On the Road - Day 4

This is where we woke up bright and early to begin Day 4 of our big adventure. Although the sheets in this hotel were the same as the ones in the prior hotel (pink!) this one seemed nicer. We were, however, awakened in the middle of the night to hear 2 guys arguing. The one was telling the other that he shouldn't drink because he became such a - I'll say "jerk" here, but that's not what he said - and then complaining loudly that the "jerk" had drank the last Henny. The drunk one was trying to use his room key to get into our room!
I guess you can't leave your lights on in a truck any more than you can in a car, because this poor guy left his lights on and his battery was dead. Neither he nor Bill was carrying jumper cables. Huh.

After borrowing some cables from a guy at McDonald's, he asked for a jump. Bill obliged.

Just north of Houston, we came upon a horrible traffic jam. Apparently there had been an accident with a fatality. See these cars crossing the grass to get off the highway??

Bad decision for at least one of them.

We finally made it to the Flying J in Houston, where Bill salivated over this kick-ass truck. Check out that sleeper!

Houston! I'm baacckkk!!

Tee hee...

We went to the Montrose area to unload a guy's stuff. He had just moved from Michigan. Into a second floor apartment. Great. Bill and I toted in all his crap (note to self: when moving, CLEAN your things before packing them....) It was hot and we were dirty. We headed to a hotel next to the agent. We planned to meet Beth and Brad and their families for dinner and needed a shower after our unloading. The shower in this hotel is oddly high. Bonnie: "Gosh, Bill, this shower is oddly high." Bill: "What? You're feeling oddly high???" There's even a sign warning of this.

Look! Bill's head is almost touching the ceiling when he's standing in the shower.

And so NOT almost touching the ceiling when out.

We need to do laundry and took a while trying to find clean clothes, but finally, we met the group at Pappasito's. Mmmmmmm.... My dinner was fabulous! Brad, Tom and I all ordered the meal featured on the cover of the menu. Brad to waiter: "I'll have the cover!"

So was Bill's.

Ford, Lara, and Caroline. Samantha - I told them you wished you were there. Repeatedly! I was sitting at the opposite end of the table and unfortunately didn't get to talk to them very much. I will report they were very nice and all seemed personable. Next time I'll have a kid time, for sure.

It was great to see everyone. Here's Maribel and Brad. Brad is just the same as ever - funny and fun. I didn't get to talk to Maribel as much as I wanted to either, but she and Bill chatted a while.

After dinner, we went out by the big truck. Here's the group - Me, Bill, Tom, Ford, Beth, Caroline, Lara, Brad, and Maribel.

Same group. (Obviously...)

Brad, Bonnie, Beth

And again.

Yet again.

The boys!

Nice pose, kids!

Ha ha... Now that's more like it! Your NC cousins would be so proud!

Maribel and Brad...

Conversating just before we left. It was wonderful to see the family. Can't wait until the WHOLE family can get together. Bill liked everyone very much and repeatedly told me he didn't realize how good looking all the women in the family were! We all couldn't believe it had been so long since we'd gotten together and vowed to do it again much sooner. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for Day 5.