Driving East 2004

Random Recollections

• Our cell phone contract had expired, so we purchased new cell phones just before we left on the trip. Randy spent much of the time traveling in the first few days learning how to use his cell phone with his computers. It wasn't that easy at first, but before long he was able to do what he wanted while on the road.
• Jay had just finished his graduation trip through the western states of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.
• Nathan and Melissa Jerkins, among others, had gone with Jay on that trip.
• Melissa Jerkins is the daughter of Dee Travis that Laura and I went to school with at ACU.
• We wasted a lot of time trying to find the proper birding area at Shelby Bottoms Park in Nashville.
• We traveled through the Smoky Mountains over Memorial Day. The traffic was horrendous around Dollywood in Tennessee.
• Laura and I discovered that we had been to Clingman's Dome at the top of Smoky Mountain National Park at nearly the same time in the mid-60s.
• Sometimes, long stretches of the trip went by where all that could be seen on either side of the road for miles were forests. They were very beautiful, but sometimes it seemed as if we were missing the real scenery, and didn't really see what the countryside looked like. Perhaps this is only because we have become accustomed to West Texas.