Day Seven by Dave Schultheis
Sunday, August 3, 2003 - Lindale, Texas
I slept okay, was awake to the alarm at 7:30 a.m. and sat with my uncle and aunt while they had breakfast, then saw them off to church. (I had not packed my "Sunday go-to-meetin' clothes.")
So I spent a little time going over my maps and catching up with my notes. When I went out to the garage, I noticed that the Scooter Clock had fallen from its mounting on the inside of the windshield and the plastic lens got separated from the clock. This was an indirect result of the power-washing in Cool Springs (previous trip). After that, the "stickum" was never the same. And I'm sure the wash at Lone Star Harley didn't help. I did not have any double-stick tape to make it better, nor could I get the plastic lens back on the clock.
I set that project aside, and took advantage of their computer to send a "progress report" e-mail to Dave Clements back home, then called my mother to see how she was doing.
When my uncle and aunt got back from church, I took a few photos of them and their classic Chrysler, then some pictures around the house, helped with weeding in the front yard, then settled down to a sandwich for lunch.
Both of them had been involved in car racing for a long time, and we watched some NASCAR on the television for a while.
While going through my saddlebags, I realized that my baseball cap had absorbed a bit of a gasoline smell while nestled near my emergency fuel bottle. My aunt said she'd wash it, and put it through the dishwasher (in a plastic frame, I believe).
Later we got into the car and drove over the river and through the woods to the Sky Ranch, a big camp for kids a few miles away. We didn't know in advance that there was an activity going on, so we excused ourselves, drove through and out the other side, to Sky Ranch Livery, to see their horses' new home.
We found two of them in a field with a bunch of other horses, and gave them horse treats. Then we found the third horse in a huge field with a lot of others, perhaps a quarter mile from the road, but could not get his attention. So they didn't get to give him treats, but were very happy that all three horses were enjoying and thriving in their new surroundings.
On the way back, we stopped and visited some friends of theirs, and I met three generations of that family.
We drove back to Lindale, stopping for dinner at the Pizza Inn, where we had pizza, salad bar, and lemonade.
Back at their house, I washed and dried two shirts and packed my T-Bag while my uncle worked on the Scooter Clock. Neither of us was able to get the plastic lens back into place (must have been done by a special machine), so we did the best we could to secure the clock to its mounting with the sticky tape and rubber bands. (No baling wire, but I could have used some chewing gum.)
I finished off the day with a shower and a visit to TV Land for a while, then went to bed around 10:00 p.m.
Miles for the day = 0. Miles for the trip = Still 1912.
Tomorrow: on the road again, a difficult-to-get county sign, and three more states.