Atrocious
Have you ever made an atrocious drive, one where you had a super-long stretch in both highway and duration behind the wheel? It is something everyone has to go through sometime in their life to test their mettle.
For me, two come to mind. Way back when, I had to drive from Monterey, California to San Angelo, Texas, which is located in the western part of that state. This was during my army days, and they gave me a week to do it. I was traveling with an army buddy who had to go to the same place. I stopped off here in Bakersfield to visit the family for a couple of days, and then made it over to Las Vegas. Somewhere in between, my buddy tells me that his leave ends a day earlier than mine. So, I have one less day to get to Texas and two days total to get to that state.
We left Vegas at 1PM after staying the night and traveled straight through. At the time, my buddy didn’t know how to drive a stick shift vehicle so that left me to do all of the driving. We traveled down through Arizona, stopped at a Ruby Tuesday’s for food in Phoenix, and continued on. I stopped in El Paso at about 0400 the next morning. I thought, “Hey, I’m in Texas, might as well keep going.” It was my first time driving to the Lonestar State. Little did I know that San Angelo was another eight hours away. Eight hours of desolate Interstate 10 playing tricks on my mind. We made it safe but that was a monster drive, about twenty-four hours.
A couple of years ago, I drove with a close family friend to Oklahoma to visit her family. The trip was spur of the moment, only a day or two between first mention and getting on the road. Before leaving, we already planned to make a mission out of it: get to Oklahoma ASAP without screwing around. We left Bakersfield at 2200 with me taking the first driving shift.
I drove until just past Flagstaff, and then switched off. By this time fatigue was starting to set in for my driving companion and me. We continued to switch off, taking I-25 north at Albuquerque to avoid the treacherous winter conditions near Amarillo on I-40. It snowed along I-25. We planned on taking this back road in NE New Mexico that leads straight into the Oklahoma panhandle. We figured we could speed out assess off and make some good time. However, as we got on that road, the heater broke, and the roads were icy. The temperature outside was 14 degrees. It looked like purgatory out there, gloomy and gray. It took us 2.5 hours to make it 70 miles. We stopped off in Clayton, New Mexico to stay the night and get the heater repaired the next morning. We could’ve frozen to death out on Rte. 412 (or is it 442?) with worse luck.
After spending six days in Oklahoma, we had better luck with weather. However, that just meant that we gutted our way back to Bakersfield. We left OKC at 5:30PM, and got back to Bakersfield at 1PM the next day. No stopping except for gas and a 2AM breakfast at an Indian gaming casino right outside of Albuquerque. That was a rough drive. After the sun goes down and then comes up again, you get loopy. I was downing so much coffee I thought I’d get kidney failure. When you get across the non-descript California border, you think that it is only a couple of more hours, then you realize that it is actually four more. Along highway so bland it rivals that stretch of Texan I-10.
Those are my two atrocious driving stories. Maybe my buddy Adam will post and tell us how he drove from Tuscon to Maryland alone in two days. Rough.
April 27th, 2006 at 15:01
Dude..I have driven across country three times..alone..well if you count a 10 year old as a person..which I don;t…they cant friggin drive.
I have driven from San Diego to Corpus Christi..that was abitch let me tell ya..so I know of which you speak in regards to the shithole lonely highways of texas..not to mention their billboards spelling out the fines for speeding every 10 friggin miles..
April 27th, 2006 at 16:07
Texas is full of lonely highways that you want to speed on. The same buddy I drove there with got a ticket for driving 90MPH when there were no other cars around.
I forget that I was in TX the last (only) time I went to OK. All I remember is the gigantic porn shop in Amarillo right off of I-40 and the rest stop directly inside of NM.
April 27th, 2006 at 23:01
Actually, I drove Ft. Huachuca-Ft. Meyer, VA leg in two and a half days because I wanted to stop early in New Mexico to catch the 2000 Democratic Convention; I think Lieberman was speaking that night (I’m a political junkie and sucker for those conventions!) The next night I spent in Texas. It took a whole day of driving through TX, still didn’t make it through. On the last night, I think I slept in my truck at the first rest stop in VA (I thought Virginia was for lovers…and it truly is if you have some free time at a rest stop in VA!)
April 28th, 2006 at 0:31
Now, forever documented.
One of the more atrocious drives I’ve heard.
April 29th, 2006 at 7:35
Texas is definitely a “two day state” if you are driving cross-country.
I drove from Houston to the middle of Ohio non-stop one time. (about 1250 miles) and from Houston to and from Georgia numerous times, all non-stop.
The thing to remember if you get a ticket in Texas is that it is a two year statute of limitations. If you don’t plan on going back through Texas for two years, don’t worry about it
April 29th, 2006 at 9:24
Ken,
That’s an excellent tip. Everyone ends up in Texas sometime…
April 29th, 2006 at 11:26
Dangit, Ken beat me to it.
Also, if you’re traveling West to East, stop in Odessa or anywhere in Central Texas that had a roadside motel. Do not try to push on to San Antonio. It’s only 2½ hours from SA to Houston, and Houston is only 2 hours from Louisiana, so it’s not that insane.
Of course people who live in “normal” states calculate the 4-6 hour drive for those two towns and remember thats the distance of their entire state.
Either way, if going from East to West, push past San Antonio as far as you can, but again, don’t push it. People are NEVER prepared for how long it takes to drive this span of the Lone Star State. It’s enough to make you quit road trips forever if you try the SA to El Paso drive enough times.
April 29th, 2006 at 11:41
Let’s see - it took me 8 hours to get from El Paso to San Angelo in West Texas. From San Angelo to Arlington for a Rangers game, it took me five hours. I seem to remember that it is 3 hrs from San Angelo to San Antonio. From San Antonio, according to Bates, it is 4. 5 hrs to Louisiana.
8+3+5= 16 hours. Is that about right? Probably so if you dont stop to take a leak, crap, or get some food. 16 hours if hauling ass.
April 29th, 2006 at 20:37
It took me about fifteen hours from odessa to houston, nonstop through dallas. but if you are going from dallas to texarkana it’s probably about the same. Of course, you could go north instead and come up through paris, tx to oklahoma and i believe that goes straight up to OKC.
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:57
Nice post! It brings back the memories!