Alabama 4

We are in Alabama & have been since Monday afternoon. It's been a great trip. We had a good time in Fort Worth with Keith. He & I rode our bikes on Friday & Saturday. We rode along the Trinity River on Friday. Though it seemed a bit narrow, it was very nice. The park is all green & peaceful. Saturday we ventured beyond the end of the trail & went to Aledo. Keith found every hill in the area. The best part was being with my son. The fact that he was trying to do me in didn't matter, since I survived. We were both tired after 54 miles. We went to Cousin's BBQ that night. We've had delicious BBQ traveling across Texas. Thursday we had dinner at a steak house across the street from the hotel. Keith's daughter, Nathalie, joined us. Great dinner. In fact, we have not had a bad meal on this trip.
We had rain before our stop in Pearl, Mississippi. Then we had rain off & on all the way here. And, it has rained every day so far. Not a lot or for very long. Yesterday while I was out riding I heard thunder & headed for the kid's coffee shop. I made it a little before the downpour. It's about to start again. In an hour it will be history.

ALABAMA 3

We are in Phoenix. Had a real nice dinner with Jeanne & Karie. Last night there was thunder & this morning there are heavy dark clouds.

On the trip over yesterday we had rain while driving through the desert. Temps most of the day in the 90's. Phoenix went over 100. After the car was parked for 30 minutes it read 111. It was reading 107 before we parked.

On the way again this morning.

Alabama 2

Great trip south. We were on the road at 0630. Just after getting on I-80 my wife tells me that the MP3 player is still at the house. So 15 minutes later we were on the road again. This time with a stop at Starbucks for a vanilla latte. We decided to come down SR 99 & have breakfast at Apple Annie's in Tulare. We pulled off of the freeway at about 1015. Had a good breakfast, fueled the car & were back on the road at about 1115. We arrived at the Yniquez home at about 1430. We had a very smooth trip, some traffic on I-210. Considering we were in the greater LA area, the traffic wasn't bad. Today we are all going to church with my sister Susan & family.

Alabama

The car is ready to pack. The tank is full. Early tomorrow we will depart, Lord willing. One long trip made up of many shorter trips. First stop is La Puente to see kids, grandkids & a son-in-law. We need to start early to beat the valley heat. A heat wave is here.

Well, the car has been bought, now we need to pay for it. We bought a used (18,750 miles) Nissan Quest. It is white & super clean. A light grey cloth interior, power doors on both sides & the rear gate. Betty has a very hard time reaching the door handles & pulling them is worse. So that power gate was very important. What we didn't get was automatic heat/air, dual control heat/air. What we saved over new with those features was about 10-12 thousand dollars. We can live nicely without them.
We went for a drive Saturday, a little over 200 miles, it rides very well.
For pictures check Betty's blog at http://anewdaywithbetty.blogspot.com/2009/03/2008-nissan-quest-s-minivan.html

We've been looking at new cars. Mini-vans, actually. What a tiring endeavor. I think it's down to a Nissan Quest. Although, I'd like to drive a Honda Odssey. We did look at some used ones, they had too many miles. Hertz does have a couple used Sienna's I'd like to look at. Then, again, maybe just fix the old Ford & go another 100,000 miles.