LA Trip, Day 4; the storm

We woke up in Monroe Louisiana with all the news and weather channels screaming about a large storm headed from Dallas Texas area and headed east. Well that’s just great, that is exactly where we are headed, to Texas. Although no one could pin point where it will hit and at what time or how severe it will be, just that it was large and gonna effect many states.     (The head of the storm)

So, we said a quick prayer to keep us safe and got ready. We got out onto the road around 8 am and the clouds were rolling in fast. We had one heck of a time fighting the wind, our gas mileage suffered too. Our plan was to drive until we feel it’s safe to and pull off when we don’t. If we could make Tyler Texas, that would be great, but anything is better than nothing.

We drove roughly three hours and then the dark clouds got darker, the wind got windier and it started to rain lightly…We’re not in Kansas anymore, ah we mean Louisiana. No, no we weren’t, that’s because we hit TEXAS, Yeehaw!

The first real town, we say real because when the cows outnumber the people, then there’s not too many places to eat or stay, so it was Marshall Tx. We used our cell phones to quickly check the rating of the hotels and prices. We picked two hotels to look at, one was the Quality Inn and Suites, which had all good ratings and the other was Comfort Suites. We drove up to the Quality Inn and then turned around and headed to the Comfort Suites. The Quality didn’t have the quality we were looking for at this time. We past a Baymount Inn, which was more money than Comfort and Quality, but by the looks of it, it’s had its day.

We pulled into the Comfort Suites parking lot and the place looked brand new, Score!  

They have professional landscaping, complete with flowers that run all the way up to the front entrance. We walked in and the place was spotless and decorated very nice, yup we picked a good one. We took a quick look at the pool and dining room while the manager helped another customer at the front desk. When it was our turn, the manager was very nice and helpful. Even though it was only 10:30am, she still allowed us to check in, we explained we were coming in for the day to get away from the storm. We got to our room and it was homey and large. The décor was very nice and we felt very relaxed after a few hours of stressful driving into a storm.

Then after we took in all the luggage Webb was hungry, so he walked the fifty yards or so to the Wendy’s and got a Baja Salad and a grilled chicken sandwich, both were great.

We checked on the storm and sure enough it was getting bigger, but most of it seemed to be headed north of us, but again they couldn’t pin point, how frustrating is that?

A couple hours later we decided to venture out to WalMart for some supplies (i.e. snacks and water). We drove into the town of Marshall and on one side was a large high school football stadium, looked like a college stadium. On the sign it read MARSHALL, we thought, was this the Marshall from the movie, We Are Marshall? No, just so you know, and so you don’t look like a fool for asking a local!

We got our “supplies” and headed to eat at the Golden Corral,     I mean when in Texas, do as Texans do and wrangle up some grub at the Corral. We grabbed our drinks and headed to the right side to find a seat, then Forbes stopped, turned around and headed to the left. Even though there were plenty of seats to the right. We found a seat and put our drinks down. Immediately Jack, our server came by to welcome us. Forbes had a very strange look on her face, almost like she was holding her breath too long and she was. Jack walks away and Webb says, “what’s wrong with you”? Forbes replied, “he looks like Mr. Clean”. Webb says, “and”? Forbes says, “Mr. Clean and The Jolly Green Giant freaks me out. Had a bad experience as a kid”. Never the less, we had our food, which was pretty good for a buffet.

Back at the hotel the storm came closer as the night grew darker. We said another quick prayer as we went to sleep.

The next morning the local news said the heavy part of the storm blew north of us and we got mostly wind. Our car was covered in dirt, but that we could handle.

That was the ends day four.

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