1/17/97 Texas
by JP

It's early. We just woke up and packed up our tents. We spent the night in Tyler State Park in North-East Texas. The stars were big and bright and the temperature got down into the low 30s as we slept. My rain cover had frost on it and my piss seemed to freeze as it hit the ground this morning. I managed to sleep all right with a wool hat, sleeping bag, and a couple blankets. I'm just digging the fact that we camped out in Texas, just like cowboys, yeehaw.

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We decided to skip the skatepark of Dallas since we got such a late start to our trip and we stayed in Daytona longer than expected. I know I'll regret missing that park. I heard it's rad.

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The driving has been very pretty today. We crossed many miles of flat countryside and I mean flat. The sky loomed before us and stretched the full 180 degrees of our vision, 180 degrees of sky. We drove through Dallas and Ft. Worth. Dave got a speeding ticket in Dallas but the cop was pretty nice. He didn't even give us flack for having an expired insurance card. The temperature grew colder and the landscape got hillier. We stopped at a rest stop and skated a fresh little ditch.

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Fields of red twigs lined the sides of the road in sections, Dave informed me this was cotton. Tufts of fluffy white turned up here and there as we drove on so I believed him. Dave's a pretty knowledgeable travel companion. There were lots of cows and some horses. The highway speed limit would drop from 70 to 30 as we entered towns which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Little hills and plateaus shaped like volcanoes have been popping up here and there. More and more snow is on the sides of the road. Soon we'll be in New Mexico for a little bit, and then hopefully Colorado before sleep overtakes us.

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