Clearing sky

Tuesday
Most of the day was grey and overcast, but as we approached Houston in the late afternoon the clouds began to break up slightly giving me this opportunity for a blip. We crossed the border from Arkansas into Texas at the town of Texarkana, bringing us into the north-east corner of Texas, while Houston is in the south-east. Most of our journey was on route 59, which isn't actually interstate but is mostly divided highway. The route bypasses the town of Nacogdoches, which claims to be the oldest town in Texas and made headlines on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, with much of the debris falling on the town. We finally arrived at Jen and Jason's apartment, which is relatively close to the downtown area at about 5 pm, after a total of almost 18 hours driving and 1,050 miles! The apartment complex offers a guest room at a very reasonable rate, so the three of us stay there, while Philip sleeps on their sleeper-sofa. Jen was still at work until about 8pm (she works 12-hour shifts), so after a welcome cup of tea, Roger and I went out to the nearest Michaels craft store, as I wanted to buy a basket to arrange part of Jen's present in. I also found some of the yarn I use for knitting prayer shawls at half-price so I bought some of that. I assume they're discontinued colors or something, but they were pretty colors, so I was very pleased with that. Philip had been planning on driving all the way from his air force base in Alamogordo, New Mexico - about a 12-hour drive - after putting in a couple of hours of work, but it turned out he had to work most of the day, so he called to say he would be breaking the journey and arriving mid afternoon tomorrow. Later we all picked Jen up from work and went out to eat at a Middle Eastern restaurant, which was very good.