Friday, August 17th
Heading east on Highway 380 out of Brownfield, we drove through several other small towns before connecting on Highway 82 to I-20. I-20 led us to a nice rest area at Stink Creek, where we made breakfast on our trusty Coleman camp stove. Our egg sandwiches were far from stinky, and we were ready to head to Dallas.
After breakfast, we had the pleasure of meeting Officer Hubbard of the Texas Highway Patrol. Unfortunately, we met Officer Hubbard on the shoulder of I-20 shortly after we had been driving 80 miles per hour in a 75 mile-per-hour-zone. After answering a few cursory questions and letting Officer Hubbard take Chase’s Alaska drivers’ license back to his patrol car, Chase received a typewritten warning about his speed (but not a speeding ticket, with no points on his license and nothing added to his record). Interestingly enough, the warning goes so far as to imply that the Texas Department of Public Safety feels that Chase is a good citizen, which left us both feeling happy.
The next exit of the interstate made us feel even happier, as we happened upon our first Chick-Fil-A of the trip. Chick-Fil-A is a fast food chicken restaurant in the South (they didn’t invent chicken, just the chicken sandwich) which does not have any locations in Alaska; Chase hadn’t eaten at a Chick-Fil-A since last year when he left the Lower 48. Ever since the trip started, we had a deal that we’d stop to eat at the first one we saw. Despite just recently eating breakfast, it was time to make good on the deal. After a small meal of chicken strips and Chick-Fil-A’s famous waffle fries, we were back on the road towards Dallas.
As we neared Dallas, we came to the realization that the city road planners don’t really understand how to use the four cardinal directions. First of all, we were heading to an apartment building that was located on East Northwest Highway. Even more perplexing, to get to East Northwest, we had to drive on I-35 East North. Somehow we found our way and arrived at Chris and Mary’s apartment. Chris welcomed us with some Shiner, a local Texan beer, and we immediately began reminiscing about our college experience. The four of us all attended Vassar College (Chris and Chase were roommates for a while), so we definitely had a lot to talk about. Unfortunately, Mary has been waylaid by a knee injury and is spending a lot of time in bed. We also met Chris and Mary’s roommate Katie, and we all ended up getting along swimmingly.
We interrupted our trip down Memory Lane to run to the store and grab food for a barbecue. But, our idea of a barbecue suddenly veered slightly off course and turned into a seafood feast since shrimp was a good price and tilapia filets were “buy one two-pound package, get three free.” Charla boiled a pound and a half of shrimp for us all, while Chris grilled up four pounds of tilapia for a delicious dinner with friends.
We interrupted our trip down Memory Lane to run to the store and grab food for a barbecue. But, our idea of a barbecue suddenly veered slightly off course and turned into a seafood feast since shrimp was a good price and tilapia filets were “buy one two-pound package, get three free.” Charla boiled a pound and a half of shrimp for us all, while Chris grilled up four pounds of tilapia for a delicious dinner with friends.
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