DAY 2 Driving, driving and more driving.

packed in pretty tight

can you say tourist??

trevor....master van packer!

We did not get on the road until about 4:00. We spent the morning packing and having a last breakfast with friends. We got to the Cananda/ U.S boarder just after 5:00 pm and the heavens opened (started to pour). We did get pulled in, which we were expecting. After signing a few papers the border patrol said one of us had to go with them out to the van but once we got there and I opened it up she took one look inside and said "your pretty packed in there eh?" I said "yes" and that was the extent of our vehicle check. From this point we drive thru the night until 3 a.m. and we stop at a rest stop in Illinois for 2 hours for a nap in the car before hitting the road again. It's 6am and we're sitting in a gas station somewhere in either Illinois or Missouri! - trying to sleep in the van is all but impossible, but unfortunately necessary - we have to make up some time. Met a poor traveller outside Denny's where we had breakfast. He didn't ask for money but did ask if we had any spare socks. Shelley said all she had was a pair of girls socks and he was welcome to them and he gratefully accepted them, plus a banana. He told us his story (true or untrue we don't know for sure, but most of it sounds legitimate to us). He certainly doesn't have much and is so grateful for what we gave him - he never stops talking. Seems like we were the first people who actually spoke to him, everyone he has tried to talk to just ignores him and walks on. We also gave him $5 and told him to go get some breakfast, but he said he was going to buy some more socks at WalMart (he'd been wearing his for about 6 days along with a pair of slippers he found in the garbage. Makes you feel lucky with what you have when you see someone in his predicament. Last seen he was putting his filthy socks and slippers in the garbage and heading for WalMart.

Our GPS is quite something - most of the time she keeps us on track but every once in a while, she will suddenly tell us to make a turn - we do a lot of arguing with her! We have taken to calling her names, Mary Beth, Betty-Ann, Mary-Lou each time we talk about her, but for the most part - we seem to be getting where we need to be. We've decided when we reach Mexico, the names will change to Spanish ones (Juanita, Rosa etc. - it adds a bit of humour to our journey and lightens the mood when we're tired and uncomfortable - which is most of the time.

By 5:00 p.m with sore backs and behinds and swollen feet, we had made it to New Boston in Texas. We found a hotel/motel that allowed pets with  no trouble at all. Just an extra $10 for Flash. We had a pork chop dinner at the diner next door and they are not kidding when they say everything is bigger in Texas. The meals were massive.....2 porkchops, mash potatoes, salad and veggies. Needless to say Flash was loving his dinner of left over pork chop that night. I needed to get some shampoo since this motel did not have anything like that in the room and made a new friend along the way. A tan boxer came over and we thought he was interested in Flash but apparently it was me he liked. I went in the first store and the dog just waited. No shampoo so I headed off to another store and Trev decided to take Flash back to our room, but the dog decided to follow me.....across a 4 lane highway. I went in the store and took my time and a lady asked what kind of dog that was that I had outside......it was sitting by the door just waiting and as soon as i came out it got up and started following me again. I guess it is my animal magnetism!! :) anyway I went back to our room and last I saw he was sitting across the parking lot just waiting......I kind of felt bad but no room in our van for another dog!!