Eggless Travel

On April 6 I started a driving tour of the north half of Texas. This wasn’t a camping trip, so Eglyntine stayed home. I drove to Amarillo (50 mph headwind) through the Llano Estacado, then to Dallas (50 mph crosswind) to take my cousin, the princess, to Parkland for some tests. I hadn’t driven some of these roads for many years and I’d forgotten just how empty parts of northern Texas can be.  The Llano Estacado has nothing to slow down the wind, let alone divert it.  We did stop at the coolest rest area I’ve ever been to – at exit 129 eastbound between Groom & McLean on part of I40 that is also historic US66.  Mostly I concentrated on keeping the car on the highway. (Remember that wind?)

We spent a few days in Dallas – at Parkland for the princess’ tests, which she passed. Once Parkland released her, we went to my dear friends’ home for some Mexican food & some visiting. On our way out of town, we went to SamMoon. Now, SamMoon really isn’t my kind of store, but I somehow managed to buy a wallet, a purse, and a sunhat.  *Sigh*

Instead of the northern route, we took I20 west. Now this is a familiar route for me, so it seemed much faster than the northern route had.  There is more diversity to the scenery, also. You get to look at several different landscapes: blackland prairie, rolling plains, oaklands & savannahs, the Edwards plateau, mesquite, the Brazos valley. We left I20 at Sweetwater and headed to Southland, just southeast of Lubbock, to let the princess visit her mother.

It gets sticky here: you’d think that the mother of the princess would be the queen – but Oakley is the queen. That is definitely not in dispute. The confusion starts with the princess, I think. She got her nickname from the story of the Princess & the Pea while we were at Parkland. In fairness, her ‘pea’ looked more like a TV remote, but it all seemed to make sense at the time.

After a good visit in Southland, I returned the princess to her castle at Amarillo and Oakley & I turned the car toward home. We would have visited longer at each stop, but Oakley had a deadline to meet: she had to be home in time to file her taxes.

Whew! About 1700 miles and a hospital stay in 8 days.  I slept in 5 different beds – sure missed the simplicity of traveling in the egg.