Gettin' there

Made it to Tucson last night. I highly recommend the Clarion: free shuttle from the airport, stellar friendly service from everyone we've seen, a free glass of wine, nice chicken-in-lettuce-cups dish at the restaurant.

Today: play chicken with the stationary front hanging over Texas. (I think it's a stationary front. The ones what move funny, slithering sideways like beads pulling off a string rather than the whole line traveling somewhere.) Last night we could have gotten to a point nine and a half hours' drive from our destination; as of this morning it looks like just a few hours, and maybe by the time we get there we'll be able to get there.

Oxygen dep makes me sleepy and makes my head hurt. Fine pilot type I am. Sadly, oxygen cannulas make my nose run.

I am supposed to ask quasigeostrophy to explain the effects of the Texas dryline. I may see the answer in a day or two.

Well, it's an excellent distraction.

Dodged a line of thunderstorms on the way in. Rob has impressive weather tracking capability in the air. There was a massive line of nasty cells between where we were and where we needed to be, and we got here anyway, and we didn't do anything dangerous.

I am now on Galveston Island, Texas, possibly one of the odder places I have ever been. The breakers rolling in from the Gulf are beautiful. The deep red sunset behind the cumulus was beautiful. I do not know why I didn't expect the humidity: because I am a moron? Anyway, it's humid. And warm. I'm sitting around in a lightweight rain jacket because I ate a chocolate-covered ice cream bar in the warm air, with predictable results, and oops had to wash my shirt in the sink.

Some of the streets here are narrow enough that two cars can't pass. Unlike sane places such as Scotland, there aren't pullouts; each vehicle just puts a couple of wheels on the edge of someone's lawn.

Architecture here is weirder than we predicted. 1) It is illegal to set foot on the dunes, so every house by the beach has its own cute little boardwalk and all beach access points have their cute little boardwalks. Please don't ask me how they're constructed if no one can set foot on the dunes. 2) Air conditioners stuck into the sides of seventeen-foot-stilted houses get their OWN little seventeen-foot-stilted platforms to SIT on. It is the most hilarious thing I've seen all day, and this is coming from a woman who has seen those boardwalks.

Google Maps gets negative points for telling us the Sea Isle Grocery Mart was about five miles west of its actual location. We almost paid the toll to get off the island westbound ("WARNING: THIS DIRECTION IS NOT A HURRICANE EVACUATION ROUTE") looking for the darn thing. I want a picture of the sign saying THIS DIRECTION IS NOT A HURRICANE EVACUATION ROUTE.

If I can even think about my current Life Ick by tomorrow, I will be pretty surprised.