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Travelogue:
Texas, July-August 2019
By Roger W.
Reini
By day:
July:18 | 19
| 20 | 21 | 22
| 23 | 24 | 25
| 26 | 27 | 28
| 29 | 30
| 31
August: 1 2
This is the story of a trip, mainly to Texas, n late July and
early August 2019.
The main purpose of this trip was not vacation, although
vacation was certainly a big part of it. No, the main purpose
was for me to represent my late father, Bill Reini, at an awards
ceremony at the Johnson Space Center on July 27. The IEEE
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Region 5
organization were to present JSC with a Stepping Stone award for
the development and implementation of the Analytic Ephemeris
Generator, which was used to help accomplish the world’s first
spacecraft rendezvous in 1965. Four key developers of the
software were to be mentioned by name on the award plaque; my
dad was one of those four, so I suppose he and the others would
be indirect recipients of the award.
Prologue
Until June 22, I had no idea I would be making this trip. That
afternoon, I received a phone call from one of my dad’s
co-workers, who told me about the award. He said another
co-worker would get in touch with me with further details, which
happened that evening. When I realized the import of all of
this, I decided yes, I wanted to represent my father at the
ceremony. I had two other potential activities that weekend
(Maker Faire Detroit and a first-birthday party for a cousin of
mine), but this ceremony took precedence, in my view.
Top
Thursdat Juyly 18
I woke up around 7 this morning and did my usual web and e-mail
checks. I didn’t have much more packing to do, as I had packed
and loaded most of my stuff last night. After getting dressed, I
went downstairs to start the dishwasher going, then went back
upstairs to finish packing. I did have an issue when packing my
small suitcase: at one point, the electric razor inside of my
toiletry bag turned on. I had the hardest time finding it in
that bag to turn it off! I could grab just about everything else
in there, but not that razor! I did eventually find it and turn
it off.
Shortly before 10, I was all packed except for my computer bag.
Just before I shut my laptop off, the electric bill arrived via
e-mail. it was high, maybe not high by Texas standards, but it
was high. It could wait for another time. I turned off my air
conditioning, made sure I had all of my bags, and then I left at
10:15.
For the first few hours, it didn’t feel like I was on vacation.
That was because I was doing some necessary things around town:
get the car gassed up for trip, go to the credit union for some
cash for the trip, and then meet some friends who are retired
co-workers fro Ford for a monthly lunch. That was a good lunch,
as they usually are. I had two sliders with French fries.
It was shortly after noon when I left them and hit the road,. I
went back onto Michigan Avenue and then down Telegraph Road to
reach I-94. I was concerned I would run into road construction
there, at least near the airport. However, that wasn’t going to
happen until the weekend. But I did run into a construction zone
I did not expect west of I-275. Traffic came to a halt and then
inched along slowly as 3 lanes narrowed to 1, I was listening to
the BBC World Service on satellite radio; OS (Outside Sources)
was airing, hosted today by Chloe Tilley. West of Haggerty Road,
the construction zone ended, and the road was wide open.
Driving across the state went smoothly, with occasional rest
stops and one or two construction zones. There was also some
rain east of Kalamazoo. Once we reached the Benton Harbor area,
I tuned in WFMT out of Chicago, the classical music station
there for some soothing music while driving.
At one point, I was on I-80/94, also known as the Frank Borman
Expressway. I don’t believe it’s commonly called that, but given
the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 this week, as well as the 50th
anniversary of Apollo 8 last December, it’s an appropriate name.
However, while Borman flew in very speedy aircraft and
spacecraft, I was creeping at very slow speeds. It was Chicago
rush hour. I’d encounter more heavy traffic zt spots along the
Tri-State Tollway and on I-290. It was nearly 6 Central time
when I arrived at my lodging for the evening, the Hilton Garden
Inn in Schaumburg. My reason for stopping here was simple: I
wanted supper at the nearby Chuy’s.
After checking in and unpacking, I did head over to Chuy’s,
where I had my usual Comida Deluxe. A big meal, to be sure, but
a good one. I also had a tres leches cake for dessert, but that
turned out to be a huge piece of cake. It was good, but in
retrospect, I should have passed on it. I was too stuffed to
consider going around the nearby Woodfield Mall, so I went back
to the hotel and did some reading while resting from today’s
drive.
Top
Friday July 19
I woke up for good around 5:40 and started doing my usual e-mail
and web checks. At 6, the alarm clock went off; I hit the
button. 10 minutes later, it went off again. I hit the button
again. Clearly, that was a snooze button, but I didn’t see any
other buttons on there, just a knob. After several more rounds
of this, I decided to push on the knob. The alarm stopped for
good; clearly the knob was also a button. Then I took a shower,
dried and cooled off from that, put on my clothes (same as
yesterday) and went downstairs for breakfast.
My room rate was supposed to include breakfast, but I didn’t
receive a ticket or anything when I checked in. The server said
no ticket was necessary, that they just needed my room number. I
had the buffet bar, which was all rigbht. I had to sign the
check, but the cost of the meal had not been zeroed out. Did I
in fact get charged for it? No, it turned out; I verified that
when reviewing the bill. Then it was time to go back to the
room, do my final packing, and check out.
I would not be driving towards Texas today, not yet,
anyway. My first destination of the day was the Baha’i
House of Worship in Wilmette. I’d been wanting to pay a visit
for several weeks, but the timing never was right until now. I
started heading across town on Golf Road. Construction slowed me
down quite a bit in the Arlington Heights area, but I got
through it. I arrived at the House of Worship shortly after 10.
The visitor center (and thus the restroom) was now open for the
day. After paying a visit to the restroom, I completed a
circumambulation of the grounds, seeing the beauty of the
different flowers and plants in the various gardens, imagining
seeing ‘Abdu’l-Baha walking the path or in the gardens, etc.
Since it was a nice sunny day, I decided to take some pictures.
I’ve done that several times at the House of Worship, but not
with the wide-angle zoom lens I bought with a retirement gift.
That lens gave me some different perspectives on my pictures;
how different, I wouldn’t fully know until I downloaded them to
my laptop. When I’d finished, I put the camera back in the trunk
and then went inside the main auditorium. There, I sat and
offered some prayers, although there were times I was wishing I
had a larger-print prayer book. I managed, though. Then it was
time to leave and go back to the visitor center for a trip to
the bookstore. I was looking for 2 audiobook collections: one,
Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, and the other,
William Sears reading Stories from the Dawn-Breakers. I had a
hard time finding them until I found the last set of shelves in
the store, right next to the register. Yes, they were both in
stock, and I bought copies of each. They would make good
listening material on my drive.
Next, I drove over to the Old Orchard shopping center. I visited
the LL Bean store and the Barnes and Noble store, but I didn’t
get anything from either place. I did sit down in a darker area
and get the directions to that evening’s hotel in
Bloomington-Normal. Mainly, I wanted to see what road I needed
to take to get to the southbound Tri-State Tollway. It was
Dempster, and so I made my way there.
I could have gone into the city to pick up I-55, but I figured
that would have bad traffic. Well, the tollway wasn’t much
better; it was stop-and-go in many places. I stopped for gas at
the O’Hard Oasis; it was well over $3 a gallon here, thanks in
part to a recent gas tax increase. The main building of the
Oasis was gone; it was in the process of being rebuilt. So I got
some snacks and headed back onto the tollway until I reached
I-55.
I-55 has been known for years as the Adlai Stevenson Expressway
in honor of the former governor and unsuccessful presidential
candidate. In Chicago and Cook County, it still is, but a
stretch from DuPage County to Pontiac (IL, not MI) has been
named for Barack Obama. As a former president, he’s entitled;
Ronald Reagan has a tollway named for him. And while I’m not
aware of any Abraham Lincoln Expressway, I do know about the
historic Lincoln Highway, much of which I’ve driven in Illinois.
The drive to the hotel was uneventful; I arrived around 4:15,
which was pretty early; I thought I might have spent more time
in Chicago, but the heat dissuaded me from doing so. After
checking in and doing some unpacking, I set up my laptop to
watch NHK World Japan and their compilation of highlights from
day 12 of the grand sumo wrestling tournament taking place in
Nagoya. This was Thursday’s competition, which I had not seen
due to my being on the road.
There were some items that I had either forgotten at home
(sunscreen) or had less on hand than I had thought (toothpaste),
so I went over to a nearby Target to get those things. I also
got a small snack pack of crackers, cheese and salami for
supper, as I didn’t really feel like eating out anywhere. It was
back to the hotel to eat and stay cool. I also read for a while
before calling it an evening.
Top
Saturday July 20
I woke up around 4:30 in the morning. I didn’t want to get up
then, so I tried to get some more sleep. That didn’t work, so I
decided to get up around 5:30. I did my normal e-mail and web
checks, and then I watched the day 13 highlights of the sumo
tournament. I was now caught up. Then it was time for breakfast
in the lobby, where I had some cereal, some yogurt, some small
cinnamon buns, and some scrambled eggs. Then it was back to the
room to finish packing and hit the road. I left around 9 AM —
but was that 9 Central or 9 Eastern? My laptop stays on Eastern
time, though my iDevices and other clocks don’t. Thinking back
on it, I think I left at 9 Eastern, or 8 Central.
After leaving the hotel, I got back onto Business 55 through
Normal and Bloomington. This may have been Route 66 many years
ago. It put me back onto the freeway south of town, and I drove
onward. I stopped at a Love’s truck stop for a bathroom break
and a bottle of Diet A&W Root Beer, then it was back to the
road. As I drove, I listened to the Underground Garage, which
was airing the Ko Melina program, and later listening to the
Stumped podcast (about cricket). As I neared St. Louis, I
decided to bypass the city on I-255. This meant I wouldn’t be
able to stop at a scenic overlook in East St. Louis, but it was
too hot to stop, in my opinion.
I continued on I-55 south of St. Louis heading towards Arkansas.
Now it was time to listen to a repeat of American Top 40; this
week, it was from July 1974, when the number 1 song was “Rock
Your Baby” by George McCrae. That lasted a little over two
hours, after which I tuned to the 60s Satellite Survey, which
was from July 1964. That week, the Beatles had both the lowest
(“Ain’t She Sweet”) and highest (“A Hard Day’s Night”) songs on
the countdown. By the time these programs had ended, I had left
Missouri, crossed into Arkansas and was actually near Memphis.
But Memphis was the wrong way for me; no, I needed to heat west
toward Little Rock.
After turning onto I-40, I started looking for a rest area so
that I could make a hotel reservation for the evening. Once I
reached the rest area, I decided to get a nearby hotel room at
the Hampton Inn in Forrest City. I was feeling a bit tired and
had no time pressure to be anywhere the next day. Calling it an
early day allowed me to watch day 14 highlights live on NHK
World in my hotel room. Then it was time to get some supper,
which I did at a nearby Wendy’s. I brought it back to the room,
where I ate it while listening to a repeat of “Dragnet” on the
Radio Classics channel on the SiriusXM app. Afterwards, I found
that the hotel TV carried NASA TV, so I turned it on and
happened to see the arrival of a new crew at the International
Space Station, Vice-President Pence speak at the Kennedy Space
Center, and some of the rebroadcast of the Apollo 11 moonwalk,
50 years to the moment I was watching it at home on CBS. But I
fell asleep during it and missed a lot of it, so I went to bed.
Top
Sunday July 21
Once again, I woke up earlier than I would have liked, but this
time it was an hour later. I woke at 5:30, tried to sleep some
more, and then gave up and got up around 6, doing my usual
e-mail and web checks. At 7, I went down to breakfast in the
lobby, where I had oatmeal and cinnamon danish. After packing, I
got on the road at 8.
When 9 rolled around, I put on the repeat of the 60s Satellite
Survey from yesterday. I’d missed the first half-hour or so
yesterday due to an overlap with the AT40 repeat, but I was able
to hear it this morning. When I reached the part that I’d
already heard, off went the survey and on went the Palmyra
Delran show (“trash-pop shindig”, she calls it) on the
Underground Garage. I continued on I-40 then took the bypass
around Little Rock, filling up at a Road Runner station south of
town.
Around noon, I had reached Texarkana. Soon, I was in Texas! I
did not turn off onto Highway 59 to head to Houston, because I
was’t heading there, not yet. I stayed on I-30 heading towards
Dallas. On this part of the drive I listened to some of
the CD’s I had bought at the House of Worship. I think this was
the first time I had used the CD player in the car in the three
years I’ve had it. I do not know if my next vehicle will have a
CD player.
As I continued towards Dallas, I knew I would be encountering a
Buc-ee’s travel center soon. It was in Royse City, and there, I
stopped to fill up the car, empty my bladder, and make a hotel
reservation for the night. If I really wanted to press, I could
have made it to Austin that night, but I didn’t want to press. I
wasn’t expected until tomorrow, for one thing. And so I made a
reservation for the Holiday Inn Express in Waxahachie.
Back on the road, I continued on I-30 until I reached the
intersection for I-635, part of the loop around Dallas. I took
that until it ran into I-20, and I took that until I reached
I-35E. I thought I would drive on that until I reached US 287,
but the mapping program had me get off at US 77. That did take
me to the hotel, although I was confused by some directions and
ended up having to go on a 2-mile loop to reach the hotel. But I
got there soon enough, and soon, I was in room 335.
Since I had stopped fairly early, I was able to put on NHK World
and watch the highlights of the final day of the sumo
competition. The championship was on the line. The two
top-ranked wrestlers grappled in the final match. And in the
end, Kakuryu prevailed; he won the Emperor’s Cup.
Congratulations to him! Now to figure out where to have supper.
The decision was pretty easy, as there was a Carino’s restaurant
right next door. The chain had fled southeast Michigan in recent
months, so I had not been to one for a while. I went and had an
old favorite, Spicy Shrimp and Chicken. It was as good as I
remembered.
I have no idea what nightlife Waxahachie has, but I didn’t
partake of any of it. No, I stayed in and caught up on some
reading. I finished the e-book of “American Moonshot” by Douglas
Brinkley (more about President Kennedy than the space prgram,
but still good) and then started on “Chasing the Moon”, the
companion volume to the recent PBS series. Then I called it an
evening.
Top
Monday July 22
I got up for good around 6 AM. After a visit to the restroom, I
did my usual e-mail and web checks, and then I washed my hair in
the bathtub. Then it was time for breakfast in the lobby. One
thing I noted with delight: they had cinnamon buns, and not
Cinnabon cinnamon buns, either; these were the standard Holiday
Inn Express cinnamon buns. These were what I wanted when I was
at the Holiday Inn Express in Springfield, Ohio for Hamvention,
but they didn’t have them. The buns were good.
Back in the room, I packed, brushed my teeth, and worked on the
travelogue. I didn’t want to leave too early; I was waiting for
the nearby Target store to open, and I didn’t want to arrive in
Austin too early. I had said I would be there between 2 and 3.
And so I paid two bills electronically and worked on this
travelogue. Housekeeping came by, but I said I was still there.
I wouldn’t leave until 10. By then, the Target store was open
(it might have opened at 9). I was in search of Pepto-Bismol,
for I had had some stomach issues during the drive. I had a hard
time finding some in the pharmacy section, and I had to ask for
help. It turned out they were along the back wall, close to but
separate from the rest of the pharmacy items; bad placement, in
my opinion. After buying it, I went to the car and had some of
that Pepto. Then it was time to motor on.
There were several places of construction along I-35E and
regular I-35, including a decent sized slowdown in Waco. In
Temple, I stopped at the Buc-ee’s for lunch. I got a chopped
beef brisket sandwich, some banana pudding, and some Pepsi Zero
Sugar from the fountain. I put some cherry and vanilla flavors
in it, but I didn’t realize where the flavors were dispensed
from, and I got cherry syrup all over my hand. Thanks to the man
who handed me some napkins to wipe off with. I had also noticed,
elsewhere in the store, a hat with the word SQUAD on it. Was
this a reference to the four freshman congresswomen of color who
had become the targets of President Trump’s ire? Somehow, I
doubt it; Buc-ee’s does not strike me as partisan.
The rest of the trip down I-35 to Round Rock was uneventful, and
soon, I was on RM 620 heading to the western Austin suburbs. The
scenery was somewhat familiar, but there had been changes in the
six years I had last been out here. Lake Travis was higher, for
sure! Finally, I had arrived at my friend Keith’s house. I got
to meet Sasha the dog, who was wary at first, even nipping my
hand a couple of times, but once I fed her a dog treat, she
accepted me. Sasha was new since the last time I’d visited; the
previous pet, Ping the cat, had passed away some two years ago.
The guest room was upstairs, located next door to the bathroom.
(convenient) There were enough plugs and ports for me to connect
everything I needed to plug in. The room was on the warm side,
though, and the ceiling fan in the room didn’t help to cool it
off. However, the table fan that was stored in the closet did
help. I have that same problem with my bedroom in Michigan.
We had an excellent dinner that evening: chicken, mashed
potatoes and Brussels sprouts. During dinner, Keith’s father
mentioned that, prior to his joining the weather service, he had
been a welder and had dome some welding on parts of the Saturn V
rockets. I had not known that. Another space connection on this
trip, the main p\one being my dad’s forthcoming award.
Another space-related event had taken place that day, as I would
learn after retiring for the evening and checking the news.
Christopher Kraft, former director of the Johnson Space Center
and the man who invented Mission Control, had died. Tributes
were pouring in from everywhere. One quote said that his passing
so close to the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing was
akin to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams passing away on the 50th
anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Top
Tuesday July 23
When I checked e-mail this morning, Ken Young (a co-worker
of my dad’s who was my main contact for information about the
award and ceremony) had sent me the final program for the
ceremony on Saturday as well as the program and menu for the
luncheon. But he cautioned that if there would be a conflict
between this ceremony and services for Chris Kraft, the ceremony
would need to be rescheduled (as it turned out, the services did
conflict slightly with the ceremony, but they were private, so
the ceremony would take place as scheduled).
I didn’t do much while staying in Austin. I’d driven for parts
of the last five days, and I was looking for some rest and some
good times with old friends. That included a lunch visit to
Gourdough’s, a gourmet doughnut establishment on Lamar Street
south of downtown. I got a Heavenly Hash doughnut; it could also
have been called a Chocolate Overdose doughnut. It was good, but
the doughnut was large, and I couldn’t finish it all. None of us
could, the others of “us” being Keith and his elder daughter
Hannah.
On several occasions, I had opportunity to play with Sasha the
dog by pulling on a toy or a rope that she had in her mouth.
Sometimes I could pull her across a hardwood floor; at other
times, she’d tug so hard I thought she might dislocate my
shoulder or elbow (I may be exaggerating, but not by much).
Dinner this evening was just as good as last night’s. The
centerpiece was meatloaf prepared by Keith’s younger daughter
Rebecca, along with lemon rice soup. Yum! And for dessert, I got
to have some Blue Bell vanilla ice cream (also yum!). Later on,
we all settled down for an evening of watching favorite videos —
episodes of Young Sheldon and Axe Cop, along with the Japanese
anime classic The Cat Returns. Then it was time to call it a
night.
Top
Wednesday July 24
A little after 4 in the morning, I was up using the bathroom.
The clock in the bathroom told me so. I tried to get back to
sleep but had some difficulty doing so, but I know I eventually
did. I got up for good around 6:45 and did my normal web checks;
I thought I could smell coffee brewing downstairs. I finished my
normal e-mail and web checks, but I also packed up most of my
stuff before heading down to breakfast: orange juice, Life
cereal and a banana.
It was 11 o’clock when I hit the road. Traffic was’t terribly
heavy as I made my way around Austin to get to Highway 71. I
listened to BBC OS for a while (covering Boris Johnson’s first
day as prime minister) and POTUS (covering the testimony of
Robert Mueller). I stopped at a gas station in Bastrop for some
snacks and then continued onward. An hour or so later (I think),
I had made it to I-10.
An hour or 45 minutes after that, I stopped at the Buc-ee’s in
Katy to fill up the car, empty the bladder, and get a drink and
some more snacks. Now I had a decision to make: how to get to
Nassau Bay? Looking at Google Maps earlier, two potential routes
(going through downtown or taking the West Loop) had very heavy
traffic. I guess that was to be expected. So I decided to
prepare my wallet for emptying and take the Sam Houston Tollway
around town. My EZ-Pass didn’t work in Texas, so I had to stop
at the toll booths and pay tolls that way. I had to do that
three times going from the Katy to the Gulf Freeway, so it
wasn’t a cheap drive ($5.25 altogether). But there were no
backups, either. Finally, sometime between 3:30 and 4, I arrived
at the Courtyard in Nassau Bay. I checked in, unloaded the car,
and settled in for the next week.
When suppertime came around, I walked to the nearby 1000 Degrees
Pizza. They used to have these near me in Detroit, but the
closest ones to me closed down, and I started going to MOD Pizza
instead. I ordered a Meatza pizza, which is what I used to order
back home. When I received it, it wasn’t as good as I remembered
it. It seemed that the equivalent MOD pizza, the Mad Dog, was
better. Maybe I was just more accustomed to it, though, for this
pizza was good enough. Afterwards, I walked over to the Bon
Appetit Cafe. This was where I might be having lunch with Ken
Young and other co-workers of my father. The date had not yet
been set, though; it might be tomorrow, or it might be Friday.
Back in the room, I uploaded pictures from my cameras and
cleared the contents of my DSLR. It still had the pictures from
the Trans-Canada trip on it; I had already transferred them to
my laptop, and they were just slowing the download of newer
pictures. I sent two pictures of Sasha to Keith, but I had
difficulty doing so; the hotel’s WiFi was a bit wonky. I
offloaded other files, and then I called it an evening.
Top
Thursdaty July 25
I woke up and did my usual e-mail and web checks, and then I got
dressed. Then I went down to the lobby to have breakfast at the
bistro. No, breakfast was not included with the room. This
morning, I had a bottle of orange juice, some yogurt, and a
breakfast burrito. For some reason, I had a hard time opening up
the juice and the yogurt; those foil seals did not want to come
off intact. I ended up spilling some juice onto the cover of my
iPad; I was not happy. After all of that, the yogurt and juice
were good, while the burrito was good enough.
There was a chance that I might meet Ken Young and some of my
dad’s former co-workers for lunch today, but since I hadn’t
heard anything so far, I presumed it would not happen today.
Later, I’d receive word that it was on for tomorrow. So I went
out and about. I drove on Space Center Boulevard to see if I
could spot the Gilruth Center or at least the entrance; I
couldn’t. Then I made my way to Baybrook Mall by way of Bay Area
Boulevard, El Camino Real and El Dorado Boulevard. This
was a new section of the mall, one that I had seen under
construction last year. It was more of a big-box store
collection rather than mall, in my opinion, but you could easily
get to the newer outdoor section and to the original mall. It
would be a good hike, but you could do it.
One of the stores there was Duluth Trading, known for its
distinctive commercials. I frequented the Duluth Trading store
closest to me in Michigan, and I had reason to go to this one,
or at least I thought I did. I ended up getting a shirt and a
pair of briefs. There was an REI store close by, and I went
there, but I ended up not getting anything. I didn’t feel like
visiting the rest of the mall, so I left and went to the Krogers
on El Camino, where I got some drinks and snacks for my stay
here. The room had its own refrigerator, and I wanted to have my
own drinks rather than get the ones from the hotel store. I got
a bottle of Topo Chico mineral water and a 12-pack of Caffeine
free Diet Dr Pepper, which I’ve only ever seen in Texas. I also
got a thank-you card and gift for Keith and his family for
putting me up (or putting up with me) earlier in the week.
when I got back to the hotel room, it had not yet been cleaned.
This was after noon, and I wasn’t happy. I put the drinks in the
refrigerator, made out the card and got it ready for mailing.
Then I confirmed directions to the Gilruth Center. I had indeed
passed the entrance this morning, as I confirmed via the
satellite images in Google Maps. But I wouldn’t have been able
to get there had I relied on Apple Maps; the two alternatives it
gave me went right through JSC property, which I could not do.
That was worthy of a Bad Apple, as the old Apple Byte podcast
might say. Housekeeping did show up, eventually, but I told them
not to bother today.
It was time for my second trip of the day. My first visit was to
the nearby CVS drugstore, where I got a tube of acne medicine to
reduce the swelling of a boil or something on my rear, which had
been bothering me for several days while sitting and driving.
Next came a visit to the post office on Upper Bay Road to mail
the card. It was still in the same small building I remembered
from my childhood, unlike League City’s post office, which had
been in three buildings in my memory. I then drove down Upper
Bay Road to the park at the end of the road, seeing some
slightly familiar sights. Next, I drove to the Gilruth Center to
make sure I knew where it was and that I could get to it without
encountering a security gate. And after all of that, I was
rather hungry, so i drove to the steak & Shake on the
freeway in Webster. I had the steak (steakburger) but not
the shake (had a Coke Zero instead), and then I went back to the
hotel.
I had one more trip to make today. I drove down to Santa Fe in
the late afternoon to see some old friends and former neighbors,
the Ivens. Son Thomas was hosting a cookout for family, friends
and neighbors. Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone to Steak &
Shake if I’d known I’d be having grilled burgers for
dinner. But the burger that I had was very good. It was
great seeing everyone again — Clem and Mary Helen; Bernie, Bobby
and Thomas, spouses. children and grandchildren; and a few
friends and neighbors. It took me a while to get there due to
heavy traffic on the freeway, and I wanted to leave before it
got dark. I accomplished that, but I didn’t make it back to the
hotel until after dark. Time for some more reading until I felt
sleepy, after which I called it a night.
Top
Friday July 26
I got up around 6:30 and did my regular web and e-mail checks,
then took a shower and got dressed. For breakfast, I went to the
lobby bistro and got a bottle of orange juice, a cup of yogurt,
and a buttered croissant. At first, I wasn’t sure that the
croissant was actually a croissant, for it was large enough to
have been closed off at the ends. But after tasting it, there
was no doubt that it was. Everything was good.
I stayed down in the lobby for a while before going back to the
room to brush my teeth and make my morning plans. I would go
back to Baybrook this morning, for I had reason to visit the
Apple Store. I was in need of a USB-C to Lightning cable to
connect my iPhone to my MacBook Pro without needing to use an
adapter with an existing cable. I remembered buying one, but I
couldn’t find it; it was probably at home. When I got there, I
parked in my traditional spot near Macy’s and went inside.
Noting had changed much since last yer. The Apple Store had the
cable I was looking for, so I bought one, put it in my pocket,
then walked around the traditional mall and the new outside
portion, That was a pretty good hike, and I was a bit warm when
I went back inside.
My next stop was the Barnes & Noble on the other side of the
freeway. Their collection of spaceflight-related books was
excellent, in my opinion; I ;d thought so for many years. I had
many of them already, but I didn’t get any more today. My
preferred format was e-book, for one thing. Then it was back to
the hotel, but I didn’t go to my room. No, I stayed in the lobby
for a while, checking my e-mail.
A little before 1 o’clock, I drove over to the Bon Appetit Cafe.
I could have walked there — I’d done so Wednesday night — but I
didn’t feel like doing so at the height of day. I parked and
went to the entrance wondering how I would recognize my dad’s
former co-workers. I needn’t have worried; they were outside the
entrance, waiting for me. Ken Young had said he would be the
tall one, so I new he was there in the group; he introduced me
to Bill Sullivan and Hal Beck.
Bon Appetit was a breakfast and lunch establishment, and you
placed your order when walking in. I chose a half-size Caesar
salad, a cup of tomato basil soup, along with a Diet Coke. The
others ordered their meals, and we went to a back table out of
the way of other customers (if there were any others; we were
having a late meal). They told me how good he was at computer
programming in the age of mainframes and punch cards. They
mentioned some of his commonly used rexpressions. For example,
when asked to add new features to a program, he would often say
“you can’t put 10 pounds of [excrement] into a 5-pound bag” (I
could have used that for some meetings at Ford) and “if it runs,
it’s user-friendly: (sometimes “if it runs, the SOB is
user-friendly”). He never used these at home. They also talked
about his playing on a softball team (I remember seeing a trophy
and using his glove) and also mentioned a time when, after a
practice or a game, they stopped at a bar or dance hall.
Apparently, my dad had too much to drink that night, and they
had to drive him home. Mom was not happy to see him that way (I
don’t doubt it). I have no memory of that; I was either too
young or perhaps not yet born.
They provided me with a copy of a page from an MSC internal
newsletter showing my dad at work. There was a drawer of punch
cards with a sketch of a monster cat on it; this sketch gave its
name to the program; the MONSTER, the big rendezvous and
mission planning program that my dad wrote and maintained. Hal
also gave me a chapter from his unpublished book on the early
history of the MPAD (Mission Planning nd Analysis Division)
division they were part of.
When I gave some info on what I’d done with my life, including
my work in automotive wiring at Ford, Ken said my experience
could have helped prevent the Apollo 1 fire, which was blamed on
a spark from damaged wiring. Perhaps it could have; a fresh-eyes
review like those commonly conducted on Ford vehicles may well
have caught problems, although the design considerations and
constraints for automotive are different from those for
aerospace. You aren’t building 60 command modules an hour, for
one thing.
When I got back to the hotel, my room had still not bee cleaned.
I did want it cleaned today, so I went down to the lobby
for an hour or so and did stuff on my iPad. I recall hearing “I
Do” by Lisa loeb playing in the background; I hadn’t heard that
song in a long time. After an hour or so, I checked on my room;
it had been cleaned at last.
Since Laredo’s was closed, I decided to visit my current
favorite restaurant in the area, Jimmy Changa’s in League City.
I took back streets to get there: Highway 3 to Walker Street. I
went fairly early to avoid any Friday dinner rush. Plenty of
seating was available. I decided to have the Jimmy’s Deluxe
meal, which was big enough to require two plates, a cold plate
for the taco, tostada/chalupa, quest-covered tortilla and
guacamole, and a hot plate for the enchilada, tamale, rice and
beans. It was indeed a big meal, but I’d had a light lunch, so I
was able to finish it. Yum!
Next, I went over to the nearby Best Buy for a look-around. I
saw that Bose had a speaker equipped with Amazon Alexa. It was a
lot more expensive than the Amazon Echo or Dot, but I’m sure it
sounded a lot better. I did not buy one, nor did I get
anything else where. The same was true at Walmart. After that, I
went back to the hotel the way I came.
Back in the room, I went to get a drink, but I couldn’t. All of
my drinks had frozen — the cans of pop, the bottle of Topo
Chico, all frozen solid. I looked for a temperature adjustment
inside the refrigerator, but I couldn’t find one. What to do?
Call the front desk, that’s what. Soon, someone came up to help
me. It turned out that the temperature control was not inside
the refrigerator at all but on the outside back, inaccessible
under normal circumstances. He pulled it out, saw that it had
been set to maximum cooling, and reset it to the medium setting.
I thanked him for fixing it and cursed whoever came up with the
idea to put the control there in the first place. That was a bad
design decision! Later, after defrosting the drinks, I put them
back in the refrigerator.
In searching for more information about the award ceremony
tomorrow — I think I was searching on my dad’s name — I found a
listing for a book called “Eight Years to the Moon” and an
excerpt from the book on the Universe Today website. This
excerpt featured Ken Young and his arrival in Houston in 1962,
as well as a picture of many of the Space Task Group members
that had moved from Langley to Houston — a picture I’d seen
several times, including at the Adler Planetarium — a picture
that included my father. I found that book available for Kindle
on Amazon, and I bought it. I also told my relatives about it,
in case they wanted to buy the book too.
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Saturday July 27
This was it; today was the day of the award ceremony, my reason
for being here today. I decided to wear some nicer clothes today
— no tennis shoes, no Tommy Bahama shirts — something I would
wear to work if I were still working. I checked the
refrigerator; the drinks were NOT frozen. I went down to the
lobby for breakfast at 8:30 and had the same thing as I’d had
yesterday (yogurt, croissant, and orange juice).
I spent some time in my room updating my iPhone and iPad to the
latest software level, which had just come out in the last day
or so. The WiFi in the hotel was not as fast as what I had at
home, so it took longer to download and install, but the updates
did complete successfully. Shortly after 9:30, Housekeeping came
by. I told them to come back after 11:30, for I would be out of
the room by then. I ended up going to the lobby at 10;30 to pass
the time until I had to leave; perhaps Housekeeping would show
up early. I read on my freshly updated iPad until 11:20; that’s
when I left for the ceremony.
When I got to the Gilruth Center, I parked and went inside. I
had a hard time finding the elevator or the stairs at first, but
I soon found the elevator, going up with some of the IEEE
officials who were conducting the ceremony. The elevator opened
right in front of the Lone Star Room, where the honorees’
luncheon was being held. Ken Young and Bill Sullivan were
already there, and they introduced me to Merritt Jones and Bob
Regelbrugge. Hal Beck was not there; he was attending the
services for Christopher Kraft. Since the services were private,
the award ceremony was proceeding as scheduled; however, the JSC
director, who was supposed to be at the ceremony, would also
attend Kraft’s funeral, so the deputy director was here instead.
She would attend the award ceremony briefly before going to the
funeral.
The luncheon got underway with an invitation to go to the
serving line. The meal had been catered by a local Indian
restaurant and was pretty good, although I ended up passing on
the dessert (no room on my plate). There were brief
presentations about the awards and the significance of the work
being honored, and then it was time for photo ops. I
participated in the ones for the AEG group. Part of me felt out
of place because I was not involved in the work being honored,
but then I remembered that I was there on behalf of my father,
who was very much involved, involved enough to be named on the
award plaque. The honorees each received a souvenir paperweight
to commemorate the event.
The luncheon ran long, so the award ceremony started late. I sat
near the front with the other honorees and dignitaries, so I
couldn’t really see how much of a crowd there was, though I did
not think there was a high attendance. Ken and Merritt gave good
talks about the AEG and how valuable it’s been and continues to
be in its current form.The talks about the significance of ESTL
and its development of combined voice/data/telemetry in a single
communications channel were interesting and informative, too.
There were some more photo ops, and then most of us boarded
buses that would take us to the JSC buildings for the official
plaque unveilings.
Before we boarded the buses, those of us who were visitors
received visitor badges. The bus I was on fairly full. The first
stop was Building 30, Mission Control. Because the ceremony had
run late, there was a chance we might have run into a tour group
from Space Center Houston touring the restored Mission Control
room; fortunately, that was not the case. Everyone entered the
lobby, where I could see the covered plaque mounted by the
elevator, underneath the plaque for National Historic Landmark
status. Ken Young had said the plaque was to have been mounted
on another wall, underneath the plaque honoring Christopher
Kraft. The IEEE officials had the honor of unveiling the plaque,
and I got an off-center picture of it. Then it was time for
another photo op. At one point before the photo op, Ken remarked
that the stairway from the lobby to MOCR had 87 steps; I would
understand the significance of this a few days later.
The lobby was very well air conditioned, while the outside air
was warm and humid; it had even been raining. Result: when I
left the lobby to return to the bus, my glasses instantly fogged
up. So I just looked over the top of them to see my way clearly.
Then the buses proceeded to the ESTL building for the plaque
unveiling there. I saw the unveiling but went outside during the
photo ops; that wasn’t my group or my dad’s group. Afterwards,
we boarded the buses to return to the Gilruth Center. After
returning the visitor badge, I found the restroom, which I
needed to use by that point. There was a small shop with NASA
memorabilia intended mainly for employees, but visitors could
buy things, as well. I bought two water bottles with different
designs showing Snoopy on the moon in honor of the 50th
anniversary of Apollo 11. As I left to return to the hotel, I
reflected on this; some part of my dad will always be in the
building where he worked for so many years.
Back at the hotel, I downloaded the pictures I had taken on my
iPhone. There weren’t that many; since I was part of the
ceremony at times, I wasn’t in a position to take very many.
When suppertime rolled around, I went to the Fuddrucker’s down
the road. This was the very first Fuddrucker’s I had ever been
to, but soon it would be closing; the owners of the adjacent
hospital had bought the land and planned to put an office
building on the spot. The burgers were just as good as I
remembered them. It was a good dinner. Back at the hotel, I had
a chat with a friend for around an hour. Not long after that, it
was time for bed. It had been a good day.
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Sunday July 28
.I got up around 7:40 in the morning, a bit later than on other
days. It was raining outside. I could tell from the sound it
made on the bathroom vent; I could also tell from the noise on
the roof of the hotel (my room was on the top floor). It was
raining forty years ago on this day, as Facebook reminded me.
But back in 1979, it was raining much harder. It was raining so
hard that there was widespread flooding. It was tropical storm
Claudette, and water came into our garage and was a half-inch
away from coming into our house.
After I got dressed, I packed up my computer items and went
downstairs. I went out to the car (the rain had stopped) and put
the bag in the trunk, thinking that I would go back inside and
have breakfast in the bistro. But as I was doing so, I had an
inspiration. Since I was planning to visit the Kroger
Marketplace in League City, why not go to the Cracker Barrel for
breakfast? I’d get more for my money, I was sure. And so I
didn’t go back inside, but I got in the car and headed to the
Cracker Barrel, going through League City to do so. When I
parked, I found that I had parked in front of an electric
vehicle charging station.
It was slightly busy at the Cracker Barrel; I had to wait 10
minutes or so to be seated. Once I was seated, I reviewed the
menu and decided to go for a Momma’s Pancake breakfast, which
consisted of more than just pancakes. It actually consisted of
three pancakes, scrambled eggs, and two sausage patties. I
topped that off with glasses of orange juice and water. All of
that was less expensive than the breakfast burrito, yogurt and
orange juice at the Courtyard.
After leaving the Cracker Barrel, I drove down Hobbs Road and
went down our old street. The house was still there, and people
were still living there. I drove around the block before getting
back onto Hobbs Road and heading for the Kroger. But I didn’t
stop at the Kroger, not yet. First, I wanted to drive down Hobbs
Road all the way to where it ended today. That road goes a lot
farther than it did during my childhood! When I reached the end
in a neighborhood called Sedona, I thought I saw preparation for
additional lengthening of the road. It was time to turn around
and go to Kroger. I didn’t get very much, just some more snack
foods, enough to put me over 400 loyalty points for the month.
Then I went back to the hotel.
When I got back, the room had been made. I decided to stay in,
catch up on some e-mails, and pay some bills. I took it easy the
rest of the afternoon; especially since I heard thunder and more
rain. It was that kind of day. When suppetimer rolled around, I
had a hard time deciding what I wanted to do. Eventually, I
decided to go to Luby’s Cafeteria in Nassau Bay, not far from
the hotel. It wasn’t terribly busy on Sunday evening, I decided
to have chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and corn, along
with a dinner roll and a drink. The chicken fried steak was
smaller than the one I’d had last year at Cleburne Cafeteria,
but it tasted much better.
Back at the hotel, I worked on the travelogue for a while.
Later, I watched a newscast from a Texas video archive: it was
the 6 PM news from KPRC channel 2 from July 20, 1979, the 10th
anniversary of the moon landing. I don’t recall seeing the
newscast at the time; although we normally watched the channel 2
news at 10, we tended to watch the channel 11 news at 6. I did
remember some of the commercials from back then. One item from
Doug Johnson’s weather forecast caught my attention; he was
talking about the remnants of tropical storm Claudette just off
of the Florida coast. Eight days later, that storm would sit
over our area and come close to flooding us.
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Monday July 29
I got up around 7 this morning and did my usual e-mail and web
checks. Later, I got dressed and went down to the lobby to have
the orange juice, yogurt and croissant breakfast that I’d had
for many days.. It was good, as it had been the other times I’d
had it. Then it was back to the room to brush my teeth, collect
my computing stuff in the backpack reserved for it, and take one
of my reusable grocery bags out to the car (the other was in use
in the room, holding groceries).
I had one item on the calendar today: lunch at El Tiempo Cantina
in Webster at 1. That was several hours away; what to do in the
interim? I stayed in the lobby for an hour or so, catching up on
e-mail and monitoring social media. Around 10, I decided to
drive over to Fry’s to see what they had. When I got there, I
decided that I’d rather go t the Academy sporting goods store
first. My main reason for going there was consider getting a
Texans football jersey. Those are not easy to find in Detroit,
just as Lions jerseys would not be easy to find in Texas.
Naturally, I got a #99 J. J. Watt jersey.
The Fry’s was just across the street. That had been one of my
favorite places to visit ever since I first went to one in the
Silicon Valley area in 1994. But when I went today, I was struck
by how empty and dead it seemed. Many shelves were full of
stuff, but many others were empty. The area that used to display
Apple computers and iPads no longer had Macs on display. The
other computer display area was very skimpy, too. I don’t think
I saw any cameras on display. I bet online shopping has really
hurt then, as it has so many other businesses. Will it even be
open the next time I visit Texas?
I didn’t get anything at Fry’s. It was too early for lunch, so I
drove up the feeder road to the Barnes & Noble for another
look-see. But like the other day, I left empty-handed. Now in
order to get to the restaurant, I had to go around a big block,
taking Bay Area to Texas Avenue to Nasa 1 to the feeder road. It
was still a bit early, but not ridiculously early, so I waited
under the awning until 1 o’clock. Any classmate of mine who
could attend was welcome to come, but in the end, Rob Wohrer was
the only one who showed up (although I knew there were others
who wanted to come but could not for various reasons). We had a
good talk; I told him about the ceremony on Saturday. We had
good meals; mine was a combination plate, which I think
consisted of a taco, an enchilada, a tamale, rice and beans. It
was a good visit.
My next destination was Buc-ee’s in Texas City. I didn’t need
gas yet; I just wanted to see what they had. I guess I was
looking for dessert, for I got one of their banana pudding cups,
along with a bottle of Sprite Zero. Then it was back up the
freeway, contending with the narrowed lanes of road
construction, and then back to the hotel.
When suppertime came around a few hours later, I went back to
Fuddrucker’s down the street. It would be closing at the end of
the week, so this was definitely my last time to go to that
location. On future visits, I’ll have to go to the Fuddrucker’s
on the feeder road in Webster. Some say the food there isn’t as
good as the soon-to-close location. I got the same thing as I
had on Saturday.
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Tuesday July 30
I woke up before 7, doing my normal e-mail and web checks, and
then I took a shower. I didn’t go down for breakfast this
morning; I nibbled on items I had in the room instead.
For the last few days, I had been contemplating a trip to Space
Center Houston. I had strongly considered staying an extra day
in the area and going on Wednesday, but as I didn’t have any
place in particular to go during the day today, I decided to go
today. I didn’t have far to go; it was almost directly across
the street. I paid the parking fee and found a parking spot. Now
I had been there twice before. The first time was in October
1992, shortly after it opened, and the second was in March 2001.
I hadn’t been there in a LONG time. I’d forgotten the date of
that second trip; I had to look it up in my previous
travelogues. One thing that hadn’t been there on either visit
was one of the 747’s used to carry space shuttles from landings
at Edwards AFB back to the Kennedy Space Center. I could see it
from the parking lot; I’d get a lot closer view inside later on.
I bought my ticket and went inside. The first thing I noticed
was that it was very dark inside; I had to wait a while for my
eyes to adapt. Once they did, I walked through the Early
Spacecraft exhibit. Many of the craft and displays I remember
seeing before, such as the Apollo 17 command module and the
lunar surface display, as well as the moon rocks; others, I
didn’t remember, such as the apparently full-size mockup of
Skylab’s habitation module. When I was done there, I went to the
service desk and requested a timed admission ticket for the
Mission Control tour; I got one for 10:30. Before I got in line
for the tram at 10:15, I made sure and used the restroom, for
there would be no opportunity to do so during the tour.
It was a long line for the tram, but it was a long tram; there
would be room for me. When it was fully loaded, it got under
way, crossing underneath Saturn Lane and onto the space center
grounds. It passed by several longhorn cattle grazing and
resting, symbolic of the land’s former existence as the West
Ranch. It passed by Rocket Park, which consists of a Saturn V
(now enclosed in a building), a Little Joe rocket, and a
Redstone rocket. We didn’t stop; that was a different tram tour.
Then the tram got onto 2nd Street and headed to Building 30.
When I did this tour in 2001, we had to leave all of our
possessions in a locker (even the contents of pockets) and pass
through metal detectors. There was none of that today as the
group entered the lobby where I had just been on Saturday. There
were several minutes of waiting in the lobby; I took advantage
of them by going up to the award plaque and getting a better
picture of it than I had gotten on Saturday. The tour guide did
not mention any of the plaques in the lobby, although in my
opinion, he had plenty of time to do so.
Soon, the previous group had left, and we could now go up. Most
were encouraged to take the stairs with an elevator available
for those who needed it. I went up those 87 steps, and it was
tough. I would have needed to pause had there been too many more
steps. Now that we were at the top, we filed into the visitor
room. Like the main Mission Control room, it had been stored to
its 1969 glory. Those who had to stand were told not to touch
the counter at the back of the room.
Soon, the presentation began. The room was partially darkened so
that only the row of consoles at the very back was visible as
the voice of Gene Kranz introduced what we were about to see and
hear: the landing of Eagle and the start of the moonwalk. Then
the room lit up to reveal active consoles and active front
displays showing what they showed then. The sound was that of
all of the loops in Mission Control, giving status readings. In
the corners of the viewing gallery, small TV’s showed CBS’s
coverage of the landing and the moonwalk. Even though we knew
how it would turn out, those final moments of descent were
suspenseful, and I did feel a palpable sense of relief when
touchdown had been confirmed.
When the presentation had concluded, everyone was invited to
spend some time taking pictures, but not too much time, for the
next group was waiting to come up. I only had my iPhone with me,
so the best I could do were general pictures. Then it was time
to head downstairs. Those 87 steps were a lot easier going down
than going up! We went outside and back to the tram and
back to Space Center Houston. They’d done a very good job
restoring Mission Control, and I was glad to have seen it, and
the award plaque, again.
Once back inside at SCH, I made a quick pass through the small
gift shop close to the food court, but I didn’t get anything.
Next, I visited the Astronaut Gallery, which had pictures of
every mission through Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 to ISS Expedition
crews from 2018. Nearby were spacesuit and garments worn in
space through the years, most of which I’d seen before. Next, I
caught the noon showing of the noon showing of “Mission
Control”, the subject of which was indeed Mission Control. This
was a shortened version of the film; I have the full-length
film, but for some reason I’d never watched it. I vowed to
rectify that omission.
After the movie, which lasted about an hour, I went through the
ISS exhibit and the Mars exhibit. One demonstration simulated
the disorientation astronauts typically feel when they first
board the ISS. The room literally spun around where we were
standing, and it was definitely disorienting, although I
managed. The Mars exhibit offered the chance to touch a piece of
a Martian meteorite and see the latest Martian weather report.
Next, I went outside to Independence Plaza, home to one of the
747’s that ferried shuttles across the country. Mounted on top
was a full-size shuttle mock-up, Independence. SCH had lost out
on receiving one of the surviving, retired shuttles. Then again,
you could go inside the shuttle mock-up. Before touring the
shuttle and plane, I walked through the launch pad swing arm,
which had been used by shuttle astronauts to board the
craft. Next came walks through the shuttle mock-up, which I’d
done before, and th carrier plane, which I hadn’t. Inside the
plane, there were models of the shuttle-plane combination used
for testing. One of the monitors played portions of a CBS News
Special Report on the first flight test of the shuttle
Enterprise. I may well have seen that report at the time.
There were some exhibits that I wanted to see but could not
find. Supposedly, the podium that President Kennedy used to give
his famous speech at Rice Stadium in 1962 (“We choose to go to
the Moon”) was on display, as was the shuttle craft Galileo from
Star Trek. But I didn.t see either of them. There was also an
extended VIP tour available, but as that required a two-day
commitment, I could not do that this trip. And after a pass
through the gift shop without getting anything, I left and went
back to the hotel. I’d spent around 5 1/2 hours there. Back at
the hotel, I downloaded the pictures I’d taken today. I also
uploaded the improved picture of the award plaque I’d taken
today to Facebook, replacing an off-angle picture I’d taken
Saturday.
This evening, I was supposed to drive out to Alvin to have
dinner with childhood friends and neighbors Gaye and Jeff
Vandervort. It had been a few years since I’d seen either of
them. But with a heavy thunderstorm in Nassau Bay, it was going
to be a few minutes more delay. It was still raining when I left
for Alvin, with speeds reduced because of poor visibility.
Eventually, I made it to Alvin. I had a general idea where to
go, as Gaye’s new house was on her parents’ former land, but it
had been some time since I’d been out there, and things had
changed. No longer would “third house on the right” suffice as a
direction. Apple Maps to the rescue! It guided me there all
right.
The driveway was all muddy thanks to the construction aftermath,
and I made it to the door without falling in the mud. Gaye and
Jeff were there and were glad to see me. We ended up going to
Joe’s Barbecue for dinner, which was fine by me. I had my
traditional meal of a fully loaded barbecue baked potato. And I
was able to almost finish it because I hadn’t had lunch at Space
Center Houston today. Gaye also had a potato (no barbecue),
while Jeff had a hamburger. I’ve never had a hamburger from
Joe’s; I’ve had a chopped beef sandwich occasionally, but I
almost always get that barbecue baked potato. Then it was back
to the house for a while, until I saw it was getting dark and
headed on back to the hotel. On the way there, I listened to
some of the Democratic presidential candidate debate from
Detroit being carried by CNN. Then it was time to pack.
Top
Wednesday July 31
Today, I would start returning to
Michigan. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stop anyplace along the
way, but I finally decided I didn’t want to; I would head
straight home. I woke up before 7 and did my normal web and
e-mail checks. Then, I finished my packing, got a luggage cart
from the lobby, loaded my stuff on it and went out to my car to
load it up. I loaded it up in a similar way to how I had loaded
it coming down. I brought the cart back in, checked out, made a
bathroom stop, and got ready to hit the road. I didn’t bother
with breakfast at the hotel; I just nibbled on some cookies.
It was 8:52 when I set off, figuring I had avoided most rush
hour traffic. And I had, for the most part; there was a bit of a
slowdown near Park Place on the Gulf Freeway, but I made it
through there all right. I took the East Loop to avoid downtown
then got onto the Eastex Freeway heading northeast. I stopped
for gas at a town north of Livingston, probably Corrigan. Then I
drove onward through Lufkin.
As I approached Nacogdoches, I got into the left lane of
the highway to turn onto the bypass loop around the city. I
started through the turn, and then all of a sudden, I heard and
felt a big THUNK! Moments later, a warning for low tire
pressure sounded. I pulled safely over and took a look; my
left rear tire was flat. Had I clipped the curb? Had I hit some
debris? Whatever I’d done, I was in trouble. I had no
spare in the car (thank you, hybrid battery), only an inflator I
feared would be ineffective. What to do? Fortunately, I was a
AAA member, and so I called for service. Soon, I had arranged
for an emergency tow to the Ford/Lincoln dealer in town.
Unfortunately, “emergency” service did not mean speedy service.
I had to wait over 90 minutes for the tow truck to arrive. Two
men stopped to offer assistance, but I declined their offers.
Not having a spare, there was little they could do. At one
point, I partially unloaded my trunk to retrieve the lock for
the wheel nut and the inflater; one I knew I would need, the
other I doubted. Around 2:15, the flatbed wrecker arrived. He
invited me to sit in the cool cab while he loaded the car. Boy,
did that air conditioning feel good! Once the car was loaded,
the driver took it and me to Tipton Ford Lincoln in town.
Interestingly enough, during that whole time I was waiting, I
did not see a single police car pass by, much less stop.
I feared that the dealership would not have the proper tire in
stock, that I’d have to spend the night (or longer) in
Nacogdoches. Fortunately, they did have it in stock, and they
could get to it quickly. I sat in the waiting room paying
occasional attention to the TV, which had Fox News on, as well
as sipping a Diet Dr Pepper and checking e-mail on my iPad. Some
two hours later, the car was ready, and I paid the bill. Before
leaving, I reserved a room at the Hampton Inn in Marshall, some
70 miles away. I didn’t feel like driving much farther today. I
had wanted to make it past Little Rock, but that was out of the
question.
The hotel was on Highway 59, so no need to search for it. It was
comfortable enough, although the swimming pool was right below
my window, and it was very easy to hear the sounds of kids
playing there. For supper, I went to the Subway next door and
got an Italian BMT sandwich, which I brought back to the room.
Unfortunately, they messed my order up; I’d asked for banana
peppers, but they’d put bell peppers on instead. Later, I did
some reading before turning in around 10. I hoped that tomorrow
would be a better day.
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Thrusday August 1
I woke up and got up for good around 6:15 AM and did my normal
web and e-mail checks. Breakfast was at 7:15 in the lobby;
today, I had some oatmeal, a muffin, and a danish. It was decent
enough. After checking out, I got underway a little bit after 8
o’clock. As I drove, I listened to the POTUS channel on
SiriusXM, which was carrying discussion of night 2 of the
Democratic presidential candidate debate from Detroit.
Conditions driving to Texarkana were decent, although the skies
were cloudy for the most part. I got gas south of Texarkana and
then continued on to I-30. This was around 10 in the morning. As
I continued into Arkansas, the driving was good until Prescott,
where traffic came to a near-standstill. There was a Love’s
truck stop at the Prescott exit; time for a bathroom break! With
an empty bladder and a nearly-full gas tank, I could cope with a
traffic backup.
There were occasional rain showers on the way to Little Rock,
but they didn’t slow me up. Soon, I was in the Little Rock area
(this was around noon), and soon I was through, but not before
stopping at the first exit on I-40 after I-440 for a bathroom
break. I should say that I stopped at a truck stop at the exit;
it would have been a very bad idea to stop in the exit and
relieve myself.
From Marshall, my home was 1100 miles away, so 550 miles would
represent the halfway point. Marion, IL was around the halfway
point, and so when I reached the Missouri Welcome Center on
I-55, I stopped, stretched, used the restroom, and made a
reservation for the Hampton Inn in Marion. It was some 2 hours
away from the rest area; for most of that time, I listened to
Radio Classics, which featured two episodes of Michael Shayne (a
detective program) and Mr. and Mrs. North (a detective program
of sorts).
When I reached Marion, the Apple Maps program on my iPhone
guided me to the hotel - almost. I could see the hotel, but
there was no way to get to it from the highway. Fortunately, by
taking the next right, I could reach the hotel. My room for
tonight was room 135, right next to the exit on the south side
of the hotel, and also right next to where I’d parked. There
were several restaurants nearby, the closest being a Bob Evans.
That’s where I went, choosing the Everything Breakfast for my
meal. Not having had any lunch (only nibbles on snacks), I was
hungry for it, and I finished the whole thing. Back at the room,
I got caught up on all the e-mails I’d received during the day,
and then I did some reading before calling it a night before 10.
Top
Friday August 2
I woke up at 6, tried to get a little more sleep, but then gave
up and got up at 6:20. Naturally, I did my normal web and e-mail
checks. I took things a little slower this morning, going down
for breakfast at 7:30. Again, I had a pretty big breakfast,
which meant I wouldn’t need to stop for lunch. I was underway at
8:15.
I-57 had construction on it for several miles, which slowed my
progress, but I eventually got past that. As I neared Effingham,
I had a decision to make: continue on I-57 and go by way of the
south Chicago suburbs, or take I-70 and go via Indianapolis?
Checking Gooogle Maps the night before, I’d seen indications
that part of I-70 in Indy was completely shut down, and so I
chose to stay on I-57. For most of the way to Chicago, that was
a decent decision, as traffic moved along very well. As I drove,
I listened to POTUS, Radio Classics, 60s on 6 and BBC World
Service, though not in that order.
Around 2:45, I was turning onto I-80 in the Chicago area. Then
traffic came to a crawl as I reached the Tri-State Tollway. What
was the problem? There had been an accident on 80/94 in
northwest Indiana, and once I got that, traffic improved. But
nearing I-65, it slowed down again. WBBM said that traffic
heading to Michigan was heavy; that’s when I decided to take
I-65 and get onto the Indiana Toll Road. The first service plaza
I encountered was a welcome sight, for I was in dire need of a
bathroom break. Also, it was time to refuel the car, which I
did.
As I drove eastward on the toll road, I was pondering whether to
stop for the night or to try to make it home. I preferred not to
arrive home in the dark, but if I was close enough to home at
sunset, I might press on.. At the first service plaza in Ohio, I
stopped for supper: two slices of Sbarro pizza and a drink. I
hadn’t had Sbarro pizza in a while, and as I ate my slices, I
remembered why. I looked up hotels in Toledo, but the rates were
higher than my liking. I checked directions home; I could make
it home a half-hour after sunset. My mind was made up: I would
press on home.
There was construction on I-75 in Toledo, but I got through it
all right. There was construction on I-75 at and north of the
Michigan border; I got through that all right, too. As I drove
up I-75 and then I-275, I caught occasional glimpses of a very
thin crescent moon in the west. And then, just before 9:30, I
pulled into my driveway. I was home. I took in three bags of
necessities; the rest would wait until tomorrow.
Top
THE END
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© 2019.
W. Reini. All rights reserved.
Written by Roger
Reini August 12, 2019
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