Day 2 – Jackson, MS to Amarillo, TX

The day started clear, bright and optimistic. It had cooled into the 60s with nary a cloud in sight at 7:00 AM. The temperature was especially significant to me since Sarasota summer morning temps hover around 80. This was refreshing. We quickly covered the remaining miles of Mississippi, crossed the mighty River and entered Louisiana. Since our goal is Utah, we didn’t really stop for anything but gas and food. Before morning was over we entered Texas. During much of this trip we are entertaining ourselves listening to audio books. I bought an mp3 player that plugs in to the cigarette lighter and broadcasts the book/music to the van’s radio receiver. It works pretty well, except that if you turn the engine off, it does not remember where it was in the file, so it starts all over. A bit annoying.

Texas proved to be, ah, BIG. We drove past Dallas and Fort Worth then up through Wichita Falls and on to Amarillo. Over 750 miles again today. About 100 miles from Amarillo we began to feel a shimmy/shake in the front end. Oh, brother.



But that wasn’t the worst of it. We could see a storm cloud brewing ahead and to the right of us. It got bigger and darker, punctuated with lightning. We couldn’t avoid it. As we entered it, the wind kicked up dust, reducing visibility. Then the rain. Big drops, falling hard. Time to slow. The wind was pushing the van sideways, making steering much like a tug of war. This was followed by sheets of rain. Sheets that covered the entire windshield reducing visibility to zero until the wiper made its next pass. A bit unnerving. It had let up some by the time we reached our motel and had disappeared an hour or so later.





Driving today was a bit slower than yesterday, so we didn’t pull into Amarillo until late. We found a Walmart with a Tire and Lube shop, but it was closed. We had to have our tires looked at again, but it would have to wait until morning.

During this trip and for the past several days Bonnie had been experiencing swelling in her feet and ankles. Riding in the car did not help with that, not one bit. We called our daughter, Tina, and she said to look for a water pill without caffeine. We drove around Amarillo looking for such. We gave up our search about 10:00, bought some “natural” water pills and some caffeinated ones. She took a “natural” one before retiring. It did not work.

Has anyone seen Vacation with Chevy Chase? (thanks, Aaron.)