For two consecutive nights, I've spent the nigh at a Flying J. The first was off I-20 in Greenwood, LA (between Shreveport and the Texas border), and last night at the City of Orange one off I-10 in Texas, also right at the border of Texas and Louisiana. Yesterday was a long day of driving - roughly 500 miles, and not straight through. It started around 7:30 am, and I didn't get to Orange until after 2:30 am the next day, after having multiple conversations with policemen (all but one was friendly), and I still hadn't eaten dinner, so I was exhausted, hungry.
I was also a little upset from my encounter in the city of Lumberton (I will never return there, and would encourage anyone travelling in south east Texas to avoid it at all costs, as I was not the only person who had a run in with this particular officer - less than 10 seconds after he left me, he was pulling over another vehicle, and it wasn't a busy road at 1:16am, but it is a road that goes from 70 to 45 in very little time, and the city is at the intersection of a few such roads).
Anyhow, I finally decided to go to Orange. Here I stopped at the Flying J to have dinner at Denny's, and spend another rainy night in my car. Fortunately, the waitresses, Sara, and her coworker (sorry, I didn't see her name tag, and I don't remember names well), were welcome company while I ate dinner, and we talked about the news on the tv and my trip. They gave me the same great hospitality I had received all day long in the small towns, prior to meeting officer #216 of the Lumberton PD, who gave me absolutely none. Thanks to them, the day wasn't completely tarnished by one lousy experience.
You should try South Padre Island if you are near it in Texas. We had many americorps groups go there to work with the sea turtle estuaries and they really loved the place.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot further south than I was planning to go (5 hours each way). I was only going to go to San Antonio, then head north to Austin before going towards Carlsbad, NM. I went to Galvaston yesterday, but didn't see any turtles (could have gone to the aquarium, which probably has some, but didn't want to spend the extra money, since I can go to Sea World when I get home).
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