3/7/22 Monday: Woah! So, last night it was 78 degrees inside when we went to bed, so I had windows open and a fan running. Sometime in the darkness of night, we had a few wind gusts that woke me up and I was rolled up in a ball like a hedgehog trying to stay warm. I got up and closed the windows, and put on another blanket. I tried not to move so that I wouldn’t touch any of the cold spots in the bed. I was awake again as it was just starting to get light, and I realized that it was really chilly and I knew that I really hadn’t been sleeping much. Durrrrr! 🤦🏼♀️Get up and turn on the heat, you goofball! Yep – it was only 52 degrees inside, and 41 outside. And we were plugged into power, so just turn on the electric heat! I did, and snuggled back into the blankies until it warmed up a bit.
Once it warmed up a bit, I made a pot of coffee and we microwaved a breakfast samich and some egg muffin bites for the road. We got everybody put away, strapped down, hooked up, and we were on our way just after 9:00. Unfortuantely, I now realize this is the only picture of Tyler State Park that I got. 🤷♀️
And then, I didn’t take ANY pictures on our way to Springtown, which is a little town to the west of Fort Worth. It was only about a 170 mile day, but it was almost all interstate freeway AND driving through DALLAS and FORT WORTH. 😬. There wasn’t much extraordinary to share with you through pictures. Traffic was fast and furious, with people cutting off and dodging in and out. I saw my life pass before my eyes with a narrow miss when two cars changed lanes from both our right and our left at the same time and both tried to take the same empty spot right in front of us. AGH!! The one from the right swerved and the one from the left gunned it and cut off the semi truck that was just ahead of us on the right, as he cut across three lanes of jammed fast moving traffic to exit! Good grief!! I am glad to still be alive! I should have routed us around the city even if it would have taken an extra two hours. Life is too short to deal with city traffic while towing a travel trailer!! I will not route us through any more cities!!
My cousin Steve, on my dad’s side (Steve’s mom was my dad’s sister) just moved to Springtown in the last year, so we thought we’d stop and see them as we passed through. I haven’t seen Steve since my mom passed away in 2015, and they were super excited to have us come and stay a night. They have a very nice home, with the back patio facing west, and they have beautiful Texas sky sunsets!
Steve and Carol were the best hosts! He’s getting ice for one of the delicious beverages he made for us.
When his mom passed away just a year or so ago, he got a box of old pictures, and many of them he scanned onto a flash drive for me. YAY!! I can’t plug that into Gladys-the-iPad, but here is just one. These are our grandparents, the way that I remember them. However, Grandpa didn’t smile much for pictures, so this one is rare.
I could NOT believe the gangster picture of them that was with this!! LOOK at this Bonnie & Clyde photo!! They weren’t really gangsters, but they sure looked like it!! This picture must have been taken in the late 1920’s. I never knew my grandpa was a badass! (I don’t think he was… he just didn’t like to smile.). We had such fun going through the pictures!
My grandparents lived in Wolcott, Indiana, and our grandpa loved to go out and look for ‘Indian Rocks’. This is a whole frame full of a variety of arrow heads. Steve lived nearby when growing up, so he remembers going out hunting for, and finding them with grandpa.
I added this one with my hand just to show some size proportion.
Steve said that these were ‘scrapers’, like for cleaning an animal hide.
And then, treasure of treasures, a book about our family! My family name is Sell, and my dad’s brother has been collecting data and genealogy information since the 1960’s. He and his cousin combined efforts and published this big book.
Our name prior to immigrating to the U.S. seems to have been Sellen. And even a derivative of Zellen. I can’t wait to read stories in here! My uncle (Richard H. Sell) has even been to Germany to find documents. The book was in Steve’s mom’s stuff, and he let me have it!! How cool!!!!
To top the evening off, Steve fixed us some excellent pina coladas, complete with coconut cups. Carol fixed a delicious dinner, and we had just a fantastic evening with them! We had a great time! The only disappointment was that it was only about 50 degrees and windy outside, so there was no opportunity to enjoy their new swimming pool. Their back yard looks like an excellent place to just be on vacation.
Tomorrow we have a looonng day – about 400 miles to Carlsbad New Mexico. We are staying OFF of the interstate completely! Only state highways tomorrow!!