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I-35 Day Two: Texas: I-45
| I-10 Day Three: Louisiana:
I-10 | I-55 Day Four: Arkansas:
I-40
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BAYOUS & BLUES
ROADTRIP DAY ONE SUMMARY Monday was a relatively uneventful day. Driving through downtown Dallas and the "Mixmaster" interchange downtown was quite a bit of fun however! But I got on Interstate 45 South and just a couple miles later it seemed like I was in the middle of nowhere! Then just north of the I-45/I-20 interchange, my check engine light came on. I drove on to a nearby exit where I checked it out. The manual for the Nissan said that the light indicates that there is an emission control problem. Well, Dallas and Houston have enough smog anyways! But a mile after I stopped and checked the engine and the manual, the light went off. And it didn't come on anymore today! The car ran perfectly fine so the trip continues. Some observations from Monday-Texas drivers are crazy (I already knew that), the Mixmaster is one fun interchange (imagine how it must be during rush hour!), and the weather was absolutely fantastic down there (partly cloudy, high in mid 70's on this particular day). Trip log: DAY TWO SUMMARY Tuesday was also a relatively uneventful day-on the roads anyways. I took a side trip to New Orleans and saw North Texas beat Cincinnati 24-19 in the New Orleans Bowl. I drove Interstate 45 South to Interstate 10, saw downtown Houston, and then drove Interstate 10 to Baton Rouge, and then drove all of Interstate 12, hit Interstate 10 back west a mile, and ended up at the Motel 6 of Slidell, Louisiana. Trip log: DAY THREE SUMMARY Wednesday was actually a little eventful. It was cloudy all day, except for my time in New Orleans, when it was partly cloudy. I didn't make too many stops on this day-I wanted to get to West Memphis in the daytime, and I did-barely. I arrived at about 4:45 and about 15 minutes later it was dark. I did it by going 72-73 mph on Interstate 55 and not stopping at all from lunch at about 1:00 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, to the time I got to the hotel. And I do NOT recommend driving on Interstate 55 in Memphis west of Interstate 240; squeezing into that one lane at the Crump Blvd. interchange (Exits 12A-B) is not very much fun! This section of road reeks of sub-standard interstate! Trip log: DAY FOUR SUMMARY The Bayous & Blues Roadtrip was completed on this day. It started out wet with thunderstorms in eastern Arkansas. It made for not-so-great picture taking conditions. Most pictures turned out OK, but some didn't. But that's all right, as I'll be on the same road again in March on the way back from the Delaware Trip. No check engine light came on today. About 30 miles east of Fort Smith the rain finally ended for good and the skies cleared up and it was partly cloudy the rest of the day. This was a long day of roadtripping, but I took the least amount of pictures of any day this week. There aren't as many exits in Arkansas and Oklahoma as there are in Texas. Today was another endurance road trip day as I didn't make too many stops today either. I didn't even eat breakfast! I meant to, but there wasn't a Hardee's near the highway between West Memphis and Conway, Arkansas! I ended up eating a big lunch at Hardee's and realized they've completely changed their menu. No more monster burgers, now they have eight different kinds of "thickburgers" and that's basically all they have. More expensive, too; you could get a Great Biggie fry at Wendy's for 10 cents more than a small fry at Hardee's now! (This sounds like a good road rant topic!) Anyways, I made it back home about 4:30 but at least the sun doesn't go down here until about 5:15 instead of 4:45 like it was last night in West Memphis! Trip log:
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