5/4

Mississippi sucks. Have we mentioned that yet? Terrible roads, cities destroyed, and bad business hours. Luckily we found a beacon of hope in a suburb of Jackson, the Wal-Mart. Our second night was almost normal, except that half of our bed was damp. That darn air conditioner lets in the moisture when its raining extra hard. We will have to be on the look out for a cover of some sort. To keep morale high, we suggest a racy game of cards:

 Steven Tyler is a tricky guy.

Getting clean in a sink in a Wal-Mart isn't as bad as you'd imagine. It's no shower, but effective enough. And people we meet in the bathroom (sorry Dads) are very friendly and are usually interested in us.

We had a long journey ahead of us, no more dilly dallying in the bathroom. Our goal was to make it to Denton, TX. A whopping 431 miles, it's more than we've traveled all together so far.

Since our bedding got a little damp and we weren't the cleanest we've ever been, we stopped at a Pilot Travel Center to clean things up a bit. Turns out not all Pilots have laundry facilities, and a shower costs $10 a head!! Ridiculous. No wonder truckers are gross. No wonder we are still gross. Onwardho!

We followed I-20 when we had to, but took highway 80 most of the time. The highways have definitely proved to be more scenic and interesting.

We stopped in a church parking lot and had a picnic lunch, when Lin noticed something. It was our wiring connector from Campy, she came unplugged (probably from all those crappy Mississippi roads!) and had been dragging for who knows how long. Long enough for there to be little to no plug left, though. Upon inspection of Campy, we also noticed that we lost a stabilizer at some point. NBD. We just hope no one got hurt.

So, we packed up and headed for the nearest Autozone. Thanks to Lola and Andee for getting us there!! We got all our parts and pieces and started to work. It seems like rewiring a connector should be easy, and it is, but you gotta have some technique. Neither of us have that at this time. We have a very informative video to post eventually. 
We were quickly on our way, passing the Texas state border and into the country.  We crawled into Dallas around 10 PM, and imediately got lost. After an hour or so of wrong interstates and highways, we found our way. One of the interstates, I-35, is the most confusing road I've ever encountered. It is shaped like an up side down wishbone, one leg is I-35E and the other I-35W. The East/West has nothing to do with what direction they travel, but where they lie in relation to each other. Texas should consider putting that on a sign when you cross the border.

On our way to Denton, we had to fill up the ol' gas tank. Lin went to the restroom to wash out some dishes, and I (Carrie) filled her up. I pushed the button in to let it fill all the way and shut off automatically, and when I went to take out the pump I noticed the tank had overflowed. Heres our solution:

It was a long, yet educational  day.

-lc&p