Monday Meanderings - 12.16.2013

Saturday we made the trek to Ft. Worth for the annual Cousin's Christmas. From our house to the Heritage church building, site of this year's get-together is 188 miles. It's a straight shot up IH-35; less than a mile of that entire journey is on streets other than the Interstate. And that's the problem.

IH-35 is P.U.C. Permanently Under Construction. The work location may move north or south, but none of it stays sans-barricades for long. At present,  the under-construction area is roughly 90 miles, stretching from Salado through Temple and Waco to Hillsboro. We regularly hear horror stories from friends about spending 6 or 8 hours on IH-35 on what should have been a 4 or 5 hour trip, so we were a bit nervous about the return trip in the late afternoon, when delays are more likely. We briefly considered an alternate route west of the Interstate that meanders through a number of smallish towns, but the lure of 188 known miles vs. 235 unknown miles was too great. Interstate it was.

Sure enough, approaching West, we saw miles of taillights ahead of us, cars going nowhere. We joined the queue and poked along for several miles until we finally crested a hill to find 3 State Police vehicles parked on the side of the roads, troopers casually chatting. No wrecked vehicles, no carnage, no wreckers. Nothing. And clear sailing from that point forward!

We encountered another back-up just before Round Rock. As we slowly crept along we came abreast of the newly-opened In-N-Out burger emporium. The line was out the door, and police were directing traffic in the parking lot. Just points out how many Californians now live in Texas.

We took a couple of names from the Angel Tree project at church. A boy and a girl, so of course we bought a truck and a doll. A motion-activated doll. "Wave your hands at me" proclaimed the package, and when you did so, the doll giggled. It also giggled when it was moved, so it giggled for the rest of the time we were shopping. And when we checked out. And during the trip home. And while it was being wrapped. That seemed to quiet the doll - until we set out for church Yesterday.

Sure enough, the totally wrapped, gift-bag enclosed doll began to giggle and continued to do so as we carried her into the building and dropped her off under the Angel Tree display, at which point we ran! She may still be giggling, for all we know.