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| I packed up my car in early August 2009 and headed to Texas. In spring of 2008 I had planted several apple seeds, one of which thrived (the others got a fungus and whithered). I had taken it to CA, but could not figure out how to get it to Hawaii which was just as well as it thrived further under Szaron's care. However, it was now three feet taller and barely fit in my car (had to lean over as shown above). I started out the drive in the beautiful chaparral deserts on I15 headed south to pick up I8 headed east. It was misty for most of the morning and I took about ten pictures, but there was a glitch with my camera and the memory and I lost about ten pictures of the drive before arriving in Tucson, AZ. Doh! In Tucson, AZ I was able to couchSurf with Ricardo. couchSurfing is a free web site which connects people who need a couch to sleep on with people who offer their couches. Ricardo was really great, but he doesn't like pictures of himself, so there aren't any pictures of him. :-( Oh well, here is a picture of his apartment where we visited for a little while. Ricardo is a massage therapist and was house sitting a co-workers house (with two dogs and a cat) which is where we stayed (see below). The next morning I was on the road again. |
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| The scenery along I8 was pretty nice with desert and mountains in the distance. I was impressed by how green it was, but I have noticed in the NWS seven day accumulation maps that most all of the U.S. has been getting pretty regular rain except for the west coast. :-) Oh well, that is why southern California was so dry and Arizona was pretty green. |
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| While the scenery was pretty, it was also quite flat with hills in the distance, but they don't look very good in pictures as the pictures is mostly of the sky and flat and hills are very noticable (though when I was driving I enjoyed looking at the different hills). |
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| In California and Arizona I went through a couple of portable border patrol stops where they just asked me a couple of questions (are you a U.S. citizen, are you travelling alone) and didn't check ID's or anything. I even took some pictures of them, but they were lost in the camera glitch. However, in NM (or perhaps Texas) there was a border patrol stop which was built around a weigh station and took all traffic off the main road (at least while they were there checking). There are pictures below. |
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| In Texas I encountered some thunderstorms. There was one stretch where it was really heavy rain and I made a video of the rain though that was not the worst of it. I have encountered heavy rain storms mostly in Texas and New York and not so commonly elsewhere. I had contacted about ten people in the Midland / Odessa area in Texas looking for a couch to surf, but didn't find anything (about half were no response), so instead stopped at the library in Odessa (to have dinner, couldn't get wifi) and then drove on to Big Springs, TX for the night. I used the bathroom at Wal*mart (below) and then parked across the street where there was a parking lot with a section that wasn't really lit. My car had been over a hundred (as high as 113) during most of the drive, but I kept air blowing through and it was comfortable enough (and drank lots of water). When I climbed into the back to sleep, it was still 93 degrees in the car and I used an old computer power supply fan (12V) which I ran off the cigarette lighter to keep air blowing around my arms and face and it was OK. The next day I finished to drive on I20, I635, I30, and I35W to Denton where I stayed with my mom. |
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This page was last updated on August 12, 2009.
