3 cities in 14 hours

Joey’s maternal grandfather, RD Cline, passed away last week.  We all called him Granddaddy.

One of my favorite memories of him occurred the first time I first met him.  We were introduced, and within five minutes, he had opened up his wallet, which was full of pictures of his children and grandchildren, and pulled out a picture that he had of Joey and Joey’s former girlfriend.  He handed the picture to Joey and said, “I like LisaDiane.  This picture is no good anymore.  I need a new one with LisaDiane.”  We actually got a picture taken right away and sent it to Granddaddy.  That was the first of many portraits we have had made together.  Granddaddy was always the first person to get the new picture whenever we had one taken.

Granddaddy’s funeral will be in Texline, Texas on Tuesday, but there was a memorial for him in Port Arthur on Saturday, 16 January 2010.  Joey and I decided that we wanted to attend.  We drove five hours to Port Arthur, stopping along the way for breakfast.

BTW – there is a decided lack of Sonics in Houston.  I don’t know what the appropriate forum is, but I would like to lodge an official complaint!

We made it to the United Methodist Temple in Port Arthur a little before 10am.  We got cleaned up and changed in the very nice bride’s room at the church.  Joey’s cousin Marty was in attendance, having traveled down from Providence, Rhode Island.  We don’t get to see him very often, and we were glad of the opportunity, despite the sad circumstances!

After the service we had lunch and visited with Marty, Aunt Jan, and Uncle Ray.  Joey shared the pictures of Granddaddy that he had found amongst the hundreds of slides of family photos that he got from his parents house last year.

We got back on the road at about 2:30, and drove to Dorie’s house in Houston.  She was good enough to let us stop, rest, and visit with her.  After catching our breath, we got back on the road to head for home.  We managed to find a Sonic on US 290 on the way out of Houston.  Good ice, at long last!

We finally got home, took care of the dogs, and then fell into bed!  We were exhausted!

Sum up (this is for you Debra – I know you love the numbers):
Depart Austin: 04:45
Arrive in Port Arthur: 09:45
Depart Port Arthur: 14:30
Arrive Houston: 16:30
Depart Houston: 17:45
Arrive Austin: 20:45

Number of cities: 3
Total drive time: 10 hours
Total time way from home: 14 hours

P.S. Thanks to Lee and Billy for swinging by the house to look after KatyDog and Elanor!  They were most appreciative, and so are we.