Ark-La-Tex, Nac Next Up For Your Writer's Upcoming Vacation

I'll be attempting to resurrect a plan originally intended for the middle of last February. It didn't go off because we had a rude interruption to our mild winter with the biggest Arctic blast this writer had ever seen. You know the rest of the story, so I'll move on from that.

Here it comes, one month away, a little more than a year later, and Ol' Case will give it a go again. Gas up that Shark! Time for Case to head to the Ark-La-Tex region, and then on down to Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas. Six days on the road, as Dave Dudley used to say. Since I'll do this around the last week of February, and though nothing's guaranteed, things should be better this time around. We should not have temperatures hovering around 0 (That generally happens every thirty years in North Texas, and the National Weather Service still sticks by the mild winter prediction), nor should there be any snow. That cannot happen two years in a row in my part of the country, and it just never does. Oh, I'll monitor the forecasts the week before the trip, but as it is, I'm more optimistic than last time. The week off is going to happen whether I go or not, but I like the chances.

This writer will travel to Texarkana and check out the work progress on the corridors being built in the area (Interstates 49 and 369). On the latter, there's just some sign work, as no new road work has occurred as yet since that segment of freeway was built a number of years ago, but there is expected to be more in the not-too-distant future. And, along with a museum or two, not to mention other historic points of interest, Case has a few local eateries picked out for his all-important mealtimes. My road trip will continue through the Ark-La-Tex region with a brief stop in Jefferson mid-week before settling in Nacogdoches. Same basic thing once in Nac, with a number of places picked for my enjoyment, and all the while surrounded by tall pine trees. That's Deep East Texas for you. All that, and plenty of what should be some very good food, although some of these places will be first times for your writer, so we'll just see.

The Shark will be ready to roll, and so will The Case. With five weeks of vacation to use and a relatively new car on hand, it's time once again to explore that open road.