Dayton to Thornfield to Tulsa to Dallas to Austin to San Antonio

Tuesday, April 4, 2006
After nearly freezing to death last night I broke down and stopped at a Days Inn. This area experienced a late spring frost and I was caught in the middle of it. I decided to give in to my shuddering and twitching body and call it and night. This morning I awoke and quickly loaded up my things so as to hit the road early.. I had stayed the night in a town called Hardy, as in the Hardy Boys. Hardy is located in the Northeast of Arkansas and is just 20 minutes from the Missouri border.

My destination is the house of my friend Jordan Niednagel. He lives in the middle of nowhere, Missouri style. I shall be seeing him in the next few hours. I won’t go into too much detail about what we are doing at this point in my narrative as later in my trip I’ll be coming back to his house and there will be more to share.

Friday, April 21, 2006
Well, much has transpired since I last sat down and wrote something out. I am currently in Bulverde, Texas which is just north of San Antonio. I arrived yesterday amidst a downpour. Thankfully my things stayed dry but I certainly was not. I am staying with the Goforths, friends of our family who used to live in Boone. I helped them to move 5 years ago, something which constituted my first long distance driving adventure (with me driving).

On my way to their house I had my first real close call…well, second actually, but this one was actually a lot more serious than the first. Close call as in nearly becoming road paint. The first happened just the day before when I was in Austin driving around trying to find a grocery store. A woman started to pull out from a car dealership and made clear eye contact with me. I began to slow thinking that she was going to stop and wait for me to pass but it quickly became evident that I was the only one doing the thinking. She just continued to slowly sneak out into the road and ended up covering one and a half lanes directly in front of me. Had I not immediately swerved around her I would have plowed into her. I laid on my horn and gave her a dirty look. This all happened quite fast actually and I was quite thankful for quick reflexes.

So the second thing that happened really shook me up. I was carefully moving along Texas highway 46 looking for Old Boerne (bur-nee) Rd, the road on which the Goforths live. Earlier it had been raining like there was no tomorrow and I had pulled under large archway that served as a ranchÌs entrance. I was able to wring out my shirt and put on my leathers (hadnÌt been wearing them because it was hotter than the inner sanctums of hell) and once it eased up from being torrential I hit the road again.

Soon I came upon Old Boerne Rd. What happened next was stupid and it is GodÌs grace that I am alive. I didnÌt remember to think that the roads would be slick and so I put on the brakes to slow down for the turn. My wheels locked and all of the sudden I was sliding and slipping down the road. It felt like it was going in slow motion and the whole time was I fully expecting to go down. But I fought it and suddenly found myself righted and safe. I pulled over and caught my breath÷calmed down and then turned around and headed down the right road. Phew.

Prior to being here I have been in Missouri for two weeks, Tulsa, Dallas and Austin. In Missouri I was with my friend Jordan Niednagel working on a film we are making for a small time Christian film festival in San Antonio. He owns two jetskis and so we hit the lake once it got warm enough. One of them wasnÌt working so we hopped on the double seater and took turns trying to throw the other guy off. That was the first time that I had ever ridden on one of those things and I had a complete blast. We took turns riding single and during my time I rode vigorously enough to throw myself twice. It was some of the most fun IÌve had in a long time.

I left from Missouri mid morning on Monday the 17th and arrived in Tulsa late afternoon. I stopped along the way at AmericaÌs largest McDonalds. This has been my only Îfast foodÌ stop other than Subway for this whole trip and until I get to In-N-Out territory I plan on keeping it that way (those of you not from In-N-Out territory wonÌt understand). While I was waiting in line to order my artery concrete (to use the term of Coy Isaacs) I heard a child screaming his head off and I was annoyed. Annoyance turned to intrigue when the childÌs parents kept telling him, ÏhalassÓ, which is Arabic for Îthat is enoughÌ. I turned around and saw that indeed it was a Sudanese man with his family. I struck up a conversation, part Arabic and part English. Elhad has lived in the States for several years and used to live in Khartoum. He was excited to meet someone who had been to Sudan. I was likewise.

Tulsa serves as the home of my Great Uncle Bob and Great Aunt Esther. Uncle Bob is my motherÌs fatherÌs brother. For many years of my life my mother and brothers stayed with my grandparents at their cabin in Minnesota and Uncle Bob and Aunt Esther were usually there as well in their cabin next door. So it was great to see them again as it had been about two years. Aunt Esther made sure that I was well fed and taken care of and I was able to show them some of my pictures from Sudan.

The next morning I hit the road early and was well on my way to Dallas before the scorching heat reached its full force. The day before on the way to Tulsa was miserable and reminded me of some days in Sudan. Having contained explosions continuously exploding between my legs and adding to the heat around me made things all the more sweltering. In Tulsa I had quite a few stop and go traffic stops and those were the worst. Once you begin to fly down the road the wind carries most of the heat away.

While I was enjoying the road I ended up making a wrong turn and found myself about two hours east of where I wanted to be once I reached the same latitude as Dallas. I pulled out the trusty Atlas and found a country highway that ran from Paris (Texas) over to near Dallas. It was longer in actuality that it appears on the map and stretched for miles and miles through the sprawling plains just teeming with evidence for ‘over-population’ (indicated sarcasm). My Great Aunt Miriam lives in Dallas (the older sister of Uncle Bob) and so I stopped in for a short visit. Unfortunately the amount of time we had was quite limited but we had a good time with what we had.

By this time my arms were nice and burned but by now they have transitioned nicely over to a deep tan. I dare not take my watch off though… the white would be blinding.

From Dallas I headed south along I-35 towards Austin, a 5 hour drive. When I was about 2 hours outside of Austin I was able to see the massive thunderhead system that was approaching from the south. I had checked the weather and knew that I would be possibly running into something like that but I just kept praying that I would avoid getting dumped on. As the day ‘waxed old like a garment’ and the sky got darker the atmosphere grew gloomier and scarier. The lighting was ripping through the sky and all in front of me and increasingly around me was the thrilling display of the crackling light.

As I drove around searching for my hotel in Austin the sky appeared to me like it does in the movie ‘Independence Day’ when the alien spacecraft break through earth’s atmosphere. It seemed to be tearing apart. There was an oppressive force to the clouds and an immanency to them that encouraged speed in my search. Just a minute or two before I pulled under the awning of the entrance of the hotel where I was staying the heavens opened up. I was only slightly wet and escaped the next several hours which contained torrential downpours and hail literally almost as wide as a 20 dollar bill. Helmet or no helmet that would put a dent in your plans.

The next morning I rode to downtown Austin and arrived early for a scheduled tour of the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. I am hoping to eventually attend school there with the goal of studying Hebrew and Arabic. I am not sure what that will lead to but that is what I am excited about doing. The campus is very handsome and well laid out. It actually has the largest student population of 50,000. Lots of kids running around.

Anyway, that was all very interesting and exciting. One more night in Austin and then yesterday morning I left around 11:30 and headed down to see my friends here in San Antonio.