10-10-09

I was up at sunrise and eager to get rollin’ thru Texas. I spent all day doing just that,\; rollin’.
Texas has a speed limit of 80mph on the interstate. It’s marked at 70mph for trucks. I floated between 70 and 80 making good time. It was nice to have long straight wide roads to make up some time.
Texas rest areas have wireless internet. Last night my computer detected no signal what so ever. It’s okay because I have my air card and can get internet on my laptop anywhere there is a cell phone signal. I get 5 gigs a month which is a lot, but sometimes I like to get a good free signal and download a bunch of big pod casts. If I can get a bunch for free it stretches my wireless plan. I’ve gotten quite good at spotting cell towers along the road side and off on the horizon. I got up and drove right away and planned to stop at a rest area for breakfast later and to try to utilize the Texas free internet.
I did make coffee before I left. The drive was good. I felt like I was making good progress. I was now in the central time zone which made me feel close to home in Minnesota. It was much warmer in Texas though. It was in the mid 60s early in the morning. I put a bunch of miles behind me then pulled into a rest area. As I pulled in I was pleasantly surprised by an RV water dump and fill station. I’d been needing to dump and fill soon. Usually I have to find a campground and pay 5 to 12 dollars. This was free and right on my path.
After I dumped and filled I tried to log on to the Texas internet. It was better then last night. My computer could read a faint signal. I could get on, but it was so weak it was almost unusable. I ate, rested and took a little walk. As I explored I saw the satellite dish that caught the internet signal. I looked at where the wires went and on a pole there were two transmitters. They were both aimed at the car part of the rest stop completely in the opposite direction of where I was parked. I decided that at the next rest stop I would stop early and get out to see where the internet signal would be good, then move to a better spot. I can’t back up with my Jeep behind the bus and some rest stops are one way in, thru and then you’re back on the interstate.
I stopped for diesel and washed my windshield, well I washed the driver’s side of my windshield. There are a lot of big bugs in Texas. As I drove I kept seeing butterflies coming towards me. I swerved to try to get them to hit the still dirty passenger side of the windshield. It seemed reckless to be swerving in an attempt to keep my clean side clean, so I decided to just let ‘em hit where they hit.
After a long day’s drive I pulled into a nice rest area and picked out my spot. I had almost a perfect place, except there was one car in the way. I pulled up close behind it so when it left I could roll forward and get the spot. As I waited I watched people. There were several different guys who after awhile I got suspicious of. They would get out of there car, or truck, walk around, get in the vehicle, move it, get out, look around, walk a bit and look around. I started to think there was some sort of undercover sting operation going on. The car in front of me still hadn’t left. “Was he a drug smuggler? Where these other guys under cover DEA agents?” I thought. I decided to get out and walk around and watch what they were up to. I wanted to make sure I was parked in a safe place for the night. As I walked around, looking around, checking out parking places and cautiously looking at people, I realized I’m too one of the suspicious guys. They’re just trying to find a good safe parking place and sizing up the people at the rest stop.
I talked to the guy parked in front of me. Jerry was Puerto Rican and we struggled to understand each other. He’d been there for two days with a broken down car and was planning on staying again tonight. We talked for about an hour. He too was driving alone all over America. We had some good laughs about life on the road. He had a radio that he could plug in at the picnic shelter and at least listen to that. Much like me, everything he owned was with him, except he was living in a Honda Civic and I was in a 35’ motorhome. Life had thrown him a curve ball, yet he seemed happy and felt blessed to be free and living an adventure.