Roadtrip 2000: Day 6 and 7
Day 6: The Long Haul to Texas
As I said earlier, I left Tucson, Arizona at about 10:00pm Central time. Nothing quite like going through a full day of playing around in the desert, and then leaving to go drive east for about 15 hours. That seemed like the longest 15 hours of my life! I did great all through the night. I thought that would be the hardest part, but the night was the easiest part. Now when the sun started coming up... that's a different story. I really started getting tired at sunrise.
Goodbye Joe and Laura...
... and goodbye Tucson. Time to move on to San Antonio.
Well the good news is, the Ranger did quite well on this leg of the trip. There wasn't much in the way of wind, so it was actually able to keep up with traffic. As a matter of fact, I was finally able to pass other cars! Finally, someone was going slower than I was!
Arzona was dark. New Mexico was dark. The sun finally peeked up above the horizon in Texas. By the time it was light, all the mountains had shrunk, and the topps had fallen off!
At this point, I was starting to have trouble staying focused. I'd been driving all through the night, and I was about ready for a rest. But... no time for that. Pull over, gas up, and take off again. By this time, towns are getting to be few and far between. Thats not a big deal unless you're in a Ford Ranger with a little 9 gallon gas tank. There was actually one stretch that was so far, that I had to pull over and empty my 5 gallon gas can into the gas tank just to make it to the next town!
A few things I noticed along the way...
- Texas is making good use of the wind on their huge open plains
- There's a Shell station along I10 that is run by some old bitch who get's really pissed when you try to pay for $10 worth of gas with a $100 bill.
- I10 doesn't ever end. It just goes on and on forever.
- Border partol doesn't check very thoroughly to see if you're smuggling Mexicans across the border.
- My Ranger has a habit of burning more than just gasoline... more specifically, oil!
- My left arm is REALLY sunburned!
- If mountains would adversely affect my gas milage, there will be mountains. Lots of them.
- There's lots of big bugs in Texas, and they're all flying straight twards my windshield!
- If you've been driving for 12 hours, and you have to drive another 3 1/2 before you reach your destination, the last three will seem like they took longer than the first 12.
- If you've been driving for 14 1/2 hours, and you only have one hour left to go, that last hour will NEVER END! IT WILL STRETCH ON FOREVER! YOU WILL NEVER REACH YOUR DESTINATION! GIVE UP AND TURN BACK NOW! YOU WILL DIE BEFORE YOU REACH THE END OF YOUR VOYAGE! THIS ROAD NEVER ENDS!!!
- Oh... it ended. um... nevermind.
When I arrived in San Antonio, what was the first thing I did? I got caught in a traffic jam. Gee... feels like home. I didn't miss it much.
I made my way to the hotel after what seemed like an eternity of driving and took a nap. I haven't seen Paula since early January. I was finally going to get to see her tonight! I think I'll leave out the details of this part of the trip...
Day 6 gave Day 7 amiss, and went straight to: Day 8
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