Texas: King of the Road Edition

Okay, as promised, Texas post(s). It all started in Alabama.

We left Birmingham at about 8 AM....C, Athena, and myself. Athena, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, is a giant dog. A 90-pound-Rottweiler to be exact. She is C's dog...which is great. Because C could use this dog as a mode of transportation. Very pretty dog, but very giant dog. So, Athena's splayed out on the backseat and C and I are up front.


To save you some trouble, I will give you directions to get to C's house in (basically) Dallas from Birmingham, Alabama. Get on I-20 West about 2 blocks from my apartment. Drive for 3 days. Turn right. You're there. Okay, perhaps that's a little exaggerated, but it's not a complicated drive. You literally are on I-20 for about 10 hours. Which is a long time. When you have allergies and a dog in the back seat. Really, the dog didn't kick in til we got to Texas and even then C had Claritin which became my new best friend during the trip (more on that later.) So, the part of the trip that I most dreaded...10 hours in the car with the dog....was not bad at all. We were off to a great start.

Of course, we hit Mississippi first. I have never been to Mississippi, and let me tell you...I'm not missing anything. There's nothing there. Alabamians are always very quick to use Mississippi as our excuse. "Sure, we have the chunkiest people in the country, but Mississippi sucks!" Haha, speaking of Chunky, people live there...(see below.) Also, our education system sucks, but that's okay because Mississippi's is worse. Which is pretty obvious from this sign found on a Mississippi gas pump (again below.) Another odd Mississippi tidbit, there are airplanes painted on the fast lanes of their highways. Apparently they double as runways? Alabama's bad, but we do differentiate highways from landing strips.



















Next on the hit parade, Louisiana. There wasn't much going on in Louisiana...we didn't go through New Orleans or anything, but it did indirectly affect our trip. Because we're assuming that they're the ones that needed all the trailers. And I mean ALLLLL the trailers. Through Mississippi and maybe at the beginning of Louisiana before the interstate forked we were surrounded by these giant trailers. And we have a lot of trailers in Alabama...see them all the time. But I've never seen them driven like this. ALL over the road. It was really scary. You couldn't get around them because they'd just swerve through all the lanes, randomly. So for a while, this is what we saw (except this is a picture of one of the smaller trailers that wasn't half as scary. I was too busy paying rapt attention to the crazy people trying to pass the giant trailers to take a picture of them.) :

But, we got past them and made it to Texas. WOO! The first thing I notice when we get to Texas is a speed limit sign (You can't make it out very well in the picture, and I suppose I should have edited it, but I'm lazy and you get the gist.). I've driven through many states. We drive from Birmingham to Chicago all the time. And never have I ever seen separate speed limits for day and night. I thought that's why we had headlights. So that we could drive at night. I'm guessing that maybe all the large Texas animals play a role in bringing down the speed limit. Who knows. I think it's hilarious. I just picture a burly dude in a cowboy hat driving a giant truck slowing down as dusk approaches, maybe shuddering in fear. "They mostly come out at night....mostly." (hahaha....kudos to anyone who gets the movie reference.)

The other thing that pops out at you as you're driving through Texas is the Battlefield Inn. And it's aaaaamazing. (According to the billboards.) There are probably 10 billboards for this place. Including: "This motel's for the birds! 4 talking parrots", "Free Evening Cocktails", and perhaps the best argument to stay there "The Owner recommends it." HHHHHHAHahahaha. Oh, and just to make sure that you don't miss them they have the enthusiastic "Hooray you found us!" sign. I completely heart the Battlefield Inn and would love to stay there. I'm sold people. I'm sold.

Okay...next up, I'm not really sure. But rest assured, more to come! :)