Virginia Thomas, aka Mrs. Clarence Thomas, aka wife of Supreme Court Justice, called Anita Hill and left a voice message asking Hill to apologize for her testimony 19 years ago in the confirmation hearings appointing Thomas to the SCOTUS in which Hill testified under oath that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas while working for him. This is bizarre. It speaks ill of Mrs. Thomas that she called and even worse that rather than speak directly to Hill she chose to leave a message that (according to the AP transcript) “I would love you to consider an apology sometimes and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.”

The arrogance of that is astounding.

From travels going on two years ago:

Tornado Watch! Severe Thunderstorms! Heavy, heavy rain! No pets! Whadda day.

Last night at the Escapees Park several people came by our camp to tell us that a tornado watch had been issued for the area. After a decent day and no rain it came as a surprise. Several people offered to let us use the extra beds in their RV’s but we figured those tin cans wouldn’t offer any more protection than our tent if a tornado hit. Besides, it seems like RV’s and trailers are magnets for tornadoes.

At about 10:00 the wind was swirling, changing directions every second and feeling like a tornado was imminent. Very weird and very scary. Our tent was only 75 to 100 yards from a structure the residents use during hurricanes so we could have gone there if the sirens had gone off, assuming there was a siren. No one seemed to know.

However, by midnight the winds had died down and the few lightning flashes we saw were a long ways off, unlike the night before when the flashes were right over head and the thunder was almost immediately behind the flash. Our tent is incredibly water tight. In fact the company website, Mountain Hardware, claims that they test all the tent rain flys by putting them in a rain room and dumping 12,000 (yes, 12,000) gallons of water an hour on them. It is also very wind resistant. We slept well after the winds died. Bentley does not like the thunder. He climbed in his kennel and would not come out during the storms.

This morning we actually had some blue skies and we decided to take advantage of them to pack up our stuff and head south where we thought the weather might be better. Hah. We didn’t leave the park until well after 1:00, I didn’t check the time. We headed west to Highway 59 and then south. My new friend, Mark, who owns a Victory motorcycle, was going to come along but we had gone only 10 minutes or so when he pulled into a gas station. The rains were clearly visible in front of us so he was going back to his 5th wheel. We kept going after donning our rain gear. Von has this old yellow stuff we bought years ago for football games at Autzen Stadium. Mark thought she looked like a giant banana.

We got about 40 or 50 miles down the road and took a break. We hadn’t been really rained on so far but while I was in the market we had stopped at to get a snack, it started raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. A gentleman had pulled along side the trike to chat so I asked him about a reasonably priced hotel in town, the town of Dayton. He suggested two of them so we turned around the 1 mile it was to the stoplight and went to the first one, the Sands. It looked like one of those properties we like, cheap but clean. Except, NO PETS sign in the window. So on down the road about a block to another similar property. NO PETS. Damn. Head back the way we had come from and see a billboard for a Best Western, one mile on the left. Okay! They’ll take pets. Ahem. NO PETS! What is it with these small towns? Cheap ass rooms but no pets? So we have no choice, these are the only hotels in Dayton.

Back on the highway and it began to rain so hard I had to slow down to 50 to not overdrive my ability to see. Inches of rain an hour I’m talking about. The highway signs said the next town was only 8 miles but I had no clue whether there would be a hotel that accepted pets. After some nervous moments, lightning flashing very close, we pulled into Mont Belvieu. There’s a hotel on the left, pull into the center turn lane of this 5 lane highway then under the awning in front of the office, NO no pets sign! Get off out of the rain. Dig through three layers of clothing to get at my wallet and pay the 70 bucks a night but it has a kitchenette. Finally, safe and sound.

Bentley likes his new passenger pillion in the kennel but he did get a little wet. Thankfully it is still very warm in spite of all the rain. He loves hotel rooms though. And we can keep him dry with a little better planning.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is more of the same as today so I think we will stay another night in this hotel. Then it looks like we will go east of Galveston to a place called Bolivar. It’s in Texas where the law provides for access to beaches, even vehicular. We can even camp there for the cost of an annual parking permit. Ten bucks. The weather forecast looks pretty good beginning Saturday, the day after tomorrow, so we may stay on the beach until April 1, pay day.

Later,

Greg