Road Trip


This time, coming home, we elected to drive. A simple 19-hour drive from Colorado Springs to Paso Robles, in36 hours... Yeah, we're ambitious. Of course, that's part of why we sacked out at 8:30 p.m. California time... after 12.5 hours in the car Saturday.

Still, it was my first time driving through New Mexico, which oddly has settled on "The Land of Enchantment" as its slogan, and Arizona. That and a good chunk of California. Below are some thoughts.

* Calfornia's road suck. Not only did California have the worst condition highways, with the worst probably being one in Bakersfield as we passed through, it has the most restrictive speed limits. During one stretch on the 1-40, which was newly paved, the speed limit was 60 MPH. Then, when the road transitioned to poorly paved and bumpy, the speed limit increased to 70 MPH. Yeah, that's balanced.

* People are terrible drivers. All throughout the trip (and I drove 850-900 miles in two days) people would speed up to a ridiculous degree, swing right past me, then exit almost immediately. Yes, the three seconds faster you got off the freeway will certainly benefit you in the long run. That terrible traffic move is well worth it.

* Busses and trucks are hazardous. I was nearly taken off the road a few times by weaving trucks and a passenger bus that tried to move into my lane while I was still occupying it. That was exciting...

* There are some neat things to see. You think of Arizona and New Mexico as more dessert areas, but there were a lot of fun things to see along the path. Having gone the other way last year — through Nevada and Utah — I enjoyed this more.

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