Sometime on Monday or Tuesday I decided I would go to Texas, Dallas to be exact. So I had to get get things in order to take off. I had done this drive twice before. The first time I was alone and the second I was with my dad and sister. Like the first time this was going to be a solo mission. Those times I had taken the 8 to the 10 to the 20 to the 30 etc. This time leaving from LA I decided on taking the 210 to the 15 to the 40 which took me out of Ca through Northern Az and NM into Tx. Traveling through the North I figured I might see some snow. I had no idea how much I would actually see. I left LA at 2:15pm. Traffic was terrible everybody was on the road. It took about 3 hours to get out to the 40. I should have taken about 2 hour, if that.
Socal drivers can't handle the rain.
Everybody and their mama driving out to Vegas on the 15.
Now I have seen snow once in my adult life. It was in Julian and it wasn't anything like I was about to see. Maybe an hour outside of Flagstaff, Az I started to see road side snow. It was nice change in the rather dark scenery. At first the snow was only on the side of the road in the brush. Then it started showing up on the shoulder and before I knew it there was a little on the road where the tires weren't rolling over. There were signs that said "Caution Winter Driving Conditions Ahead." As I said before I had only seen snow once before and nothing like this. So driving in these kinds of conditions were something I had no experience with what so ever. Luckily my Element has all wheel drive. However my sports tires don't really help out in the snow. After more driving the signs started to change stating that black ice was present. I at least knew what this was and after a little while began to feel the effects. The AWD was kicking in but I still felt uneasy about driving. The car felt like it wanted to slide around the road but was somehow not dancing on me. That's when I knew I better take it easy and slow down. Then passing a stretch of about 200 yards with police SUV's there were at least 4 cars and trucks that had either driven into ditches, turned around or had flipped. That's when I knew I better not press my luck. Shortly after that. It really started to snow to where I was having a hard time seeing. My queue to pull off the road and sleep for the night. What hotel did I stop at you say? The Element Lodge of course. Now I don't know if I am stupid or crazy or both, but I slept in the back of my car at a rest stop.
Good thing I brought boots with me!
A lil idea of what it looked like when I finally pulled over for the night.
The rest stop I pulled over at.
As I left in the early morning from the rest stop.
The smart part of me decided to bring my down comforter. If not for that I would have froze to death. It was so cold in my car. As long as I was under the blanket though I was good. Tossing a bit in the night was sure to wake me as the new spot I was sleeping in was ice cold.
I had pulled over around 12:30am PST and was only able to sleep until around 5:30. After letting the car warm up to clear the ice from the windshield I started my journey again. Black ice was still present for an hour or so. I was now greeted with a new obstacle; sleet from the road drying on my windshield. After stopping for the night my windshield washer fluid was now frozen so I had to stop the car to clean it every so often. Luckily I had water to pour on the windshield to clean it.
New Mexico maybe?
The rest of the drive to Dallas was pretty uneventful. That was until I got a ticket it a small town. I got caught doing 82 in a 70. I really do need to get a radar detector. Anyways I got into Frisco, where my bros live, around 9:30pm Central Time. We just hung out for a while. Nico was playing his guitar while Mike was playing his bass. This NYE was really low key which is the way things are going lately. Friday was chill, we went to Guitar Center so Nico could get a new guitar strap. That night we started our Risk game. We always play and so far this game has been going on for 4 days. Maybe we will be able to finish tonight.
My bros the musicians.
