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Travelogue:
Texas and More
October and November 2006
By Roger W.
Reini
By date:
October: 26
| 27 | 28 | 29
| 30 | 31
November: 1 | 2 | 3
| 4 | 5 | 6
| 7 | 8 | 9
| 10 | 11 | 12
Prologue
Soon I shall begin my next long-distance trip. This trip
will take me to Texas for my high school reunion. It will
also take me to St. Louis and Branson, Missouri – and that’s
just on the outbound portion. As of this writing, I don’t
know how I will return to Michigan.
The Branson portion of the trip is a dry run for a planned
family outing next June, where relatives from Michigan,
Tennessee and California will gather in a more-or-less central
location. The St. Louis portion, besides being on the
route from Michigan to Branson, will be an overnight stop for me
as well as an opportunity to attend a ham radio swap meet.
But it is taking on additional significance, for Detroit and St.
Louis are to meet in the World Series. The day I arrive in
St. Louis is scheduled to be the off-day between games 5 and 6,
if they are necessary. The Series could also be over by
then, too.
Top
Thursday
October 26
I knew I needed a vacation for quite some time, and finally the
day was here. I could put aside questions of work for a
little over two weeks. But not until the afternoon; today
was still a work day, and I needed to take care of things before
I left.
I woke up fairly early, as usual. I had loaded the car
with most of my luggage and gear last night, and this morning I
would finish the job. When I left the house around 6:15 or
so, I was fully packed; I did not need to return home after
work. I might have returned home had I worked at the west
end of my building, though. A pipe had burst on the third
floor during the night, and there was water all over the floor
there as well as on lower floors. The elevator was out of
order, and the escalators in that part of the building were
eventually shut down. But my part of the building remained
dry.
At 3:30, my work day was done. I went to my car and rolled
out onto Oakwood Boulevard, listening to MLB Home Plate on XM
Radio. Ever since the playoffs started, I’d kept the radio
on that channel, rarely tuning away. Naturally, the
discussions revolved around the World Series, game 4 of which
was tonight in St. Louis. Due to a rainout last night,
this was game 4 instead of game 5.
I got onto the Southfield Freeway, which became Southfield Road,
then took Dix Highway to I-75. There was some construction
in the Downriver area, and that slowed traffic a bit. It
was an uneventful drive to and through Toledo.
Construction that had been present on I-475 earlier this year
was all gone now. There was a little slowdown at the
intersection with Highway 2, but it was minor. Before
long, I was on US 24 (Telegraph Road in Detroit, Detroit Avenue
in Toledo) heading southwest towards Fort Wayne. And it
wasn’t too long before it started to rain, though not
heavily. It was a cold rain, though, as I found when I
gassed up at a truck stop in Napoleon, then went inside for a
restroom break, a bottle of water, and some snacks. After
taking some medicine, I continued on my merry way. XM’s
baseball channel continued to keep me company.
By the time I arrived in Fort Wayne, it was dark.
Officially, US 24 took the loop around Fort Wayne to the south –
the long way around, by my reckoning. But I went
north. It would connect me to I-69 just as the southerly
route would, but the north way was shorter. Soon I found
myself at the exit for US 24 west. The Hilton Garden Inn,
my destination for tonight, was on the southwest corner.
But first, I wanted some supper, and the most convenient place
for me to get some was at a McDonald’s on the northwest
corner. Here, I had an Asian salad and a hamburger, an
unusual combination, one might think. Then I crossed the
street and worked my way to the hotel. This involved a
path through a grocery store parking lot, for the street next to
the hotel was one way, the wrong way.
When I took the elevator to my hotel room, I couldn’t help but
notice that on the elevator inspection certificate was a
cardinal, which happened to be the state bird of Indiana.
It also happened to symbolize the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit’s
opponent in the World Series. I hoped this would not be a
sign of the eventual outcome of the series. I checked into
the room in plenty of time to watch the pre-game show and the
start of the game. Unfortunately, I fell asleep during the
game, not because of the quality of the play, but because I was
sleepy; it had been a long day for me. Sadly, the Tigers
lost and were now down 3 games to 1. If they lost tomorrow
night, the Series would be over.
Top
Friday October
27
My body had not yet figured out that I was on vacation, so just
before 5 AM, I found myself awake. So I showered, checked
e-mail, then went downstairs for breakfast. Among the
e-mails was one from Nick Lance, president of the Clear Lake
Amateur Radio Club, which sponsors the radio club at Westbrook
Intermediate, the Hamsters. I was planning to attend one
of the Hamsters’ meetings next Friday and might give a short
talk. Breakfast at the hotel was not free, unlike at
Hampton Inn, but you had more hot options, such as waffles,
eggs, bacon and sausage, etc. It was quite good, and it
gave me a good start for the day.
At 7:30, I set out for today’s destination, St. Louis.
This had nothing to do with the World Series, for as I said in
the prologue, I planned to attend a ham radio swap meet Saturday
morning. But tonight would be game 5 of the World Series,
and the Cardinals were leading. If they won tonight, they
would be champions. Back to my journey: I turned
onto southbound I-69, but as I did so, I suddenly realized that
I wanted to head west on US 24. Instead of turning right
as I left the hotel, I should have turned left and stayed off
the freeway. So I turned around at the next exit,
backtracked, then got myself going where I wanted to go.
And where I wanted to go was Route 66. The closest way to
reach it was to take US 24 across Indiana and a short way across
Illinois. Most of the way, it was a good road allowing me
to keep good time. At one point, I passed an intersection
where the road heading south led to Peru and heading north lead
to Chili. What was this, South America? I listened
to Baseball This Morning on XM’s baseball channel in the
morning, then flipped it during the Pacific time zone
rebroadcast.
At last I reached Chenoa, and with I-55 in the distance, I
turned south onto old Route 66. I had been on this stretch
several times in the past, but this time I had a new guidebook
with me, EZ66 Guide for
Travelers by Jerry McClanahan. It proved its
usefulness right away, as it pointed out a sight in Lexington
that I wanted to visit. Memory Lane was a stretch of
original 1926 Route 66 that was open to hikers but blocked to
vehicle traffic for most of the year. I saw the northern
end of it as I entered Lexington, then attempted to park at the
southern end. There wasn’t any proper parking there, so I
stopped at the gates and walked onto the blocked area. I
then backtracked and went to the northern end. There
wasn’t any parking there either, yet I parked and walked a good
distance of Memory Lane. The road was two lanes, with
grass poking through in many places and trees trying to form a
canopy over the roadway. There were some recreated
billboards and tributes, including a sequence of Burma Shave
signs. It wasn’t raining, yet I couldn’t help but think of
the words to “Is Anybody Goin’ To San Antone?”:
Rain drippin’ off the brim of
my hat,
It sure looks cold today
Here I am walkin’ down 66,
Wish she hadn’t done me this
way.
Now it wasn’t raining (though it threatened to), nor had I been
mistreated in love, but I was walking down 66, and it was cold,
so it seemed appropriate. I walked most of the length of
the roadway, far enough that I could see the Burma Shave signs
I’d noticed at the other end. I was by myself there, yet I
was concerned that someone would mess with my car, which was out
of sight at times (the road curved). But nobody did, so I
was able to continue onward.
I stopped for gas and lunch at McLean, then continued onward to
Atlanta, which was the new home for a giant statue that had been
located in Cicero. The statue was of Paul Bunyan holding a
giant hot dog. This was a Muffler Man statue, so named
because it originally held a giant muffler. Naturally, I
took pictures of the statue.
The weather remained cold and windy. Rain fell off and
on. Somewhere north of Litchfield, I decided to abandon 66
in favor of I-55. With the lousy weather, it wasn’t much
of a scenic drive. I also wanted to avoid as much of St.
Louis’s rush hour as I could. So onto I-55 I went, and
there I stayed until crossing the Mississippi River and picking
up the beginning of I-44. The exit for southbound I-55 and
westbound I-44 took me right past Busch Stadium, although there
were few outward signs of the World Series. Now if the
weather had been warmer, I might have stopped at the Ted Drewes
Custard Stand on Route 66 in southwestern St. Louis.
My hotel in St. Louis was at the corner of Lindburgh and Watson,
right on Route 66. I missed the turnoff for the hotel, so
I went through the intersection and turned into a shopping
center that had a CompUSA. I went in there for a while but
didn’t get anything. Then I went back to the hotel and
checked in. I was on the first floor at the back of the
hotel, room 121.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for supper, but I figured I
would find something at a nearby shopping center across the
street from the one with the CompUSA. I had noticed
earlier that there was a Borders there, and I decided to pay it
a visit. These days, when you’ve seen one Borders, you’ve
mainly seen them all. Naturally, the local interest
section had a vastly different selection than in Detroit.
Prominently featured on a table at the front of the store was a
wide selection of Cardinals books and videos. I was in no
real mood to look through that merchandise. However, I did
find another tourbook for Branson. I also picked up Barack
Obama’s new book for reading on my trip. I didn’t always
agree with his philosophies, but he struck me as a decent man,
one who might be contending for national office in the
future. Afterwards, I went over to Saint Louis Bread
(known as Panera Bread most places) for a sandwich and a bowl of
French Onion Soup, which I took back to the hotel. I
didn’t want to miss any of game 5 of the World Series; St. Louis
was in a position to win it all tonight, and I was rooting for
the Tigers to win and send the series back to Detroit.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The Tigers’ pitchers
turned into contenders for the Butterfinger Award by committing
more throwing errors, allowing St. Louis to score. We had
the lead but lost it and ended up losing the game and the
series. Congratulations to the Cardinals, for they were
indeed the better team. But wait ‘til next year! I
kept watching the local stations for their postgame coverage at
the stadium and on the streets; the fans were very happy.
Top
Saturday
October 28
There was no paper rack on the grounds of the hotel, so if I
wanted to get a copy of the local St. Louis paper, I would have
to go to a nearby establishment. There was a Denny’s right
next door, so I went over there. The lead story was the
Cardinals’ championship, naturally. Undoubtedly, the
Detroit News and Free Press would also have it as their lead
stories, but with a vastly different slant. I read the
sports section over breakfast in the lobby. The breakfast
bar wasn’t as fancy as yesterday’s; the only hot items were
French toast and sausage, but that was OK with me. The
food was still good.
Now if this had been a normal driving day for me, I would have
gotten an early start for the long day ahead. But I would
not be setting out immediately. No, I would be attending a
ham radio swap meet a few miles away. I had planned my
route and stops in order to be able to attend this event, for I
would be missing another swap meet this weekend back in Detroit
(Sterling Heights, to be precise). Most events start early
in the morning, and this was no exception. I loaded the
car, wiped the windows off with a towel from the room, checked
out, and headed for the event. It was a cool day, but the
sun was out, a welcome change from the rain and drizzle of
previous days. The meet was at the Kirkwood recreational
center, which bordered a park and pond, making for a picturesque
setting. The parking lot was filled with cars, many of
which had one or more ham radio antennas. My car had two
ham antennas, one for VHF and one for HF (shortwave), but there
were others that had three or four or more. I saw one with
15 to 20 antennas on it; it had recently been featured in
leading radio magazines, and I might have seen it at the big
Dayton Hamvention this past May.
Admission was $5 at the door; I paid for my ticket, then went to
the ticket drawing area in the secondary room to drop off my
stub for a possible door prize. None of the vendors in
this room had anything I wanted, so I went to the main
room. Now I had some definite items in mind, such as an
antenna analyzer and some license study material. But at
the first table I visited, I was reviewing their antennas when I
noticed their 2-meter quad antenna. Having only two
elements, it was quite small, small enough for me to use in my
condo, or even to carry in my hand. I hadn’t planned on
getting an antenna, but I left that table carrying the floor
sample, the only one they had. Next, I visited the table
of a dealer from Memphis who was carrying quite a large
inventory, and among his wares was the antenna analyzer I was
looking for – on sale, too! Yes, I bought it, along with
an accessory package (carrying case, batteries, etc.).
Another booth had the study material I wanted, so I made out
quite well today. But when I got to the car, I found I had
a problem. My quad antenna wouldn’t fit in the back
seat. Normally, it would have, but I had the seat backs
lowered to accommodate the stuff I’d brought on vacation that
there was much less room than normal. The trunk was full
with my luggage, so I couldn’t put the antenna in there.
What to do? I figured out a way to disassemble the antenna
as best I could, and then it went into the back seat. I
hoped that I would be able to reassemble it again when I needed
to. Then I took a walk around the pond to get the blood
flowing. It wasn’t a very long walk, just .35 mile, and I
had to contend with some surly geese that hissed as I walked
past.
At 8:55 AM, I left the swap meet and set off towards Route 66
and Branson. This part of Kirkwood appeared to be a nice
neighborhood. A little farther along, I passed a Sports
Authority store, where they would undoubtedly have Cardinals
championship merchandise available when they opened. But I
wasn’t going to inflict myself with any of that, so I passed it
by and picked up Watson Road, a.k.a. Route 66. Just west
of town, the XM signal dropped out completely. At first, I
thought it might have been a loose antenna connection, but that
seemed to be OK. I exited I-44 briefly, intending to pull
over to check the antenna, but just as I exited, the signal
returned. Back onto the freeway I went, exiting again at
the exit for Route 66 State Park, built on the site of the
former Times Beach. I drove through there, listening to
XM’s MLB Home Plate and their coverage wrap-up of the World
Series, along with the surprising news of Joe Niekro’s death at
age 62 from a brain aneurysm. He had been one of the
Astros’s star pitchers in the late 70’s and early 80’s and had a
son (Lance Niekro) who played for the Giants.
The McClanahan Route 66 guidebook was always close by, and that
proved very useful as I followed the Mother Road across the
state. There were Historical Route signs, but nowhere near
as many as in Illinois, and there were times when I would have
gotten lost had it not been for the guidebook. For those
times when I misread the book and did get lost, the GPS helped
me get back on track. I stopped at a Wal-Mart Supercenter
in Sullivan for a restroom break and an opportunity to pick up
some Atkins snack bars. I continued southwest through
areas I’d visited before, such as Cuba and Rolla. In the
town of Waynesville, I misread the guidebook and turned north
when I should have kept going straight, and this put me several
miles out of my way. The GPS tipped me off when I failed
to see I-44 appear as expected. When I realized my error,
I got quite upset, but then I turned around and got back on
track.
When I reached US 65 at Springfield, it was time to leave Route
66 and head towards Branson. The drive there was
uneventful, and I eventually found myself on the north side of
Branson. Now I had a map showing me how to follow a
special crosstown route (the Red Route) to bypass the congestion
of Highway 76 through the center of town. Parts of this
route were still fairly undeveloped, but other parts were lined
with hotels, businesses and the occasional theater. The
area was also quite hilly; anyone riding a bicycle here would
have to contend with some lengthy grades. I passed Yakov
Smirnoff’s large theater, which was visible from Highway
65. I also passed musician Shoji Tabuchi’s theater
(tickets to his shows are said to be the most expensive in town)
before arriving at the Hampton Inn on Highway 76. The
hotel was fairly nice, but I couldn’t get a wireless
signal. Part of the problem, I would learn at the desk,
was due to a bad access code given at the front desk. The
correct code worked, but only in the lobby. The room was
still out of luck; it appeared to be out of range. But I
didn’t stay in the room that long, for I had other things to do.
As I said in the prologue, this trip to Branson was something of
a dry run for a trip planned for next summer. In order to
give my relatives a feel for what the town looked like, I took
my video camera and went around town with it. Traffic was
moving quite slowly on the Strip, making it easy to take video
and make comments as I crept along. I passed by Mickey
Gilley’s theater, a successor to the original Gilley’s in
Pasadena. There was a theater featuring a Beatle tribute
band, and not far from there was the Jim Stafford Theater, where
I would attend a show later that evening. I passed by so
many theaters, I could hardly remember them all, but I know I
passed some of the longest-running shows in town, the
Baldknobbers and Presley’s Country Jamboree (no relation to
Elvis). I eventually went into downtown Branson, then
turned north to pick up the Red Route and return to my hotel.
Now when I selected my hotel and my show for tonight, I had
thought they would be located close together. Well, the
hotel was farther away from the theater than I thought, but my
drive convinced me that I could easily walk between them.
So I set off towards the theater, but at the same time I was
looking for a place to have supper. The first restaurant I
came to was connected to Mickey Gilley’s theater, so that’s
where I went. The hostess was wearing a jersey from the
original Gilley’s in Pasadena, which burned down in 1989.
I hadn’t seen one of those long-red-sleeved, white-bodied shirts
in a LONG time! They were fairly common during my high
school days; I never had one, though. I could see the
merchandise area from my table; no, those shirts weren’t
offered, but ones promoting the current location were. You
could also get several Mickey Gilley CD’s, as well. Now
what did I have tonight? I had a ribeye steak with baked
potato and a salad; it was very good. Since I hadn’t had a
proper lunch today, I was quite hungry.
The Jim Stafford Theater was almost directly across the street
from the Gilley theater and restaurant, so it wasn’t very long
before I was there. The box office was inside the theater,
and I claimed my ticket and walked around the lobby for a while
before taking my seat. There was a gift shop and a
concession stand, and around the lobby were several mementos of
Stafford’s career. The gold record for “Spiders and
Snakes” was hanging on the wall in the concession stand
area. After using the bathroom, I took my seat, front row
center – actually, slightly stage right of dead center.
The stage itself was eye level from my seat, so I had to look up
during the whole show. No problem with that, for I was
very close to the action. In fact, I got to shake
Stafford’s hand after the opening number (he shook everyone’s
hands in the first few rows). The show itself featured a
mix of music and comedy (he was an excellent guitar, not to
mention his 9-year-old daughter G. G., an accomplished pianist
and harpist in her own right. During intermission, one
could buy a 3-DVD set that included a disc of tonight’s
performance, along with two other historical performances.
I decided to get one, not only as a souvenir for myself but also
to take back home and show my family members what I saw.
In fact, I was part of it. The hand-shaking was shown on a
video screen during the performance and was part of the DVD.
Also on the DVD was an intermission interlude where the camera
focused on individuals in the audience and showed funny
captions. I got one: “Spent 15 minutes combing his
hair – then left it at home.” We’ll want to take in some
shows when we come here next year, and this may well be one of
them. I would recommend it.
Top
Sunday October
29
Ahead of me lay a long day of driving. My desired
destination was Austin, Texas, over 600 miles away. Could
I do it in a day? I was sure I could, for I’ve done 600
miles in one day on many occasions. When doing such long
drives, it helps to get an early start, and that’s what I
did. I was on the road shortly after 5:30 AM, which meant
I left before the hotel started serving breakfast. Unlike
yesterday, there was hardly a vehicle on the Strip as I cruised
through town. I could see the faint glow of sunrise in the
southeast as I drove southward on US 65 heading towards
Arkansas. I was listening to WJR from Detroit early on in
the drive; they were carrying coverage of the pre-race
activities for the marathon. My chiropractor runs
marathons, so I’m sure he was downtown that chilly morning
preparing to race in two countries (the route extends into
Canada for a few miles).
As I neared the Fayetteville area, I stopped for breakfast at
McDonald’s. The restaurant had an aviation theme, which
presumably meant that an airport was nearby (I saw it as I was
leaving). I got onto I-540 and traveled towards Fort
Smith, and then when it intersected I-40, I took that freeway
into Oklahoma. There was hardly a cloud in the sky for my
trip today, a great weekend for driving to make up for the lousy
weather of Thursday and Friday. Satellite radio was my
companion for most of the day; in the morning, XM, but I
switched to Sirius in the afternoon to keep up with the NFL
action. The Lions had a bye week, so they weren’t playing,
but the Texans were. I couldn’t find their game, though,
so I kept it on the main NFL channel, which constantly updated
every game as they progressed, taking you to the action at key
times. It turned out there wasn’t much action in the
Texans’ game, as they were being beaten by the Titans.
My drive took me through the community of Checotah,
Oklahoma. I had been through here before in May 2005, and
at that time, I remember seeing a few signs cheering on their
hometown girl competing in American
Idol, Carrie Underwood. Well, she won the
competition, and this year, there was a big sign on I-40
trumpeting that fact.
I didn’t have lunch today; instead, I nibbled on what I had in
the car, wanting to make time. On the ham radio, I made
contact with a ham driving back from a camping trip to Lake
Texoma, but it was only a short contact because we were driving
in opposite directions and wouldn’t be in range very long.
I called my aunt Marie and uncle Bill from the road; it turned
out he went to the swap meet in Sterling Heights. After
crossing into Texas, I tried calling Keith Zabalaoui, wanting to
advise him of my progress, but I got no answer (I would be
staying with him for a few days). Onward I went down US 75
through Denison, Sherman (home of the Buck Owens Freeway – he
was born there, though I connect him more with Bakersfield, CA),
the northern Dallas suburbs, downtown and central Dallas (lots
of traffic heading for the zoo), and then I got onto I-35E,
which became plain old I-35 south of Waxahachie and took me
through Waco, Temple, and Round Rock (home to an Ikea store
opening mid-November) before arriving in the Austin area.
[Details of my stay with Keith have been removed to protect the
innocent, but I will keep this picture of Ping the cat:
I wonder about his innocence, though ...]
Top
Monday October
30
Today was a rest day for me, having driven all or part of the
previous four days. Nothing of any significance happened today.
Top
Tuesday
October 31
[Details of today have been removed, but the highlights included
a meal at the Oasis on Lake Travis, a trip to Fry's, and my
first Halloween trick or treat duty.
And what did I get at Fry's? I found the latest version of the
ARRL Handbook, which included a reprint of the January 1942 QST
Magazine. That was the first one published after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor and contained an order suspending
amateur radio for the duration of the war. It also
contained the normal technical articles and advertisements,
which were fascinating to compare to today’s articles and
products.]
Top
Wednesday
November 1
I woke up around 6 this morning and did my usual web checks and
e-mail checks. I had a double breakfast of sorts this
morning; the first one was a Pop-Tart, and the second were
breakfast tacos. Both were good, in their own ways.
The morning consisted of another session in the media room, this
time watching Saturday Night
Live with guest host Hugh Laurie and another recent South
Park episode, this one revolving around a 9-11
conspiracy theory. I had gotten out of the habit of
watching South Park, and I was enjoying getting caught back up.
The big thing today was a trip to the Salt Lick barbecue
establishment in Driftwood, southwest of Austin, out in the Hill
Country. It took Keith and I 40 to 45 minutes to get
there. The restaurant had a certain rustic charm with its
sparse décor, picnic tables on a concrete floor (all the better
to hose out, my dear). Mark Wilkinson was already there,
having come down separately. I had been recommended to try
the family style barbecue dinner, which had brisket, sausage and
ribs, along with side dishes. We all got that, though Mark
asked for turkey to be added to the mix (good choice, that; the
turkey was great). When last we met, Mark was taking some
time off after doing quite well for himself in the dot-com
boom. Now he had another company specializing in computer
network security. He planned to come down for the reunion
but could only make it for the actual event itself, for he was
involved in a weekend conference. The three of us
discussed many items of greater or lesser import, including the
whereabouts and doings of Carl Guderian (in Amsterdam), Chris
Kemmerer and Kirk Ott.
Not wanting to sit at the school waiting to pick Hannah up, I
went off on my own. My first destination was the Barton
Creek Mall, home to Austin’s Apple Store. The last time I
was here, it was under construction, but now it was fully
open. I didn’t find anything here today. Elsewhere,
I noticed some interesting hats at the Y’alls Texas Store, a
store featuring Texas memorabilia (the state, not the
university). These hats had the slogan “Keep Austin
Weird.” Yes, you could say that weirdness was part of the
city’s charm. Then I drove a short distance to the Borders
store. It wasn’t the easiest to get there because of the
major freeway interchange, but I eventually got there.
Here, I saw a book called Hacking
MythTV, a do-it-yourself version of TiVo, in
effect. The idea intrigued me, so I picked up a
copy. Then it was back “home” in time to miss most of rush
hour.
Top
Thursday November 2
When I woke up this morning and did my web checks, I saw some
disturbing news. Benefits at work were being cut.
The newspaper stories had few details, though the News had more
than the Free Press. I sent an e-mail to my boss asking if
more information was available on the internal network; she
replied that she wasn’t yet aware of any, but she forwarded the
official announcement from company management. That
contained a link to detailed summary of the changes. Now
how can a summary be detailed? By containing enough
details to determine the effects, but not line-by-line minute
details. Later on, I would access the network, find that summary
and retrieve it. This had to be based on the results of a
survey given to much of the staff earlier in the year; I was one
of those surveyed.
This morning, I had a Pop Tart and toast for breakfast.
Hannah left early for school, and as I would be leaving later
that morning, I said my goodbyes to her. Then I started to
pack. It wasn’t easy getting everything to fit when I
packed at home, and it wouldn’t be easy this time, either.
I had picked up a few items along the way, which made it even
worse. But I managed to get everything in. Then,
after watching one final South Park in the media room (and a
hilarious one it was, from Richard Dawkins to Buck Rogers), it
was time to take my leave.
It was around 10 in the morning when I left. I wasn’t sure
if I would head towards Houston via the northern route (US 290)
or the southern route (Highway 71, then I-10). Recalling
reports of construction on the Katy Freeway, I thought it best
to avoid it by taking 290 in. I did encounter some
construction east of Austin related to the construction of
tollways around town, but once I was past those, I had little
difficulty. The weather was great – sunny, with a bit of a
breeze. I stopped for gas at a Valero station mid-route,
then continued eastward. For a while, I was monitoring the
2-meter amateur bands, then put on XM. Later, I’d tune in
Rush Limbaugh, first out of Austin and then out of Houston as I
got closer.
For lunch, I stopped at a Dairy Queen west of Brenham and got a
steak finger basket. I wouldn’t make them a habit, but I
hadn’t had one for several years, and this would cover me for a
few more years. Now I started looking for signs for the
Blue Bell Creamery, which offered factory tours and (presumably)
samples of their fine ice cream. But I never saw
any. As I left town heading east, I did catch sight of a
sign in my rearview mirror, but I was of no mind to turn
around. That tour would have to wait for another trip.
I encountered some highway construction between Hempstead and FM
1960. This involved widening the highway and bringing it
to freeway standards, so my travel wasn’t affected. This
was not a part of town I was very familiar with, so I wouldn’t
be able to tell what was new since my last trip. That
wouldn’t happen until I got downtown and headed towards
home. Based on traffic advisories, I thought it best to
take the North Loop over to the North Freeway and go down that
way, rather than take the West Loop and South Loop around.
Something that I hadn’t noticed before: lane markings
advising what each lane was for. As I passed through town,
I heard a lot of noise on my 2-meter radio; it sounded like
interference from pagers, police or fire radios, or other
systems. The interference was so bad it made it impossible
to hear any regular amateur stations. Later on, I would
learn that the volume on the secondary channel had been turned
up; perhaps the interference was coming on that channel.
When I realized this, I turned down the sound on that channel.
I arrived a little too early to check into the hotel, so I
stopped at the Super Target on Bay Area for a few items, such as
bottled water, a loaf of bread, and some snacks. Then it
was on to my hotel. The Extended Stay Deluxe on Bay Area
Boulevard was to be my home for the next week and a day. I
had never stayed there before; in recent years, I would
generally stay at the Extended Stay America on Nasa Road 1 in
Nassau Bay. However, knowing that construction of the Nasa
1 bypass was well underway, including the intersection with the
original Nasa 1, I thought it best to stay someplace else this
trip. The ESD used to be a Wellesley Inn, if I recall
correctly. My room was on the third floor facing
south. Yes, I heard the traffic on Bay Area, but I also
had an excellent view of the XM radio satellites. I could
set up my SkyFi Audio System and be assured of excellent
sound. I was close to several businesses, close enough to
walk to them if I wanted to. One of those businesses was
Rocket Town, which specialized in NASA and space-related
memorabilia. I knew they also carried Spacecraft Films
products, and I walked over there today to see what new products
they had. They had the Apollo 12 set, and I bought a copy.
For those who’ve read my previous travelogues about trips to
Houston, you’ll know that one of my favorite restaurants is
Laredo’s Mexican Restaurant in Seabrook. And if you
guessed that Laredo’s was my destination tonight for dinner, you
would be correct. As I set off towards Seabrook on Bay
Area, I tuned my 2-meter radio to the frequency for the Johnson
Space Center amateur radio club repeater and made a call saying
that I was listening, if anyone wanted to speak. I got a
call back from Nick Lance, KC5KBO, who had been listening for
me. We had been e-mailing each other recently about plans
for me to attend a meeting of the Westbrook Intermediate Amateur
Radio Club (it’s sponsored by the Clear Lake Amateur Radio Club,
of which Nick is president), and while I drove to Laredo’s, we
firmed up plans for tomorrow afternoon’s meeting. It
turned out that Laredo’s was a favorite restaurant of his, too
(small world).
Laredo’s food was just as good as ever. As is my custom, I
got the deluxe dinner: a tortilla with a thin layer of cheese, a
tostada, a taco, two enchiladas, beans and rice, along with a
dollop of guacamole. When combined with their chips and
salsa, and accompanied by a tall glass of ice water, you have an
excellent meal. And I wasn’t disappointed tonight.
My next stop was a nearby Walgreens. No, it wasn’t for
indigestion medicine; I needed to get some plastic cups. I
also picked up a generic version of Airborne, the cold
preventative, for I noticed my sinuses beginning to get
congested. I did not want to come down with a cold on the
eve of my reunion.
My next stop was the Harbour Club at the South Shore Harbour
resort hotel. On the mailing list for our class, Kay
Kinney Ellis had mentioned that she would be at the club tonight
and invited us classmates to join her there. The club was
a restaurant/bar that had a piano bar section, and when I
arrived, the regular Thursday night pianist was tinkling the
ivories. I wasn’t sure where to go when I walked in, but
Kay noticed me right away and called me over. She had not
changed very much from the 2002 Un-Reunion, the last time I saw
her. In fact, she hadn’t changed all that much from high
school. With her was Natalie Gates Footitt, who was also a
classmate, but I didn’t know her in high school. Our paths
didn’t cross then, which wasn’t terribly surprising in a class
of nearly 500 students. She was only at Creek for our
senior year, having attended Lake for the first three years but
then saw the light and came to our school. Oddly enough,
she recognized me; that might have had to do with my having
spoken at graduation (I gave the final segment of the
valedictory speech). I enjoyed the piano player and the
conversation while sipping my Diet Coke (as a Bahá’í, I don’t
drink). Before long, everyone had gathered around the
piano and was singing along to “Piano Man”. Natalie was
doing harmonica-holding duty for our piano man. I left
shortly afterwards, for I was beginning to cough from the
smoke. At least that’s what I thought.
An aside for politics: I had cast my absentee ballot
before leaving on vacation, so all of the political ads of the
next few days would have no effect on me. Still, I found
it amusing to see news stories about Maryland senatorial
candidate Michael Steele, for every time I heard his name, I
couldn’t help but think of another Michael Steele, the one who
used to sing and play bass in the Bangles. They were
approximately the same age, but while Michael Steele the bassist
was an attractive white woman, Michael Steele the politician was
a black man, and I couldn’t care less how handsome he might be.
Top
Friday November 3
When I woke up this morning, I was rather chilly, so I turned
the heat on. I smelled the odor of a furnace that hadn’t
been turned on for several months. Suddenly, there was a
loud, piercing beep! That odor had set the smoke detector
off. It seemed to go on forever, but eventually it shut
off. No phone calls came from the front desk, nor was
there any annoyed pounding on the door or the walls. But
after that, there was no way I would be going back to bed.
So before I went down to breakfast, I wrote out two checks and
reassembled the quad antenna I’d bought in St. Louis last
weekend, thinking I might be taking it to the ham club meeting
this afternoon.
Unlike the other Extended Stay hotels I’d stayed at, this one
had a complimentary breakfast every morning. Compared to
the breakfast bar at the Hampton Inn, though, the breakfast
selection here was quite limited. Toast and bagels,
muffins and danish, orange juice or fruit punch, and coffee –
that was it. It was OK, though I would have preferred more
options. While I had breakfast, I started reading the
paper and watched one of the news shows (Today, I think).
Later on, I went out for a short drive around the area. I
didn’t get very far before making my first stop, a new Borders
store at the northeast corner of Bay Area and the Gulf
Freeway. This corner also has a Best Buy and a Lowe’s, and
across the street on the southeast corner was a Barnes and
Noble. Now the layout of this Borders reminded me a great
deal of the store in Arcadia, California at the Santa Anita
Mall. The selection at the store was comparable to that of
any Borders store. I didn’t get anything here today.
Then I headed south on the freeway, past the construction zone
for the Nasa 1 bypass, past a new Cheddar’s restaurant and a new
Academy store (the League City store must have moved up the
road), and down to the FM 518 exit. Naturally, I turned
off here and made the drive past the old homestead. The
house was still in good shape. Next door, there were quite
a few signs for Democratic candidates at the Mallios
household. I continued my drive down Newport Boulevard,
past the park where the pool used to be and down to
Kingsway. It looked like the Coneys were home; I would
have to contact them to see if we could meet up this trip.
Then I worked my way back to 518 and headed west, past Creekside
Intermediate and the new Clear Springs High School, visible in
the distance.
As I headed westward, the radio was playing the original version
of “Hot Rod Lincoln” by Charlie Ryan. I was more familiar
with the versions by Commander Cody and a live version by
ex-Cody guitarist Bill Kirchen, and frankly, I thought they were
much better than the original. But I digress. At Bay
Area, I stopped at the CVS drug store and picked up some cold
medicine, for my congestion had gotten worse. I didn’t
have a sore throat, but my sinuses were clogging up, and I
wanted to nip whatever I had in the bud before it became
worse. Then it was back to the hotel to take my medicines
and to rest. I started watching the Jim Stafford DVD from
last Saturday, and it was indeed made at the show I
attended. I was quite visible in the front row. At
times, one could see the back of my head on some of the stage
shots. I didn’t watch the whole DVD, just enough of it to
know that it worked.
I thought about heading to a nearby Chinese restaurant for hot
and sour soup for lunch, but when I arrived at the restaurant
near the Borders and the Best Buy, I found that, contrary to my
expectations, it wasn’t a buffet. I no longer felt like
stopping there, so I continued onward. I considered
heading back to League City and its Grand Buffet, but all of a
sudden, I felt the combination of being chilly yet clammy.
Was this a symptom of not being able to figure out how to dress
for the weather, or was it a sign that I was getting sick?
It felt more like the latter to me, so I went back to the hotel
and sent a note to the 1981CCHS group, saying I feared I
wouldn’t be at the game tonight, mentioning my symptoms and
hoping for the best. That prompted a reply from Mark
Wilkinson, who thought my symptoms indicated allergies rather
than a cold. Ragweed season was just wrapping up in Texas,
he said. It had been some time since I was down there at
this time of year, so he may have had a point. He
suggested I take some Claritin and some decongestants.
Having nothing to lose, I went to the Super Target and got the
Claritin. I also got a maroon hoodie for tonight so I
would be dressed appropriately for the football game.
The Claritin and decongestant would take some time to
work. But the decongestant in the inhaler I’d bought
earlier today would take effect very quickly, and thanks to it,
I was able to meet with Nick Lance and the Westbrook “Hamsters”
without feeling completely miserable. Now this was the
first time I’d visited Westbrook Intermediate, a brand-new
school that replaced Webster Intermediate. Visitors in the
classroom area had to get badges, and so I got one (Nick already
had one). I helped him bring his equipment in, which
included a slide projector for today’s presentation.
Before the meeting began, Candy Silcott arrived with two
students who were taking a mini-course in debate, figuring that
I might be able to answer some of their questions. Though
it had been 25 years since I had last debated, I answered their
questions as best I could. And they answered a few of mine
– for instance, it’s still common to wheel in lots of drawers of
4x6 cards of evidence as an intimidation tactic. I
counseled them to develop their extemp skills and to become
skilled flowcharters.
At the meeting, there were a number of parents there with their
children, and some of them were hams as well. Also in
attendance was a teacher from the Pasadena school district, who
wanted to start a club at his school. I gave a brief talk
on what being a ham has meant to me, and I showed off some of
the equipment I’d brought down with me – the Buddipole antenna
and the Yaesu FT-817 transceiver. The main presentation
was a video from Dayton 2001, where Nick’s son spoke at the
youth forum about a radio-related program he and a friend did
for Earth and Sky. Later, one of the students accessed an
IRLP node and contacted a Las Vegas area repeater, speaking with
a ham who was driving on the Hoover Dam (the dam carries US 93,
until a new bridge opens up in a few years). The meeting
culminated with a radio-direction-finding foxhunt, where the
students attempted to find a hidden transmitter. For this
hunt, I was the fox, for I wore a bag containing the
transmitter, with my arm concealing the antenna. The
mosquitoes were out in force that evening, and they were
feasting on my hands.
After the club meeting, I had to return to my hotel room to take
some medicine. With that out of the way, I headed back out
for the football game. I found a place to park over by the
9th grade center, then walked across the parking lot to get to
the stadium. Although Clear Creek High was being rebuilt,
this part of the campus was unchanged, so everything looked very
familiar to me. I bought my ticket, went inside, then
stopped at the concession stand for a hot dog, a box of popcorn
and a drink. I went up into the stands, looking for where
our class was sitting. At first, I didn’t see anyone, then
I saw Shawn Merrell, followed shortly thereafter by Karl
Hamelman. We walked towards the west end of the stands,
and then we noticed Kathy (Matchette) and Eric Douglas, who had
laid out a blanket on the bleachers and were sitting on
it. Before long, more of our classmates trickled in:
David Williams – Kelly Griffith – the Scalawags (David
Zabalaoui, Greg Laurence, and Joe Buggy), and Brian Moore.
We were enjoying each other’s company so much, we didn’t notice
when the band started playing the national anthem.
Unfortunately, from our position, we could hardly hear the band,
but once we knew what was going on, we stopped and gave our
proper respects. Then it was time for the game. We
were ready for some football! And so were the
Wildcats. In our senior year, they only won one game, but
it was the most important game on the schedule (Clear
Lake). This year, the team was a playoff contender.
Things started a little shakily with Alvin getting a safety on
us, but we were in control the rest of the way.
Other classmates showed up – Rob Wohrer and Amy Ellison, Stacie
Barnett Bemis, Tim Rice and wife Dawn Halbrook (they didn’t stay
long, for Dawn wasn’t feeling well), Skip Hartley, Steven Long
and Cari Evans. Kay and Natalie were there as well.
Cameras were out in full force tonight. I brought both a
still camera and a video camera and made good use of both.
As the game went on, the point totals on the Creek side kept on
rising, while the mercury kept falling. My voice started
going on me due to the allergies and my yelling. We got an
announcement read over the loudspeakers that our class was here
tonight. At one point, we saw a group of students wearing
wigs that looked like bad mullet haircuts. Perhaps these
were the Scalawags of the Class of 2007? Many of us bought
Creek baseball caps sold by the booster club; I was no
exception.
As the game drew to a close, the final result was well in
hand. No way would Alvin be able to come back and win this
game. And so, with the score 39-2 in favor of Creek, I
decided to bail out and head for T-Bone Tom’s in Kemah, for I
was getting cold. And I wasn’t the first to bail. As
I walked underneath the stands, I could hear someone calling
“Dad – Dad”, and then I felt a pull on my hoodie. Someone
had mistaken me for her father, that was all. It didn’t
take long to arrive at T-Bone Tom’s, although this was the first
time I’d ever visited the place. I changed to a heavier
jacket, then went into their beer garden area, which was still
quite chilly. There was a live band playing when I
arrived, but their night ended shortly thereafter. Before
long, the rest of the crowd from the game showed up (the class
of 81 crowd, that is), along with a few additions. Melissa
Mayo and new husband showed up (she was getting over bronchitis
and wasn’t at the game), as did Liz Hoober and husband Mike
Scanlon. Joe Buggy bought the first round of drinks; I got
a Diet Coke, a rather large one at that. Later on, I
ordered a hamburger from the menu. It was tricky finding a
table to eat at, but I managed. Eventually, most of us
congregated near the bar, for there was an outdoor heater going
in there. It was really going, for I ended up standing
near it, and I was getting uncomfortably warm at times.
But it did feel good after the cold night at the game – the
final score was 39-8, by the way. And with that win, Creek
made the playoffs! [Epilogue: that would be their final win of
the year, as they lost the regular season finale against Ball
High and the first round playoff game against Hightower]
Top
Saturday November 4
I didn’t sleep very long this morning due to the congestion in
my nose and chest. At one point, I went into the bathroom
and turned on the shower, making it a steamroom for a
time. It might have helped a little bit. What a time
to either be afflicted with allergies or come down with
something! Once again, I thought I was getting a sore
throat, but after taking a drink, it was soothed.
When I went down to the lobby for breakfast and a paper, the
rack was out of papers, and the selection in the breakfast room
was rather meager. So on a whim, I decided to drive over
to Denny’s at Baybrook. It’s been there forever, or so it
seems, and it was still there today. Their paper rack had
a paper – yes, one single paper, the one in the rack
window. So with paper in hand, I went inside, was seated,
and proceeded to order breakfast. It really hit the
spot. Afterwards, I planned to go to Wal-Mart for some
more medicine. The closest one was just up the freeway at
El Dorado, but I suddenly realized that a new one had recently
opened in League City at the FM 646 interchange with the
freeway. I wanted to see that one, but as I headed down
the feeder, I could see a backup forming on the freeway.
Instantly I recalled that the freeway would be down to one lane
between Nasa 1 and FM 518. This called for a change in
plans; I would take Highway 3 down there, instead. At that
time of the morning, it wasn’t busy at all, and I got there in
reasonable time. League City now has a Wal-Mart –
whoopee! It wasn’t any different from other
Wal-Marts. I found the medicine I was looking for and
checked out, making sure to get some extra cash. Upon
leaving, I saw that the gas station had gas for $1.89, the
lowest price I’d seen in over a year. Although I was not
in desperate need of a fill-up, I proceeded to get one.
Then I went up the freeway and back to my hotel room, noticing
along the way that the Academy store in League City moved to a
new facility just up the freeway.
Back at the hotel, I transferred the video I had taken last
night to my Powerbook. I only shot 9 ˝ minutes’ worth of
video, a combination of game action, halftime activities, and
views of friends in the stands. Still, I thought that
those who were there would be interested in getting a copy of
the video. And I had the tools to make that happen: a
Powerbook loaded with iDVD and a DVD burner. What I didn’t
have were blank DVD’s, but a trip to the nearby CompUSA store
took care of that. Soon, I was burning DVD’s. I was
only able to burn 4 of them before it was time to leave for
Tookie’s, so I packed up the Powerbook and my still camera and
set off for Seabrook.
I parked at the overflow parking lot, then walked towards the
restaurant. Someone who was parking waved at me, but I
couldn’t see clearly who it was. It turned out to be David
McFalls. Class of 1980, and his daughter Ariel, who looks very
much like her mother, the former Cindy Hurst. When we went
inside, it was already fairly busy. Some had already
arrived (I recall Dale and Natalie), and with our arrival, we
proceeded to look for one or more tables together. I sat
at a table facing the entrance so I could keep a watch out for
arrivals. Dale, his wife Kasey, Natalie, and Daniel Hart,
the son of Lee and Lynda Hart (Lee was in our class), were at
the table with me. Soon, I was enjoying a large Diet Coke
while monitoring the progress of my DVD burns, as well as
passing out the DVD’s I’d burned earlier. We attempted to
grab tables as they became available, and we did a pretty good
job; I think we had six or seven tables altogether.
Now who all was there? I’d already mentioned David McFalls
and Ariel, Dale and Kacey and Natalie. Rob and Amy were
there, as were Kathy and Eric. Shawn Merrell and Skip
Hartley were also there, and we also had the full contingent of
Scalawags. Later on, David Horrigan arrived straight from
the airport. Traffic on the freeway heading toward
Galveston was very heavy, he reported (there was a big biker
gathering on the island that weekend). On an unfortunate
note, I learned from him that he had broken up with Claudia
(whom I had met in July 2005 when I stayed at their DC co-op)
and was getting a divorce. Keith, Karen, Hannah and Becca
showed up; originally, they were to have surprised brother
David, but the secret got out. They were in town for a
second reason as well, albeit a more somber one: Keith’s
ex-mother-in-law had died on Friday. The recently married
Melissa Mayo Snell was there, as was Helen Rickards, whom I
thought at first was Kelly Griffith (they did look somewhat
alike). Even my former teacher Candy Silcott was
there. I’d invited her because several of us (David
Horrigan, Joe Buggy, Greg Laurence, as well as me) had been
students of hers. And it was here at Tookie’s that she and
Melissa finally got to meet. Now Melissa had not been a
student of hers (she lived in Kemah and went to Seabrook
Intermediate), but her mother had worked in the office at
Webster and had told Melissa about Candy. And of course,
she would have heard many stories from her friends.
I wish I could have sat at every table and enjoyed as much time
as I could with all my friends, but that wasn’t possible.
It was hard enough for me to burn the DVD’s, catch snippets of
conversations from the other tables, and eat a #99 burger.
I wish I could have spent some more time with McFalls, but
circumstances didn’t permit that. Becca was a big hit with
the gang; everyone was saying how adorable she was. She
and Hannah got their pictures taken many times over! And
speaking of pictures, I took a few, mainly from my seat. I
held up the camera, rotated the display so I could easily see
it, then took pictures of each table. That proved
difficult in the case of the table behind me (the one with
Helen, Joe, Candy, Melissa and Greg), for the display was in a
position where it showed a mirror image of what the camera was
seeing. Moving your hand one way but seeing the picture
move in the opposite direction made for a very counterintuitive
experience! After all that, the picture still turned out
pretty well.
After Tookie’s, I went back to my hotel room for a while to rest
up, to shower and to change into my good clothes for the
reunion. It was going to be jacket and tie for me
tonight. The humidity in the hotel room was a little high,
so I had to sit for a little while in front of the A/C fan to
help dry off. Then, it was time.
I left for the reunion shortly after 6:30. I wanted to be
sure where the country club was located, and I thought it might
be helpful if members of the reunion committee, of which I was
one, were there early. I drove down South Shore Boulevard,
seeing several gated entrances, but nothing that was obviously
the country club. Perhaps it would have been obvious had
it still been daytime, but that was no help to me at
night. Eventually, I reached FM 518, realized I must have
gone too far, then turned around (another reason why I left
early). There was a well-lit entrance with a guard shack
where vehicles were entering, so I took a gamble that it was the
country club. My gamble paid off; it was indeed the
country club. The guard asked if I was here for the
reunion (yes, I said), then directed me to the first building on
the left. I drove in, parked, and went inside.
It turned out that the committee members didn’t need to be there
early after all. The professional planners from
ReunionTeam were taking care of everything, and they were
setting up. Those of us who arrived early went to the bar.
I noticed that Shawn Merrell could pass for my brother-in-law if
he (Shawn) got a buzz cut (or if my brother-in-law had long
hair). David, Joe and Greg (a.k.a. the Scalawags) were
among the early arrivers, with David going a bit more casual
than most in his Tommy Bahama shirt.
As promised, Mark Wilkinson arrived from his weekend
seminar. I finally figured out that Rob and Amy were now a
couple. In between bites of the food provided by the
caterers, I asked Rob if he and Amy were engaged. No, he
said. But one week later, they were indeed engaged. I
wonder: might my question have helped to prompt that other
Question? Leslie Everette Buffington was there with
husband Damon; she was wondering about the whereabouts of our
teachers, such as chemistry teacher Mrs. Kimzie and physics
teacher Mrs. Lee. I would be interested in knowing, too,
though I feared some of them might have passed away by this
time.
At one point, I saw Julie Wrinkle Kasbaum, whose husband David
(also a classmate of ours) had lost his fight with lung cancer
in August. She was doing fine. She’d kept us
informed over the last several months about his progress, his
ups and his downs. We all hoped he would have been able to
attend, but sadly, that was not to be (no doubt he was there in
spirit). She was there with a friend who was wearing
Debbie Corcoran’s badge, which had me thinking she was Debbie
for a short time. When Julie explained the situation, I
was relieved, for this friend didn’t really look like the Debbie
I remembered. Kelly Marcom was there with his second wife;
he was a doctor in North Carolina, following in his father’s
footsteps. He had been married for a while to classmate
Cory Coldwell, but they’d divorced, and he hadn’t heard from her
for at least six years. Cory was not present tonight, nor
had she been at any of our reunions other than the first one,
the 5-year one. That was unfortunate, for I would have
liked to see her again. Still would, actually.
Later on, Keith Zabalaoui and David McFalls “crashed” the
reunion after having seen Borat at the theater. I had been
invited to go with them, but I declined because of a prior
commitment: the reunion! The man at the reception
table did not want to admit them at first, but intervention from
brother David did the trick.
Now after the 20-year event, many of us drove over to the IHOP
on Nasa Road 1 for a late-night breakfast. But that wasn’t
to be this year, for the plans turned into a Sunday-morning
visit to the Seabrook Classic Café, also on Nasa Road 1.
That was all right with me. However, this was decided
fairly late in the evening, so not everyone got the word.
To the best of my recollection, I was the only person to shoot
video at each of the 10-year, 20-year and 25-year
reunions. Had I owned a video camera at the time of the
5-year reunion, I probably would have shot video there.
Due to the lower quality of consumer video cameras in 1991 and
to the low light of the facilities we used, the 10-year video
was very dark, but it and the other videos are still priceless
records of those events. Now someone else was shooting
video at this reunion; I noticed while I was out on the dance
floor, having been persuaded out there by Kay Kinney Ellis.
Now for a question on many people’s minds: how was
everyone looking? No, I won’t name names here, as I don’t
want to embarrass anyone or get anyone upset. I will say
that, in general, 25 years on, we still were looking pretty good
and healthy. Many could easily pass for a few years
younger than our true ages. Some of us had put on extra
pounds or lost some hair (I was guilty on both counts). I
didn’t notice many gray hairs on anyone; whether that was due to
the genes, the dye bottle or the Grecian Formula – or maybe the
fairly dim lights – I didn’t know and didn’t really care.
Someday, we will all start looking like old people. Now
for someone in the current senior class at Creek, we probably do
look like old people, but from my perspective, we’re not there
yet.
1 AM rolled around, and it was time to leave. Nobody
wanted to, but everyone had to. I shot some video of the
last few stragglers leaving the banquet facility. Joe
Buggy would be leaving the next morning, and David Zabalaoui
would be taking him to the airport, so we said our farewells
there. Then it was into the car, out of the parking lot
and back to the hotel. No late-night IHOP trip this time
out.
Again, five hours was not enough time to see everyone I wanted
to see for as long as I wanted to see them. Thankfully,
our class has the 1981CCHS Yahoo Group to keep in touch – a
perpetual reunion, as it were. It’s unfortunate that not
everyone in the class belongs to the list (15-20% did belong as
of the reunion date).
Top
Sunday November 5
After the 20-year reunion, I started my drive back to Michigan
after getting only 5 hours sleep. That was a mistake; I
had to stop in Benton, Arkansas for the night. I vowed
never to do that again – set off for home after being up so
late, that is. Lest anyone from Benton think I’m slamming
his or her town, I’m not; I’d stay there again, if it became
necessary. But I digress…. Today was only the midpoint of
my vacation; I wouldn’t set off for Michigan until Friday.
After I woke up, I sent an e-mail to the 1981CCHS group
announcing our plans to meet for breakfast at the Seabrook
Classic Café. Since the decision to go there wasn’t made
until the end of the reunion, not everyone knew of it. We
were going to meet around 9, so I set off for there at
8:30. The parking lot was pretty full, but there was more
parking at the businesses behind the café. Scott Sims and
I arrived at the same time, and we went in via the back
door. At first, we were going to take a seat in the bar
section, but we moved up front after learning that Skip Hartley
was already there. He’d already ordered, in fact, and he
also had his iBook (he wasn’t using it, though). Dale and
Kacey Fortenberry came a bit later, as did Rob and Amy and Kathy
and Eric. Kathy was wearing the official reunion T-shirt
that we received when we signed up. In my case, I thought
the public good was best served by my not wearing it.
Natalie arrived a little bit later, and we all enjoyed our
meals. Skip told us of his midnight cruise on the creek
with Scott and Debbie Caylor ; a bit chilly, a bit humid and a
bit spooky was how he described it.
It was after 10:30 when I left. I called Keith to see if
brunch plans were still on; they were not. The family
would be going to the Museum of Natural Science, instead.
So I ended up going back to the hotel for a rest. Later, I
turned on the Texans’ game and watched it. It wasn’t that
great, though; I actually fell asleep during it. Well, I
had been up late last night and had woken up fairly early, and I
was still coping with allergies, so the nap did me some good.
Later in the afternoon, I took a short drive down to
Fry’s. It wasn’t too hard to get there from the hotel; I
just took Texas Avenue south past Nasa 1, behind the former
Webster Intermediate and over to Kobayashi, then turned south to
Fry’s. The overpass for the Nasa 1 bypass was under
construction, but that wasn’t all. Just past the overpass
was a brand-new apartment or condominium complex still under
construction, and just beyond that was the new Academy
store. All of this was new since my last trip. The
Fry’s wasn’t new, though. But I did get something new
there: the new South Part Hits #1 DVD set. I’d be able to
put the DVD player in the hotel room to good use. I drove
over to the Academy store and went through it, but I didn’t get
anything there. After I left, I didn’t immediately drive
off. Instead, I called my aunt and uncle, and we had a
good chat.
Now it was getting close to 5 o’clock, and I was thinking of
supper. Where would I go? I had a hankering for
Souper Salad, the salad-bar restaurant. The closest one I
knew of was in Pasadena, at Fairmont Parkway and the East Belt,
so that’s where I drove. I had been here before, so I knew
I would get a good meal. I went in, got my plate, and
proceeded to make my salad. But that wasn’t all I had; I
got some soup and pasta as well. The waitress came and
asked me what I was drinking; Diet Coke, I replied. Now my
seat faced the cash register, and I saw customers paying when
they came in. When I came in, though, nobody was at the
cash register, and it wasn’t obvious to me that you paid when
you entered, so I didn’t. At the Souplantation
restaurants, you paid at the end of the serving line; at Luby’s
Cafeterias, your meal was tallied at the end of the line, and
then you paid as you left. It occurred to me that I could
leave without paying and get away with it, but that would not
have been right, so when I was done, I went up to the register
and paid, telling the cashier I’d already eaten. It was
irregular, but no harm was done.
Then I drove down to the Barnes & Noble store in the nearby
strip mall. I had also visited this store before.
This time, though, I noticed that the basic store layout was
nearly identical to the store in Allen Park, Michigan, a new
store close to work for me. Tonight, a number of books
with spiritual themes caught my eye, and I ended up buying four
of them. One was a new biography of the Prophet Muhammad
by Karen Armstrong, while three were inexpensive public-domain
translations of Rumi, the Dhammapada, and The
Imitation of Christ.
With my potentially enlightening bag of books in hand, I set off
for the hotel, deciding to go via Space Center Boulevard.
Top
Monday November 6
I got up around 6 this morning and went to the lobby for
breakfast after 7. The weather forecast showed
thunderstorms in the area, although nothing was in the immediate
vicinity of the hotel. By 8, that was no longer true, for
I heard thunder. That forced me to delay my plans to
shower until the storms passed. I spent some time updating
the class of 1981 webpage on my website and working on this
travelogue. I also resisted the urge to use decongestants,
especially the inhaler. I was at the point where they were
inducing bounceback, probably making the situation worse than
doing nothing at all. So it was time to stop using
them. I still carried the inhaler around in case I really
needed to use it, though.
Now late yesterday, Keith had sent me an e-mail asking if I
wanted to meet him, Karen and Sherri McAdams Dullingham for
lunch downtown. I thought it was a good idea, so I said
yes. I wasn’t sure that parking downtown was a good idea,
though. More accurately, I thought that taking the new
light rail system from the Astrodome area into downtown was a
better idea. So I set off for the South Fannin Park and
Ride lot, which was a mile south of the Dome. There was
plenty of parking there, but paying for the parking pass and the
rail pass was a little difficult; the screens on the ticket
machines had a lot of glare. It took me a while to find a
forward-facing seat on the train, and I was jostled around a
little bit as the train pulled out, but I soon found a seat near
the front of the train. The system was nearly two years
old, so it was still quite new and clean. The train line
followed Fannin up past the Dome, through the Medical Center,
past the zoo, Hermann Park and Rice University, went near the
old Sears store on Main Street, then went up Main Street to the
UH-Downtown campus. I got off at the stop before the
college and walked around for a while, moving in the direction
of the Chase Tower (originally Texas Commerce Tower), the
tallest building in the city.
As noon approached, I was sitting down near the main
entrance. I called Keith to find out where he was, then
started walking that way. He saw me first and called out,
and then I noticed that Karen and Becca were with him.
They had not planned to still be in town, but Keith’s former
mother-in-law (and thus Hannah’s maternal grandmother) had died
on Friday. The visitation was this afternoon in Texas
City, the funeral Tuesday morning. Becca was insistent
that the canopy on the stroller be pulled down; every time it
was pulled back, she forcefully pulled it back down. We
entered the building using one of the regular doors rather than
the preferred revolving doors, for strollers don’t fit through
revolving doors. Then we waited for Sherri in the lobby,
and it wasn’t very long before she did show up. She had a
good explanation for not answering calls to her cell phone: she
didn’t have it with her. I noticed that she was mostly a
redhead again, save for a few blonde streaks (when I last saw
her in 2002, she was all blonde).
The question before us now was, where to eat? Keith and
Karen had had a late breakfast, so they deferred to whatever
Sherri and I wanted. Sherri suggested Ninfa’s, which had a
restaurant in one of the nearby tunnels. That was fine
with me, so down we went to the tunnel level. The tunnel
system in downtown connects most of the major buildings so that
one could go from one to another in comfort, something very much
appreciated in the scorching summertime. There were also
scores of business catering to office workers, including
restaurants such as Ninfa’s. The Zabalaouis split a
quesadilla, while Sherri and I both got El Henry combination
plates, and we all shared some chili con queso.
Near the end of our meal, Keith and I needed to visit the
restroom, which was not in the restaurant itself but in the
lower lobby. It turned out to be well hidden behind some
mirrored doors, which gave one the impression of entering Dr.
Evil’s lair. The reality behind those doors was far more
prosaic and unworthy of further discussion. Back at the
restaurant, the bill had come, and I was the last one who needed
to pay, so I contributed my share of the bill, and we were on
our way. At least some of us were. Because of the
stroller, Karen and Becca waited for the elevator, while Sherri,
Keith and I took the escalator up to the main lobby. But
after several minutes without seeing Karen, we were wondering
what was going on. I went back down and found her still
waiting for the elevator, which had been tied up with
deliveries. Eventually, she made it on board and up to the
lobby, and then we proceeded to the sky lobby, which is where
one boards the elevators for the top floors (Sherri’s office is
on the 75th and top floor). We said our goodbyes to her
there, then stayed for a few minutes, for the sky lobby also
serves as an observation deck to the west. Becca was
having a good old time running around up there. After a
few minutes of that, we went back down, and then I said my
goodbyes to the Zabalaouis, who would be heading to Texas City
later on for the visitation for Renee’s mother
Now what else did I want to do downtown? I did visit the
downtown Macy’s store (formerly the downtown Foley’s store)
briefly, and I entertained thoughts of going over to The Shed at
Minute Maid Park, but all I did was get back on the train to the
South Fannin Park and Ride. The train was much busier this
time around, so I had to stand for most of the way.
Traffic heading “home” wasn’t too bad.
During our meal today, the subject of Ultraman
came up. This was the Japanese TV show from the ‘60s that
aired occasionally in Houston on channel 39. That reminded
me that it had come out on DVD recently, but I’d never seen it
anywhere. Knowing that Fry’s had a good video section, I
went back to the Webster store to see if it was there.
Sure enough, it was – or volume 1 was, anyway. I bought it
and went back to the hotel. The hot topic of discussion on the
1981CCHS list was future reunions and un-reunions. Someone
suggested that next year’s un-reunion be in Austin or in the
Hill Country, due to the high number of classmates who live out
there. That was well received. Another suggestion
was to forego a 30-year reunion and instead have an event one or
two years later, which would correspond to our turning 50; that
also was well received.
I called up the website for the Galveston Daily News and
searched the obituary section to see if I could find one for
Renee’s mother. It wasn’t easy, for I didn’t know or
remember Renee’s maiden name, but I knew her mother had died on
Friday. There was one obituary for a woman from Texas City
who died Friday, Rosie Ramirez. Then I noticed Renee and
Hannah in the list of survivors, so I had found the right
one. I briefly considered going to the funeral home, but I
wouldn’t have made it on time, so I prepared an iCard and sent
it to Renee.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for supper, so I went over to
Baybrook and wandered around for a bit. I parked in my
usual spot, which used to be the family’s usual spot. Back
then, it was by Joske’s (later Dillard’s); now it was near
Foley’s/Macy’s. The Waldenbooks was no longer there; it
had been in the same location since the mall’s opening in
1978. With the Borders nearby, the store could have become
superfluous. However, the Borders was on the other side of
the freeway, so I suppose it could have turned into a Borders
Express (as did a Waldenbooks at 12 Oaks Mall in Novi,
Michigan). But it didn’t. Nothing at the food court
impressed me, so I went over to Luby’s for a chopped steak
dinner. Frankly, it didn’t impress me that much, either; I
might have still been sated from lunch. Then it was over
to Super Target for some envelopes (needed to pay bills) and
some no-sugar-added Blue Bell Ice Cream (yum). Back at the
hotel, I popped in one of the South
Park DVD’s I got yesterday, and the episodes on it were
hilarious, especially the one where they satirized the Church of
Scientology.
Top
Tuesday November 7
Back home in Michigan, I had found a website for Houston Amateur
Radio Supply, the only ham radio store in the area. I
vowed to visit it when I went down there, and today was my
opportunity to do so. It was located in Spring, quite far
away from the Clear Lake area. I figured I’d make an
outing of this and spend some time in the Woodlands as
well. I’d been out there only a few times before, and I
wanted to see what it was like.
I set off at the tail end of rush hour and didn’t have any
problems to contend with, though I noticed that inbound traffic
on the North Freeway was quite heavy for so late in the morning
rush. I passed Gallery Furniture on the right-hand side of
the road. Farther up on the left-hand side was the first
Fry’s in town, a store I visited frequently until the one in
Webster opened. Compaq used to have an outlet store
located across the parking lot from Fry’s, but that was gone
(so’s Compaq, for that matter). I drove on past FM 1960
until the exit for Cypresswood, when I left the freeway.
Spring High School was on the corner; I can’t remember if I ever
visited it for any tournaments, although I don’t think so (I
might be thinking of Klein High School, which is farther to the
west). I followed the instructions on the store’s website
but did not see anything behind the Blockbuster Video store
except a large strip mall with a Super Target store. Now I
had to use the restroom, for that had been a fairly long drive
from Clear Lake, so I went inside. Today was also the day
that Cars came out on
DVD. I had seen it in the theater and enjoyed it, so I was
going to get it today. Then I noticed that the final
season of MASH was also out. I’d been collecting those, as
well, so I picked up two copies, one for myself and one for my
sister. I also found a Christmas present for my nephew
Brandon.
When I went to put the bag in my car, I noticed that a small
building across the parking lot had one or two unusual antenna
structures. I suspected that was the ham radio
store. But I didn’t go there immediately, for my next
visit was to the nearby Best Buy store. While there, I
happened to notice the DVD set for Ultraman
volume 2. Since I had volume 1, why not get volume 2 and
complete the series? I’d never seen either set at Best
Buys in Michigan. I wonder why that was? Then I
drove over to the store with the unusual antennas. It was
indeed the ham radio store. The description of its
location on the website was somewhat misleading, for this was
west or southwest of the video store, not behind it (not really
that close to it at all, in fact). As I said earlier, this
was the only ham radio store in the Houston area. That put
it one up on Detroit, where the closest stores were located in
Ohio (Cleveland or Columbus). Although small, the store
did have a decent selection of radios, books, antennas and
accessories. Today, I was looking for antennas or ideas
for antennas. I left there with a Hamstick antenna for 80
meters and two mounts that could hold that antenna, or other
antennas with a similar attachment (3/8-24, for those
interested). One mount was for a vehicle, and the other
could be for a vehicle or possibly for a picnic table. As
I left, the owner was starting a contact with a ham in
California. In the car, I could only hear the local
signal, not the California one, and I lost the local signal a
few miles down the road.
On to the Woodlands. I’d driven past a few times and had
visited once (Brian Horrigan had a barbecue out here a few years
ago), so this was rather new territory for me. My first
destination was the Woodlands Mall, which was located at one end
of a canal that connected one part of the community to
another. Boats plied the canal, enabling one to go from,
say, the mall to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. I
found a parking spot in the lot of a closed department store,
then walked over to the clump of restaurants. There was a
Cheesecake Factory there, but I was in the mood for P.F.
Chang’s, so that’s where I went.
Every time I go to P.F. Chang’s, I always get the same main
meal, lo mein. Sometimes I order spring rolls and/or hot
and sour soup. Sometimes I get shrimp lo mein, other times
the combination of beef, chicken and shrimp. The lo mein
is good, though. And today, I placed my usual order, this
time with the spring rolls and the soup. My chiropractor
recommended hot and sour soup for getting over colds; I hoped
his advice would hold true for allergies.
My next stop was a Barnes & Noble across the street.
Of course, it had a strong local interest section, but what
caught my eye today was a new biography of Bahiyyih Khanum, the
Greatest Holy Leaf, daughter of Bahá’u’lláh. My bank
account was a little smaller when I walked out of the
store. The mall itself – well, it was a shopping
mall. How much difference is there from one to the other,
really? In the case of the Apple Store, the one here was a
bit larger than others – quite a bit larger than the one in
Austin, frankly. No, I didn’t get anything from here,
either.
Not too far away was Market Square, one of those
constructed-downtown developments, with an HEB store at one end,
a Borders and Sharper Image at the other, with movie theaters
and other shops in between. I parked in the HEB lot, then
walked towards the Borders. I didn’t get anything there,
but the Sharper Image had something very useful: a junk
organizer for the car seat. Just strap it around the
headrest, and you’ve got a place to put drinks, phones,
important papers, etc. I was in need of such a tool, and I
bought one. Back at the HEB, I walked around seeing what
was what inside. This store seemed to be on the verge of
being a Central Market; perhaps in a few years, it will be
converted into one. They carried wasabi peas, and I bought
some, but they looked different to me [they tasted different,
too, and not as good as true Central Market ones, I would learn
later]. I bought some water for the road, but when I
opened the bottle in my car, it was almost completely
frozen! It took a lot of shaking and crushing to break up
the ice to where I could get a meaningful drink.
My drive “home” had me using the Hardy Toll Road to avoid
traffic, at least until I reached the North Loop. I was
listening to some of the talk channels on XM today, which was
Election Day. For a while, I had on Fox News Radio; later,
I put on Air America for a different point of view. I had
voted absentee back in Michigan, so I didn’t have to rush to the
polls to cast my vote. Not that that would have been
possible, for I wouldn’t have been able to vote in Texas.
Back at the hotel, I had some microwave yakisoba (noodles,
either chicken or teriyaki beef flavored) for supper and then
settled in to watch the election results (or the exit poll
predictions of the election results, to be more precise).
It didn’t appear to be a good night for the Republicans.
Top
Wednesday November 8
I woke up around 5:30 and went to check on my e-mail and the
election results. Naturally, I checked the Michigan
results first via the Detroit Free Press site. Governor
Granholm and Senator Stabenow were re-elected. Proposal 2,
which bans affirmative action programs, also passed. I
voted against the ban on the grounds that it was premature and
that it could have undesirable unintended consequences.
Here in Texas, Governor Perry won re-election against a divided
field. Would I have voted for Kinky Friedman if I were
still living here?
This morning, I would be making a return visit to Westbrook
Intermediate and the WAVE program, as I had been doing for the
last few years when it was at Webster. I arrived around
8:20 AM; Candy Silcott was not there yet, but I didn’t have to
wait long for her to arrive. And what would I be doing
today? I didn’t know when I arrived, but I would be
sitting in on another mini-course and contributing musically,
and I would be proofreading the robotics team’s submission for
the state finals.
The mini-course was another music-related one, this time
covering rock music. It was taught by Ruth Baxter, who’d
taught the mini-course on folk music I’d visited on my last
trip. One of the students remembered me from that
visit. Today, the lesson was on the blues. We got to
hear Robert Johnson’s version of “Crossroads”, which was a bit
of a contrast from the more familiar version by Cream.
However, the lesson got a bit sidetracked when I was asked to
play a song or two for everyone. I didn’t have my guitar
with me, but someone obtained one from the orchestra room.
It was a classical guitar that didn’t keep in tune that well,
but I managed. Using a quarter for a pick, I played “Long
Tall Sally” (I tried to keep within the blues realm), “Mr.
Tambourine Man” (requested by Ms. Baxter, as I recall), “I Can’t
Explain” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. The
difficulty I had hitting high notes several days ago had
vanished; I had no problem with them today, although I sang
“Long Tall Sally” an octave lower than Little Richard’s and the
Beatles’ versions (I’d have done so anyway). Afterwards,
the class got to vote on which song was better: “Honey
Don’t” (the Carl Perkins original) or “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’
On”. They tied, and I was asked to break the tie. I
went with Jerry Lee. It was close, though. If it had
gone up against “Blue Suede Shoes”, it would have been much
closer.
The proofreading of the robotics presentation wasn’t very
difficult, as I was asked to focus on verifying a third-person
voice throughout the document. Some corrections were easy
and straightforward, but there were some sections that I felt
needed more of a rewrite to not read or sound awkward. I
met two former WAVE students who were now on the speech and
debate team at Clear Brook High; they helped teach the debate
mini-course. They informed me that my coach during my last
years at Creek, Valleri Parsons/Jolly (now Spears), was still
there. Wonder how many of my other teachers are still
there? Lunchtime rolled around, and Candy and I went to La
Madeleine for some soup and salad and to the Cake Lady bakery in
Friendswood for some cookies. I would end up snacking on
my cookies when I drove down to Galveston in the afternoon.
The drive to Galveston was nothing out of the ordinary, until I
got to the causeway. A new one was being built on top of
the pilings of one of the old ones. One side was already
complete and was carrying both directions of traffic. It
wasn’t much higher in terms of peak height, but the average
height was indeed higher than the old ones. There was a
wave pattern sculpted into one side that made it difficult for
anyone in cars to see over the edge. Past the causeway,
Galveston was – well, it was Galveston. I exited at 61st
Street and gassed up at the station on the corner. I
didn’t go to Moody Gardens (nothing exciting at the IMAX theater
today), nor did I visit the new Schlitterbahn indoor water
park. I did stop at the Hastings book/music/video store
briefly but didn’t get anything. I also made a pit stop at
the Wal-Mart on Seawall Boulevard, then drove to the west end of
the seawall and parked. I got out and walked around
briefly, even walking off the edge down to the beach
below. The beach was set back quite a ways from the front
of the seawall; that would no doubt be the true beach line if
the seawall didn’t exist. Back in the car, I turned on the
ham radios. On 40 meters, I had a conversation with Jim,
N5ITE, in Black Rock, Arkansas. He said my signal was
coming in quite well; even though I was running only 20 watts or
so, the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico must have given me an
excellent ground. He had two other hams try to contact me,
K9SBQ and N0WNZ, but I had a lot of noise to contend with, so I
couldn’t hear them. Then I drove down Seawall Boulevard to
Broadway and back to the freeway.
I had not yet been to Joe’s Barbecue in Alvin on this trip, and
I was running out of time. Although it was a little on the
early side for supper, I thought this would be my best
opportunity to go, so after I crossed back to the mainland, I
took Highway 6 up through Hitchcock and Santa Fe and into
Alvin. Joe’s wasn’t very busy at all at this in-between
time. But I got my traditional barbecue baked
potato. It was still huge, and I couldn’t finish it
all. If this had been at the start of my trip, I might
have boxed it up and taken it back to the hotel, but I didn’t
bother today. I wouldn’t have wanted to eat it in the next
two days. Then it was back to the hotel, where later on
that evening, I participated in the Clear Lake Amateur Radio
Club’s weekly net. I used my low-power Yaesu FT-817ND
transceiver to join in the fun, and I was able to make a
contribution. One of the participants wanted to know about
the Buddipole antenna, so I related my experiences with it.
Top
Thursday
November 9
My vacation was winding down, and tomorrow I would start to head
back to Michigan. I got up around 5:30, watched the news
on channel 13, had breakfast downstairs in the lobby, then went
on the treadmill for a few minutes. On tap today was a
visit with Lou Miller, longtime friend of the family and former
employer of my mother. She had moved since the last time I
visited; the old house and yard on Webster Street were getting
to be too much work to keep up. Also, the neighborhood had
changed drastically, for there were two new schools just down
the road. So last year, she moved into a community off of
Davis Road, not far from the high school and a mile to a
mile-and-a-half away from the old house. It was a very
nice house in a gated community with a small yard, both front
and back. We had a good talk for a couple of hours.
I brought over my Powerbook because it had recent pictures of my
nieces and nephew, mainly from last July, although I did have
Candice’s prom picture from this spring.
When I left to go to Seabrook, I went on 518, even though it was
under construction, for I wanted to see the new high school
building for myself. The new front entrance was near where
J Building used to be. There was still plenty of
construction, so it was difficult to see what the completed
school would look like. Down by the Wal-Mart, police were
forcing traffic to go through the parking lot, for there was an
accident blocking the roadway. That didn’t slow me down
too much, though, and soon I was on 146 heading back to
Laredo’s. Thursdays had been the day I would go there when
I was working at AER, so I guess this was the temporary
resumption of an old custom. I got the Deluxe Dinner again
and enjoyed it, again. Then it was back to Wal-Mart, where
I thought I might buy something and get some cash back, for I
did need some cash. But there was nothing I wanted today,
so I went to the money machine and pulled $140.
When I left, I took Hansen Avenue. According to very old
maps, this used to be part of the main League City-Kemah road;
the section of today’s FM 2094 between 146 and the intersection
with Hansen didn’t exist. Today, the road ran behind the
Target and Home Depot before opening onto 2094 (no light, just a
stop sign). Then it was back to the hotel. Later on,
I walked over to the Borders store, which wasn’t easy due to the
lack of a sidewalk. I ended up using the parking lots of
several restaurants and going through some shrubs before
crossing a small ditch underneath the high-voltage lines (the
route of the old Interurban Railway in the early part of the
20th century). Now I was looking for a calendar,
preferably something with a Texas or Houston theme. But
the calendars I saw today didn’t impress me, so I went away
without getting one. Back at the hotel, I started to pack
my suitcase with items I wouldn’t need during the trip. I
was feeling a bit down because the end of my time off was
near. Watching some more South
Park episodes cheered me up a bit.
Top
Friday
November 10
This was it, my last day in Texas. I got up before 6
o’clock, took my medicine, and finished my packing. I went
downstairs and got a luggage cart, then started wheeling my
stuff to the car. It was not easy trying to get everything
to fit in the car. It wasn’t easy when I packed at home,
and it was even harder now, for I’d acquired a few more things
along the way. I had folded up the quad antenna as best I
could, then put it under the folded-down seat backs of the rear
seat. I tucked some books and bags wherever I could.
At 8 o’clock, I started up and pulled out. This was the
height of rush hour, but I didn’t encounter any problems on the
freeway. When I took the 610 loop to avoid downtown, I
didn’t have any problems on the South Loop or the East
Loop. Then I saw an electronic sign stating that travel
time to US 59 was 27 minutes. Now that was an ambiguous
reference – did it refer to the Eastex Freeway or the Southwest
Freeway? That would be a reasonable travel time to the
Southwest Freeway, but for the Eastex Freeway, it would mean
horrible traffic jams were ahead. A few minutes later,
traffic started backing up. Fortunately, I was at the
Homestead exit, and I left the freeway there and started driving
northward. I’d never been in this part of town before, but
I had the GPS to guide me. I knew I would find a road that
would take me over to the Eastex Freeway, and when I did, I took
it. Before long, I was on the Eastex Freeway heading
northeast, not encountering any difficulties, other than
stopping at a Home Depot in Humble for a restroom break (why a
Home Depot? I knew they were open). I had an uneventful
drive up 59 through east Texas – Cleveland, Livingston, Lufkin,
Nacogdoches, towns familiar from many previous trips.
Before I left, I had entertained thoughts about visiting the
point where Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas meet. A few
years ago, I had gone to the point where Michigan, Indiana and
Ohio meet (a point in the middle of a gravel road), so why not
travel to the point that could be called the real
Ark-La-Tex? I wasn’t sure of the best way to get there, so
I asked the GPS device. It directed me to follow 59 up to
Carthage, then take US 79 to near Shreveport, then go north on
some smaller Louisiana state highways. The portion past
Carthage represented a new experience for me, for I had never
been on these roadways. There was a Jim Reeves memorial on
79 east of Carthage; I did not stop, though I did let up on the
gas briefly while I debated whether to stop.
At last, I had arrived at my destination: the area where Texas,
Louisiana and Arkansas meet. But it was not like I had
pictured. I had thought there was a roadside park at the
meeting point, but there wasn’t. There were just two
liquor stores in the area, one close to the corner point and the
other several yards away on the Arkansas side of the border with
Louisiana. The only monument I saw was a marker for the
Texas border. I thought it best not to get out and look
for the actual meeting point, since it appeared to be on private
property. All I did was take a picture of the Texas border
marker, then drive back into Texas. Later, I would learn
that the official marker was very close to that Texas border
marker; perhaps I should try again to locate it on a future
visit. I used the GPS to route me into Texarkana,
Arkansas, and it took me through some back roads and onto a
freeway that looped around the city. While on the freeway,
I made a call on the national 2-meter calling frequency and
heard from Randy, N0UYX. We had a nice QSO (conversation)
for a few minutes. When I started getting out of range, he
advised me to tune to a local repeater, which I did, and then we
chatted for a few more minutes until I stopped at the rest area
and welcome center.
My purposes in stopping here were twofold: one, to use the
restroom, and two, to pick up literature on the Eureka Springs
area, which is not far from Branson. Perhaps we might want
to make a short trip to Eureka Springs during our Branson
trip. I then noticed a laptop dock. The receptionist
informed me that it could be used to hook up one’s laptop for an
e-mail check, so I went out to my car, got my Powerbook, and
retrieved my e-mail. Some of the messages were quite
large, for David Zabalaoui had sent me several photos from the
reunion. Thankfully, this was a high-speed
connection. From the brief glimpses of the photos I got,
they appeared to all be of high quality. I then got the
idea to make a hotel reservation for the night. That way,
I would have a definite destination in mind as I continued
onward. I ended up making a reservation at the Hampton Inn
in Forrest City, which was between Little Rock and
Memphis. That would represent a good day’s drive for me.
Back on the road I went, past Bill Clinton’s birthplace of Hope,
stopping at Arkadelphia for gas, passing through Benton, and
then arriving at Little Rock. I didn’t stop there, though,
for as I-30 ended, I got onto I-40 and continued eastward, past
the Maybelline and Remington factories, past the town of
Brinkley, and then arriving at Forrest City. All the
while, I was listening to XM’s 60s on 6 and their weekly salute
to a famous radio station. This week, it was KHJ Los
Angeles, home of Boss Radio. From west of Little Rock to
Forrest City, the sky was aflash with lightning, although it
never rained, and I didn’t hear thunder. Clearly, a front
was coming. It was still warm at night, though, when I
drove to a nearby McDonald’s to pick up supper. I got back
to the room in time to catch the last few minutes of Doctor
Who and all of Battlestar
Galactica. I wasn’t concerned about missing
Doctor Who, for I was recording it at home.
Top
Saturday
November 11
I’m not sure at what time I first awoke this morning; I couldn’t
see the clock radio from my location, nor could I easily read my
watch. When I got up to use the bathroom, though, I
noticed that it was 5:26 AM. It wasn’t worth it to go back
to bed, not with the long trip ahead of me today. Had the
hotel not had a breakfast bar, I might have set out earlier than
I did. As it was, I hit the road just before 7 AM.
It was already light, but it was overcast. It was also
windy and cold; clearly, the lightning display of last night had
heralded a cold front. Instead of the Hawaiian shirt I
wore yesterday, today I had on a heavy long-sleeve shirt and a
brown suede jacket of medium weight. Before setting out, I
partook of the hotel’s breakfast bar – Cheerios, a muffin, and
some scrambled eggs.
I was not sure how I wanted to head home, what route to
take. At my first decision point, the intersection of I-40
and I-55 in West Memphis, I decided to go straight, to go into
Memphis. Now I’ve never spent any time in Memphis; I’ve
been through it several times but have never spent any
appreciable time there. I should do so sometime. But
today would not be that day. As I continued on I-40,
another decision point arrived: the intersection of US 51.
If I took it, it would take me close to the Mississippi River
banks and into western Kentucky. And that is what I
did. The going was slow just north of Memphis and in the
towns I encountered, but there were times where I could go 60 or
65 miles an hour legally. And in the stretches that were
marked “Future I-69 Corridor”, I could go 70. In
Covington, I stopped for gas and for a restroom break. The
break turned awkward when I opened the unlocked door to the
men’s room only to find it occupied. Oops! When my
turn came, I made sure the door was locked!
At the border with Tennessee, the roadway became the Purchase
Parkway, which intersected I-24 near Paducah, which in turn
intersected the Western Kentucky Parkway. This was a long
and somewhat boring drive across the state, with few
opportunities to stop and stretch anywhere. One place I
did stop at was the service plaza on the WK Parkway (many years
ago, it was a tollway, and this plaza must date from
then). I listened to the tail end of a rebroadcast of a
1970-vintage American Top 40 (the number 1 song was “I’ll Be
There” by the Jackson Five), then went inside for lunch at the
Arby’s. I needed the rest and the caffeine from the Diet
Coke (I didn’t want to do the Diet Dew). A side
note: this service plaza was located near Bill Monroe’s
boyhood home (Monroe effectively founded bluegrass music).
Earlier, I’d passed near Henning, Tennessee, home to Alex Haley
of Roots fame (there is an Alex Haley Museum there).
I had listened to Michigan State play Minnesota earlier today,
and I put it back on as I left the service plaza.
Unfortunately, they were losing and eventually lost the game to
the Golden Gophers, guaranteeing a losing season and eliminating
their hopes for a bowl game. The coach had already been
fired. So I turned the sound down and put the ham radio
back on. At one point, I heard some exchanges on the
Maritime Net about a vessel that was overdue.
As I drove around Louisville on I-264, the skies grew grayer and
damper. It never flat-out rained, but it sure looked like
it would. And with this being November, it grew dark
earlier. Did I want to push all the way home
tonight? I would be driving in the dark for around six
hours, possibly in the rain. I had also seen a number of
dead deer alongside the road today, and I feared running into
one in the dark. Frankly, I feared running into one at any
time, for I had in fact run into a deer at 1 in the afternoon in
suburban Northern Virginia back in 2004. Discretion
suggested that I stop somewhere for the night, and so I stopped
at a Hampton Inn in the town of Carrolton, Kentucky, roughly
halfway between Louisville and Cincinnati. Yes, they had a
room available for the night. It ended up being a room
intended for someone in a wheelchair (there was very little
counter space in the bathroom), but that was no problem for
me. The only problem was that my toiletries bag took up
the entire counter space.
What did I want to do for supper tonight? Near the hotel,
it was mainly fast food, so I drove north into town. But I
didn’t see anything there, so I turned around and ended up
eating at a Waffle House near the hotel. Then it was back
to the room for some college football and some e-mail work and
web surfing. I had to go to the lobby for that, as the
wireless signal was weak to non-existent in my room. Back
in the room, I read some of Barack Obama’s new book, then fell
asleep watching the last few minutes of the Texas Tech and
Oklahoma game.
Top
Sunday
November 12
I got up around 5:30. It turns out that the wireless
signal worked better in the morning than it did last
night. But at 6 AM, I was informed that the hotel’s access
code had expired. I went down to the desk for a new one;
apparently, it is reset every Sunday morning. I could have
had breakfast at that time, but I wasn’t hungry. Around a
half-hour later, though, I was hungry and went down for a bagel,
some cereal, and some scrambled eggs with ham (they went
overboard on the salt – fortunately, neither the eggs nor the
ham were green).
At 7:25, it was just beginning to turn light as I set off from
the hotel. I had no difficulties traveling through the
northern Kentucky and Cincinnati areas; indeed, I didn’t have
any traffic tie-ups at all on this driving day. I passed
by a number of hotels where I had stayed on previous
visits. In Florence, Kentucky, there was what used to be a
Signature Inn, where I stayed in 1997 while meeting my sister
and her family for a layover on their trip from Europe to
Texas. In Covington, there was the Hampton Inn next to the
I-71/75 bridge over the Ohio – I’d spent a day here in Easter
2004 or 2005. Up in Dayton, there were the Homewood
Suites, where I’d stayed with my uncle in May when we attended
Hamvention 2006. Once again, I listened to a combination
of satellite radio (XM and Sirius) and ham radio (MidCARS,
mainly) as I drove northward. I stopped for a rest break
at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Lima, and later I stopped for
gas and some lunch items at a Speedway station in Findlay.
Just before noon, I arrived in Toledo and started to hear some
activity on my 2-meter radio; I was on the fringes of receiving
the Detroit-area repeaters I normally monitor.
The weather was still chilly and overcast as I crossed into
Michigan, but I could see some breaks in the clouds in the
distance. Northward I continued, first on I-75 and then on
I-275. I passed the exit for Willow Metropark, where I’d
ridden my bike several times this year. Then came the
exits for Metro Airport, I-94, Ecorse Road, Michigan Avenue, a
rest area, and lastly Ford Road. This was my exit.
Not much had changed in two weeks – a building under
construction was farther along, and gas prices seemed a bit
higher ($2.19). Finally, I pulled into my driveway at 1 PM
precisely. I got out of the car to lower my HF antenna,
which was too high to go into the garage, and then I pulled
in. Now it was time to unpack. I was home.
THE END
Top
Back to Travels page
©2006 R.
W. Reini. All rights reserved.
Map images based on Google
Maps.
Written by Roger
Reini
Revised
May 13, 2014
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