Texas with No End

Wow! It seemed like we would never get out of the state of Texas. Since my first visit to the state in 1963 when my friend Jeanette Weverstad and I rode a bus from Presho, SD, to Abilene, TX, to visit a friend, I have seen a great deal of the state. In 1969 Jim and I (and Tamara) lived in Midland for a summer while Jim was doing summer work for an oil company. I had made several visits to San Antonio to visit Herb and his family over the years, but it was while we had two daughters residing in the state that we really started making the rounds. Sarah was living in El Paso while Laura had moved to Austin so on one trip across, we detoured down (only about 100 miles out of the way) through Big Bend. That same year we drove down to South Padre Island and toured that coastal area. Now we have driven I 10 from one side of the state to the other (in segments) and I would wager that we have seen more of the state than many Texans see. Of course school children spend about two years of their elementary years learning about the great state of Texas. I am not claiming to know tons of the history of the place. I do know that the road across the state ends just short of 900 miles, and we thought Louisiana would never appear. After escaping Houston we began to see oil refineries, swamps, and waterways. Texas said goodbye to us in a big way by providing a massive traffic jam (construction-caused) to try to keep us from leaving. They also provided one last opportunity for us to turn around. After all, Texas is the land of the legal u-turn, something that perplexed me at first but which I have come to appreciate. On we went over the Sabine River and our Louisiana adventure began.