Winter Road Trip Take 2

There is a lot about my big road trip last winter that I remember fondly, and I did learn quite a bit. But there was a lot I couldn’t do because my walking was so very limited. So, here I go again!

The first thing I notice is that it’s easy to contrast my post-surgery foot this year with my freshly-injured foot at the same point in my previous trip. As I cover some of the same ground, I'm reminded that last year I had to carefully plan every step, and still I was in quite a bit of pain. This year my foot hurts and my body is still recovering from being so very sedentary, but I can easily walk a block to a restaurant and I can shop in any size store. That’s just about where I was at the end of my trip last year, so I hope to make much bigger improvements in the next few weeks. 

Now for the drive!

On day one of driving I went through a surprise snowstorm. How in this day and age, you might ask, does one get surprised by a snow storm? It has a lot to do with checking the weather map the day before (or was it 2 days before?) and forgetting to check it again the day I hit the road. Reminder taken – I don’t want to get surprised again on this trip. J

I took this picture after a similar snow storm about a month ago, but this is what the countryside looked like for a little while on day one of my trip. Then the snow stopped, the clouds parted, and the last part of my drive was clear and dry.



At the end of the first day I was really exhausted. I drove as far in one day as I did the first two days combined last year. I was really concerned about my stamina at that point, so my plan for day two was to select from a few available options. I would drive just about 150 miles and then decided whether to 1) stop there, 2) go a little further, or 3) go 90 miles further. I made it the full 240 miles, but fatigue really started to set in at the 200-mile mark. I could tell because I started making driving decisions based on impatience rather than good sense. But I was in less pain than I had been at the end of the previous day, so I was cautiously optimistic. Day three was Christmas Day and I thought I might be too tired to go very far, so once again I gave myself options. When I stopped at my first option, I took a Christmas Day photo of some mistletoe in a park.




I felt pretty good after my break, so I got back in the van to drive across the Dallas metropolitan area. I knew I would be very satisfied to get to the far side of Fort Worth that day. Christmas is a slow traffic day in Dallas, so it was pretty easy to get across. When I stopped for a moment near the West side of Fort Worth, I knew I had more driving in me, but did I have it in me to get all the way to Abilene? Two more hours of driving? Worst case, I'd run out of steam and get some rest at a truck stop until I felt up for going on. But I made it all the way to Abilene! They were predicting high winds the next day, so I decided to take a day off, rest, and avoid the wind. Getting to Abilene meant that I could easily relax and enjoy the day off of driving and give my body a break.

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