I have twice now said “excuse me” to this bull in the elevator when the door opened. I was very glad to have the heavy luggage carrier between me & him the first time! I’ve been seeing cattle in the fields all day while driving, so I was less surprised than alarmed. I did not know they were permitted in the Baymont elevator!

What a day, what a day. I did get that hour of extra sleep & it made all the difference! I am grateful to have had a good day driving, tho made longer by traffic extremism in Houston. I had to ask Google what day it was, tho.

Okay, here’s how it unfolded:

Had scrambled eggs at the hotel & an excuse for a biscuit. (I was determined not to do Waffle House again.)

Getting out of Louisiana took too long. Give me Delaware anytime! On & on I drove, passing parishes, bayous & crossing gray-stone arched bridges built by Revolutionary War soldiers. I kept pinching the map on the car display in hopes of shortening the journey.

I wished for chicken for lunch & voila! A Bojangles appeared.

I stopped at like 7 rest stops. My bladder is fine (thank you for not asking) but I need the road breaks, especially in bright sun & heat pouring in despite a/c. One had a black cat walking around. O my. Of course my first reaction is “he escaped from a car!” Second: I simpy canNOT bring along a cat, escapee or not. I’m serious when I say there’s no room, let alone I’ve told the new landlord I have no pets. I resolutely drove away when the cat took off as I opened my door near it. But I will wonder for the rest of my life.

GPS kindly warned me about the tie-up from an accident before it shunted me onto local road 1111, where potholes passed for pavement. The whole line of traffic taking this impromptu detour was bobbing alongside the peaceful water meadows at 25 mph, thousands of horsepower doing 4.5 mph.

About the most unexpected sight was a road sign complete with a huge Jesus, berobed & light-rayed, declaring “God Bless Trump, his Team & Charlie Kirk!”

Louisiana?

I made it to Houston. I-10 is under episodic construction with a hope of finishing just about the time air cars come into the dealerships. Cattle in the fields give Texas a sleepy look, but the traffic is absolutely crazy.

Houston involved a quick downtown tour when Google told me stay left for I-10 but did a quick “gotcha” when the interstate jagged right. Downtown Houston is just beautiful. So many trees! I could see tall men in top hats & tailcoats striding thru time.

Back on 10 into the biggest traffic jam ever. Google said soothingly, “there’s traffic ahead” but I never pictured the reality. After a quick shunt in the HOV lane, Flyer & I inched along in the Texas sun. I even ran out of podcasts & turned on a new Pandora station just downloaded. Of cowboy music. Yee ha for synchronicity!

I tipped the tiny cylinder of Hyland’s Calm down my throat more than once. After all, this was what I had to do to Get Here.

Finally the traffic opened, about 3 miles past where GPS said to turn left for 10 West (again? is there a place to beard the Goog-Monster?) We continued on, the cowboys, the sunshine & me… 52 miles to go. I almost missed the exit cuz there was no big green sign, only a pink cardboard-y thing tacked to a stanchion. At that point the GPS stopped speaking entirely so I had to ask someone where’s the Baymont? Then I tried to check into the LaQuinta next door.

Fortunately, there’s a steakhouse across the street, which is the Last Irony for the day, I hope. I may have waved at dinner on the hoof earlier on, yeh?