Day 72 - Mineral Wells and Beyond

Tuesday, November 10, 2010.

I was up this morning at 530, after a nice night inside. There was french toast waiting when I came downstairs, and that's a nice change from my normal "whatever is in the bag" approach to breakfast. I packed the car and Kim drove me back to the convenience store in Palo Pinto. I stocked up on a few thing, and was on the road around 745. No particular goals today.....just keep chopping off those miles heading to FT Worth.

The area I've been traveling in Texas is called Panhandle Plains out here. And I will soon be leaving it as I move toward Ft Worth. The road to Mineral Springs is "more" rolling than I've had for a while, so I had to work a little today. But the weather was beautiful, and a nice south westerly breeze blowing......must have been 75-80 today. I crossed the Brazos River and it reminded me of the Catawba near Gastonia......wide with plenty of water. For the first time today I saw armadillos, unfortunately for them they had met up with a car already. I thought I might see them in Texas.

I talked to several people today........Debbie Lankford, a former co-worker, called to check how I was doing. I talked to my buddy Mike in Gastonia, and also to Gene Minges in Gastonia. This always seems to shorten the walk. I got into Mineral Springs around noon. The first thing I noticed was the road divides going into town. Do I stay left facing traffic, or go to the right with traffic? I stayed left, and by chance walked by Phil Luker's State Farm office. I decided to stop in and have them send my daughter-in-law an email, and the minute I walked in the door, they all stopped what they were doing and said, "we've been waiting for you." I guess Michelle beat me to the punch this time. I didn't see enough of Mineral Wells to form any kind of an opinion. The HS football team is the Rams, colors red, black, white. Seems a nice enough town however.

I was soon back out in the country, and the road was still rolling. The next place I came to was Cool, TX. Cool has a cool cafe, cool churches, and a cool Volunteer Fire Dept. In fact most everything, what there is of it, is cool in Cool. But it didn't take long to get through Cool, heading to Weatherford, still about 9 miles away. I am staying another night with Kim and her family, so they are coming to pick me up on the road, and will bring me back to the "exact" same spot tomorrow morning. This keep from violating any official "Walk Across America" rules. They soon found me, we loaded up my stuff, and took it back to their house. I had offered to buy dinner for their help, so they chose a place in Weatherford named Montana.

We were soon there, and I had pork chops......very good. Kim's girls are in a play at the local college, so had practice after dinner. So next off to there for that, which was fun to watch. The director of the play introduced me to the cast, and they seemed interested in the walk. After practice, back home for a bath, updating the blog, and last night on a bed. Kim and her family have welcomed me into their home, offered me pretty much full access to the house,and generally made me feel very welcome. Their daily job is much harder than what I am doing, but they find time to do things to make me comfortable and welcome.

So, thanks to Kim, Olivia, Isabel, and Liam, for sharing their time and home with me. That's them in the picture above.......sorry the wind put Kim's hair right over her face. Tomorrow I will leave the area, but won't forget them.