but they called and told us that the park had been flooded and was closed. I'm hoping the water has receded. I'm also hoping they took time to renovate with the place was offline!
Until then....
SC'
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