I learned to drive in Southern California as a kid, and the most important driving technique that taught me was how to merge! Through the years, I have realized that many people do not have this talent. Now that I’m driving all over the place, I see that many people struggle with this skill everywhere – I think Colorado may be the worst. Now that I am in Texas, I am changing that opinion because yesterday I witnessed the Perfect Merge! I was driving on one of the many highways here, going down a small slope, when I saw 5 cars swooping around on an onramp getting ready to join traffic during rush hour on my highway, and I thought ‘Uh Oh. This is going to be a mess!” Wrong! Every one of those 5 cars zippered right in with perfect speed and timing. Not one car had to put their brakes on! I was so impressed! A rare sight indeed. Texans may drive fast and too close, but they certainly have good driving skills! Cheers to Texans!

I hope you are all having a wonderful year so far. I can already tell you that 2025 is going to be far better than 2024 for me. Life is good!

I made my way to the Dallas area through holiday traffic, very few rest areas, semi-trucks irritated with me again in the only rest area in Mississippi, major thunderstorms (getting drenched twice), and an oil light – thank you to the nice man in the Stranger Things t-shirt for helping me get the oil cap off and pulling a MacGyver to make a funnel out of a water bottle, but I made it in time to go dancing Saturday night!

I stayed at the Ouachita Campground in Monroe, LA. The people were nice and they directed me to a good park for a nice long walk – oh, by the way, for disc golfers, THIS is a proper hole

A 4′ wide concrete pipe sliced into pieces and made into holes – creative!

Anyway, the amenities at the campground left a bit to be desired. There was no table at the site, lime green bathrooms, yucky looking showers (good thing I showered before I left Clearwater!), AND I had to pack up in the pouring rain. Not their fault, but I was very ready to get back on the road. You would think after the first rain of the day that I would have grabbed by cool Harley Davidson raincoat and put it in the car – Nope! Soaked again a few hours later.

We started the year off right with a Barn Dance. It was a lot of fun, but it didn’t really look like a barn to me. More like a metal garage, but the dance floor worked fine. Here’s the gang and my bestie

For some, I know the year may not be starting well. I have a few close friends battling critical illnesses, and two nephews fighting the horrible out of control fires in California. Keep everyone effected in your thoughts and prayers.

Tips of the Day: (1) Think twice about traveling the day after Christmas – traffic is horrendous! (2) Think three times before going to Total Wine on NYE

That was fun with lines like Disneyland. (3) When you get caught in a downpour, if you are dumb enough to have your phone in your back pocket, make sure the charging port is pointing down. It took 3 hours for my phone to dry out!