Texas 2019

Travelogue: Texas, July-August 2019

By Roger W. Reini

By day:
July:18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30
| 31
August: 1 2

This is the story of a trip, mainly to Texas, n late July and early August 2019.

The main purpose of this trip was not vacation, although vacation was certainly a big part of it. No, the main purpose was for me to represent my late father, Bill Reini, at an awards ceremony at the Johnson Space Center on July 27. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Region 5 organization were to present JSC with a Stepping Stone award for the development and implementation of the Analytic Ephemeris Generator, which was used to help accomplish the world’s first spacecraft rendezvous in 1965. Four key developers of the software were to be mentioned by name on the award plaque; my dad was one of those four, so I suppose he and the others would be indirect recipients of the award.

Prologue

Until June 22, I had no idea I would be making this trip. That afternoon, I received a phone call from one of my dad’s co-workers, who told me about the award. He said another co-worker would get in touch with me with further details, which happened that evening. When I realized the import of all of this, I decided yes, I wanted to represent my father at the ceremony. I had two other potential activities that weekend (Maker Faire Detroit and a first-birthday party for a cousin of mine), but this ceremony took precedence, in my view.

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Thursdat Juyly 18

I woke up around 7 this morning and did my usual web and e-mail checks. I didn’t have much more packing to do, as I had packed and loaded most of my stuff last night. After getting dressed, I went downstairs to start the dishwasher going, then went back upstairs to finish packing. I did have an issue when packing my small suitcase: at one point, the electric razor inside of my toiletry bag turned on. I had the hardest time finding it in that bag to turn it off! I could grab just about everything else in there, but not that razor! I did eventually find it and turn it off.

Shortly before 10, I was all packed except for my computer bag. Just before I shut my laptop off, the electric bill arrived via e-mail. it was high, maybe not high by Texas standards, but it was high. It could wait for another time. I turned off my air conditioning, made sure I had all of my bags, and then I left at 10:15.

For the first few hours, it didn’t feel like I was on vacation. That was because I was doing some necessary things around town: get the car gassed up for trip, go to the credit union for some cash for the trip, and then meet some friends who are retired co-workers fro Ford for a monthly lunch. That was a good lunch, as they usually are. I had two sliders with French fries.

It was shortly after noon when I left them and hit the road,. I went back onto Michigan Avenue and then down Telegraph Road to reach I-94. I was concerned I would run into road construction there, at least near the airport. However, that wasn’t going to happen until the weekend. But I did run into a construction zone I did not expect west of I-275. Traffic came to a halt and then inched along slowly as 3 lanes narrowed to 1, I was listening to the BBC World Service on satellite radio; OS (Outside Sources) was airing, hosted today by Chloe Tilley. West of Haggerty Road, the construction zone ended, and the road was wide open.

Driving across the state went smoothly, with occasional rest stops and one or two construction zones. There was also some rain east of Kalamazoo. Once we reached the Benton Harbor area, I tuned in WFMT out of Chicago, the classical music station there for some soothing music while driving.

At one point, I was on I-80/94, also known as the Frank Borman Expressway. I don’t believe it’s commonly called that, but given the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 this week, as well as the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 last December, it’s an appropriate name. However, while Borman flew in very speedy aircraft and spacecraft, I was creeping at very slow speeds. It was Chicago rush hour. I’d encounter more heavy traffic zt spots along the Tri-State Tollway and on I-290. It was nearly 6 Central time when I arrived at my lodging for the evening, the Hilton Garden Inn in Schaumburg. My reason for stopping here was simple: I wanted supper at the nearby Chuy’s.

After checking in and unpacking, I did head over to Chuy’s, where I had my usual Comida Deluxe. A big meal, to be sure, but a good one. I also had a tres leches cake for dessert, but that turned out to be a huge piece of cake. It was good, but in retrospect, I should have passed on it. I was too stuffed to consider going around the nearby Woodfield Mall, so I went back to the hotel and did some reading while resting from today’s drive.

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Friday July 19

I woke up for good around 5:40 and started doing my usual e-mail and web checks. At 6, the alarm clock went off; I hit the button. 10 minutes later, it went off again. I hit the button again. Clearly, that was a snooze button, but I didn’t see any other buttons on there, just a knob. After several more rounds of this, I decided to push on the knob. The alarm stopped for good; clearly the knob was also a button. Then I took a shower, dried and cooled off from that, put on my clothes (same as yesterday) and went downstairs for breakfast.

My room rate was supposed to include breakfast, but I didn’t receive a ticket or anything when I checked in. The server said no ticket was necessary, that they just needed my room number. I had the buffet bar, which was all rigbht. I had to sign the check, but the cost of the meal had not been zeroed out. Did I in fact get charged for it? No, it turned out; I verified that when reviewing the bill. Then it was time to go back to the room, do my final packing, and check out.

I would not be driving towards Texas today, not yet, anyway. My first destination of the day was the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette. I’d been wanting to pay a visit for several weeks, but the timing never was right until now. I started heading across town on Golf Road. Construction slowed me down quite a bit in the Arlington Heights area, but I got through it. I arrived at the House of Worship shortly after 10. The visitor center (and thus the restroom) was now open for the day. After paying a visit to the restroom, I completed a circumambulation of the grounds, seeing the beauty of the different flowers and plants in the various gardens, imagining seeing ‘Abdu’l-Baha walking the path or in the gardens, etc.

Since it was a nice sunny day, I decided to take some pictures. I’ve done that several times at the House of Worship, but not with the wide-angle zoom lens I bought with a retirement gift. That lens gave me some different perspectives on my pictures; how different, I wouldn’t fully know until I downloaded them to my laptop. When I’d finished, I put the camera back in the trunk and then went inside the main auditorium. There, I sat and offered some prayers, although there were times I was wishing I had a larger-print prayer book. I managed, though. Then it was time to leave and go back to the visitor center for a trip to the bookstore. I was looking for 2 audiobook collections: one, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, and the other, William Sears reading Stories from the Dawn-Breakers. I had a hard time finding them until I found the last set of shelves in the store, right next to the register. Yes, they were both in stock, and I bought copies of each. They would make good listening material on my drive.

Next, I drove over to the Old Orchard shopping center. I visited the LL Bean store and the Barnes and Noble store, but I didn’t get anything from either place. I did sit down in a darker area and get the directions to that evening’s hotel in Bloomington-Normal. Mainly, I wanted to see what road I needed to take to get to the southbound Tri-State Tollway. It was Dempster, and so I made my way there.

I could have gone into the city to pick up I-55, but I figured that would have bad traffic. Well, the tollway wasn’t much better; it was stop-and-go in many places. I stopped for gas at the O’Hard Oasis; it was well over $3 a gallon here, thanks in part to a recent gas tax increase. The main building of the Oasis was gone; it was in the process of being rebuilt. So I got some snacks and headed back onto the tollway until I reached I-55.

I-55 has been known for years as the Adlai Stevenson Expressway in honor of the former governor and unsuccessful presidential candidate. In Chicago and Cook County, it still is, but a stretch from DuPage County to Pontiac (IL, not MI) has been named for Barack Obama. As a former president, he’s entitled; Ronald Reagan has a tollway named for him. And while I’m not aware of any Abraham Lincoln Expressway, I do know about the historic Lincoln Highway, much of which I’ve driven in Illinois.

The drive to the hotel was uneventful; I arrived around 4:15, which was pretty early; I thought I might have spent more time in Chicago, but the heat dissuaded me from doing so. After checking in and doing some unpacking, I set up my laptop to watch NHK World Japan and their compilation of highlights from day 12 of the grand sumo wrestling tournament taking place in Nagoya. This was Thursday’s competition, which I had not seen due to my being on the road.

There were some items that I had either forgotten at home (sunscreen) or had less on hand than I had thought (toothpaste), so I went over to a nearby Target to get those things. I also got a small snack pack of crackers, cheese and salami for supper, as I didn’t really feel like eating out anywhere. It was back to the hotel to eat and stay cool. I also read for a while before calling it an evening.

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Saturday July 20

I woke up around 4:30 in the morning. I didn’t want to get up then, so I tried to get some more sleep. That didn’t work, so I decided to get up around 5:30. I did my normal e-mail and web checks, and then I watched the day 13 highlights of the sumo tournament. I was now caught up. Then it was time for breakfast in the lobby, where I had some cereal, some yogurt, some small cinnamon buns, and some scrambled eggs. Then it was back to the room to finish packing and hit the road. I left around 9 AM — but was that 9 Central or 9 Eastern? My laptop stays on Eastern time, though my iDevices and other clocks don’t. Thinking back on it, I think I left at 9 Eastern, or 8 Central.

After leaving the hotel, I got back onto Business 55 through Normal and Bloomington. This may have been Route 66 many years ago. It put me back onto the freeway south of town, and I drove onward. I stopped at a Love’s truck stop for a bathroom break and a bottle of Diet A&W Root Beer, then it was back to the road. As I drove, I listened to the Underground Garage, which was airing the Ko Melina program, and later listening to the Stumped podcast (about cricket). As I neared St. Louis, I decided to bypass the city on I-255. This meant I wouldn’t be able to stop at a scenic overlook in East St. Louis, but it was too hot to stop, in my opinion.

I continued on I-55 south of St. Louis heading towards Arkansas. Now it was time to listen to a repeat of American Top 40; this week, it was from July 1974, when the number 1 song was “Rock Your Baby” by George McCrae. That lasted a little over two hours, after which I tuned to the 60s Satellite Survey, which was from July 1964. That week, the Beatles had both the lowest (“Ain’t She Sweet”) and highest (“A Hard Day’s Night”) songs on the countdown. By the time these programs had ended, I had left Missouri, crossed into Arkansas and was actually near Memphis. But Memphis was the wrong way for me; no, I needed to heat west toward Little Rock.

After turning onto I-40, I started looking for a rest area so that I could make a hotel reservation for the evening. Once I reached the rest area, I decided to get a nearby hotel room at the Hampton Inn in Forrest City. I was feeling a bit tired and had no time pressure to be anywhere the next day. Calling it an early day allowed me to watch day 14 highlights live on NHK World in my hotel room. Then it was time to get some supper, which I did at a nearby Wendy’s. I brought it back to the room, where I ate it while listening to a repeat of “Dragnet” on the Radio Classics channel on the SiriusXM app. Afterwards, I found that the hotel TV carried NASA TV, so I turned it on and happened to see the arrival of a new crew at the International Space Station, Vice-President Pence speak at the Kennedy Space Center, and some of the rebroadcast of the Apollo 11 moonwalk, 50 years to the moment I was watching it at home on CBS. But I fell asleep during it and missed a lot of it, so I went to bed.

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Sunday July 21

Once again, I woke up earlier than I would have liked, but this time it was an hour later. I woke at 5:30, tried to sleep some more, and then gave up and got up around 6, doing my usual e-mail and web checks. At 7, I went down to breakfast in the lobby, where I had oatmeal and cinnamon danish. After packing, I got on the road at 8.

When 9 rolled around, I put on the repeat of the 60s Satellite Survey from yesterday. I’d missed the first half-hour or so yesterday due to an overlap with the AT40 repeat, but I was able to hear it this morning. When I reached the part that I’d already heard, off went the survey and on went the Palmyra Delran show (“trash-pop shindig”, she calls it) on the Underground Garage. I continued on I-40 then took the bypass around Little Rock, filling up at a Road Runner station south of town.

Around noon, I had reached Texarkana. Soon, I was in Texas! I did not turn off onto Highway 59 to head to Houston, because I was’t heading there, not yet. I stayed on I-30 heading towards Dallas. On this part of the drive I listened to some of the CD’s I had bought at the House of Worship. I think this was the first time I had used the CD player in the car in the three years I’ve had it. I do not know if my next vehicle will have a CD player.

As I continued towards Dallas, I knew I would be encountering a Buc-ee’s travel center soon. It was in Royse City, and there, I stopped to fill up the car, empty my bladder, and make a hotel reservation for the night. If I really wanted to press, I could have made it to Austin that night, but I didn’t want to press. I wasn’t expected until tomorrow, for one thing. And so I made a reservation for the Holiday Inn Express in Waxahachie.

Back on the road, I continued on I-30 until I reached the intersection for I-635, part of the loop around Dallas. I took that until it ran into I-20, and I took that until I reached I-35E. I thought I would drive on that until I reached US 287, but the mapping program had me get off at US 77. That did take me to the hotel, although I was confused by some directions and ended up having to go on a 2-mile loop to reach the hotel. But I got there soon enough, and soon, I was in room 335.

Since I had stopped fairly early, I was able to put on NHK World and watch the highlights of the final day of the sumo competition. The championship was on the line. The two top-ranked wrestlers grappled in the final match. And in the end, Kakuryu prevailed; he won the Emperor’s Cup. Congratulations to him! Now to figure out where to have supper. The decision was pretty easy, as there was a Carino’s restaurant right next door. The chain had fled southeast Michigan in recent months, so I had not been to one for a while. I went and had an old favorite, Spicy Shrimp and Chicken. It was as good as I remembered.

I have no idea what nightlife Waxahachie has, but I didn’t partake of any of it. No, I stayed in and caught up on some reading. I finished the e-book of “American Moonshot” by Douglas Brinkley (more about President Kennedy than the space prgram, but still good) and then started on “Chasing the Moon”, the companion volume to the recent PBS series. Then I called it an evening.

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Monday July 22

I got up for good around 6 AM. After a visit to the restroom, I did my usual e-mail and web checks, and then I washed my hair in the bathtub. Then it was time for breakfast in the lobby. One thing I noted with delight: they had cinnamon buns, and not Cinnabon cinnamon buns, either; these were the standard Holiday Inn Express cinnamon buns. These were what I wanted when I was at the Holiday Inn Express in Springfield, Ohio for Hamvention, but they didn’t have them. The buns were good.

Back in the room, I packed, brushed my teeth, and worked on the travelogue. I didn’t want to leave too early; I was waiting for the nearby Target store to open, and I didn’t want to arrive in Austin too early. I had said I would be there between 2 and 3. And so I paid two bills electronically and worked on this travelogue. Housekeeping came by, but I said I was still there. I wouldn’t leave until 10. By then, the Target store was open (it might have opened at 9). I was in search of Pepto-Bismol, for I had had some stomach issues during the drive. I had a hard time finding some in the pharmacy section, and I had to ask for help. It turned out they were along the back wall, close to but separate from the rest of the pharmacy items; bad placement, in my opinion. After buying it, I went to the car and had some of that Pepto. Then it was time to motor on.

There were several places of construction along I-35E and regular I-35, including a decent sized slowdown in Waco. In Temple, I stopped at the Buc-ee’s for lunch. I got a chopped beef brisket sandwich, some banana pudding, and some Pepsi Zero Sugar from the fountain. I put some cherry and vanilla flavors in it, but I didn’t realize where the flavors were dispensed from, and I got cherry syrup all over my hand. Thanks to the man who handed me some napkins to wipe off with. I had also noticed, elsewhere in the store, a hat with the word SQUAD on it. Was this a reference to the four freshman congresswomen of color who had become the targets of President Trump’s ire? Somehow, I doubt it; Buc-ee’s does not strike me as partisan.

The rest of the trip down I-35 to Round Rock was uneventful, and soon, I was on RM 620 heading to the western Austin suburbs. The scenery was somewhat familiar, but there had been changes in the six years I had last been out here. Lake Travis was higher, for sure! Finally, I had arrived at my friend Keith’s house. I got to meet Sasha the dog, who was wary at first, even nipping my hand a couple of times, but once I fed her a dog treat, she accepted me. Sasha was new since the last time I’d visited; the previous pet, Ping the cat, had passed away some two years ago.

The guest room was upstairs, located next door to the bathroom. (convenient) There were enough plugs and ports for me to connect everything I needed to plug in. The room was on the warm side, though, and the ceiling fan in the room didn’t help to cool it off. However, the table fan that was stored in the closet did help. I have that same problem with my bedroom in Michigan.

We had an excellent dinner that evening: chicken, mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts. During dinner, Keith’s father mentioned that, prior to his joining the weather service, he had been a welder and had dome some welding on parts of the Saturn V rockets. I had not known that. Another space connection on this trip, the main p\one being my dad’s forthcoming award.

Another space-related event had taken place that day, as I would learn after retiring for the evening and checking the news. Christopher Kraft, former director of the Johnson Space Center and the man who invented Mission Control, had died. Tributes were pouring in from everywhere. One quote said that his passing so close to the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing was akin to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams passing away on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

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Tuesday July 23

When I checked e-mail this morning, Ken Young (a co-worker of my dad’s who was my main contact for information about the award and ceremony) had sent me the final program for the ceremony on Saturday as well as the program and menu for the luncheon. But he cautioned that if there would be a conflict between this ceremony and services for Chris Kraft, the ceremony would need to be rescheduled (as it turned out, the services did conflict slightly with the ceremony, but they were private, so the ceremony would take place as scheduled).

I didn’t do much while staying in Austin. I’d driven for parts of the last five days, and I was looking for some rest and some good times with old friends. That included a lunch visit to Gourdough’s, a gourmet doughnut establishment on Lamar Street south of downtown. I got a Heavenly Hash doughnut; it could also have been called a Chocolate Overdose doughnut. It was good, but the doughnut was large, and I couldn’t finish it all. None of us could, the others of “us” being Keith and his elder daughter Hannah.

On several occasions, I had opportunity to play with Sasha the dog by pulling on a toy or a rope that she had in her mouth. Sometimes I could pull her across a hardwood floor; at other times, she’d tug so hard I thought she might dislocate my shoulder or elbow (I may be exaggerating, but not by much).

Dinner this evening was just as good as last night’s. The centerpiece was meatloaf prepared by Keith’s younger daughter Rebecca, along with lemon rice soup. Yum! And for dessert, I got to have some Blue Bell vanilla ice cream (also yum!). Later on, we all settled down for an evening of watching favorite videos — episodes of Young Sheldon and Axe Cop, along with the Japanese anime classic The Cat Returns. Then it was time to call it a night.

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Wednesday July 24

A little after 4 in the morning, I was up using the bathroom. The clock in the bathroom told me so. I tried to get back to sleep but had some difficulty doing so, but I know I eventually did. I got up for good around 6:45 and did my normal web checks; I thought I could smell coffee brewing downstairs. I finished my normal e-mail and web checks, but I also packed up most of my stuff before heading down to breakfast: orange juice, Life cereal and a banana.

It was 11 o’clock when I hit the road. Traffic was’t terribly heavy as I made my way around Austin to get to Highway 71. I listened to BBC OS for a while (covering Boris Johnson’s first day as prime minister) and POTUS (covering the testimony of Robert Mueller). I stopped at a gas station in Bastrop for some snacks and then continued onward. An hour or so later (I think), I had made it to I-10.

An hour or 45 minutes after that, I stopped at the Buc-ee’s in Katy to fill up the car, empty the bladder, and get a drink and some more snacks. Now I had a decision to make: how to get to Nassau Bay? Looking at Google Maps earlier, two potential routes (going through downtown or taking the West Loop) had very heavy traffic. I guess that was to be expected. So I decided to prepare my wallet for emptying and take the Sam Houston Tollway around town. My EZ-Pass didn’t work in Texas, so I had to stop at the toll booths and pay tolls that way. I had to do that three times going from the Katy to the Gulf Freeway, so it wasn’t a cheap drive ($5.25 altogether). But there were no backups, either. Finally, sometime between 3:30 and 4, I arrived at the Courtyard in Nassau Bay. I checked in, unloaded the car, and settled in for the next week.

When suppertime came around, I walked to the nearby 1000 Degrees Pizza. They used to have these near me in Detroit, but the closest ones to me closed down, and I started going to MOD Pizza instead. I ordered a Meatza pizza, which is what I used to order back home. When I received it, it wasn’t as good as I remembered it. It seemed that the equivalent MOD pizza, the Mad Dog, was better. Maybe I was just more accustomed to it, though, for this pizza was good enough. Afterwards, I walked over to the Bon Appetit Cafe. This was where I might be having lunch with Ken Young and other co-workers of my father. The date had not yet been set, though; it might be tomorrow, or it might be Friday.

Back in the room, I uploaded pictures from my cameras and cleared the contents of my DSLR. It still had the pictures from the Trans-Canada trip on it; I had already transferred them to my laptop, and they were just slowing the download of newer pictures. I sent two pictures of Sasha to Keith, but I had difficulty doing so; the hotel’s WiFi was a bit wonky. I offloaded other files, and then I called it an evening.

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Thursdaty July 25

I woke up and did my usual e-mail and web checks, and then I got dressed. Then I went down to the lobby to have breakfast at the bistro. No, breakfast was not included with the room. This morning, I had a bottle of orange juice, some yogurt, and a breakfast burrito. For some reason, I had a hard time opening up the juice and the yogurt; those foil seals did not want to come off intact. I ended up spilling some juice onto the cover of my iPad; I was not happy. After all of that, the yogurt and juice were good, while the burrito was good enough.

There was a chance that I might meet Ken Young and some of my dad’s former co-workers for lunch today, but since I hadn’t heard anything so far, I presumed it would not happen today. Later, I’d receive word that it was on for tomorrow. So I went out and about. I drove on Space Center Boulevard to see if I could spot the Gilruth Center or at least the entrance; I couldn’t. Then I made my way to Baybrook Mall by way of Bay Area Boulevard, El Camino Real and El Dorado Boulevard. This was a new section of the mall, one that I had seen under construction last year. It was more of a big-box store collection rather than mall, in my opinion, but you could easily get to the newer outdoor section and to the original mall. It would be a good hike, but you could do it.

One of the stores there was Duluth Trading, known for its distinctive commercials. I frequented the Duluth Trading store closest to me in Michigan, and I had reason to go to this one, or at least I thought I did. I ended up getting a shirt and a pair of briefs. There was an REI store close by, and I went there, but I ended up not getting anything. I didn’t feel like visiting the rest of the mall, so I left and went to the Krogers on El Camino, where I got some drinks and snacks for my stay here. The room had its own refrigerator, and I wanted to have my own drinks rather than get the ones from the hotel store. I got a bottle of Topo Chico mineral water and a 12-pack of Caffeine free Diet Dr Pepper, which I’ve only ever seen in Texas. I also got a thank-you card and gift for Keith and his family for putting me up (or putting up with me) earlier in the week.

when I got back to the hotel room, it had not yet been cleaned. This was after noon, and I wasn’t happy. I put the drinks in the refrigerator, made out the card and got it ready for mailing. Then I confirmed directions to the Gilruth Center. I had indeed passed the entrance this morning, as I confirmed via the satellite images in Google Maps. But I wouldn’t have been able to get there had I relied on Apple Maps; the two alternatives it gave me went right through JSC property, which I could not do. That was worthy of a Bad Apple, as the old Apple Byte podcast might say. Housekeeping did show up, eventually, but I told them not to bother today.

It was time for my second trip of the day. My first visit was to the nearby CVS drugstore, where I got a tube of acne medicine to reduce the swelling of a boil or something on my rear, which had been bothering me for several days while sitting and driving. Next came a visit to the post office on Upper Bay Road to mail the card. It was still in the same small building I remembered from my childhood, unlike League City’s post office, which had been in three buildings in my memory. I then drove down Upper Bay Road to the park at the end of the road, seeing some slightly familiar sights. Next, I drove to the Gilruth Center to make sure I knew where it was and that I could get to it without encountering a security gate. And after all of that, I was rather hungry, so i drove to the steak & Shake on the freeway in Webster. I had the steak (steakburger) but not the shake (had a Coke Zero instead), and then I went back to the hotel.

I had one more trip to make today. I drove down to Santa Fe in the late afternoon to see some old friends and former neighbors, the Ivens. Son Thomas was hosting a cookout for family, friends and neighbors. Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone to Steak & Shake if I’d known I’d be having grilled burgers for dinner. But the burger that I had was very good. It was great seeing everyone again — Clem and Mary Helen; Bernie, Bobby and Thomas, spouses. children and grandchildren; and a few friends and neighbors. It took me a while to get there due to heavy traffic on the freeway, and I wanted to leave before it got dark. I accomplished that, but I didn’t make it back to the hotel until after dark. Time for some more reading until I felt sleepy, after which I called it a night.

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Friday July 26

I got up around 6:30 and did my regular web and e-mail checks, then took a shower and got dressed. For breakfast, I went to the lobby bistro and got a bottle of orange juice, a cup of yogurt, and a buttered croissant. At first, I wasn’t sure that the croissant was actually a croissant, for it was large enough to have been closed off at the ends. But after tasting it, there was no doubt that it was. Everything was good.

I stayed down in the lobby for a while before going back to the room to brush my teeth and make my morning plans. I would go back to Baybrook this morning, for I had reason to visit the Apple Store. I was in need of a USB-C to Lightning cable to connect my iPhone to my MacBook Pro without needing to use an adapter with an existing cable. I remembered buying one, but I couldn’t find it; it was probably at home. When I got there, I parked in my traditional spot near Macy’s and went inside. Noting had changed much since last yer. The Apple Store had the cable I was looking for, so I bought one, put it in my pocket, then walked around the traditional mall and the new outside portion, That was a pretty good hike, and I was a bit warm when I went back inside.

My next stop was the Barnes & Noble on the other side of the freeway. Their collection of spaceflight-related books was excellent, in my opinion; I ;d thought so for many years. I had many of them already, but I didn’t get any more today. My preferred format was e-book, for one thing. Then it was back to the hotel, but I didn’t go to my room. No, I stayed in the lobby for a while, checking my e-mail.

A little before 1 o’clock, I drove over to the Bon Appetit Cafe. I could have walked there — I’d done so Wednesday night — but I didn’t feel like doing so at the height of day. I parked and went to the entrance wondering how I would recognize my dad’s former co-workers. I needn’t have worried; they were outside the entrance, waiting for me. Ken Young had said he would be the tall one, so I new he was there in the group; he introduced me to Bill Sullivan and Hal Beck.

Bon Appetit was a breakfast and lunch establishment, and you placed your order when walking in. I chose a half-size Caesar salad, a cup of tomato basil soup, along with a Diet Coke. The others ordered their meals, and we went to a back table out of the way of other customers (if there were any others; we were having a late meal). They told me how good he was at computer programming in the age of mainframes and punch cards. They mentioned some of his commonly used rexpressions. For example, when asked to add new features to a program, he would often say “you can’t put 10 pounds of [excrement] into a 5-pound bag” (I could have used that for some meetings at Ford) and “if it runs, it’s user-friendly: (sometimes “if it runs, the SOB is user-friendly”). He never used these at home. They also talked about his playing on a softball team (I remember seeing a trophy and using his glove) and also mentioned a time when, after a practice or a game, they stopped at a bar or dance hall. Apparently, my dad had too much to drink that night, and they had to drive him home. Mom was not happy to see him that way (I don’t doubt it). I have no memory of that; I was either too young or perhaps not yet born.

They provided me with a copy of a page from an MSC internal newsletter showing my dad at work. There was a drawer of punch cards with a sketch of a monster cat on it; this sketch gave its name to the program; the MONSTER, the big rendezvous and mission planning program that my dad wrote and maintained. Hal also gave me a chapter from his unpublished book on the early history of the MPAD (Mission Planning nd Analysis Division) division they were part of.

When I gave some info on what I’d done with my life, including my work in automotive wiring at Ford, Ken said my experience could have helped prevent the Apollo 1 fire, which was blamed on a spark from damaged wiring. Perhaps it could have; a fresh-eyes review like those commonly conducted on Ford vehicles may well have caught problems, although the design considerations and constraints for automotive are different from those for aerospace. You aren’t building 60 command modules an hour, for one thing.

When I got back to the hotel, my room had still not bee cleaned. I did want it cleaned today, so I went down to the lobby for an hour or so and did stuff on my iPad. I recall hearing “I Do” by Lisa loeb playing in the background; I hadn’t heard that song in a long time. After an hour or so, I checked on my room; it had been cleaned at last.

Since Laredo’s was closed, I decided to visit my current favorite restaurant in the area, Jimmy Changa’s in League City. I took back streets to get there: Highway 3 to Walker Street. I went fairly early to avoid any Friday dinner rush. Plenty of seating was available. I decided to have the Jimmy’s Deluxe meal, which was big enough to require two plates, a cold plate for the taco, tostada/chalupa, quest-covered tortilla and guacamole, and a hot plate for the enchilada, tamale, rice and beans. It was indeed a big meal, but I’d had a light lunch, so I was able to finish it. Yum!

Next, I went over to the nearby Best Buy for a look-around. I saw that Bose had a speaker equipped with Amazon Alexa. It was a lot more expensive than the Amazon Echo or Dot, but I’m sure it sounded a lot better. I did not buy one, nor did I get anything else where. The same was true at Walmart. After that, I went back to the hotel the way I came.

Back in the room, I went to get a drink, but I couldn’t. All of my drinks had frozen — the cans of pop, the bottle of Topo Chico, all frozen solid. I looked for a temperature adjustment inside the refrigerator, but I couldn’t find one. What to do? Call the front desk, that’s what. Soon, someone came up to help me. It turned out that the temperature control was not inside the refrigerator at all but on the outside back, inaccessible under normal circumstances. He pulled it out, saw that it had been set to maximum cooling, and reset it to the medium setting. I thanked him for fixing it and cursed whoever came up with the idea to put the control there in the first place. That was a bad design decision! Later, after defrosting the drinks, I put them back in the refrigerator.

In searching for more information about the award ceremony tomorrow — I think I was searching on my dad’s name — I found a listing for a book called “Eight Years to the Moon” and an excerpt from the book on the Universe Today website. This excerpt featured Ken Young and his arrival in Houston in 1962, as well as a picture of many of the Space Task Group members that had moved from Langley to Houston — a picture I’d seen several times, including at the Adler Planetarium — a picture that included my father. I found that book available for Kindle on Amazon, and I bought it. I also told my relatives about it, in case they wanted to buy the book too.

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Saturday July 27

This was it; today was the day of the award ceremony, my reason for being here today. I decided to wear some nicer clothes today — no tennis shoes, no Tommy Bahama shirts — something I would wear to work if I were still working. I checked the refrigerator; the drinks were NOT frozen. I went down to the lobby for breakfast at 8:30 and had the same thing as I’d had yesterday (yogurt, croissant, and orange juice).

I spent some time in my room updating my iPhone and iPad to the latest software level, which had just come out in the last day or so. The WiFi in the hotel was not as fast as what I had at home, so it took longer to download and install, but the updates did complete successfully. Shortly after 9:30, Housekeeping came by. I told them to come back after 11:30, for I would be out of the room by then. I ended up going to the lobby at 10;30 to pass the time until I had to leave; perhaps Housekeeping would show up early. I read on my freshly updated iPad until 11:20; that’s when I left for the ceremony.

When I got to the Gilruth Center, I parked and went inside. I had a hard time finding the elevator or the stairs at first, but I soon found the elevator, going up with some of the IEEE officials who were conducting the ceremony. The elevator opened right in front of the Lone Star Room, where the honorees’ luncheon was being held. Ken Young and Bill Sullivan were already there, and they introduced me to Merritt Jones and Bob Regelbrugge. Hal Beck was not there; he was attending the services for Christopher Kraft. Since the services were private, the award ceremony was proceeding as scheduled; however, the JSC director, who was supposed to be at the ceremony, would also attend Kraft’s funeral, so the deputy director was here instead. She would attend the award ceremony briefly before going to the funeral.

The luncheon got underway with an invitation to go to the serving line. The meal had been catered by a local Indian restaurant and was pretty good, although I ended up passing on the dessert (no room on my plate). There were brief presentations about the awards and the significance of the work being honored, and then it was time for photo ops. I participated in the ones for the AEG group. Part of me felt out of place because I was not involved in the work being honored, but then I remembered that I was there on behalf of my father, who was very much involved, involved enough to be named on the award plaque. The honorees each received a souvenir paperweight to commemorate the event.

The luncheon ran long, so the award ceremony started late. I sat near the front with the other honorees and dignitaries, so I couldn’t really see how much of a crowd there was, though I did not think there was a high attendance. Ken and Merritt gave good talks about the AEG and how valuable it’s been and continues to be in its current form.The talks about the significance of ESTL and its development of combined voice/data/telemetry in a single communications channel were interesting and informative, too. There were some more photo ops, and then most of us boarded buses that would take us to the JSC buildings for the official plaque unveilings.

Before we boarded the buses, those of us who were visitors received visitor badges. The bus I was on fairly full. The first stop was Building 30, Mission Control. Because the ceremony had run late, there was a chance we might have run into a tour group from Space Center Houston touring the restored Mission Control room; fortunately, that was not the case. Everyone entered the lobby, where I could see the covered plaque mounted by the elevator, underneath the plaque for National Historic Landmark status. Ken Young had said the plaque was to have been mounted on another wall, underneath the plaque honoring Christopher Kraft. The IEEE officials had the honor of unveiling the plaque, and I got an off-center picture of it. Then it was time for another photo op. At one point before the photo op, Ken remarked that the stairway from the lobby to MOCR had 87 steps; I would understand the significance of this a few days later.

The lobby was very well air conditioned, while the outside air was warm and humid; it had even been raining. Result: when I left the lobby to return to the bus, my glasses instantly fogged up. So I just looked over the top of them to see my way clearly. Then the buses proceeded to the ESTL building for the plaque unveiling there. I saw the unveiling but went outside during the photo ops; that wasn’t my group or my dad’s group. Afterwards, we boarded the buses to return to the Gilruth Center. After returning the visitor badge, I found the restroom, which I needed to use by that point. There was a small shop with NASA memorabilia intended mainly for employees, but visitors could buy things, as well. I bought two water bottles with different designs showing Snoopy on the moon in honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. As I left to return to the hotel, I reflected on this; some part of my dad will always be in the building where he worked for so many years.

Back at the hotel, I downloaded the pictures I had taken on my iPhone. There weren’t that many; since I was part of the ceremony at times, I wasn’t in a position to take very many. When suppertime rolled around, I went to the Fuddrucker’s down the road. This was the very first Fuddrucker’s I had ever been to, but soon it would be closing; the owners of the adjacent hospital had bought the land and planned to put an office building on the spot. The burgers were just as good as I remembered them. It was a good dinner. Back at the hotel, I had a chat with a friend for around an hour. Not long after that, it was time for bed. It had been a good day.

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Sunday July 28

.I got up around 7:40 in the morning, a bit later than on other days. It was raining outside. I could tell from the sound it made on the bathroom vent; I could also tell from the noise on the roof of the hotel (my room was on the top floor). It was raining forty years ago on this day, as Facebook reminded me. But back in 1979, it was raining much harder. It was raining so hard that there was widespread flooding. It was tropical storm Claudette, and water came into our garage and was a half-inch away from coming into our house.

After I got dressed, I packed up my computer items and went downstairs. I went out to the car (the rain had stopped) and put the bag in the trunk, thinking that I would go back inside and have breakfast in the bistro. But as I was doing so, I had an inspiration. Since I was planning to visit the Kroger Marketplace in League City, why not go to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast? I’d get more for my money, I was sure. And so I didn’t go back inside, but I got in the car and headed to the Cracker Barrel, going through League City to do so. When I parked, I found that I had parked in front of an electric vehicle charging station.

It was slightly busy at the Cracker Barrel; I had to wait 10 minutes or so to be seated. Once I was seated, I reviewed the menu and decided to go for a Momma’s Pancake breakfast, which consisted of more than just pancakes. It actually consisted of three pancakes, scrambled eggs, and two sausage patties. I topped that off with glasses of orange juice and water. All of that was less expensive than the breakfast burrito, yogurt and orange juice at the Courtyard.

After leaving the Cracker Barrel, I drove down Hobbs Road and went down our old street. The house was still there, and people were still living there. I drove around the block before getting back onto Hobbs Road and heading for the Kroger. But I didn’t stop at the Kroger, not yet. First, I wanted to drive down Hobbs Road all the way to where it ended today. That road goes a lot farther than it did during my childhood! When I reached the end in a neighborhood called Sedona, I thought I saw preparation for additional lengthening of the road. It was time to turn around and go to Kroger. I didn’t get very much, just some more snack foods, enough to put me over 400 loyalty points for the month. Then I went back to the hotel.

When I got back, the room had been made. I decided to stay in, catch up on some e-mails, and pay some bills. I took it easy the rest of the afternoon; especially since I heard thunder and more rain. It was that kind of day. When suppetimer rolled around, I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to do. Eventually, I decided to go to Luby’s Cafeteria in Nassau Bay, not far from the hotel. It wasn’t terribly busy on Sunday evening, I decided to have chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and corn, along with a dinner roll and a drink. The chicken fried steak was smaller than the one I’d had last year at Cleburne Cafeteria, but it tasted much better.

Back at the hotel, I worked on the travelogue for a while. Later, I watched a newscast from a Texas video archive: it was the 6 PM news from KPRC channel 2 from July 20, 1979, the 10th anniversary of the moon landing. I don’t recall seeing the newscast at the time; although we normally watched the channel 2 news at 10, we tended to watch the channel 11 news at 6. I did remember some of the commercials from back then. One item from Doug Johnson’s weather forecast caught my attention; he was talking about the remnants of tropical storm Claudette just off of the Florida coast. Eight days later, that storm would sit over our area and come close to flooding us.

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Monday July 29

I got up around 7 this morning and did my usual e-mail and web checks. Later, I got dressed and went down to the lobby to have the orange juice, yogurt and croissant breakfast that I’d had for many days.. It was good, as it had been the other times I’d had it. Then it was back to the room to brush my teeth, collect my computing stuff in the backpack reserved for it, and take one of my reusable grocery bags out to the car (the other was in use in the room, holding groceries).

I had one item on the calendar today: lunch at El Tiempo Cantina in Webster at 1. That was several hours away; what to do in the interim? I stayed in the lobby for an hour or so, catching up on e-mail and monitoring social media. Around 10, I decided to drive over to Fry’s to see what they had. When I got there, I decided that I’d rather go t the Academy sporting goods store first. My main reason for going there was consider getting a Texans football jersey. Those are not easy to find in Detroit, just as Lions jerseys would not be easy to find in Texas. Naturally, I got a #99 J. J. Watt jersey.

The Fry’s was just across the street. That had been one of my favorite places to visit ever since I first went to one in the Silicon Valley area in 1994. But when I went today, I was struck by how empty and dead it seemed. Many shelves were full of stuff, but many others were empty. The area that used to display Apple computers and iPads no longer had Macs on display. The other computer display area was very skimpy, too. I don’t think I saw any cameras on display. I bet online shopping has really hurt then, as it has so many other businesses. Will it even be open the next time I visit Texas?

I didn’t get anything at Fry’s. It was too early for lunch, so I drove up the feeder road to the Barnes & Noble for another look-see. But like the other day, I left empty-handed. Now in order to get to the restaurant, I had to go around a big block, taking Bay Area to Texas Avenue to Nasa 1 to the feeder road. It was still a bit early, but not ridiculously early, so I waited under the awning until 1 o’clock. Any classmate of mine who could attend was welcome to come, but in the end, Rob Wohrer was the only one who showed up (although I knew there were others who wanted to come but could not for various reasons). We had a good talk; I told him about the ceremony on Saturday. We had good meals; mine was a combination plate, which I think consisted of a taco, an enchilada, a tamale, rice and beans. It was a good visit.

My next destination was Buc-ee’s in Texas City. I didn’t need gas yet; I just wanted to see what they had. I guess I was looking for dessert, for I got one of their banana pudding cups, along with a bottle of Sprite Zero. Then it was back up the freeway, contending with the narrowed lanes of road construction, and then back to the hotel.

When suppertime came around a few hours later, I went back to Fuddrucker’s down the street. It would be closing at the end of the week, so this was definitely my last time to go to that location. On future visits, I’ll have to go to the Fuddrucker’s on the feeder road in Webster. Some say the food there isn’t as good as the soon-to-close location. I got the same thing as I had on Saturday.

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Tuesday July 30

I woke up before 7, doing my normal e-mail and web checks, and then I took a shower. I didn’t go down for breakfast this morning; I nibbled on items I had in the room instead.

For the last few days, I had been contemplating a trip to Space Center Houston. I had strongly considered staying an extra day in the area and going on Wednesday, but as I didn’t have any place in particular to go during the day today, I decided to go today. I didn’t have far to go; it was almost directly across the street. I paid the parking fee and found a parking spot. Now I had been there twice before. The first time was in October 1992, shortly after it opened, and the second was in March 2001. I hadn’t been there in a LONG time. I’d forgotten the date of that second trip; I had to look it up in my previous travelogues. One thing that hadn’t been there on either visit was one of the 747’s used to carry space shuttles from landings at Edwards AFB back to the Kennedy Space Center. I could see it from the parking lot; I’d get a lot closer view inside later on.

I bought my ticket and went inside. The first thing I noticed was that it was very dark inside; I had to wait a while for my eyes to adapt. Once they did, I walked through the Early Spacecraft exhibit. Many of the craft and displays I remember seeing before, such as the Apollo 17 command module and the lunar surface display, as well as the moon rocks; others, I didn’t remember, such as the apparently full-size mockup of Skylab’s habitation module. When I was done there, I went to the service desk and requested a timed admission ticket for the Mission Control tour; I got one for 10:30. Before I got in line for the tram at 10:15, I made sure and used the restroom, for there would be no opportunity to do so during the tour.

It was a long line for the tram, but it was a long tram; there would be room for me. When it was fully loaded, it got under way, crossing underneath Saturn Lane and onto the space center grounds. It passed by several longhorn cattle grazing and resting, symbolic of the land’s former existence as the West Ranch. It passed by Rocket Park, which consists of a Saturn V (now enclosed in a building), a Little Joe rocket, and a Redstone rocket. We didn’t stop; that was a different tram tour. Then the tram got onto 2nd Street and headed to Building 30.

When I did this tour in 2001, we had to leave all of our possessions in a locker (even the contents of pockets) and pass through metal detectors. There was none of that today as the group entered the lobby where I had just been on Saturday. There were several minutes of waiting in the lobby; I took advantage of them by going up to the award plaque and getting a better picture of it than I had gotten on Saturday. The tour guide did not mention any of the plaques in the lobby, although in my opinion, he had plenty of time to do so.

Soon, the previous group had left, and we could now go up. Most were encouraged to take the stairs with an elevator available for those who needed it. I went up those 87 steps, and it was tough. I would have needed to pause had there been too many more steps. Now that we were at the top, we filed into the visitor room. Like the main Mission Control room, it had been stored to its 1969 glory. Those who had to stand were told not to touch the counter at the back of the room.

Soon, the presentation began. The room was partially darkened so that only the row of consoles at the very back was visible as the voice of Gene Kranz introduced what we were about to see and hear: the landing of Eagle and the start of the moonwalk. Then the room lit up to reveal active consoles and active front displays showing what they showed then. The sound was that of all of the loops in Mission Control, giving status readings. In the corners of the viewing gallery, small TV’s showed CBS’s coverage of the landing and the moonwalk. Even though we knew how it would turn out, those final moments of descent were suspenseful, and I did feel a palpable sense of relief when touchdown had been confirmed.

When the presentation had concluded, everyone was invited to spend some time taking pictures, but not too much time, for the next group was waiting to come up. I only had my iPhone with me, so the best I could do were general pictures. Then it was time to head downstairs. Those 87 steps were a lot easier going down than going up! We went outside and back to the tram and back to Space Center Houston. They’d done a very good job restoring Mission Control, and I was glad to have seen it, and the award plaque, again.

Once back inside at SCH, I made a quick pass through the small gift shop close to the food court, but I didn’t get anything. Next, I visited the Astronaut Gallery, which had pictures of every mission through Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 to ISS Expedition crews from 2018. Nearby were spacesuit and garments worn in space through the years, most of which I’d seen before. Next, I caught the noon showing of the noon showing of “Mission Control”, the subject of which was indeed Mission Control. This was a shortened version of the film; I have the full-length film, but for some reason I’d never watched it. I vowed to rectify that omission.

After the movie, which lasted about an hour, I went through the ISS exhibit and the Mars exhibit. One demonstration simulated the disorientation astronauts typically feel when they first board the ISS. The room literally spun around where we were standing, and it was definitely disorienting, although I managed. The Mars exhibit offered the chance to touch a piece of a Martian meteorite and see the latest Martian weather report. Next, I went outside to Independence Plaza, home to one of the 747’s that ferried shuttles across the country. Mounted on top was a full-size shuttle mock-up, Independence. SCH had lost out on receiving one of the surviving, retired shuttles. Then again, you could go inside the shuttle mock-up. Before touring the shuttle and plane, I walked through the launch pad swing arm, which had been used by shuttle astronauts to board the craft. Next came walks through the shuttle mock-up, which I’d done before, and th carrier plane, which I hadn’t. Inside the plane, there were models of the shuttle-plane combination used for testing. One of the monitors played portions of a CBS News Special Report on the first flight test of the shuttle Enterprise. I may well have seen that report at the time.

There were some exhibits that I wanted to see but could not find. Supposedly, the podium that President Kennedy used to give his famous speech at Rice Stadium in 1962 (“We choose to go to the Moon”) was on display, as was the shuttle craft Galileo from Star Trek. But I didn.t see either of them. There was also an extended VIP tour available, but as that required a two-day commitment, I could not do that this trip. And after a pass through the gift shop without getting anything, I left and went back to the hotel. I’d spent around 5 1/2 hours there. Back at the hotel, I downloaded the pictures I’d taken today. I also uploaded the improved picture of the award plaque I’d taken today to Facebook, replacing an off-angle picture I’d taken Saturday.

This evening, I was supposed to drive out to Alvin to have dinner with childhood friends and neighbors Gaye and Jeff Vandervort. It had been a few years since I’d seen either of them. But with a heavy thunderstorm in Nassau Bay, it was going to be a few minutes more delay. It was still raining when I left for Alvin, with speeds reduced because of poor visibility. Eventually, I made it to Alvin. I had a general idea where to go, as Gaye’s new house was on her parents’ former land, but it had been some time since I’d been out there, and things had changed. No longer would “third house on the right” suffice as a direction. Apple Maps to the rescue! It guided me there all right.

The driveway was all muddy thanks to the construction aftermath, and I made it to the door without falling in the mud. Gaye and Jeff were there and were glad to see me. We ended up going to Joe’s Barbecue for dinner, which was fine by me. I had my traditional meal of a fully loaded barbecue baked potato. And I was able to almost finish it because I hadn’t had lunch at Space Center Houston today. Gaye also had a potato (no barbecue), while Jeff had a hamburger. I’ve never had a hamburger from Joe’s; I’ve had a chopped beef sandwich occasionally, but I almost always get that barbecue baked potato. Then it was back to the house for a while, until I saw it was getting dark and headed on back to the hotel. On the way there, I listened to some of the Democratic presidential candidate debate from Detroit being carried by CNN. Then it was time to pack.

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Wednesday July 31

Today, I would start returning to Michigan. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stop anyplace along the way, but I finally decided I didn’t want to; I would head straight home. I woke up before 7 and did my normal web and e-mail checks. Then, I finished my packing, got a luggage cart from the lobby, loaded my stuff on it and went out to my car to load it up. I loaded it up in a similar way to how I had loaded it coming down. I brought the cart back in, checked out, made a bathroom stop, and got ready to hit the road. I didn’t bother with breakfast at the hotel; I just nibbled on some cookies.

It was 8:52 when I set off, figuring I had avoided most rush hour traffic. And I had, for the most part; there was a bit of a slowdown near Park Place on the Gulf Freeway, but I made it through there all right. I took the East Loop to avoid downtown then got onto the Eastex Freeway heading northeast. I stopped for gas at a town north of Livingston, probably Corrigan. Then I drove onward through Lufkin.

As I approached Nacogdoches, I got into the left lane of the highway to turn onto the bypass loop around the city. I started through the turn, and then all of a sudden, I heard and felt a big THUNK! Moments later, a warning for low tire pressure sounded. I pulled safely over and took a look; my left rear tire was flat. Had I clipped the curb? Had I hit some debris? Whatever I’d done, I was in trouble. I had no spare in the car (thank you, hybrid battery), only an inflator I feared would be ineffective. What to do? Fortunately, I was a AAA member, and so I called for service. Soon, I had arranged for an emergency tow to the Ford/Lincoln dealer in town.

Unfortunately, “emergency” service did not mean speedy service. I had to wait over 90 minutes for the tow truck to arrive. Two men stopped to offer assistance, but I declined their offers. Not having a spare, there was little they could do. At one point, I partially unloaded my trunk to retrieve the lock for the wheel nut and the inflater; one I knew I would need, the other I doubted. Around 2:15, the flatbed wrecker arrived. He invited me to sit in the cool cab while he loaded the car. Boy, did that air conditioning feel good! Once the car was loaded, the driver took it and me to Tipton Ford Lincoln in town. Interestingly enough, during that whole time I was waiting, I did not see a single police car pass by, much less stop.

I feared that the dealership would not have the proper tire in stock, that I’d have to spend the night (or longer) in Nacogdoches. Fortunately, they did have it in stock, and they could get to it quickly. I sat in the waiting room paying occasional attention to the TV, which had Fox News on, as well as sipping a Diet Dr Pepper and checking e-mail on my iPad. Some two hours later, the car was ready, and I paid the bill. Before leaving, I reserved a room at the Hampton Inn in Marshall, some 70 miles away. I didn’t feel like driving much farther today. I had wanted to make it past Little Rock, but that was out of the question.

The hotel was on Highway 59, so no need to search for it. It was comfortable enough, although the swimming pool was right below my window, and it was very easy to hear the sounds of kids playing there. For supper, I went to the Subway next door and got an Italian BMT sandwich, which I brought back to the room. Unfortunately, they messed my order up; I’d asked for banana peppers, but they’d put bell peppers on instead. Later, I did some reading before turning in around 10. I hoped that tomorrow would be a better day.

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Thrusday August 1

I woke up and got up for good around 6:15 AM and did my normal web and e-mail checks. Breakfast was at 7:15 in the lobby; today, I had some oatmeal, a muffin, and a danish. It was decent enough. After checking out, I got underway a little bit after 8 o’clock. As I drove, I listened to the POTUS channel on SiriusXM, which was carrying discussion of night 2 of the Democratic presidential candidate debate from Detroit.

Conditions driving to Texarkana were decent, although the skies were cloudy for the most part. I got gas south of Texarkana and then continued on to I-30. This was around 10 in the morning. As I continued into Arkansas, the driving was good until Prescott, where traffic came to a near-standstill. There was a Love’s truck stop at the Prescott exit; time for a bathroom break! With an empty bladder and a nearly-full gas tank, I could cope with a traffic backup.

There were occasional rain showers on the way to Little Rock, but they didn’t slow me up. Soon, I was in the Little Rock area (this was around noon), and soon I was through, but not before stopping at the first exit on I-40 after I-440 for a bathroom break. I should say that I stopped at a truck stop at the exit; it would have been a very bad idea to stop in the exit and relieve myself.

From Marshall, my home was 1100 miles away, so 550 miles would represent the halfway point. Marion, IL was around the halfway point, and so when I reached the Missouri Welcome Center on I-55, I stopped, stretched, used the restroom, and made a reservation for the Hampton Inn in Marion. It was some 2 hours away from the rest area; for most of that time, I listened to Radio Classics, which featured two episodes of Michael Shayne (a detective program) and Mr. and Mrs. North (a detective program of sorts).

When I reached Marion, the Apple Maps program on my iPhone guided me to the hotel - almost. I could see the hotel, but there was no way to get to it from the highway. Fortunately, by taking the next right, I could reach the hotel. My room for tonight was room 135, right next to the exit on the south side of the hotel, and also right next to where I’d parked. There were several restaurants nearby, the closest being a Bob Evans. That’s where I went, choosing the Everything Breakfast for my meal. Not having had any lunch (only nibbles on snacks), I was hungry for it, and I finished the whole thing. Back at the room, I got caught up on all the e-mails I’d received during the day, and then I did some reading before calling it a night before 10.

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Friday August 2

I woke up at 6, tried to get a little more sleep, but then gave up and got up at 6:20. Naturally, I did my normal web and e-mail checks. I took things a little slower this morning, going down for breakfast at 7:30. Again, I had a pretty big breakfast, which meant I wouldn’t need to stop for lunch. I was underway at 8:15.

I-57 had construction on it for several miles, which slowed my progress, but I eventually got past that. As I neared Effingham, I had a decision to make: continue on I-57 and go by way of the south Chicago suburbs, or take I-70 and go via Indianapolis? Checking Gooogle Maps the night before, I’d seen indications that part of I-70 in Indy was completely shut down, and so I chose to stay on I-57. For most of the way to Chicago, that was a decent decision, as traffic moved along very well. As I drove, I listened to POTUS, Radio Classics, 60s on 6 and BBC World Service, though not in that order.

Around 2:45, I was turning onto I-80 in the Chicago area. Then traffic came to a crawl as I reached the Tri-State Tollway. What was the problem? There had been an accident on 80/94 in northwest Indiana, and once I got that, traffic improved. But nearing I-65, it slowed down again. WBBM said that traffic heading to Michigan was heavy; that’s when I decided to take I-65 and get onto the Indiana Toll Road. The first service plaza I encountered was a welcome sight, for I was in dire need of a bathroom break. Also, it was time to refuel the car, which I did.

As I drove eastward on the toll road, I was pondering whether to stop for the night or to try to make it home. I preferred not to arrive home in the dark, but if I was close enough to home at sunset, I might press on.. At the first service plaza in Ohio, I stopped for supper: two slices of Sbarro pizza and a drink. I hadn’t had Sbarro pizza in a while, and as I ate my slices, I remembered why. I looked up hotels in Toledo, but the rates were higher than my liking. I checked directions home; I could make it home a half-hour after sunset. My mind was made up: I would press on home.

There was construction on I-75 in Toledo, but I got through it all right. There was construction on I-75 at and north of the Michigan border; I got through that all right, too. As I drove up I-75 and then I-275, I caught occasional glimpses of a very thin crescent moon in the west. And then, just before 9:30, I pulled into my driveway. I was home. I took in three bags of necessities; the rest would wait until tomorrow.

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THE END

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Written by Roger Reini August 12, 2019