-=> Quoting Joe Mackey to Nancy Backus on 06-13-19  07:32 <=-

 >  JM> For the last five days its rained and stormed late afternoon/early
 >  JM> evening.
 > Wow... what marvelously consistent weather....!    Did things heat up
 > with the rain...?  

 JM> CO was pleasantly warm, in the 80s.
 JM> NM was a tad warmer. 
 JM> TX was in the triple digits, but I loved it.

Must have been a relatively dry heat in TX, then...?  Not sure that I
would have been very pleased with that sort of heat even so...

 JM> It got a little warmer for me when I wandered into Mexico without a
 JM> passport, but talked my way of that.

A different sort of warm... glad you're a facile talker...  
 
 > Was TX any different from CO and NM....?

 JM> Palm trees.  Palm trees everywhere!  

Never thought of palm trees being in TX... always thought of then being
more CA.... 
 
 > I trust that you are still having a fabulous time.... 

 JM> If not for traffic here and there.

Gotta take the bad with the good, I guess...  

 JM> Leaving Langtry, TX (home of Judge Roy Bean: the law west of the
 JM> Pecos) I manged to slip off the shoulder somehow, which was about four
 JM> inches lower than the pavement and busted a tyre.  (I mentioned that to
 JM> others in Del Rio and they all seemed to know exactly where it
 JM> happened). Used that simple small spare and limped into Del Rio, a
 JM> scheduled stop anyway.  The rental switched me to another car, and

Hmmm... wonder why they've not fixed a notorious road problem by now... 

 JM> found this has a slow leak in the right rear.  I've been driving (off
 JM> and on) over 50 years and have more problems with tyres this trip than
 JM> all that time before combined.

Just your luck, I guess....   

 JM> The other day I was in Houston and caught in the morning rush.  Six
 JM> lanes, going the speed limit of 75, being passed by everyone... I
 JM> somehow got in a line for an exit and wound up downtown.  Traffic
 JM> there was peaceful with a top speed of 35, more to my liking.  Then
 JM> found I was only a couple of blocks from the road I wanted.

How did you end up on the expressway (I'd guess a beltway of some sort?)
in the first place...?  A map of Houston would probably have helped you
avoid some of that.... or were you following someone else's directions
there....?

 JM> Texas interstates have a crazy system.  The enter and
 JM> exit lanes almost seem to run into one another with only a short
 JM> distance from an entry to an exit.  By the time you pull over to let
 JM> someone on you're at your exit and have to zip over again.  I think
 JM> this is what helps make interstate drivers crazy.

If I know that I'll be exiting at the next exit, I'll not move out of
that lane, just let the other driver merge in if possible, by slowing a
little, perhaps.... 

 JM> (I also have trouble with someone on my side where I want to turn,
 JM> get on/off, etc.  There is always someone there. I could be in the
 JM> middle of the desert at 2 a.m. and not another car for 50 miles until I
 JM> want to turn and that's when someone will be right beside me. 

As I said, you really need to get Murphy replaced from riding on your
car... your guardian angel would be a better bet... 

 JM> And don't get me started on tailgaters.  I'll have someone right on my
 JM> tail for miles and miles when they have all sorts of opportunities to
 JM> pass me.  One day I had a big black semi on my tail for miles, I could
 JM> count the fins on his radiator, and thoughts of the old movie Duel
 JM> came to mind.

I can imagine....  What can be about as bad is the car that comes up
behind you, zips past you, and then forgets where the accelerator pedal
is.... making you wish that there was a proper passing zone there, which
there rarely is....  ;0

 JM> Stopped for air in some small TX town and after paying $1.50
 JM> for air saw an Enterprise sign with the building tucked behind another
 JM> and with one ways streets, do not enter, etc it was tough getting
 JM> there.  I have to travel about two miles to get to a building that was
 JM> a block away.  I was told in essence to keep filling the tyre till I
 JM> got to a larger town. Yesterday in Alexandria, LA I was checking
 JM> Google maps for the direction to the Kent Plantation I wanted to visit
 JM> and there was a Enterprise place "not far away".  Never did find it. 

They're all mirages, ya know.... 

 JM> I crossed the Red River three times, up this road, down that one and
 JM> finally gave up. The low tyre pressure light came on yesterday and I
 JM> am determined this morning to find the one here in El Dorado, if I have
 JM> to drive in with it completely flat.  

And did you ever manage to track it down...?

ttyl        neb

... Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot.

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