Open spaces

As I was down Hwy 86 from Tulia to Childress this morning, it occurred to me that people who live in large cities really miss out. The wide open spaces of West Texas are beautiful. I had skipped breakfast, so as I was driving through Silverton, I decided to stop at Allsups. I didn't see anything that I wanted to eat, but I did get a Diet Dr. Pepper. Turning left onto the highway, I found it interesting that there wasn't a single car driving down the road. Silverton seems to be a quiet, little town, even though it is the county seat. The courthouse is right on the highway and it looked deserted. As I drove through Quitaque, I had to slow down for traffic (if three vehicles constitute traffic.) You know it is small town West Texas when the posted speed limit is 30, but all cars are topping out at 25. I haven't driven this highway before, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that halfway between Quitaque and Turkey there is a drive-in theater named, appropriately enough, Midway. It was almost 11:00 as I approached Turkey, so I thought I might find a Sonic or something along that order and get a snack. Well, imagine my surprise when all I find is an Allsups. I didn't think there would be anything in Allsups that I would want since I didn't see anything in the Allsups in Silverton that I wanted. I had no idea that the population of Turkey is less than 500. This is Bob Wills town after all. Where do all the tourists eat? I knew the next town on the map wouldn't have a fast food joint. Estelline has less than 200 people, so I resolved to have lunch in Childress. I'm not even close to the point of starvation, right? I really do enjoy driving the back roads. Small towns have character. I am not as fond of the drive at night, as I don't like to play chicken with the deer. One close encounter with a deer on the highway is one close encounter too many.

Cross country travel

I have added Atlanta to my list of cities that have traffic jams in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Ok, up to this point, only Cincinnati was on the list. Chicago is on my list for traffic jams on a Sunday afternoon for no apparent reason. Back to the topic, my son and I were driving through Atlanta on I20 last night and making good time until we came upon the jam. Three lanes of traffic not moving. In fact, we sat in one spot so long that I turned the engine off. We finally made it through the jam, traffic picked up and about a mile down the road, whammy...another jam. At least this one had a reason. Three lanes of traffic merged into one for construction. This jam didn't last long, we got through and drove through the night. We did run into a small jam outside of Weatherford for construction early this afternoon, but that one barely rates a mention. We didn't even have to stop completely. I enjoy driving across the country, but next time, I think I would like to do most of the driving during the day so I can enjoy the sites. We did stop in Odessa for the night. We do have to watch the Tech/Texas game. We should be in El Paso early tomorrow afternoon. There is no rush now and I'll be flying home on Thursday. It's been a fun and interesting week.

Airport ramblings

My friends know I travel a lot for work. I was sitting in the Victoria airport thinking why did I bother to show up almost an hour before my flight? There are two flights out of Victoria and two flights into Victoria daily. Only Continental flies there. My flight left at 6:20 in the morning. Had I missed it, I would have had to wait until 4:10 in the afternoon to get out. Twelve passengers were on the plane. My ticket was for seat 4B. The airline hostess asked us to sit in rows 7 and back for weight distribution. Needless to say, flights like this are very interesting. Before this experience, the smallest airport I had flown to was in Tyler. Tyler at least has a choice of airlines. You can fly Continental or American. I found the Tyler airport interesting because the ticket agent was also took the boarding pass when it was time to board the plane and went out to the runway to guide the plane with the flags. I do like multitasking.
Maybe I'll write about the larger airports and the fun I've had running down the halls in order to make my flights some day.