After "passing through" College Station to drop off dirty clothes and get some fresh ones...and warmer ones...I hit the road to Richardson. My plan was to spend the night there and leave early on Saturday morning, early enough to be in Paris by the time that dealership opened at 8am.
I arrived in Dallas around 5:30pm, just in time to catch the brunt of Friday afternoon's rush hour traffic. Thinking I would miss the bulk of the traffic on Hwy 75, I took the exit for the Woodall Freeway to get over to I-35 and the Dallas North Toll road...big mistake! The Woodall Freeway is under construction and packed cars. I slowly made my way over to the right lane to be in position to exit onto I-35. Fortunately for me, most of the traffic wanted over to the left lanes to go south on I-35, and most likely on to I-30 towards Fort Worth.
The traffic on I-35 was relatively light and I had no trouble getting on the toll road headed north...along with most of the traffic headed north for home. I don't think I've ever seen that much, slow moving traffic. I even had to come to a complete stop 3-4 times before I got north of I-635 and to an exit. I eventually made it to Richardson and made myself comfortable for the night.
I left the house on Saturday morning around 6am for the two hour drive to Paris...which I made in 1 1/2 hours. I found a McDonald's close to the dealership and walked in to have a little breakfast while I waited for them to open. I think the entire senior citizen population of Paris, Texas was there having breakfast. It was definitely the place to be at 7:30 on a Saturday morning.
Driving over to Paris in the dark didn't allow much sightseeing...probably not much to look at anyway. I could definitely tell I wasn't in West and/or South Texas anymore by the number of creeks I crossed going to Paris...Sister Grove Creek, Pilot Grove Creek, Desert Creek, Bos 'd Arc Creek, Bullard Creek and South Branch Pine Creek. I also passed through or near several towns that I recognized and many that I had never heard of, such as, Melissa, Westminster, Desert, Trenton, Edhube, Bonham, Dodd City, Honey Grove, Maxey, Clarksville and Hugo to name a few.
After an exciting breakfast of oatmeal and sweet tea, I drove down to the Paris H-D dealership where they were still moving motorcycles and 4-wheelers out to the street for display, however, they were open for business. One of the interesting things about this particular dealership was that it was not a Harley Davidson dealership by itself...they also had Honda's and Yamaha's...that was interesting. I don't think I had ever seen that before. It turns out that the dealership started out as a Honda dealership, then expanded to Harley's and Yamaha's later. I did my business, looked around a little and headed to my second stop of the day...Wichita Falls.
Having lived in Wichita Falls many years ago, I was looking forward to visiting the base and some of the old familiar places...if they even still existed. The road into town looked familiar, although there were several new things. One of the places I wanted to get a picture of was the Scotland Park Motel...the place Sharon and I lived with our first Cocker Spaniel for a few weeks while house hunting. It was cheap and fairly clean and close to a park where the dog could run. I remember taking her out for a run...which she enjoyed immensely...after which we had to take her into the shower because she was so muddy...that was not an enjoyable shower for either of us.
Well, as you can tell from the picture, the motel has seen better days. It looked to be abandoned and will probably be totally gone the next time I'm through. I drove on to the front gate of Shepherd AFB and although it has been spruced up quite a bit, it was still familiar. However, once past the gate, I recognized very little. I made a quick stop at the BX and Clothing Sales and then drove out to the 80th Flying Training Wing...which I had to really look for. The original building is still being used...and I recognized that...but there have been several new additions around it. The most interesting change is that all the aircraft on the flight line are covered with shade structures. Wish we could have had those back when I was an instructor there.
Following a tour of the base, I plugged the address on Lenore...our first house...into the GPS and drove off to see what the house/neighborhood looked like. I probably could have found my way but it was much easier with the GPS. In a few minutes, I was cruising down our old street and there on the left was 4118. It didn't look that much different than it did back in 1974...perhaps a little more worn down...but the neighborhood has not fared well. Either that or I just don't remember how bad it was when we lived there. It was a good house at the time and easily met our needs.
Leaving the old neighborhood behind, I set off to find the Harley dealership...the reason I was in town, remember. The address was on the Northeast Freeway...a name I never heard before...but I finally figured out it must be Hwy 287 and sure enough, shortly after I got on the highway heading west I saw the H-D sign. The dealership was a nice new place...not the original location according to the girl behind the counter...with an interesting winged horse sculpture out front, perhaps paying homage to the air base. I looked around, found a t-shirt and got my passport stamped and headed south to Abilene.
As far as I can remember, I have never traveled on that particular stretch of highway, but I found it easy driving...not too much traffic, just a few cops and fairly smooth road conditions. There were few, if any, turns so I just set the cruise control, turned up the volume on the radio and let the car eat up the miles.
I neglected to mention that the highway between Paris and Wichita Falls was somewhat familiar and I saw a fair number of creeks...being in North Texas, but soon I would see very few, if any. I crossed over creeks with names like Caney Creek, Choctaw Creek, Post Oak Creek, Elba Creek, Beaver Creek and Mustang Creek and i crossed over 2 Tri's...whatever that is...Opossum Tri and Shawnee Tri. I saw names of towns/cities that I had heard before, such as Sadler, Southmayd (where Sharon had her first real job teaching), Gainesville, Nocona and Muenster, as well as towns I have never heard of before, such as Savoy, Roxton, Tigertown, Ector, Ethel, Moss Lake, Illinois Bend, Spanish Fort, Petrolia and Myra. Sad looking Nocona Boot Factory!
On the leg between Wichita Falls and Abilene, I rarely saw any creek/river and passed through or near some interestingly named cities, such as Kamay, Electra, Olney, Goree, Aspermont and Roby. I did cross the Brazos River, however, that was it...I was definitely in West Texas again. I also saw a lot of examples of Texas' two biggest cash crops...cotton and oil.
I arrived in Abilene about 3:45pm, plenty of time to find the dealership there, do my business and get to Arlington by dinner time.
I found the dealership without too much trouble...only had to double back on the highway once...and found a relatively new dealership, partially hidden on the corner of a shopping center. No telling which came first, the dealership or the other shopping. However, I accomplished my business quickly and was back on the road by 4:15pm.
As I headed east towards Arlington, I started noticing more creeks and green fields...leaving West Texas again. I was making good time until I passed through Baird...not too far from Abilene...when I looked in my rear view mirror and saw an unmarked DPS car with all his lights on. I recognized it as the car I had just passed so he got a good look at me coming and going. I hit my turn signal and pulled over to the shoulder, really wondering if he was going to give me a speeding ticket for going 2 mph over the limit. As it turned out, he had noticed that my front license plate was on the dashboard and not on the front of the car and the rear plate was partially covered by the license plate holder. I suspected that the former was illegal and I knew the latter was.
I apologized profusely, told him I didn't know about the front license plate requirement and he only gave me a warning. I promised him I'd take care of both problems that night in Arlington...which I did...and then we started discussing his possible future job with TEEX or one of the university police departments. It will be really interesting some day if I should run into officer or Mr. Gary Hooper.
The rest of the trip to Arlington was uneventful...if you don't count the many miles of construction and lane closures...and the crazy people going 20-30 mph over the speed limit that kept trying to cut me off or hit me. I finally...and safely...arrived at my destination and had a nice dinner with my oldest daughter, Courtney, her husband Ethan and my beautiful granddaughter, Ellasyn.
There are 41 dealerships participating in the passport program...I have now visited 39 of them...only 2 more to go!
Having lived in Wichita Falls many years ago, I was looking forward to visiting the base and some of the old familiar places...if they even still existed. The road into town looked familiar, although there were several new things. One of the places I wanted to get a picture of was the Scotland Park Motel...the place Sharon and I lived with our first Cocker Spaniel for a few weeks while house hunting. It was cheap and fairly clean and close to a park where the dog could run. I remember taking her out for a run...which she enjoyed immensely...after which we had to take her into the shower because she was so muddy...that was not an enjoyable shower for either of us.
Well, as you can tell from the picture, the motel has seen better days. It looked to be abandoned and will probably be totally gone the next time I'm through. I drove on to the front gate of Shepherd AFB and although it has been spruced up quite a bit, it was still familiar. However, once past the gate, I recognized very little. I made a quick stop at the BX and Clothing Sales and then drove out to the 80th Flying Training Wing...which I had to really look for. The original building is still being used...and I recognized that...but there have been several new additions around it. The most interesting change is that all the aircraft on the flight line are covered with shade structures. Wish we could have had those back when I was an instructor there.
Following a tour of the base, I plugged the address on Lenore...our first house...into the GPS and drove off to see what the house/neighborhood looked like. I probably could have found my way but it was much easier with the GPS. In a few minutes, I was cruising down our old street and there on the left was 4118. It didn't look that much different than it did back in 1974...perhaps a little more worn down...but the neighborhood has not fared well. Either that or I just don't remember how bad it was when we lived there. It was a good house at the time and easily met our needs.
Leaving the old neighborhood behind, I set off to find the Harley dealership...the reason I was in town, remember. The address was on the Northeast Freeway...a name I never heard before...but I finally figured out it must be Hwy 287 and sure enough, shortly after I got on the highway heading west I saw the H-D sign. The dealership was a nice new place...not the original location according to the girl behind the counter...with an interesting winged horse sculpture out front, perhaps paying homage to the air base. I looked around, found a t-shirt and got my passport stamped and headed south to Abilene.
As far as I can remember, I have never traveled on that particular stretch of highway, but I found it easy driving...not too much traffic, just a few cops and fairly smooth road conditions. There were few, if any, turns so I just set the cruise control, turned up the volume on the radio and let the car eat up the miles.
On the leg between Wichita Falls and Abilene, I rarely saw any creek/river and passed through or near some interestingly named cities, such as Kamay, Electra, Olney, Goree, Aspermont and Roby. I did cross the Brazos River, however, that was it...I was definitely in West Texas again. I also saw a lot of examples of Texas' two biggest cash crops...cotton and oil.
I arrived in Abilene about 3:45pm, plenty of time to find the dealership there, do my business and get to Arlington by dinner time.
I found the dealership without too much trouble...only had to double back on the highway once...and found a relatively new dealership, partially hidden on the corner of a shopping center. No telling which came first, the dealership or the other shopping. However, I accomplished my business quickly and was back on the road by 4:15pm.
As I headed east towards Arlington, I started noticing more creeks and green fields...leaving West Texas again. I was making good time until I passed through Baird...not too far from Abilene...when I looked in my rear view mirror and saw an unmarked DPS car with all his lights on. I recognized it as the car I had just passed so he got a good look at me coming and going. I hit my turn signal and pulled over to the shoulder, really wondering if he was going to give me a speeding ticket for going 2 mph over the limit. As it turned out, he had noticed that my front license plate was on the dashboard and not on the front of the car and the rear plate was partially covered by the license plate holder. I suspected that the former was illegal and I knew the latter was.
I apologized profusely, told him I didn't know about the front license plate requirement and he only gave me a warning. I promised him I'd take care of both problems that night in Arlington...which I did...and then we started discussing his possible future job with TEEX or one of the university police departments. It will be really interesting some day if I should run into officer or Mr. Gary Hooper.
The rest of the trip to Arlington was uneventful...if you don't count the many miles of construction and lane closures...and the crazy people going 20-30 mph over the speed limit that kept trying to cut me off or hit me. I finally...and safely...arrived at my destination and had a nice dinner with my oldest daughter, Courtney, her husband Ethan and my beautiful granddaughter, Ellasyn.
There are 41 dealerships participating in the passport program...I have now visited 39 of them...only 2 more to go!
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