First Leg: Charlottesville, VA - Cleburne, TX

Us two well rested buddies started out on Wednesday morning, June 6, from the Myers residence in Charlottesville. Wishing well to our host, Ham, we quickly hit the road towards our quarters for the night in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee right next to Loretta Lynn's birthplace. After ten hours of driving through blinding thunderstorms and navigating between thousands of reckless driving 18-wheelers, our half-way-to-Texas place to stay finally appeared through the curtain of rain. We got settled, grouched about the antiquated WiFi connection- one shed his discontentment relaxing on the king size bed, one jumped in the pool for a quick swim, after having a funny chat with the barely english speaking mexican portier. The next day we headed out early for another ten hours drive through the "Natural State" of Arkansas and its quite primitive and "natural-left" highways, having lunch at the equally primitive Wendy's Burgers. In the afternoon, daylight vanished from one second to the other, building up a tense feeling of soon being crushed under the black, heavy clouds, which looked very close to forming a tornado coil. By the time it opened up, we were able to see part of the damage the storm caused, driving by three car accidents in 15 minutes. Later we found out about the severe flash flooding, which happened during the same time in that area, unfortunately taking at least 20 peoples lives.

The incredible heat of Texas was welcoming us soon after, spotting huge ranches along the way and noticing the increase of super-heavy duty pickup trucks as well as the feeling of sheer vastness of the "Lone Star" state. The freshly overhauled Volvo soon showed the first symptoms of the stresses and strains by losing air in one of the back tires, but we eventually made it to the "promised territory" of the Roy's, a welcoming little oasis in Cleburne.