We stayed in Castle Rock, Colorado (thanks to a suggestion from Vinnie and Kathryn we stayed Holiday Inn Express all the way back and the prices have been reasonable and the accommodations and breakfast very good. When we called for reservations, we told them we had Triple A, then I asked if they had any other discounts, she asked - did we belong to any organization. I told them we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and we were headed back to Florida. She looked a minute, then gave us the lowest rate - and a king suite .. it was nice. I asked the other times, but they always said there were no more discounts. Still it was fun for that one night.
When we left Castle Rock, Mike had to scrape ice off the windows, but the roads were clear.
We stayed in Childress TX the next night. As to driving across Texas .. with all love and respect to my two brothers and their families who live or have lived there ... it is good that Columbus didn't live in Texas or he never would have been able to convince anyone that the world was anything but flat.
We saw a lot of cotton fields and one huge cotton bale that looked like a loaf of bread. We passed it too fast to get a picture, but took one from on line that looks just like it .. just with a bluer sky.
Sunday morning we headed to Witchita Falls for a 10:00 a.m. church but arrived to an empty parking lot (Stake Conference that day) .. so randomly picked a ward in Dallas that met at 12:30 - and Siri said we could make it by 12:25. However when we were close, one of those overhead highway signs came on and showed there was an accident ahead that was blocking a couple of lanes of traffic. We really wanted to be able to go to a Sacrament meeting and not have to just go on .. and my prayer was answered almost immediately. Google Maps this time talking to us .. "there is an accident ahead, do you want to reroute" We said yes, and it rerouted us on a couple of freeways and roads, putting us back on the other side of the accident. As we were driving, Mike said we needed to look and see if we knew anyone there. We got there almost exactly 12:30 - got out of the car and ... what are the chances .. there was Tony and Laura (Henderson) Montague who live in Dallas. It was a tender mercy - and not a circumstance.
We were also able to see the Dallas Temple which was only about 10 minutes from their meetinghouse.
We have never seen more freeways than Dallas has - pretty amazing the traffic they can move, but we were glad to be through there.
The next night was Shreveport, Louisiana - we thought Kiraly would like this hotel
we even saw a load of logs with Mike's initials
We stayed in Crestview, Florida. Left the next morning for Gainesville .. and will catch up on that later.
