Friday: Got up at 6:30. Packed and cleaned. Moved the outdoor furniture in. Unplugged things. Emptied the fridge. Charlotte came over to inspect. She was happy to have the leftovers from our fridge. Mike came over and said goodbye. I tried washing off the oil stains on the driveway. The van looks like the Beverly Hillbillies’ wagon — it’s stuffed to the roof.

Left at 9:30. Dropped off the modem and settop box at Mediacom. Then we headed out to the Bush Highway. Up to Holbrook, to the same Dairy Queen we stopped at the last two times we’ve driven this route (first time down here, then again a year ago on the way home, and now again). Burger and milkshake. Beautiful country.

Then east to Albuquerque, and on through New Mexico. Listened to the Tina Fey audiobook (“Bossy Pants”) for 2 hours. Got to Amarillo, TX at around 10pm local time (lost 2 hours with the time change and Daylight Savings time difference). We went to a nearby Outback Steakhouse for steak, lobster, and coconut shrimp. A late supper, but a great supper!

Then we went to the Quality Inn where we had a reservation. The room was nicely appointed, but not clean. Worn. Hard. We watched a bit of TV. Checked email. Noticed a Winnipeg Free Press front page story warning about serious tornado threats EXACTLY over the midwest US — the same region that we planned to drive through on the way home tomorrow, centered over Omaha, Nebraska, where we planned to stay for night tomorrow! Oh well. We’ll rethink this tomorrow. Maybe we’ll stay here for 2 nights and let the storm blow over. No need to endanger ourselves.

I went to lie down on the bed and write my journal. Fell asleep right away. Too tired from a long day of driving to stay up any later than 11pm. Zzzzzz….