The Trips:

The first trip up began at six am in the dark. We have been living here in Denton for 2.5 years, yet this was the first time heading north on I35, so everything was new. The biggest, and most pleasing discovery was the Turner Falls Area roughly 1.5 hours north of Denton. It is hilly country with the highway actually cut through rock in a few places. We will likely make a day trip up that way one of these days and spend time exploring/photographing the sites. The Flint Hills in Kansas were also rather interesting, though exploring them would require at least an over night stay and more likely a weekend.

We arrived in Missouri around three, making our first journey nine hours. At least half an hour of that was spent zigzagging through Kansas/Oklahoma roads by accident. Way back when, I had set my gps to avoid toll roads as it was always sending me down toll roads nearby when there were other roads that did not cost money. Once I got onto the Kansas Turnpike, the trip went smoothly.

I am not sure what I was expecting of the scenery through Kansas and Missouri, but it was different than I expected. The area we drove through varied from prairie (some appears to have the old prairie grasses), to farm land (big fields with real tractors not the wee ones seen near Denton), to pasture land (large pastures through the Flint Hills). The rock through a lot of the area appears to be only inches below the top soil. I saw places where a tree was rooted on top of a wee hill and right below (an inch or two) the shale/limestone was visible.

The trip back the next day was less interesting, though that was primarily due to the fact that I left at 3 am. I woke up, new I would have trouble sleeping, so off I went.That trip took roughly 8 hours with only three stops. The rest of the week was spent recovering and preparing for the return. We did have a nice, much needed, rain Monday and Tuesday. As I was heading through Oklahoma City, I saw a half-truck with both left wheels up on a cement divider (about four feet high). Somehow the driver had managed to climb the divider, plow down 4 lights before coming to rest against the fifth. Given that I spent ~34 hours on the highways I felt that seeing only one accident was pretty good.

The return on Friday started at six again, but this time I stopped at a nearby Starbucks for a coffee. This may not have been the best choice as I was forced to stop to use bathrooms every hour on the hour. I did discover some decent washrooms that I can visit the next time I travel the area. It took me nearly nine hours to get up to MO this time though. I did have to deal with some rush hour traffic passing through Oklahoma City, but it was nothing major. 

Carol's bil is still not doing well. To make matters worse, his mother is in end stage COPD and is in the hospital as well. She has three cats, well, had three cats. Carol offered to give one of them, the younger one, a home. Her name is Angel, she is some kind of pure breed long haired white kitty. Once we get her looking good (needs some more combing), I will take a photo. The trip home was not bad, she only mewed for the fist half hour or so, after that she was quiet an resigned to her cramped conditions. The next day we gave her a bath (which she allowed, including a shampooing) to get rid of the stink from the journey (cramped in a small cat carrier she was forced to do her business and not be able to get away from it though Carol did her best to clean up the carrier every time we stopped). So far the three other cats and Angel are not on friendly terms though they are speaking in growls and rowrs. No blows have been landed, though a few face-offs have occurred.

Today, I drive Carol to Dallas so she can attend a professional conference. She will be there until Friday sometime. Fortunately, the time she has to arrive will allow me to avoid much of the rush hours.

In other news, I am mostly over the cold I collected at Christmas time. I felt well enough yesterday that I went out and raked the front lawn. I managed to collect 16-17 bags of leaves! I need to do something with the back yard, but I may just dig out the mulcher attachment for the mower and remove the bag. The front lawn needs a good mowing as well. I also need to go do some work in the garden. Radishes, turnips, and beets need thinning. The weather should be nice enough to allow me to do that.I am still not sure if they will survive the winter, but they are doing ok at the moment.