May 15, 2014

To Dallas To Celebrate

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Early this morning - 4:00 a.m. to be exact, we were up, getting ready for the trip to Dallas for Stephen's graduation.  Jim brought Mom over to our house about 5:00 and by 5:15 we were loaded and ready for the long trip.  Ron did all the driving and I appreciate that very much.

We were able to meet our son David in Round Rock and travel the rest of the way together after a great lunch at Pok-e-joe's Bar-B-Que.  Mom rode with David for a while and when we arrived at a rest stop later, she and I switched and I finished the trip with David in his car.

This is one of the newer Safety Rest Areas in the part of Texas known as Tornado Alley.  There are areas within the Rest Stop that are tornado shelters.  There are two along our route.  What a blessing these are to travelers during severe stormy weather. 

It was about 5:15 when we arrived at the motel.  It is a long trip across Texas!  We checked in and got our rooms.  We put the guys in one room and the ladies in the other.  The rooms are nice and will work well for us this weekend.

We unloaded and relaxed.  Mom napped.   I worked on the quilt.  The guys visited.  Eventually I joined them in their room while Mom continued to sleep.  Bob and Vickey arrived about 8:30 and Stephen arrived about 9:00.  We all went to Whataburger for supper and had lots of laughs as well as good food.  Bob and Vickey enjoy return visits to Texas to get Whataburgers. 

We returned to the hotel and visited until late and Stephen returned to his apartment in Dallas.

Much of the day the sound processor on the Cochlear Implant gave me problems with the "noise" feature which is to lower the volume of the background noises, so I can hear conversations.  Too often it also seemed to lower the conversation levels.  It is a constant challenge to select the right program for the current setting and hear as much as possible.