Friday, June 22, ’12
H-95 Texarkana L H 62 L 52 H H 67 L 54 M H 70 L 52
L-72 C H 97 L 76
Bear update: The Bear says Porker Is Becoming A Pirate Party. TR says, “He is consorting with Russian Pirates.” Moose say, “At least he’s not consorting with you, Bear!” Lou says we will have a Russian Pirate Party. We will serve Russian Pirate Foods. The Amazon says, “I am a Piratess. My ship is called the Amazon Queen. Beware!”
We woke up to sun. Will it last? It lasted, and the temperature in Texarkana climbed to 95.
Tucson 107/77 Little Rock 95/70 tomorrow Brooklyn 92/72 T-STORMS
We woke up at 7:00AM. We got dressed and ate breakfast in the CP room next to the front desk. It wasn’t as good as the breakfast yesterday. We get tiny Danish again with orange juice and hot tea or coffee. I add creamer from my cooler back in room 125. It’s one advantage of interior corridor rooms. You can just walk down the hall to breakfast. We pack up and check out of room 125 at 10:17AM. Our first stop is the rest area just short of Mount Vernon. There was lots of grass for the dog. I’m not going to be sorry to see the last of these Texas rest areas where you have to parallel park and where there’s rarely enough room. They seem to be built on the cheap. Our second pit stop is exit 162 at the McDonalds at Mt. Pleasant. Here we eat salads for lunch along with the omni-present strawberry lemonade. The next stop was at exit 201, New Boston, at the McDonalds. We’re looking at a corn patch near the parking lot. After that it was a straight run to Texarkana. We were early so we got off the highway at exit 223b to go to Petsmart. We bought 100 cans of PPP and a dog flea preventive along with one greenie treat for the dog. At least they took T-checks for only the fourth time on this trip: 1)Kranberry’s for dinner one week ago 2)Kranberry’s for breakfast one week ago tomorrow 3)the America’s Best Value Inn in Van Horn on Sunday and now the 4)Petsmart at Texarkana. It makes me think I should have asked the other Petsmart stores if they took T-checks. I have to remember to ask everybody all the time. We got off the road for the day at State Line Avenue exit 223 and checked into the La Quinta next to the Denny’s in room 102. We can walk to dinner and we did. We ordered spaghetti at Denny’s and got ice cream at the gas station after dinner. Later we added up expenses at the end of the first week of the trip, gave the dog a bath, and gave the dog his anti-flea cream that we bought at Petsmart.
There’s a sea change in the flora and fauna. Driving along the highway from Sulphur Springs to Texarkana in East Texas we leave a parking lot planted with southern magnolias, begonias, crepe myrtle, and southern pines at the La Quinta. The highway is now lined with southern pines and deciduous trees. Those were a rarity out west where very little counts as leaf dropping. I see ponds here and there. Green lawns abound. At the first rest area just outside Mount Vernon I see four leaf clover with white flowers. The people there must think I’m crazy taking a photo of it. And there are the dandelions growing along the interstate. But I haven’t seen anything like them in fourteen years.
When we were eating CP the local morning weather report talked about the possibility of thunderstorms. Mind you, this is no monsoon like back in Tucson where everybody waits for thunderstorms three days in a row somewhere in town to mark the kick off of the monsoon season. Here it’s just typical and nobody thinks anything of it. Thunderstorms will break fhe almost tropical humidity. Tucson gets humid during the monsoon and because of the high temperatures it’s worse there.
We drove from Sulphur Springs to Texarkana on State Line Avenue. The flora and fauna is changing radically. I see ponds of water beside the highway that begin to look like swamps. We cross the Sulphur River and we don’t have to think is it real or man-made. We’re suddenly back in the Deep South. We’ve actually crossed the state of Texas, all 900 miles of it — Anthony to Texarkana.

Dog/Cat Report

The lady from Pittsburgh called, the one who is supposed to babysit in July. She seems to be planning outings with the pets for 2 or 3 hours at a time going to shops. I told her that’s what they’re accustomed to, even Putlitz. Putlitz has two carriers, one hard-sided to ride in in the car. He also has a soft-sided carrier to transfer back and forth from the motel room or the house to the car where his hard-sided carrier always sits even back at the house. It has a crunchies dish and room for his wet food in a paper bowl. The dog has a water dish propped up on a foam stand. I have to keep it full. That way they ride across the country. Right now they’re leaving Texas that way. Sure, they can ride around Pittsburgh, too.
Still no contract . . .
What next?