Catching up...
Feb. 2nd, 2010 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI don't remember the last time I had embarked on a trip between Houston and Pagosa so late in the day. Perhaps the time - back around '93 or so - when we drove as a family from Pagosa to St. Augustine, Florida. We left Pagosa between 1 pm and 2 pm, and made it as far as a sorry joint called the "Claude Hopper Inn" in Claude, Texas, just on the other side of Amarillo, by about 11 pm. The memory of that place brings goosebumps to the flesh.
Anyway, this "western route" has become my favorite route now, because between San Antonio and Ft. Stockton, the speed limit on I-10 was 80 mph (almost 130 kph). I started out at Kerrville at 7 am, and crossed the line from Texas into New Mexico on 285 going north at almost exactly noon. From end to end, driving the I-10/285/84 route may be about 20 miles longer than the "northern" route that includes I-45/287/I-40/285/84, but I'm not even sure it's that much.
The major excitement of the day came at the end, with our ever-lovin' driveway. The blessed thing is probably 200 yards long, and it bends to the right around 30 degrees just as it tilts up, so there's only so much momentum you can hit it with in a vehicle attempting to go up a surface with snow on it. The Ford came to a wheel-spinning stop about 30 feet from the top.
I tried to back down the driveway, but that bend is tricky, and I managed to nudge the side of the driveway, over where the 4-foot-high snowbank is. I went up to the house, grabbed a shovel and started digging, and eventually freed the vehicle up enough to attempt to back out of the driveway completely and try again.
A strange thing happened, though: In trying to rock out of where the van got stuck, it started to move forward, and at a pretty good clip, so I kept the accelerator floored, and the next thing I know, I'm at the garage and whooping and punching the air so hard, Shiloh began to look at me in canine alarm.
There's no food in the house, so I'll have to chance coming up the driveway again after going to the store for some basics.
One small job has already been done this morning, and another small job has just thudded in over the transom. Time to light a fire.
Cheers...
Anyway, this "western route" has become my favorite route now, because between San Antonio and Ft. Stockton, the speed limit on I-10 was 80 mph (almost 130 kph). I started out at Kerrville at 7 am, and crossed the line from Texas into New Mexico on 285 going north at almost exactly noon. From end to end, driving the I-10/285/84 route may be about 20 miles longer than the "northern" route that includes I-45/287/I-40/285/84, but I'm not even sure it's that much.
The major excitement of the day came at the end, with our ever-lovin' driveway. The blessed thing is probably 200 yards long, and it bends to the right around 30 degrees just as it tilts up, so there's only so much momentum you can hit it with in a vehicle attempting to go up a surface with snow on it. The Ford came to a wheel-spinning stop about 30 feet from the top.
I tried to back down the driveway, but that bend is tricky, and I managed to nudge the side of the driveway, over where the 4-foot-high snowbank is. I went up to the house, grabbed a shovel and started digging, and eventually freed the vehicle up enough to attempt to back out of the driveway completely and try again.
A strange thing happened, though: In trying to rock out of where the van got stuck, it started to move forward, and at a pretty good clip, so I kept the accelerator floored, and the next thing I know, I'm at the garage and whooping and punching the air so hard, Shiloh began to look at me in canine alarm.
There's no food in the house, so I'll have to chance coming up the driveway again after going to the store for some basics.
One small job has already been done this morning, and another small job has just thudded in over the transom. Time to light a fire.
Cheers...
