Day 10 on the road: Mississippi River to Texas, and home again

Tuesday was the last day of our journey.  According to our vehicle's odometer, we've covered about 3,300 miles in 10 days.

We left Vicksburg by 8 a.m., and headed west on Interstate 20 across Louisiana.  The road was in good condition in country areas, but where it passed through Monroe and Shreveport, it was in very poor condition indeed, so much so that it almost made us seasick at one point!  I don't know how Louisiana does its road maintenance - i.e. whether the cities have to maintain Interstate highways within their limits, or whether the state does it all - but I-20 sure needs help in those areas.

We didn't stop in Lousiana, due to pressure of time, but headed straight through to Texas.  It felt good to cross the border . . . we may have lived there for only three and a half years so far, but Texas already feels like home.  It's good to be back!  We ran through towards Dallas with minimal delays, apart from one construction zone, and stopped for lunch at our old favorite, Scrumbscious Burgers & Pieshakes.  They didn't have our favorite razzleberry pies in stock, but we picked up buttermilk and S'mores pies for consumption later this week.  From there, we headed towards home.  We got in shortly before 5 p.m., to the joy of our cats, who've been wondering where the heck we'd been, and why their every whim hadn't been catered to by our cat-sitters.  Demanding critters, aren't they?

Costume designer and friend Jonna Hayden arrived soon afterwards, fresh from LibertyCon.  She'll be staying with us for the rest of the week.  We adjourned to Old NFO's place for supper, at which a lot of fun was had by all, and plans made for the rest of the week.  I understand Jonna and the lovely Phlegmmy are heading for Dallas on Friday to visit some sort of costume convention or exhibition, or something like that.  I wonder if Dallas will survive their dual impact?  Together, those ladies are formidable!

I must admit, I'm very tired.  I hate to have to acknowledge that I'm no longer in my 20's or 30's, when I could put a few thousand miles under my belt in ten days without a care or concern;  but I'm getting too old for this sort of thing.  I think, in future, I'll try to limit long drives to at most eight hours on the road, with stops every couple of hours to stretch out the kinks and keep myself moving.  My mind still thinks I'm young and invincible, but my body's becoming more and more insistent that I'm lying to myself!

I'll put up at least one more blog post later today, and try for a third if I can catch up with myself.

Peter