Advertisement
Published: December 7th 2022
Edit Blog Post
Greetings from San Angelo State Park, ya’ll. We got in about 9:30 last night. Figured out the lock on the night gate. Wandered around til we found site #3. Turned off the engine and turned into bed and slept for a good 11 hours. Now I sit at a metal picnic table in an old, run down, rotting park under a steel gray sky with a slight breeze and distant traffic noise. We’re the only ones here, and it all feels to me like a scene out of a creepy post apocalyptic movie, as if Sally and I are the last ones on Earth. Except for the distant traffic noise.
I had a shower, though the drain backed up and flooded the entire men’s bathroom. Sally made coffee, though Betty’s shore power system is only half working so we had to do some things right at the pole. Sally’s off to the bath now, and we’ve got to hit the road in an hour or so to get to Austin (assuming that distant traffic noise means that civilization is still working, and that’s not the sound of approaching aliens or hordes of zombies) so Ima take a minute to download
a few of the many thoughts that occupied me during our long sojourn.
1) I am a beast. Really. Driving 16 hours straight? Non-stop through the relentless onslaught of packed snow, falling snow, driving snow, ice, wind, stronger wind, wind so strong it actually almost knocked me over when filling up the van, darkness, heavy traffic, four lane traffic, construction zones, beat up roads, oncoming cars, oncoming bright headlights, the sun in my eyes, broken gas pumps, credit card failure, disappointing food, too much caffeine, really bad coffee, driving while exhausted, all of that? Are you kidding me? I am a beast. And I did it while keeping my head. And mostly keeping my good humor, though there was this one time… or maybe two…
2) Black Ice Matters. At one point in Montana, two drivers, both in large pickups pulling long flatbed trailers sped past me in the left, ice-covered land. I thought about their ballsiness as they drove by, and wondered how they managed it, and decided it must be the 4WD. Minutes after, one of these trucks, right in front of us, began to slip and fishtail and eventually jack-knifed into the ditch, kicking up a huge cloud of snow and disappearing into it such that we, coming up behind them, and unable ourselves to brake very quickly, didn’t know if we would smash into them or not. Inshallah they had cleared the road before we got there. It was like a scene out of NASCAR, and it both happened in slow motion and was over before we could even think about it. By the time we came to our wits, we were half a mile beyond, and so Sally called 9-11 to report it, and we trusted that other drivers coming up from further behind could stop to help.
3) North-South roads are way worse than East-West roads. First, there’s all those north-facing slopes you have to drive up, which had no direct sun, and so were more ice covered than their south-facing sisters. Second, due to the basic patterns of the Earth’s coriolos effect, the prevailing winds hit you side on, rather than head on or as tail winds, resulting in a rather relentless wrestling match.
4) Betty, bless her heart, was designed to emulate the classic lines of that architectural marvel known as “the broad side of a barn.” While maybe many of us may have difficulty hitting such a thing, the wind has no problem whatsoever.
5) For much of our journey, on the packed snow and ice, during the high winds and construction zones, etc, our speed was reduced to 40 mph. This was almost always half of the posted speed. At such half-fast speeds, our total trip time expanded out from our projected 24 hours to the actual 34 hours. Part of this was due to silly or incorrect assumptions made on our part. Most of it was due to road conditions.
6) I spent a lot of time noticing, noting, and thinking about different road conditions. My conclusion is that while elevation, temperature, wind, and traffic patterns all play a part, the biggest contributor to bad winter driving conditions is county budget shortages. I may be assuming too much there, but it seems as though the only way to explain what I saw was that some counties simply do not have the money, materials, and manpower necessary for the job.
7) One should never drive I-25 through Colorado. If you must drive this road, don’t. If you have no other choice, don’t drive this road. Buffalo, Wyoming, however, is a must-see. But only at night. During the Christmas season. With fresh snow. With all their lights are on. Then it’s a postcard-quality mountain town. Otherwise, I have no idea what it looks like.
8) One day, during His creator phase, God’s crew chief in charge of landscapes teased God, saying, “Sure, you can create beauty like nobody’s business, but can you create something that will make people say ‘meh’?” God laughed. “You mean something neither especially beautiful nor especially ugly?” responded He. ”Yes,” answered the crew chief. So God, in His infinite jest, set to work. As always, He outdid Himself, and so created the Texas Panhandle.
9) Betty averaged just over 15 mpg on this first leg of our journey. This was slightly better than what we’d been getting around home. With her relatively small tank, we can go 250 miles tops before needing a fill up. Driving through the night on these lonely roads, my rule was this. If you don’t think you can make the next big city on the gas in your tank, stop and fill up in the big city you are now in, no matter whether you need gas or not. No telling what you’ll find in between. This rule resulted in more gas stops than it would have otherwise. But, that was nice, as I got a breath from the relentless onslaught, got to stretch my legs, got to pee, and got to just catch my breath.
10) My right hip aches constantly while driving, the lasting leftover from my 2004 head on. Often I can ease that by using the cruise control, but I cannot use cruise control during any of the above-mentioned list of relentless conditions. Thus, the ache was constant, and I was forced to do such things as push hard against the floor with my left foot, or do a little butt-dance in my seat, or press against the ache with my hand, none of which really worked all that well.
11) People are generally good, and smile when you smile at them, and talk about themselves when you ask them questions, and help you when they can. This is important to remember.
12) There were two classes of vehicle I was envious of during our long drive. First, truck drivers in their 18-wheelers. They’re bad ass. They drive better, faster, and seemingly with far more ease than I, through any conditions. Second was people in really low-slung sporty cars like Corvettes and such. They, too, were making time we could not, and seemingly with ease. So we may just sell Betty in Florida, mail our belongings back home, and buy a sports car for the return trip. Weirder things have happened. The US is a huge place, and we may just have to accede to that fact, and stop trying to drive around it on long trips. I may be a beast, but I’m not sure I have another drive in me like the one we just did.
For now, we’re here, and this is what we’re doing, and our friends in Austin await.
Take care, peeps.
T
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0329s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kathie
non-member comment
Wild ride! 🫣😵💫
16 hours straight. Wow! I'm a bit of a beast when it comes to driving, but that sounds horrible! My joints ache just thinking about it. Here's hoping for clear skies and good weather for the remainder of your trip. Here's hoping I get to see you! ❤️