Spring Fling 2011 - Day 7

After a good night I had the usual excellent juice, yogurt, eggs biscuits and gravy, and waffles breakfast.  I/they had a hard time getting "club" credit for my stay & they were unable to tell me what the night cost as it turned out I had unknowingly booked through Travelocity - to my mind almost a scam - when I thought I was calling Country Inns - no wonder there only appeared to be 4 rooms!  I'll know better next time.

Portia did a great job of getting me to my destination the quickest way, but it was still a long run again.  Three observations - trucks eschew the right hand lane whenever there are more than two; on three-lane sections universal speeds, right to left, are 74.9, 75, 75.1; and I-10 has almost 100 miles of not being near enough to any towns for there to be either food or refreshment actually at the exits.  By the time I could actually see the Golden Arches & Gas signs from the highway I was running on fumes - it took $90 to refill the van!    By the time I wanted to stop again I was headed south and things were more normal.  I forced myself to take a "leisurely" McD's lunch to stretch the legs and have a change of position.

Finally, after 1249.1 miles from home and at 3:20 in the afternoon Portia got me to the end of the unmarked lane.  Bouncing down the unmarked lane I had no trouble finding the house:

Of course, at the time it was just the flag!  We took pictures later!

It is warm, but not unbearable here.  Jean & Pete seem to be delighted to see me.  Apart from when we were eating the large & delicious meal Jean had cooked constant talking was the order of the day, apart from Pete showing me his well-equipped but cluttered workshop (actually a garage but who needs more than a car-port down here).  After dinner we continued talking until bedtime and 99% of the conversation covered our mutual reminiscences of the period 1939-1950.  With a 9-year advantage over me Pete held the lion's share of the conversation, but then he always was more loquacious than I am.