Day 10: Rain is falling all around…

 

miles driven: 477                                                                                                total: 2246

As we drove back to the apartment Monday night from downtown we enjoyed watching the lightning and hearing the thunder.  But we never expected that the next day we would wake to a torrential downpour.  All morning as we got packed and ready to leave it rained and rained and rained.  The kids finally started running bags out to the car in the rain, since it never showed signs of stopping.  By the time the car was loaded they were soaked.

As we drove away from San Antonio (still raining) it occurred to me that it would not have been a propitious day to spend with Shamu, and perhaps we were better off with our new trip plans.  (My cousin later told me that some parts of Texas had 8” of rain on Tuesday. I’m just as glad that we mostly experienced it from the inside of the car…)

I enjoyed our rainy drive through the last part of Texas.  Even though sometimes Texas made promises it could not keep.

In Texas I got to drive faster than I’ve ever legally driven.  I don’t think I’ve been anywhere else that the speed limit is 80.  I told Russ that the reason that the speed limit is 80 in Texas is that the state is so long that they’re afraid that if you don’t go that fast you’ll never get out. 

It was in Texas that we had our first brush with these guys, but not our last. 

It was a long, long day of driving, probably the longest one that I’ll do alone on this trip.  I drank tons of coke/dr. pepper and paid for it that night when I couldn’t ever get to sleep.  But it did keep me awake while I was driving.  We had hoped to arrive in Carlsbad early enough to see the bats leave the caverns, but the drive took too long.  We were happy to get to the hotel and crash.