Day 1--San Antonio to Oxford, Miss.:
Actually, getting out of Texas is kinda hard in general, bastardization of Milton aside (particularly since I’ve subtly swapped the Hell and light references...). And since I had mentally established that by the end of today I would be at Ole Miss... well, I wasn't about to throw that away just because I'd not gotten to Dallas the day before.
So, instead, I got up at 4:40 a.m., took a rapid shower, took one last look at my now barren room--thanks to the day before--said good-bye to my mom (who for some strange reason just wakes up a strange, early hours these days), and hit the road.
Upon turning my radio on, and pulling out of my drive-way, Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was on the radio, and for the most of the trip the radio would hold up--although I was also on a quest to find Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire on tape (yes, I have an "archaic" tape player in my car) to listen to on the drive. Regretfully, my trip to find it the night did not produce it. However, I did manage to remember to get gas ($2.79 per gallon), which was good as not much was open at 5:20 in the morning.
Amazingly, as I drove round 1604 and got on 35 (Interstate 35) there wasn't any traffic... at least until I entered Austin around 7 a.m. As I was a little sleepy at that point, and was getting a little frustrated at there’d be traffic then, I remembered I'd meant to get some stuff at H-E-B, so I pulled off to do that.
Re-awakened from my jaunt around the store, and as I listed to J.B. & Sandy, I headed back onto 35 and proceed through Austin, hearing "When September Ends" as I did. As I got into Round Rock, I spied what I figured was my last Cabana, and decide to pull over and get some breakfast tacos for the road. So I went in, got some chorizo & egg to go, and continued on up the road to Dallas.
From Austin to Dallas, I navigated through Waco (where I heard "When September Ends" again), and Waxahachie (where construction caused some lane closures), without too much incident. I navigated through downtown Dallas and to Irving (which is between Fort Worth and the Bid D) around 11:00 a.m., and as I needed lunch and figured I could use a break from driving, I pulled off pulled off 35 and met up with my friend Mandy for lunch. Beside I'd just heard my Dallas installment of "When September Ends".
After hanging out with just her (her husband was away at work; she had off to study for her medical Boards later this month), running some of her errands, catching up, grabbing some lunch, and getting some gas ($2.99); I headed back on the road around 12:30--one bag of Julio's chips lighter).
At this point, I switched over to I-30, and after getting through Dallas and over Lake Ray Hubbard (which is huge), there wasn't much of note for the next few hours, other than passing by Paris, Texas and hearing "When September Ends" again.
At 3:10 p.m. reached the state line with Arkansas (don't say "Ar-Kansas" you might get in trouble...), so in roughly 10 hours and after 500 miles, I'd finally made it out of the State. And hay, I was over halfway done with my driving for the day...
I woke up this morning at 6:30, turned on the Weather Channel, saw that Hurricane Wilma was about to come ashore, and went back to sleep. (I'd woken up in case I needed to go in to work. The storm's presence made me realize/think I didn't need to do so. By 8:00 a.m. I was awoken by the start of the storm arriving... no boards over windows so I could see breezes, etc.)
Luckily, Wilma moved over Florida rapidly (unlike the Yucatán), and was offshore by late afternoon. The image at left is probably from 10 a.m. or so (Tropical Storm Alpha, which later merged into Wilma, is on the right side).
