in memphis last night we gained stephanie & phoebe, and teri shook with her husband stan, and smylz 2 who has a booboo in the same place this year, also with a bandaid bumper sticker this year. we also met eric and savannah driving a silver.

driving in arkansas is really hard; the roads are small, and there's construction frequently with lane closings, and tons of trucks. the group stuck together however, with only one exception-- i desperately needed to make a pit stop when no one else did, so i pulled off and tried to catch up with the group. i made decent time but would not have caught them probably had they not pulled over and waited for me at the I-30 split, to make sure i changed over to 30 from 40. many thanks to those folks for looking out for me there.

i went easy on the a/c today, but the weather in arkansas wasn't too hot so that was ok. crossing into texas it suddenly became hotter, and i ran the a/c without problems.

just outside of dallas, a small voice came over the radio, "are you guys in the caravan going to roswell?" it was a girl named jennifer in a techno blue with green smileys plastered fore and aft. we got some great pics at a rest area just after that, and then headed into the madness that is dallas at rush hour.

we stayed together and all fifteen cars made it safely. i saw tyler afterwards and he was stressed out, but ok. i am not sure i could have done that when I was in my first year of driving. as always, tyler is an extraordinary kid. (except i think i am going to have to stop calling him a kid.)

heather and john and i decided to sneak off to maccaroni grill for dinner. it was wonderful of michael levine to put together the dinner for the group and get sponsorship from Metro VW, but we needed a vegetarian friendly place and a break from everything. it turned out to be perfect-- we had wine, dessert, everything and it was all really great.

as i sit here i know there are many things i am forgetting, that will only come to me while i am driving and can't write them down. but i think this gives the gist.

tomorrow is going to be tough. not as tough as last year, but tough. stephanie and teri have already volunteered to help with stuff like getting the spacepod completely unloaded. they rock. kevin buchanan and i have to meet and get his ibook configured to run a web cam, and i'll have to hammer out the exact positions of the cams. i am really flying by the seat of my pants this year, compared to last year. but i think it'll be ok.