Oma's Trip ~ 11/26/02 Dateline: Bossier City, LA (Shreveport) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Left Ardmore, OK at 8:15am after I picked up breakfast at Burger King! It was a nice day and not too cold when I left... Crossed the border into Texas and the very FIRST sign I saw said "Adult Video Store" -- HUGE sign... the next sign said "DRIVE FRIENDLY -- THE TEXAS WAY" Yeah, right!! They say everything is bigger in Texas and I can attest to the fact that they sure have bigger jerks, morons, idiots, assholes and rotten drivers in Texas... I even hadda get out my "stupid gun" (SEE NOTE AT THE END) and shoot a couple of them. As I approached Dallas, I just got more and more apprehensive about that traffic mess... I know they have an access road that goes all the way around the entire Dallas/Ft. Forth (DFW) metro plex and I had visions of getting stuck in the circle and ending up there like Charlie of the M.T.A. So, I listened to my little voice and took off on TX-380-East out of Denton and dodged the whole DFW mess. Texas roads are something else... 380E started out as a nice 4-lane - sorta 'divided' with what looked like a suicide lane... it narrowed to just 2 lanes for a bit of construction, but the speed limit was still up there at 65mph even thru the construction... then I got on TX-69-south and that connected up with I-20 east of DFW.... after the initial 4-lanes on 380E, the road was nice 2-lane... not divided... and the dagone speed limit was 70mph on a LOT of it... only got behind a couple of Texas morons going 55mph in a 70mph... I shot them with my "stupid gun" (SEE NOTE AT THE END)... speed limit would slow down to 55mph to go thru towns and then back up again to 70mph... I think I saw the TV-famous Dallas place... couple of times!! I-20 was quite a trip... 4-lane divided... with signs all OVER the place saying "Use left lane for passing only"... and lots of cars just stayed in that lane... LOTS of traffic.. idiot (read: rude) truck drivers will pull right in front of you if they have 2" to squeeze in... just so they can slow down to pass somebody... and I usually leave at least 2" so I had more than my share of idiot truck drivers... Truck drivers are usually VERY polite... must be something in the air in TX... LOTS of trucks and lots of cars on I-20... everybody trucking along about 70mph - 75mpg, too! The only difference between Texas and Louisiana is that the road surface turned to crap as soon as I crossed the border into LA. Since I was headed for Exit #21, that crap didn't last too long... maybe I can get out of here early enough in the morning that there won't be too may idiots on I-49.... yeah, right! ------------ STUPID GUN When you get your drivers' license, you are issued a stupid gun... A stupid gun is like one of those dart guns where the darts have a suction cup at the end... the difference between a regular dart gun and a stupid gun is that when you hit the stupid car with the stupid gun dart, it STAYS THERE FOREVER and any car with 5 or more stupid darts has to park the car and quit driving. period.. It's also fun to "see" how many stupid darts some of those cars already have! Since the stupid gun that we are issued has an UNLIMITED number of stupid darts, it works WONDERS on frayed nerves... just shoot 'em with the stupid gun...