Friday Jan 13: it was at last time to head home to the boat - the boat is sitting in Jacksonville, patiently awaiting our return. Steve finished this stage of his physical therapy on his arm (which involved the breaking down of scar tissue, tendons and muscles that had tightened up due to the surgery to repair the break). He was really good about going to therapy every day in addition to doing the suggested exercises several times a day. He and Fozzi went for one last walk on the beach and caught a great sunset.
We left Encinitas about 10 (Steve had his last physical therapy session at 8 am). The list of projects, ideally finished before Matt and Wendy are moving, was whittled down to just a few items remaining on the original 5 page list! Apparently there is a real art to being organized - which I discovered Wendy has down pat. And it truly worked! And it was fun scratching a line through a job when it was done. Must have been part of the motivation :-) Anyway, we waved goodbye and off we went.
Day 1 was 378 miles to Tucson, AZ. Scenery included some desert, somewhat winding roads, sand dunes and more desert. The saguaro cacti are everywhere it seems - hard to believe these would be several hundreds of years old (they don't grow arms until they are at least 100 years old!).
Day 2 was 476 miles through the rocks of southern Arizona and New Mexico. Passes cut through mountains, up and down. Stunning. Then came western Texas. Flat, nothingness. Freeways so straight you hardly needed to turn the wheels of the car. Stayed at Ft. Stockton.
Day 3 was 522 miles - all still in Texas. We left literally at the crack of dawn - what a gorgeous sunrise this morning. Much of the landscape is still flat, straight and level. Gradually, as we approached San Antonio, things changed. Trees (real ones) began appearing, lands were green again and the roads became more like the roads of Ohio. Houston was a crazy place - good thing it was a weekend rather than a weekday. We made it to Beaumont, TX.
743 miles left until we are back at the boat. I think there may be a brief stop at a casino in our future tomorrow since it's probably too far for one day anyway. We'll be looking for our favorite slot machines - likely we'll lose our $20 and then be on our way :-)
As we drove across the flatness of western Texas, I was reminded of a story I'm sure my brothers will recall: Mom would always talk about how the west was "big sky" country. One friend of Mom's in particular would respond with "it's no bigger than it is here (Loudonville, OH)" - she just didn't get it. The sky IS bigger in the west! A car trip across the country should be on everyone's bucket list - the changing scenery is really, really something.
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