Monday Morning Departure

We organized and packed most of the day on Sunday with a few breaks. I took care of my own stuff and packed a big suitcase with my summer clothes and essentials, a small suitcase for in and out of the car on the 5-day drive down, a second small suitcase with my craft things, a large duffel bag with our favourite kitchen utensils, a craft bag, and a knitting/stitching bag for in the car. There were also a couple of other bags for last minute things we tossed in. Skip looked after his own big bag with his clothes, our birding scope and tripod, his ‘In and out’ bag, and a bunch of other stuff that wasn’t on my list. When we went to bed, we were in really good shape to get up, turn off laundry taps, lower the hot water heater to ‘vacation’, lower the thermostat to 15C, set timers on the lights, unplug some things, load the car, and get on the road. We were pleased to get away by 9:45.

Driving conditions were fine. There was a bit of snow in the air in the usual ‘streamer’ area between London and Sarnia (actually Strathroy and Wyoming) and the rest of the drive to Marshall MI was smooth.

This is our 10th time driving down to TX for the winter so we know the route pretty well and know our favourite places to stay and eat en route.

We switch drivers every couple of hours. During our mid-afternoon switch, we find a wifi place (usually McDonalds) and book our desired hotel another couple of hours down the road using the hotel app on my phone. As we generally spend 8 - 10 nights in hotels on the way down and back, we accumulate points with our hotel loyalty cards through the app. Also, because we’re registered with our loyalty membership number, booking a hotel involves tapping a couple of times on the screen and that’s it. We never have to worry about arriving at a hotel and finding it all sold out. Our favourite chains on our route are Choice Hotels (Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, Sleep Inn, etc. Etc.) and Drury Inns (free snacks between 5:30 and 7pm and 3 free drinks (wine or beer) per person.

Today we got away just before 8am. The second day is always a 4-state day: MI IN IL and MO. When we cross into Illinois, we enter the Central time zone and gain an hour. We definitely take advantage of that and cover 870km on day 2. We’re almost halfway there!

Compared to driving in the GTA, the interstate driving is a breeze. Yes, it’s busier in the bigger cities (Flint, Lansing, and Indianapolis) but there are many more lanes proportionately so it is still pretty smooth sailing.

Skip gave me a nifty new GPS last birthday (Garmin DriveSmart) that I can talk into while driving. For Christmas we purchased the extra cable that enables traffic warnings, accidents, and other tie-ups and suggests alternate routes. It has done very well for us so far. It took a little bit of getting used to after being Tom Tom users for the past 10+ years but we continue finding new features on the Garmin. For example, this afternoon after I had been driving a couple of hours, a message came up suggesting places we should stop en route to take a break.

Anyway, we got to our desired destination by about 4:30 local time and got signed into our lodgings which, conveniently is next to ‘El Nopalito’ - a Mexican restaurant. After dinner we picked up our free drinks (wine) and are now comfortably ensconced in our room for the night.

Our goal tomorrow is to traverse Arkansas and make it into northern TX.

The weather today was great. No precipitation to speak of, a bit of fog, and once into IL, the roads were bone dry. Tomorrow it may be rainy but it won’t be freezing.

I did a bit of stitching last night but tonight I may just shower, get ready for bed, and relax. I have about 1/4 of the new Teresa Kogut project done. I finished knitting a cotton dishcloth in the car today and just need to sew it together.

It’s ‘The Cotton Dishcloth (Once Removed or Dressed Up!)’ by Marion Torgerson - free on Ravelry. It’s easy short rows and I use 5.5mm needles to get a loose, drapey fabric. I traditionally knit one in the car on the way down to use in the condo. It’s become a tradition. I will pick up stitches on the cast on and Kitchener the two edges together for a seamless finish. In the past, I have found scented dishcloth cotton that I’ve used to knit a dishcloth. I’ve never seen scented yarn at home. Hopefully I’ll find another ball of it down here and make a second one.

It’s hard to stitch 2 over 2 on 35ct fabric in a moving car so I haven’t even bothered to try.

Thursday we will be visiting Skip’s niece and her family in a suburb of Houston. Then on Friday, we’ll make our way down to the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) and spend the night in McAllen so I can shop at the JoAnn Fabrics there. Saturday we’ll visit the National Butterfly Centre (that the US President is trying to bisect with a border wall) and then we’ll drive down the valley to South Padre Island for a late afternoon check-in at the condo.

10 minutes later ...