DAY 32 Stink Creek to Dallas
An uneventful night, except that we were jammed into the rest area. It was a small one, and by the time we pulled in, in was almost completely full of truckers and others who had pulled off to sleep. We wedged ourselves in. Woke up in the morning and drove a few miles to Abilene, where we stopped at an Albertson’s for groceries. I guess it’s that Southern way, but they practically required us to let them help us out to the car. They don’t have any cart corrals, so they must walk each customer out and take their cart back in. We are headed for Dallas today. We are planning to stay in a Passport America in downtown Dallas so we can walk to see the JFK memorial. It’s Saturday, but we’re not listening to Car Talk or a quiz show. Apparently they aren’t too into National Public Radio here in central Texas.
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Both kids fell asleep in the late morning, so we just kept driving and driving while we had peace and quiet. Lately, coming to a stop, even for a moment, means Michael wakes up and starts crying and won’t stop. So we kept going. We made it all the way to Fort Worth, where we stopped when Nora woke up. We pulled into a shopping center for lunch and so David could take a powernap. After we got back on the road, things started to deteriorate. We drove in heavy traffic into Dallas. We got off to check into the Passport America campground that looked on the map like it was right in downtown Dallas. Turns out, it was right in the ghetto-trashy neighborhood just outside downtown. We were not staying there. At all. We drove a few blocks to the JFK memorial and parked. The memorial turned out to be four ugly white art-deco style walls. With nothing written on them. It was the most pathetic memorial I’ve ever seen. The sign nearby made mention of a museum nearby. David offered to take care of Nora so I (and Michael) could go see the museum. It was actually kind of interesting. It was located in a government building that was formerly the Book Depository, where the shots were allegedly fired from. The museum itself was on the sixth floor, where Oswald was. But it cost money to go up, and I didn’t have any with me. I did get to read several interesting exhibits on the walls downstairs, though, including accounts from several doctors in the emergency room where the President arrived. Surgeons were packed into the trauma room because no one knew what the injuries where and what specialists would be needed. Much was done in the first few seconds, but the severity of the President’s head wound left no doubt that any further efforts after that would be in vain. The accounts described a hospital in chaos, with reporters asking friends at the hospital to literally hold the phone to keep a line open to their newsrooms after the Secret Service shut down all new outgoing calls. The reporters knew the president was shot, but didn’t know the extent. It was interesting. Downtown Dallas was creepy, though. Most downtowns are, on a Saturday, so I don’t fault Dallas. But David’s main reason for not coming to the museum was there were three homeless guys within 50 feet of where the camper was parked. One was passed out on the ground. Since we knew we couldn’t stay at the horrible ghetto campground, we pressed on eastward. The next campground I had marked on the map was 109 miles away, and David didn’t want to go that far. I started looking for one closer to Dallas, but that meant I was working on the computer and navigating. At the same time, both kids were unhappy. Michael was crying and Nora had dropped all five things we had given her to keep her busy in her carseat. I think Michael’s crying was getting on her nerves, too. But I had to stay up front to work on the directions. I found a mobile home park listed under camping, and we got off at the exit. As soon as we got in the left turn lane and cars started stacking up behind and beside us, I realized the mapping software had us going eastbound on the service road on the other side of the highway -- a service road that is one-way westbound. I could see there was no other way to get to the park except to get back on the highway, go past it, and come back. But we couldn’t get out of the left turn lane. So we went ahead around the corner, under the highway. There was no where to turn around, and the only way to get past the mobile home park and come back west on the one-way service road was to go in an enormous circle around a giant high school and an industrial park. We had to go even farther because the one road I planned to take said, “No trucks. Narrow bridge.” At that point I was ready to scream, and the kids were already screaming. We made it around the giant detour and came back west on the service road to get to the mobile home park. Guess what? No mobile home park. There was nothing there. I did see a large vacant lot with a picnic table in it that might have been a park once. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! We got back on the highway going east and decided we were going OUT for dinner. I told David he could stop if he saw something, but I had to go into the back and be with the kids and he should just head for the place 100 miles away. He did find a KOA after a few miles. Despite our vow not to give KOA any more money, we pulled off. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. We asked at the KOA and the closest restaurant was a truck stop a couple exits farther down. We headed for it. We went in to the Pancake House and remembered that there are some places in this country that still don’t have a nonsmoking section. It was a horrible greasy spoon with a waitress who kept touching Nora’s face and arm. But hey, someone else was making the food. As soon as our salads came, Michael started crying and wouldn’t stop, despite having just been fed and changed before going in. After David finished eating, he took Michael back to the camper and Nora and I took our time finishing. We went back to the campground and finally got the kids to bed and promptly fixed ourselves some adult beverages. What a day. This was the most trying day so far, definitely. We are actually contemplating just staying for a day here in the middle of nowhere in Texas just to avoid driving tomorrow, even though there’s nothing to do here.