DAY one is in the books! We pulled out mostly on schedule (sometime between 10:00-10:30 a.m.) after entirely too little sleep and having only misplaced one power cable! Once on the road, Paul played navigator with his brand new Rand McNally U.S. Road Atlas. Our route took us out of Pensacola on I-10, then to U.S. 49 to make a Northwest crossing of Mississippi from Gulfport to Jackson where we picked up I-20 due west into Bossier City, LA. I won't talk about the 14-mile detour that added 30 minutes to our day -- It was all the navigator's fault. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Paul's Shot of our passage through the Wallace Tunnel in Mobile.
Making our way to Barksdale A.F.B. in Bossier City started out quite simply -- a couple of turns off the freeway and we found ourselves at the North Gate with the lodging facility within view...on the other side of a locked and unattended gate. Seems the Air Force lives by the "Early to bed, early to rise" dictum and close most facilities and a gate or two at 6:00 p.m. Around the perimeter of the base we went, finally arriving at the West Gate and being directed to the Visitor Center where, after giving up my fingerprints, my Social Security Number, my driver license, a photo of my baggy-eyed self and a promise that both my grandsons would join up the moment they turned 18, we were granted access.
We were THIS CLOSE! The gate that was locked at left, lodging office at right!
We crossed the base to whence we began, but on the correct side of the gate this time and found the registration desk with little difficulty. The room is more than adequate to meet our needs, and the frozen "Smart Ones" entrees we picked up in the lobby shop have staved off the hungries for the night. (ALL dining facilities on base, including a Taco Bell, a Subway, and some others I can't recall closed at 6:00 -- no, I'm not kidding, they closed at SIX O'CLOCK ON A FRIDAY NIGHT.)
Mom is currently helping Paul with spelling as he writes up his view of the day in his travel journal and as soon as I post this, I'm going to crash and hope for a solid 8-9 hours' sleep before we take to the road, headed for Amarillo, tomorrow.
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