Vacation Day One

This vacation may be one of those that leaves the traveller wishing for a return to work so he can recover.  I left work at midnight Sunday morning, helped my wife pack the vehicle, and we were off at 1:30 am.  I was more than happy to let my lovely bride take the first driving shift while I snoozed off an on for a couple of hours.  All too soon; however, we reached the Flying J at Tye, TX where it suddenly became MY turn to drive.

I took over the driving task with a little trepidation because I had been awake since 7:00 AM the previous morning.  I am happy to say that there is very little EASTBOUND traffic on I-20 at 3:00 AM.  I drove through the night, admiring the scenery that I could not see, and not admiring the scenery I COULD see (read fresh and putrefying roadkill) as I travelled south on Hwy 6 from Eastland toward Waco.  Finally I could no longer keep the toothpicks propped in my eyelids, so I had to make use of a picnic area just north of Clifton.  Users of the road during this time period owe me a good deal of thanks for getting off the road when I did.  I would like to thank the denizens of the roadside park for waking me up every ten minutes or so as they foraged through the area immediately around the pickup.  I KNOW that there had to have been happier hunting in the grass and woods further away from the parking area, but...well, you know animals.

Upon awakening around 8:00 AM, I discovered that it was STILL "my turn" to drive.  I am not sure how that worked, by the way.  So, we drove on to Robinson where we stopped for no more than an hour, picking up our grandnephewson, who is "vacationing" with us.  I am sure a certain kindergarten teacher owes us a great deal of thanks for improving the conduct of her class by at least one hundred percent for the next four days.  The bad news (for said teacher) is that HE WILL be back in school on Friday.  Anyway, by 1:30 PM the three happy travellers had arrived in Needville (yes, that IS the real name of the town) to meet my spouse's brother and his wife for lunch at the Jay Restaurant.  I will leave it up to the more adventurous among you to locate this place on your computer, GPS, or IPhone. 

I can only say that it was quite a pleasant experience to finally arrive at our temporary abode for the Angleton/Pearland/Surfside/Alvin portion of the trip.  At the moment of this writing, I am being the polite visitor while using all my will power to restrain myself from racing to the beach right now!  But I will hit the beach first thing in the morning.  Not necessarily swimming weather just now, but it will be pleasant on the beach, and who knows...I may find Long John Silver's treasure there as well.

To all who are travelling, I wish you safety, and to those hosting us (and our little boy) I wish YOU ALL sanity.  As for me, I will be wearing earplugs tonight, so handling Cole will be someone else's pleasant task.  LOL