Landed in Pearland...
Jun. 16th, 2002 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpGalina may have misinterpreted my impatience to get on the road early yesterday morning, and we ended up having words before I left, which was around 9:45 am. I was troubled by how we had said goodbye, so I called the store once I got to Santa Fe and apologized (in conformance to Rule No. 1 of husband-wife relations). When Galina answered, she sounded pretty chipper and we ended the phone call with our usual mutual expressions of affection.
The big choice on trips like this is deciding which route to take, since I have a choice of three.
The traditional route, once I'm at Clines Corners, is to take I-40 east to Amarillo, then 287 down to Ennis, south of Dallas, and then I-45 south to Houston.
The next choice is marginally shorter, and involves getting off of I-40 at Santa Rosa, heading south on 84 to Ft. Sumner, and then east from there, past Clovis and then a whole bunch of towns in Texas (Lubbock, Abilene, Goldthwaite, Lampasas, etc.), with a home stretch along 290 from Austin to Houston.
The third choice is the longest, but simplest. It goes past I-40 at Clines Corners and heads south through Roswell, Carlsbad, and on to Pecos and Ft. Stockton, where you turn east along I-10 and don't stop until you get to Houston.
Since I was in dire need of footwear, and since I missed all the shoe outlets in Santa Fe, I decided to take I-45 to Amarillo, etc..
Everything went fairly well all the way to Amarillo. Drew's Honda is equipped with cruise control, which made I-40 through New Mexico a snap (80 mph all the way) and even going through Texas, I was able to maintain a respectable speed. I stopped and picked up a pair of sandals at a mall near Amarillo.
As I approached the 287 turnoff, I noticed some threatening clouds off to the north, on my left. Once on 287, a series of "emergency broadcast network" announcements began to interrupt my listening pleasure, warning area residents of a line of violent thunderstorms moving to the southeast at 40-45 mph. I could see the lightning flashes in my rear-view mirror, as I tooled to the southeast along 287 at 75 mph.
The announcements continued hot and heavy, interspersed so often that the station I was listening to (out of Quanah, Texas) could not successfully broadcast a single song in its entirety.
The thing that particularly concerned me about the storm was the part about "golf-ball sized hail and damaging winds." All I needed was to have Drew's car peened with dense ice balls traveling 60 mph or so in the vertical direction.
So I drove. Past Childress. Past Quanah. Past several other towns. Finally, when I got to Witchita Falls, I was pooped, and started looking for a motel. I spied a Motel 6, but the price for a night's stay was $45.99, or about fifty bucks once all the extras were taken care of. Yeow.
A Days Inn a few miles down the road wanted even more.
Eventually, I pulled into a picnic area and parked between a couple of 18-wheelers. As I got ready to snooze, the wind hit. Hard. Then the rain started.
The possibility of being swept away by a twister was balanced out by the fact that nobody was going to wander up to the car and try to mug me. Not in that rain and wind.
I woke at 6:30 am today.
More later.
Cheers...
P.S. Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there.
The big choice on trips like this is deciding which route to take, since I have a choice of three.
The traditional route, once I'm at Clines Corners, is to take I-40 east to Amarillo, then 287 down to Ennis, south of Dallas, and then I-45 south to Houston.
The next choice is marginally shorter, and involves getting off of I-40 at Santa Rosa, heading south on 84 to Ft. Sumner, and then east from there, past Clovis and then a whole bunch of towns in Texas (Lubbock, Abilene, Goldthwaite, Lampasas, etc.), with a home stretch along 290 from Austin to Houston.
The third choice is the longest, but simplest. It goes past I-40 at Clines Corners and heads south through Roswell, Carlsbad, and on to Pecos and Ft. Stockton, where you turn east along I-10 and don't stop until you get to Houston.
Since I was in dire need of footwear, and since I missed all the shoe outlets in Santa Fe, I decided to take I-45 to Amarillo, etc..
Everything went fairly well all the way to Amarillo. Drew's Honda is equipped with cruise control, which made I-40 through New Mexico a snap (80 mph all the way) and even going through Texas, I was able to maintain a respectable speed. I stopped and picked up a pair of sandals at a mall near Amarillo.
As I approached the 287 turnoff, I noticed some threatening clouds off to the north, on my left. Once on 287, a series of "emergency broadcast network" announcements began to interrupt my listening pleasure, warning area residents of a line of violent thunderstorms moving to the southeast at 40-45 mph. I could see the lightning flashes in my rear-view mirror, as I tooled to the southeast along 287 at 75 mph.
The announcements continued hot and heavy, interspersed so often that the station I was listening to (out of Quanah, Texas) could not successfully broadcast a single song in its entirety.
The thing that particularly concerned me about the storm was the part about "golf-ball sized hail and damaging winds." All I needed was to have Drew's car peened with dense ice balls traveling 60 mph or so in the vertical direction.
So I drove. Past Childress. Past Quanah. Past several other towns. Finally, when I got to Witchita Falls, I was pooped, and started looking for a motel. I spied a Motel 6, but the price for a night's stay was $45.99, or about fifty bucks once all the extras were taken care of. Yeow.
A Days Inn a few miles down the road wanted even more.
Eventually, I pulled into a picnic area and parked between a couple of 18-wheelers. As I got ready to snooze, the wind hit. Hard. Then the rain started.
The possibility of being swept away by a twister was balanced out by the fact that nobody was going to wander up to the car and try to mug me. Not in that rain and wind.
I woke at 6:30 am today.
More later.
Cheers...
P.S. Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there.
