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February 6-8
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Wednesday, February 6, 2008
There were several severe thunderstorms this morning while we were packing. We had rain most of the day, light most of the time. The clouds broke open a couple of times. We had lunch at Cracker Barrel in east Knoxville and spent the night at a Best Western in Jackson, TN, which bore the blunt of the tornados that ravaged the area the day before. I saw a semi being towed which had obviously landed on its side. What a mess! We had dinner at Baudo's, an Italian restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. They make their own fresh pasta! We split a shrimp and crab cannelloni dinner. Yum! Thursday, February 7, 2008 I forgot to set the alarm, but we got up at 6:30 anyway - perhaps the time zone change to Central Standard yesterday had something to do with that. We had breakfast at the motel. As we were finishing up, in walked Di Riffe and her sister and niece. The niece was one of the kids caught in the dorms that the tornados got. It was a surprise to see someone from Kingsport on our first morning out. We packed up, gassed up and headed west. We saw lots of tornado damage along the road. We passed through Memphis with no problems. The rest of the day was just one long boring road.... We had lunch at San Francisco Bread Company in Conway, AR. Good food, lousy tea and coffee, terrible service. So, we picked up a smoothie next door. It was also very disappointing. We stopped at the Welcome Center in Oklahoma - mostly for the restrooms, but also picked up a map and some tourist stuff. We stopped for the night just east of Oklahoma City - near Tinker AFB at a Comfort Inn. Nice room. We had dinner at an Italian place next to the motel, again within walking distance. It was not as good as last night, but still good food. They served very generous glasses of wine.... Friday, Feb. 8, 2008 We got up without the alarm again, about 6:30 again. The complimentary breakfast was a bit skimpy at this Comfort Inn. There were no bananas until after we had finished our cereal... However, there was a free newspaper. We packed up, gassed up, and headed west. Bright sunny skies all day. The wind got a bit gusty at times, though. We had lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Amarillo, TX. We got gas there, also. Then, on into Albuquerque for tonight and tomorrow night. We wound up staying at the Quality Suites near I-25, the next exit after San Mateo. Back when I lived in Albuquerque, that location would have been a couple of miles outside the city limits.... We had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes! Then back to the motel where we watched tv, then hit the hay. |