February 15, 16, 17--The Long Trip Home

What a long trip! Bob and I drove the CR-V from El Paso. It was over 1700 miles. We knew it would take 3 days, but I had forgotten how long those days would be!

The first day we drove from El Paso to Giddings, Texas which is west of Houston. The beginning of the drive was on interstate 10 with little traffic, nothing much to see, and a speed limit of 80 mph! We took a 'shortcut' on US 290 through Fredericksburg and Austin to avoid San Antonio and go north of Houston. The thought of driving through the big city was more than we could take.

It turns out Austin has grown quite a bit since 1980 and the traffic was horrendous at 7:45 p.m. on Friday night. US 290 joined I-35 and split Austin down the middle. We drove through Austin and stopped in Giddings, Texas. It was our first night in a motel (not counting Jennifer's wedding) in a few years and we hated it! We missed our 'big car!'

We continued on US 290 Saturday morning. The route took us north of Houston, but it was stop and go all the way because of the timing on the traffic lights.

Once we were away from Houston, the going was not so bad. We picked up I-10 in Beaumont and had easy going until we got to the Louisiana-Mississippi border. There was an accident on the Mississippi side and traffic came to a halt. We sat for 20 minutes and inched forward after a car somewhere in front of us would cross the median and return to the west. Finally, Bob asked the semi-driver next to us what happened and how long it might take to clear--he said it would be quite some time as there was at least one fatality. We decided to turn around, too. It took us about 20 miles out of the way and added more time to our drive--we drove back to US 190, then south to US 90 which took us through Gulfport and Biloxi. The road is still under construction from the hurricane, but passable. Those beautiful ante-bellum mansions are gone. Some have been replaced, but the feel is not the same. The once stately old oak trees have new growth where the branches were ripped off, but they give the area an eerie look and feel.

Our initial plan was to make it into Florida before we stopped. By the time we reached Alabama, it was 7:00 p.m. and we were hungry. We stopped at a barbecue place and had fried shrimp! Driving along the coast will do that to you!

We continued on to Milton, Florida, east of Pensacola before stopping for the night. Did I mention that we don't like motels? Well, this one was a little better, but we still longed for the 'big car.'

Sunday morning we knew we had a long day ahead of us, but we just didn't want to get in the car! We finally packed and were ready to go by 8:00 CT. About an hour later it was 10:00 ET!. We had an uneventful day of driving and arrived home a little before 4.

The cupboards were bare and the power was off to the refrigerator. We needed to go to the store! Instead, we picked up Chinese and will do the store stuff on Monday.

The best thing about being home is that we don't have to go to work! We're still retired!