Road Trips
- Thread starter busdriver
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Batman
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I've done plenty of 20-hour-plus trips driving from New Jersey to Louisiana for the annual back-to-school trip in college. Worst was one year my mother and I did the trip non-stop (about 23 hours). We got home about 2 p.m., and first thing I saw was our yard had grass about two feet high. My dad had apparently been sick (or drunk) and unable to cut it for a few weeks. I was incredibly pissed.
So, despite being dead tired, I spent an hour cleaning beer bottles, broken glass, old hobo pants and assorted crap from the yard (enough to fill a shopping cart that was also laying around), then another hour cutting it. All the while, I was seething and wanted to fight my dad. What a family we had.
Also have done several multi-day trips for vacation. In college, the dorm closed for a week during spring break so I drove from Baton Rouge to Phoenix to kill time. In El Paso, I got the brilliant idea to go to Mexico just to say I'd been there. On the way across the border, my car overheats. On a Sunday.
A horde of Mexican cab drivers wanders over in a futile attempt to help fix my car. At one point, one of them laughs, points at the engine and says "El Junke", thus earning the car its nickname forever more. One of the cabbies and his english-speaking wife take me on a scenic tour of Juarez for 10 minutes trying to find an auto parts store. Cost: $40. At least the guy's kids, who were sitting in the backseat with me, ate well that night.
After that, I spent the next 14 hours alternately freaking out, wandering into El Paso to look for an auto parts store, unsuccessfully trying to fix the car, and meandering back and forth across the border like some sort of reverse illegal immigrant. This was 1997, before cheap cell phones, and the nearest pay phone was a block from the border crossing in El Paso.
The ordeal started at noon. At 8 p.m., it was getting dark so I called a tow truck. At 2 a.m., after six hours and increasingly annoyed hourly calls to the towing company, the wrecker finally arrives -- with a mexican driver who doesn't speak english and has glittery Jesus stickers covering up most of the gauges on his dash board.
Following a hilarious game of charades with he and a mexican border agent to show them where the car is, we get the car towed back across the border and to a dealership in El Paso. Best $75 I ever spent. By the time I got to the dealership it was after 3 a.m., and I just slept in the backseat until the place opened.
After getting the car fixed, I continued on to Phoenix, with a stop in Tucson for a spring training game. Great seats along the third base line, but also the worst sunburn of my life. The skin started peeling and cracking two days later, and pulled leg hairs every time it did it. Just awful, awful pain.
And that was just three days into the trip.
The rest of the week was boring, since I had no real plan other than to drive around Arizona. I was so bored, one day I drove from Phoenix to Blythe, Calif., just to cross California off my 50-state list.
Worst. Vacation. Ever.
So, despite being dead tired, I spent an hour cleaning beer bottles, broken glass, old hobo pants and assorted crap from the yard (enough to fill a shopping cart that was also laying around), then another hour cutting it. All the while, I was seething and wanted to fight my dad. What a family we had.
Also have done several multi-day trips for vacation. In college, the dorm closed for a week during spring break so I drove from Baton Rouge to Phoenix to kill time. In El Paso, I got the brilliant idea to go to Mexico just to say I'd been there. On the way across the border, my car overheats. On a Sunday.
A horde of Mexican cab drivers wanders over in a futile attempt to help fix my car. At one point, one of them laughs, points at the engine and says "El Junke", thus earning the car its nickname forever more. One of the cabbies and his english-speaking wife take me on a scenic tour of Juarez for 10 minutes trying to find an auto parts store. Cost: $40. At least the guy's kids, who were sitting in the backseat with me, ate well that night.
After that, I spent the next 14 hours alternately freaking out, wandering into El Paso to look for an auto parts store, unsuccessfully trying to fix the car, and meandering back and forth across the border like some sort of reverse illegal immigrant. This was 1997, before cheap cell phones, and the nearest pay phone was a block from the border crossing in El Paso.
The ordeal started at noon. At 8 p.m., it was getting dark so I called a tow truck. At 2 a.m., after six hours and increasingly annoyed hourly calls to the towing company, the wrecker finally arrives -- with a mexican driver who doesn't speak english and has glittery Jesus stickers covering up most of the gauges on his dash board.
Following a hilarious game of charades with he and a mexican border agent to show them where the car is, we get the car towed back across the border and to a dealership in El Paso. Best $75 I ever spent. By the time I got to the dealership it was after 3 a.m., and I just slept in the backseat until the place opened.
After getting the car fixed, I continued on to Phoenix, with a stop in Tucson for a spring training game. Great seats along the third base line, but also the worst sunburn of my life. The skin started peeling and cracking two days later, and pulled leg hairs every time it did it. Just awful, awful pain.
And that was just three days into the trip.
The rest of the week was boring, since I had no real plan other than to drive around Arizona. I was so bored, one day I drove from Phoenix to Blythe, Calif., just to cross California off my 50-state list.
Worst. Vacation. Ever.
A
alleyallen
Guest
busdriver said:
I do indeed remember that night.
Armchair_QB
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busdriver said:
Is she currently staying at the women's pen in Gatesville?
OTD
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Blythe sucks . . . even the Denny's and McDonald's there are crappier than usual.
I admit to driving from Pittsburgh to Weirton, W.Va., to cross West Virginia off my list. Lunch at the DQ . . . . mmmmmm--Grease!
However, Weirton is much nicer than Blythe.
Songbird
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I'm thinking of taking a roadie to Portsmouth tomorrow night for a hoops playoff game, but a foot of snow is on the way sometimes around midnight, they say, and I don't want to get caught between the moon and New York City if the storm arrives earlier. The team should lose but could win.
Songbird
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OTD said:
Really cute waitress at the Blythe Denny's when I passed through once. The splittin' image of an ex-girlfriend. Imagine being the sportswriter who covers Blythe and has to take those massive 200-mile road trips just to cover a league game.
Batman
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Songbird said:
Might be lucrative if you get paid mileage. As long as you stay out of the way of that damn roadrunner, you're fine. ****in' bird zips by like he owns the road.
And speaking of roadrunners, anybody been through west Texas on I-10? Anybody ever stop and say hi to Pecos Pete in Fort Stockton? I'm a sucker for stuff like that.
A
Angola!
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OTD said:
Who in the hell is Pecos Pete and why isn't he in Pecos instead of Fort Stockton?
A
Angola!
Guest
I drove from Idaho to Texas in 3 days. I was in a budget truck 16-footer towing a car and could only go about 60 the entire way. I really enjoyed Wyoming and the Texas panhandle where the wind was raging.
The Boise to Seattle trip is about 9 hours, that is the longest I have done alone and it is really boring in eastern Oregon on I-84 where the speed limit is 65 and there are state troopers everywhere.
I was going to drive from Texas to Oregon this summer in 2 days, but that trip is pending.
The Boise to Seattle trip is about 9 hours, that is the longest I have done alone and it is really boring in eastern Oregon on I-84 where the speed limit is 65 and there are state troopers everywhere.
I was going to drive from Texas to Oregon this summer in 2 days, but that trip is pending.
Batman
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Angola! said:
Pecos Pete is this giant, 20-foot tall fiberglass roadrunner statue in downtown Fort Stockton. Just one of those kitschy, roadside attraction things, and since you almost HAVE to stop in Fort Stockton anyway (seeing as how it's the only town for 300 miles), it's worth a looksee if you're into that sort of thing.
I guess he's called "Pecos" because the town is near the Pecos River. Last time I was through there was about 10 years ago. I hope he's still there.
OK I had so much trouble getting on here for a while but I did go on my trip and it was not the greatest and I will not be making the trip again. Not that the person was bad but it was other things that happened and I said my goodbyes and did not look back. However I missed the cold one in mound with Flip simply because I could not get on here. but thanks for the stories.
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