Friday, January 6th, 2006 - Driving from Oklahoma to Dallas, Texas.

After some careful consideration of one of our trailer tires with really uneven tread wear, I decided that yet another tire was getting ready to blow out on me. Rather than have that happen in an unplanned fashion on the road, I took the time that morning to change the tire in the safety and comfort of the campground. The weather was unseasonably warm for January, and I really had an enjoyable hour or so doing each step of the process in a slow, careful manner. Since I had often had to do the same operation on the side of the road with semis roaring by at 70 miles per hour, doing it in a relaxed and unhurried way in the campground with the birds chirping in the background was really quite pleasant by comparison.

We finally were on our way by 11 a.m. and crossed the Texas border around noon. There we stalled out a bit because I stopped to gather informational brochures at the Texas Visitor Center. Texas is, of course, a very big state with lots to see, and it took me a while to thumb through all the brochures to find the ones that were both interesting and near our contemplated route. Bored out of her skull, Monika watched the weather channel and then badgered me until we finally got underway again.

After taking an apparent short cut that turned out to be chock full of traffic, we arrived at our campground north of Dallas, Texas, later that afternoon. We set up the trailer, rested a bit to calm my frazzled nerves, and then drove over to Beth's place for dinner. Their house was still had the Christmas lights illuminating it. That evening the children came home from school, so we could chat with Beth, Audie, Carson, and Carrie, as well as Lois who was still staying there for her annual Christmas visit. Carson was playing a "Who" in the "Seussical" musical that the local high school was presenting, and Carrie was playing all of the piano accompaniments for the performances, so between them we were given a vivid description of all the plot and songs. The downside was the 2-hour rehearsals every night that used up every spare minute of the children's' daily schedules, but I guess it was a small price to pay for fame (if not fortune). We completely ran out of mental gas around 8 and drove back to our campground for a good night's rest.