Day 1, BM

We woke up this morning at 5:30 to the sound of Annaliese calling from her bed, "Daddy, are you gone?"  After I said no, she came pattering in and crawled into bed with us.  Caspian followed a few minutes later, and we had a long family snuggle, before everyone got busy bathing/dressing/packing/heading out for the day.

I hit the road around 7:30, stopping to grab the rebar stakes I had made and painted orange the day before, and left to dry in my workshop above the store.  Alexe and I had another round of goodbyes, and as I headed out the door, Mr. Sartain, owner of Sartain's Hardware Store, who has been working on Main Street for 40+ years, gave me the biggest smile from his perch in a BTC booth and wished me a safe trip and said he couldn't wait to hear how it all went.  

Out of Mississippi, a short jump across the south-west corner of Tennessee, and the trip got underway as I crossed the Mississippi into Arkansas.  It was pouring rain, and continued to rain until I hit Texas much later in the day.

Nothing in Arkansas caught my attention.  That might have been because I was still waking up...

Driving through the reservations in Oklahoma makes for unpleasant reflections on what humans so often do to each other.

This seemed to be pure whim/art.  Pretty cool for a random small bridge over the interstate.

A glass house made for a mostly indoor water park.  Attached to a small hotel/motel. 

I hadn't seen such small, well defined rain storms at a distance since hiking in Alaska, and watching the clouds move through the valleys.

It was still raining as I entered Texas, and up ahead it looked like night was falling.  

I drove through what could have been late night driving for a time, and then the wall of darkness opened up.  It was like the sun was rising ahead of me in the West.

 And then it was a new day, with bright skies and fluffy clouds.

This water tower could use a little help.  

The church looked like it was still under construction.

After so many hours of dark skies and blinding rain, I took a bunch of pictures of the beautiful, fluffy sky.

Still trucking.  At this point we're at a little over 800 miles for the day.

With plans to push through to Albuquerque, (which I spelled correctly just then,) I stopped at the first food/fuel stop right over the New Mexico line.  I filled the truck, then headed inside to take care of me, and found this:

The second one of these I've seen this summer. 

This made me smile and think of Alexe.  The small car collection was lovely, though it's a bit sad to see them locked up in here.

And here I sit, finishing up a ribeye and drinking a coke to see me through the next 200 miles.