Home sweet home, our last day on the road was our easiest. The curtain falls on the Texas adventure

The final leg of our trip from Terre Haute, Indiana to home in Lapeer, Michigan was very uneventful, which is always a good thing. We were up early and out before 8 a.m. for our trip home.

Trailer back home

OnStar came in handy because as we approached Indianapolis there were electronic signs warning us that I-70 (the Interstate we were driving on) was closed ahead due to an accident. I knew we would be turning off I-70, but what I didn’t know was whether our turn off was before or after the wreck.

Joan suggested we call OnStar and the advisor did a little research and told us we would turn off before the wreck, which we did. The peace of mind knowing I wouldn’t have to detour through city streets with the trailer was worth the service.

We started seeing convertibles with the top down just north of Indianapolis and I wondered out loud about the last time a man in his blue Sebring had had his top down this early in the season.

Somewhere on the route in Indiana we passed the headquarters for the Nestle Co., which I guess I had missed on previous trips through the area. At precisely 12:09 p.m. we crossed back into our home state and about 2 ½-hours later we were home.

Galveston sea wall with Diane and Denny (Joan too)

Well, Joan was home, I was off to the RV dealer to have the trailer winterized as despite the current warm weather it would just take a couple of cold days, which we are bound to have in the next month or so, and we could have some serious ice damage to the trailer.

I waited for the trailer and then had the difficult job of backing the trailer into the driveway. The backing is no longer a problem for me, but the impatient drivers on our busy roadway make it a challenge. It only takes me about 30 seconds to get the trailer off the road, but that is still too long for some folks. This is the first time the trailer has been here since we left for Tucson in September as we stored it for a couple months in Texas.

Before I close out this trip’s blog posts I’ve put together some reflections on Texas.

Two months in Texas does not qualify us as experts in the State. But after two months of our Tejano sampling we have come away with some very fond memories and mostly favorable impressions of the State and the people who live here.

Alamo

The first thing that came to mind is that you see a lot of Texas flags, more state flags flying at businesses and private residences than I think I have ever seen in any other State. And while I won’t swear to it, a few of them, in violation of flag etiquette seemed to be just a little bit higher than the U.S. Flag where they were both displayed together. Maybe just an inch or two so you couldn’t prove it from the ground, but close enough in height to leave you in doubt.

Texans, especially the ones who have lived here from birth, are proud of their state. Not in an arrogant way, but they don’t bad mouth their State and are not eager to point out flaws, as some of my fellow Michiganders are.

Lots of flags

After seeing the Alamo up close and becoming immersed in the story and then wrapping up the package with a visit to the San Jacinto Battlefield where Texas won its independence you can see where that intense pride was germinated. The State’s rich history and its influence on the future of America as a whole would leave anyone with a huge sense of pride.

Universally, we found Texas folk to be polite and especially courteous on the highway. In our unscientific two-month poll we have decided that Texas drivers are the most polite of any state we have traveled in so far. If you need to merge and turn on your clicker they will wear out their brake linings to let you in.

Me at the San Antonio hockey game

Driving in Texas was a pleasure, except for the high volume of traffic we found around Houston on almost every day at almost every hour. The patience of the drivers here made it much easier.

Drivers smile and wave you through when you are stopped at a sign and I can honestly say I haven’t seen on instance of road rage here in the two months we traveled the state and that was about 3,000 miles.

The State is not just a melting pot, it is a boiling cauldron of races and cultures who for the most part seem to get along pretty well. Many times Joan and I were in the minority during our trips shopping or to the various tourist spots. But we never felt out-of-place or not welcome. Knowing Spanish would have been a plus.

People seem genuinely friendly and accommodating and will offer a hand to a stranger lost in a strange land. And yes, they do say “Howdy” and “y’all.”

Jan and Norm on Super Bowl Sunday

Some of my Northern friends sometimes make light or even fun of Southerners, but I think we mistake the slowness of their speech and strange accent with ignorance and yet we found them bright engaging folk.

Not everything here is perfect. In San Antonio we saw plenty of depressed neighborhoods, there is crime in abundance, as there is everywhere. Contrast some of the bad neighborhoods with some incredible wealth which we also saw, but not nearly in the same abundance.

Denny and Diane

For the most part I never got used to the traffic control lights. I am used to the vertical traffic control lights, but Texas uses a horizontal system that contributed to me running at least two red lights without even realizing it until my co-pilot let me know (too late, by the way).

Another traffic difference that was hard for me to get used to was the acceleration deceleration  lanes to get on and off the freeways. I’m more accustomed to the overpass on and off ramps of Michigan, but in Texas, you often leave the freeway and merge directly onto a frontage road with traffic coming at you.

The Sam Houston Tollway is a tremendous rip-off and the next time I come to Houston I will avoid it at all costs (which is a lot when you are pulling a trailer).

Now, for the weather. Everyone here told us we came during an unusually, make that record setting, wet winter. If we heard it once, we heard it 30 times that “we never get rain like this in the winter.”

Did I say we had rain?

Well, yes you do, because we lived through about 14-inches of rain in San Antonio and Houston during our two months here. Our last weekend in Houston saw 4-inches of rain fall in two days, more than the highest total ever for March. So I guess we’ll have to give them a pass on the weather as they needed the rain because of a lingering summer drought.

But if you live in a place that needs rain, call Joan and me and makes us a really good deal and will pull our trailer down and deliver you a soaking like you’ve never had.

Here in a nutshell is our two months away from Michigan: Saunton, Illinois, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, blew another road toll in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, welcome back trailer in Amarillo, Texas. Historic Village, zoo, 12^th Armored Division Museum and Frontier Texas in Abilene, Traveler’s World welcomes us to San Antonio, Margarita on the River Walk, Roosevelt Bus No. 42, “He doesn’t bark, he bites!”, Alamo, San Jose and Concepcion Missions, two Rampage hockey games (“We Want Chicken”), Holy Trinity Anglican Church, farmer’s market, potlucks at the park, happy hour on Friday, a Valentine’s Day country western dance in the rec hall, rain, rain and more rain, Jan and Norm join us for Super Bowl in our trailer and a week of Rodeo action, mall shopping, the World War II Museum in Fredericksburg, wine tasting and a great dinner at the Cabernet Grill, Augie’s Barbeque, LBJ Ranch tour, a Whooping Crane boat tour, dinner at Water Street Seafood in Corpus Christi and a view of the USS Lexington, a move to San Leon and a long back-up on a blocked street, a walk to two bays, Galveston, oh Galveston, a walk through hillbilly hills in San Leon, we welcome Diane and Denny to our home away from home, dinner at Pappa’s Barbeque, hello Karen, good-bye Karen, back to San Antonio and the Alamo, River Walk and Mission, a nice night at the Crowne Plaza Riverfront, a visit to the Houston Rodeo with Diane and Denny, no luck for a visit to the 75^th Division headquarters, a cold day at the Kemah Boardwalk, home tours on Galveston, a trip to the Lone Star Flight Museum on the island, lunch on the sea wall, a ferry boat ride to Bolivar Peninsula and dinner on the sea wall at Casey’s, Jim and Denny ride the Boardwalk Bullet, a day at the Armand Bayou Nature Center, good-bye Diane and Denny, we head back to Armand Bayou for a nature walk, don’t forget the Colon Rectal Surgery place, a visit to the Haak Winery, a visit to the San Jacinto Battlefield and the USS Texas Battleship, Johnson Space Center, back to Galveston and “The Great Storm of 1900” and the Elissa and a Galveston Bay boat ride and dinner at Miller’s, a walk through The Strand,  The Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Houston Health Museum and the Weather Museum with a great video of Hurricane Ike, two Houston Aeros hockey games against the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Houston Aquarium, a one day stop in Little Rock and a visit to downtown and the Clinton Library, a rainy trip to Terre Haute.

So that brings the curtain down on our latest adventure. We appreciate having you along with us even if it is only on cyber space. It also means we won’t bore you with more trip pictures or stories unless you want more. See you in the fall for our trip back to Arkansas and Crater of the Diamonds State Park.

Mileage out: 9479

Time out: 7:57 a.m.

Mileage in: 9884

Time in: 2:50 p.m.

Total Tahoe miles for this trip: 6,749

Total Trailer miles for this trip: 2,183

Total trailer miles since purchase: 14,682 (and I can still remember most of them.)

Good night, folks.

A long day punctuated by small gas stations, a monsoon, a brake issue and TV problems in Terre Haute

(Note: After you finish today's post feel free to scroll down and find lots of pictures from Little Rock. In addition to putting pictures with the two posts from Wednesday and Thursday I put a whole post of just pictures between those two. Enjoy, we did.)

We had been incredibly fortunate weather wise on our trip home. That all came apart about noon today when we reached north Arkansas and the skies opened up in the same way they did in Houston two days before we left.

Terre Haute KOA

It did just rain, but as homey Andy Griffith would say, "it was a real frog stangler." I mean it's bad enough driving in the rain in a car, but pulling a long trailer just makes it that much more exciting. And exciting is probably the wrong word.

The storm, at least the heaviest downpour parts, last a full 45 minutes, but we finally seemed to drive out of it somewhere in southern Illinois. There were times I considered pulling off and waiting the storm out, but that can sometimes be a mistake so we just kept plodding ahead.

Ahead that is until the trailer's emergency brake device suddenly activated for no apparent reason causing me to have to pull onto a narrow shoulder with my long rig with traffic whizzing by at 55-60 mph in the driving rain.

I suspected the way the car reacted that the trailer brakes had locked up and jumped out (risking life and limb and dryness) to plug the device back in which released the brakes and we quickly merged back into traffic and continued on.

Before the storm hit the outside temperature was 80 degrees. Within 15 minutes it dropped to 59 and we think at one point we were being pelted by small hail.

Then we pulled off to get gas in Marion, Illinois because our "Next Exit" book said there was an RV friendly BP station there. Well, our "Next Exit" book, which lists the services at every exit off every Interstate in the country, is a couple years old and apparently the BP has become another brand of gas and I accidentally pulled into a Pilot gas station that was a little too small for my rig.

Our campsite

After getting gas I had Joan stand behind and make sure I didn't hit anyone as I backed out of my pump area and then we hit the road again.

The weather improved as we went and except for the knuckle-whitening storm today the rest of our trip has been pretty good. I have found a number of trucks to draft behind and until the storm hit I was averaging 11-12 miles per gallon, which is exceptional with the trailer attached.

Somewhere along the route we passed the Remington firearms and ammunition plant so at least the Second Amendment is alive and well. We also crossed the Embarass River, which seemed an odd name for a river.

There was also a small convoy of cars with window paint saying: "Going to Fort Leonard Wood - Getting our Soldier" Judging from the eastward direction of the car we assumed that the soldier was already aboard and headed home. Glad he/she is home safe and sound. If I had seen the sign earlier I would have honked or waved.

At the KOA here in Terre Haute, Indiana, the cable television hook-up gave us fits, but suddenly clicked in so all is well. And the Internet connection was great as well. Joan fixed us a fine steak dinner, which I was ravenously hungry for after the hard day's driving and we settled in for our last night on the road.

This is our second time at this park and we really like it. Maybe someday we'll stay longer than an overnight. We overnighted here on our way to Tucson last fall. What is funny is that there are only about five campers in this big old park and they packed three of us right next to each other.

Hoping to get on the road early tomorrow and home in mid-afternoon.

Mileage out: 8961

Time out: 7:57 a.m. (CDT)

Mileage in: 9479

Time in: 5:53 p.m. (EDT)

A visit to Slick Willy's library and a cheap Little Rock tour

View of our campground from Clinton walk bridge

With the William J. Clinton Presidential Library staring at us from across the Arkansas River we decided that we would at least stop there for a visit.

After cleaning up in the RV Park showers, which could have been made from the same shower companies who provide shower pods to the troops in Afghanistan, we were ready to tour.

Joan at the Clinton Library

A pedestrian bridge from our RV park over the river drops you off right at the front door of the library and it is only about a ½-mile walk. We also purchased tickets to ride the downtown troller all day, which only cost $2 a piece.

The library, as all Presidential libraries are, is a three-story one-sided tribute to the person whose name is on the front door.

There is an impeachment corner, but no mention of Monica Lewinsky or the particulars of how President came to be impeached. But the museum has a replica Oval Office (as does the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids) and a reproduction of the cabinet room (ditto for the Ford Museum).

Clinton's ride

I’m always fascinated by the gifts received by the various Presidents from the leaders of other countries and there were some pretty cool gifts displayed at the Clinton Library.

Joan, who was more of a supporter of Bill Clinton than me, thought the building fulfilled Clinton’s vision that its shape would represent a bridge, meaning that he was a bridge over the vast middle class of the country merging divergent interests.

The stacks and artifacts from each year of Clinton's term

I thought it looked more like a single-wide trailer. The eye of the beholder strikes again.

We spent a good three hours touring the library and watching a Clinton narrated film on his life and Presidency. His story, one of a young boy born of modest means in the backwoods of Arkansas rising to become President is certainly an inspiring American story no matter what your politics.

Oval office reproduction

It just would have been refreshing if the former President, instead of criticizing his enemies for the impeachment, at least acknowledged that perhaps he had made a mistake. No little Lewinsky blue dress mixed in with the First Lady’s ball gowns either.

I haven’t been to the Nixon Library, but I’m hoping that the folks who put that together are a little more honest about Tricky Dick’s problems than Slick Willy’s folks were on the Lewinsky affair.

Joan and a Heron at Nature Center

The library is well worth the small cost and when we were done we had lunch in the park next the library, near a hill that I am sure will someday be the former President’s resting place. (They must think about those things when they build these libraries, don’t they?)

So we walked toward the River Market area in downtown Little Rock and while Joan rested I went in search of Le Petite Roche, the small outcropping of rocks named by the French in the 1700s from which the city got its name.

The point of rocks that gave LR its name

If a sign I found is correct the rock outcropping was pretty much destroyed in the late 1800s when city leaders built a bridge foundation right on the rocks. There is a chunk of the original rock, which I took a photo of.

With our $2 trolley tickets in hand we hopped on a downtown trolley and let it take us all around downtown. The drivers of these electric trolley cars are well versed in city history and it was a pretty cheap tour.

Downtown Trolley - $2 to ride all day

Jerry (or Gerry, I didn’t ask) was particularly delightful and gave us some shopping tips which turned out to be fruitful, but how so I can’t say since they resulted in gifts for a couple people I know.

With touring and shopping complete we headed back to the pedestrian bridge and caught a ride on a Clinton Library golf cart shuttle downtown to save us a little time and wear and tear.

Clinton Library

Tomorrow, the town will start to be overrun with sports fans coming to watch regional NCAA basketball games at the Verizon Center which is within a long free throw from our RV park.

Before we left this morning Joan put the Sloppy Joans in the crock pot and we sat down to a nice hot, easy dinner when we arrived home.

It was hot enough today to use the air conditioner this evening.

More photos from our short Little Rock stay

Night from our campground looking at Little Rock

Clinton campaign stuff

Bill's chair

A table to which I will never be invited - State Dinner

Hillary dress

What Bill was good at

A pretty interesting glass Christmas tree

Bag lunch in front of the library

View of our campground from the Clinton library

River Market

A very large (and dead) snapping turtle

Two of Little Rock's finest

The old Statehouse where Clinton danced after his 92 victory

Riverboat ride that we didn't take (sub in the background)

Clinton footbridge dedication marker

Bye-bye Lone Star State and chalk up a new state for the trailer

Eastern Texas on our way home

For the first time in two months we are staying in a state besides Texas. Sometime in mid-afternoon we crossed the border from Texas into Arkansas in the middle of the city of Texarkana, which is divided between the two states.

Except for a snafu by the OnStar folks, who directed us about 15 miles out of our way (someone needs to explain that the shortest length between two points is a straight line) leaving the Houston area we had a fairly uneventful trip.

There was a dearth of rest areas, but because we are pulling our own bathroom that is never a problem and we made a couple impromptu stops at wide spots on the highway to use our own facilities. Two rest areas in Arkansas were closed down.

My view of the trailer

The scenery in eastern Texas was remarkably different from the other areas of Texas we have stayed in. It is reminiscent of the kind of trees and greenery we would see in northern lower Michigan and we felt right at home with the pines that lined the highways leading out of Texas and into Arkansas.

In retrospect today was probably a little too ambitious a journey for our first day on the road and my unfortunate planning landed us right in the middle of downtown rush hour traffic in Little Rock right at its peak about 5 p.m.

Usually I avoid at all costs driving the trailer through stop and go freeway traffic, but it only lasted about 15 minutes so it wasn’t as bad as it might have been.

Hello Arkansas

One of the things that really sunk in to me was just how wide Texas is. Interstate 10 runs 880.5-miles east and west across the state. That is like laying Interstate 5 in California the long way across the state and still having 100 miles to drive to finish Texas.

During the drive we listened to our XM 60s station and then in the afternoon we listed to the Radio Classics stations which I sometimes enjoy on long trips to make the time pass quickly. Today was especially good with segments from the Dragnet radio series, a two-hour, four-episode special on the Martin and Lewis Radio show as well as a Jack Benny and Fred Allen program. It was all good fun to listen and even the old jokes brought a laugh or two from Joan and me.

Our Little Rock campsite with LR in the background

Another crime show – “Big Town” – had a great line in it that I asked Joan to write down so I wouldn’t forget. The bad guys had captured a crime reporter and were grilling him roughly to find out what he knew. “We need to know what this racket busting newsy knows.” I almost laughed at loud at that one.

We saw a couple interesting signs along the road. One in Texas advertised “Chocolate covered bacon.” Joan cringed, but I thought that combined two of my favorite things, but we were headed the wrong direction to stop and sample.

Our RV park

A large billboard had the following message: “Does this billboard make my AD look big?” Too funny.

We made three gas stops just to be sure we didn’t get in a bind along these less RV friendly highways. The interstates usually have plenty of RV friendly gas stations, but no so much on the state and smaller limited access highways.

Somewhere about Corrigan, Texas I spotted a beautiful, wide-open Shell station and opted to pull in about 40 miles earlier than I planned to stop just to take advantage of a very easy in and out gas station.

Arkansas added to the map

Our last stop was a little more hair-raising as we missed our turnoff for a Pilot station and had to settle for an Conoco station that advertised it was RV friendly, but it was only moderately so. We were just about 15 miles west of Little Rock and the heavy afternoon traffic had already started so I pretty much had to pull out and block traffic with the Tahoe and trailer to force myself across a four lane boulevard to get in position to get back on the freeway. A very nice construction pick-up helped stop traffic so I could get onto the road.

We arrived at the Riverfront RV Park fairly easily after crossing the Arkansas River and making three lefts and one right.

Here at the park we were pleasantly surprised by the openness and beautiful views from our RV spot. The full-service (water, sewer and wifi) spots are wide and level and cost just $21 a night.

The bridge to the Clinton Library for our park

After quickly setting up we sat down to a cold cut dinner, which I really like. Fresh turkey, ham and pepperoni made very good eating.

Because this is the first time we have camped with the trailer in Arkansas we added a state sticker to our map which is on the side of our trailer. Somehow in all our travels in the southeast and southwest we have managed to miss Mississippi and Louisiana so there is a little bit of a whole in our map. We'll get there in time.

As is our custom we took a walk around the park to locate the restrooms and showers and found them to be more than adequate for our two-day stay. Because of the short stay we are leaving the Tahoe and trailer hooked as the little bit of sightseeing we want to do can all be done on foot or by using a public trolley available for $2 for all day riding.

Arkansas River from our campground

Once again we are without cable TV so I have to spend ten minutes with the antenna every time we change channels, which is a drag, but a minor one.

Mileage out: 8476

Time out: 8:03 a.m.

Mileage in: 8961

Time in: 5:02 p.m.

Hooked (almost) and ready to head north

That close to being gone from Texas

With this being our last day in Texas our plans were to hang around the trailer and getting things stowed and ready for the long trip home which begins early tomorrow.

But Joan woke up this morning with a medical issue that needed quick attention so after I returned from my walk she told me that we needed to find an emergency clinic as soon as possible.

Now federal privacy laws prevent me from detailing the medical condition that prompted this quick trip, but let’s just say, hypothetically that is, that we (meaning Joan) was visited by an alien from the planet Urine. More than that I can’t say.

That took a couple hours, including a stop at the Kroger Pharmacy for anti-alien medicine.  Before returning home to the trailer I topped off the Tahoe’s fuel tank (nice that the gas prices are at a season high before our trip).

This is where we are headed

Back at the trailer I began my belated work to ready the trailer for our departure. Initially, my plan was to hook the trailer to the Tahoe today and simply get up and jump in and go, but the level of the trailer was such that it was not feasible. So the car is backed up to within a couple inches of the ball and all I have to do in the morning is pick up the trailer and then back the Tahoe – slightly – and we will be hooked.

Of course, we have to dump the waste water tanks, unhook the water and unplug for our electric shore line, but that really only takes about 10 minutes.

Because of the heavy rains, I used some of our leveling “Legos” (plastic square pieces that I use to level the trailer) as places to step instead of the muddy grass from the concrete pad to the door of the trailer. So I spent some time washing those off and storing them as well.

Our two camp chairs needed to be dried out and then stowed back in their carrying bags, which I also did tonight.

Inside the trailer, Joan kept busy with some incidental laundry, vacuuming and stowing of dishes and other loose objects. Just like the airlines one must be careful when opening cupboards because items “may shift in flight.”

The extended mirrors are in place too

Unfortunately, I received word today that one of my very good friends back home is in the hospital with a serious kidney problem. After talking with his wife I am encouraged that he showed some improvement in the last day or two, but I’ll be glad to get home and see him in the hospital.

For dinner Joan made one of my favorite dinners – which is pancakes, sausage and eggs, which I know sounds a lot like breakfast.

I’m putting together a post for later this week on our impressions of Texas and the highlights from this our fourth major trip. Stay tuned.

Rain, rain go away come again another year

Have I mentioned that it has rained a lot here? Oh yes, I guess I have. But as much rain as we have in the two months we’ve been here, today topped them all.

The time change threw me for a loop this morning and I got up much earlier than I needed to. Joan, on the other hand, stayed in bed until after 10 a.m. (new time).

Once we had cleaned up we sat down to watch a hockey game on NBC. All week they had been promoting the Sunday Hockey Game of the Week, but when the time came what was on the TV was the ACC Tournament basketball game.

Lion Fish

We still had two tickets in our CityPass booklets and one of them was for the downtown Aquarium, which we had heard good things about. So with no hockey we decided to start for downtown Houston and visit the aquarium before we headed to the afternoon Houston Aeros versus the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game that we had tickets to.

Now when I think of aquarium, I think of Monterey. No one will ever confuse the Houston Aquarium with the Monterey Aquarium. Not in the same league, not in the same solar system, but we had a ticket so we went.

Bet you didn't know I was a diver

Don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad aquarium, it is just small and probably the big draw for families is that after you tour the fish tanks, which takes about 40 minutes, there is a 7-acre park with a ferris wheel, a thrill ride and a train ride along with carnival games.

By the way, all the children we saw at the Natural Science Museum and the next day at the Health Museum were all at the aquarium with their parents on Sunday.

White Tiger

But the real adventure was on the way to the aquarium when we ran into a 30-minute monsoon on I-45. I’ve driven in bad rain, but this may have been the longest stretch of bad rain I have ever driven in. It just went on and on. The wipers had no effect, even on the highest setting. That’s how hard the rain was coming down.

For the whole weekend they told us we had 4-inches of rain. A record for the entire month of March in one weekend.

Fortunately we arrived safe and sound and ate lunch in the car before we headed into the aquarium. By then the rain had slowed some, but it never really stopped until we were inside the Toyota Center for the hockey game.

Shark tank

Inside the aquarium we enjoyed the settings and environment of the tanks, but just kind of expected more of them. Actually, the biggest fish tank was in the restaurant, which we got permission to look at even though we didn’t eat there (pricey).

The museum also includes a display of rare live White Tigers. The tiger was calm except when on man wearing a red shirt got near the glass. For some reason the Tiger did not like the man and continued to jump on the glass and bare his teeth at him.

Me at the Toyota Center with Red Wings shirt

After our tour of the aquarium we sat in the lounge for a little bit and then decided to take the Shark Train (for an extra $5 a person). The train goes into a building in which the aquarium is around and above you. The train stops and you get a short talk on the importance of sharks, which are swimming all around you while the broadcast is going on.

With the train ride complete we headed to the Toyota Center for our second and final hockey game with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Last night, as you will recall, we witnessed a blood-letting and the Michigan team lost 5-1. It was ugly.

The Aeros mascot

Tonight was much, much better. Ty Conklin played goal like he had actually been in the NHL earlier in the season, as he was and the rest of the team played much more aggressive in front of him. Final score: 5-2.

The game was a fund-raiser and celebration of Breast Cancer awareness and there were many activities between periods related to that. Also, Joan and I ate dinner at the arena.

It is a beautiful arena for hockey and holds almost 18,000 people (only about 9,000 were there) but it is a modern stadium and very comfortable. I love Joe Louis Arena, but it would be nice to see hockey every time in an arena this nice.

The trip home was uneventful and the rain was completely stopped so the ride home was much easier than the trip downtown.

And although I'm not a big basketball fan was excited to learn that the MSU Spartans won the Big Ten Conference Championship today beating Ohio State University.