Road trip diary

[takza]

The Dallas/Fort Worth area, with all the suburbes was like one giant city. We even drove right though Arlington Texas, I noticed on the trip that every state seemed to have an Arlington, the name of the little town I live in WA. This part of Texas is very built-up, with many tall buildings and modern highways, I was very impressed with it all. It all looked so prosperous and busy, I could see no sign of a recession here.

Texas gave us Bush/Cheney and 8 yrs of oil wars....a lot of $$ disappeared during those 8 yrs...maybe a lot of it ended up in Texas? Not to mention the recent high oil prices.

[terceldude]

It just gets better and better!

[Petros]

Tisk, tisk, tisk, Takza. You need to get over Bush (and Cheny was not from Texas), they are long gone and they had nothing to do with the success of Texas. The reason Texas is doing so well is no mystery. They have one of the lowest overall tax rates in the US. And all of the successful businesses and wealthy people are leaving states with high taxes and moving to low tax states. Places like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, etc. are seeing all the wealth and jobs leave their state for places like Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, and so forth. Houston is the number one city in job creation right now. A large employer in Seattle, Food Services of America (they deliver restaurant supplies), left Seattle a few years ago and went to Arizona, and it is now the 3rd largest employer in that state. They became more successful by leaving their home state. This just shows that if you punish successful people with high taxes, they will just go away, and all the jobs they create go with them. Will our illustrius law makers ever learn?

I had a whole day's diary almost ready to post, with lots of pictures, and my system crashed!! Now I do not have time to reenter it. So it will have to wait for another day. Sorry everyone.

[Petros]

I am finally adding the narrative of the trip to these pictures I posed earlier.

Friday January 8th, 2010:

I was hoping to make it to the Los Angles are , where my parents live, in one long day. It is about 20-22 hours of driving, and I have done that before. It would save me the cost of accommodations, give me a nice visit with the folks, and it would be an easy 2 day drive up the coast back to the Seattle area. Which is also a LOT warmer than taking the inland route (even if about 4-5 hours less road time).

Of course I did not get off as early as I would have liked. A nice breakfast, and good by to our guests, and my daughter, always takes longer than I plan. But at least I got a good rest in a real bed, which I was very grateful for having at the half way point in the trip. I started driving westbound out of Autsin on hwy 290, these are stat hwys and it takes you through the local towns, but between the towns it is wide open and most of the local drive really fast.


heading west at last out of Austin on hwy 290. Notice the excellent roads and the nice wide shoulders. Typical south/central Texas geography.

The first town of the drive west was Johnson City, the home of Former President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was a bit before my time, though I am old enough to just remember him, I do not remember much about his administration. According to the reading I have done, he was not a pleasant man to be around. Very demanding and he could be quite abusive to his staff. He also made a number of severe mistakes during his administration. The most infamous was getting the US involved in Viet Nam (which President Kennedy after him expanded greatly). So it appears that sometimes even Democrats are "war mongers" as well as Republicans.


First town along hwy 290. Johnson City, Texas. Home of Former President Lyndon B. Johnson.

It seemed along the hwy there are all kinds of "historic" markers, pioneers' homes, places where significant battles were fought, and so fourth. I sometimes find these interesting to stop at, but unfortunately not today. So all I could do was take pictures of the more interesting sites from the car as I drove past.


One of the more interesting pieces of "public art" in Johnson City, TX

The next town was a little burg called Fredricsburg. It was founded by a group of German immigrants before TX was even a state. It is named after Prince Fredric of Prussia, who apparently, like many European monarchs, hoped to make territorial claims in North America by funding colonies of German citizens in unclaimed territories. The kept their German style architecture, their language, their religion and of course their citizenship, even into Texas brief period of independence. Once Texas became a state they finally started teaching their children English. I guess since they became US citizens they figured they better fit in with their new nationality. The German influence was very evident to this day, as you can see in the pictures.


Next stop historic Fedricsburg. A town founded by German immigrants in 1846 named after Price Fedric of Prussia. Grunt in the town square in front of the original town hall, now a library.


Giant German candle toy in the town square (near where I finally found working public restrooms, at last!)

I got gas in Fedrisburg, and checked the oil and air in the tires. But the restrooms were not working at the gas station because the water pipes were frozen (I guess they are not used to getting that much freezing weather in this part of the state). There was this attractive and slim middle aged woman running the booth at the little gas stop. She looked like a classic "cowboy's" wife. Dress in a black cowboy hat, close fitting black jeans with a real snake skin belt, black denium jacket and of course the pointy toed "shit kicker" boots. She had very blond strait hair and a tanned complexion as if she spent a lot of time outdoors. And best of all she had this classic "Texas" accent, that I found very cute and endearing. This type of accent is unfortunately noticeably absent now a days from most of the state, especially in the cities where we have visited. We chatted a bit about Texas, and I asked her that I have noticed that in different parts of Texas the locals have different ways of pronouncing the name of the adult beverage brewed from hopes and barley. She asked what I meant, I said "in some places in Texas they call it 'burr', and in other places in Texas I have heard people call it 'barr', how do you say it?" She said "I call it beeer!" Hah!, so that makes a third way. I wish I got her picture, people like her make road trips like this a lot of fun.


Old town Fedricsburg


one of the many beautiful churches built by the German immigrants of Fedricsburg in the 1800's

Soon after I found a working restroom (all those energy drinks I need to stay alert on the road take their toll on my bladder, fortunately my bladder can hold it for the same time it takes to consume one tank of gas in Grunt, making gas stops important for another reason!). I was back on the hwy west bound and soon I joined back up with Interstate 10 toward El Paso. Now I am heading into the classic west Texas desert, wide open with long straight stretches of hwy. Even the speed limit signs were amazing, the limit was 80 mph! I have never seen that before, I took a picture of one below just to show you guys.


Back on the Interstate going west in south central Texas. Notice the speed limit! I have never seen one that high before.

That little engine in Grunt could hardly keep up, it was really screaming with the 4.1:1 final drive too. Going "only" 80 mph in west Texas means everyone else will be passing you, even the big rig trucks will be passing you. So I tried to stay up with traffic here by driving between 85 and 88 mph, and I was still getting passed occationally. Druing one stretch of near empty interstate I thought I would do the traditional thing when driving through west Texas, and just see how fast my car would go if I hold my foot all the way to the floor. So it took a while for the speed to build up, and the speedo maxed out at about 94 mph! See the picture below as proof. I do not know how much tire slip there would be, but everything felt good.


So I tested Grunt's top speed (like everyone else does when driving through Texas). Evidence of top speed reached in Grunt. I was still being passed even with my foot to the floor!

But I did not keep it there for long. The old cracked tires were a bit of a worry, but it was still below freezing out so at least they would not over heat. I also noticed the temp was starting to climb to little above half way, so I let off the gas and let it slow down. I also turned the heater on high. The temp climbed it bit more, but it was well below the red zone, and than began to drop. Oh crap! I still have that stupid vise grip on the upper radiator hose! And than I smelled antifreeze. Oh no, I still had a lot of miles to go today. I should have changed the thermostat last night!!! I bought one in Colorado and have it with me, why didn't I. shoulda, shoulda, shouda! I know why, I was very tired and wanted to get to bed early, I figured the vise grip had worked just fine so far. So I let it coast to a stop way off the roadway on the gravel should. I got out to open the hood and let it cool off a bit. The steam was coming from the coolant recovery tank, so it was blowing out coolant from the cap. After it cooled a bit I slowly opened the cap (using gloves) and let it blow off some more. I do not understand, it did not get that hot, the temp was only about 2/3 of the way up the gauge. Hopefully it is not that bad and I can still drive it. I once drove my own Tercel for a year with a leaky head gasket by just adding water every few days. I just could not imagine having to do a head gasket change out in the open, or in a parts store parking lot. I hope not, and I was not about to abandon Grunt now. Two days later I learned why the head gasket blew, which you will read about later.

As it cooled I inspected a home made road side memorial where apparently some was once killed, and I looked out at the desert view, ate a snack, fiddled with my tools. I had lots of water with me, so once cool, I topped it up and started it to see if there was any damage. It seemed to start and run normal. Good! Just than a Texas Dept. of Transportation service truck stopped to see if I needed help. The guys driving it were real kind, I told them I was losing coolant for some reason but it seemed to be running okay. They ask if I needed any water, and I said no I have plenty, but thanks for stopping. I got back on the hwy for a number of miles and it drove fine, I now kept my eye on the temp constantly, and kept the speed down to "only" 80 mph. I made the next rest stop to check the water again to see how fast I was using it.


Trouble after that high speed run, now adding water. I guess I should have removed the vise-grip sooner. Notice the wagon wheel shade structure behind Grunt, the most unique sun shade in a rest stop I have ever seen.

Well, not too bad. I took off the vise grip of course, and also took the paper out from in front of the radiator to get maximum cooling effect. The cooler I can keep it the less water it will consume. By the next time I needed gas, some 200 miles more, it only used about 2 quarts more water. I was watching the temp gauge like a hawk, but this appeared like I can get home this way. I added a $3 can of stop leak at the next gas stop (a lone Chevron station in the middle of nowhere, and the price of gas was the highest I paid for the whole trip; $2.99/gal). I thought I would see if the stop leak will slow the coolant consumption, these usually do nothing for a a bad head gasket. But it was worth a try. But everything was now back to normal, even if it was consuming bit of water, it was drivable with no noticeable effect. During the rest of the day, and the next, I found I only had to add about 1 to 2 quarts of water to the radiator at each gas stop, so it never got low enough to cause it to over heat. Good thing this was not a summer trip, I would really hate to have to run the heater to keep the temp down in the summer! Something also interesting about the last tank of gas, it was the worst economy I got on the whole trip, only 24 mpg. Those high speeds really kill the economy, but it gets you there in a hurry (if it were not for the several unplanned coolant stops!). I was not too far behind schedule, but it did not look like I was going to make it to Los Angeles until tomorrow morning. I supposed I could find a rest stop to get a few hours of sleep, I had my sleeping bag.


Interesting "solar" home in West Texas outside of El Paso. Notice how the geography and vegetation has changed from Central Texas. Texas is one big state, this was over 8 hours high speed drive from Austin, and I was still a ways from the western state line!

I was really enjoying the desert scenery, and the names of the towns I was passing brought back memories of the great old western movies I grew up on. Road signs to towns like Abilene, Eldorado, Sonora, Ozono, Pecos, Fort Stockton, Sierra Blanca, Esperanza (I love the way that name rolls of the tongue!), and of course El Paso. I felt like I was driving through time, back into the old west. Most of the smaller towns looked little changed, except for the power lines and the large number of rusting trucks laying about them

The sun was setting as I was approaching El Paso, I was a bit disappointed that I would not see it in day light. The name alone ("the pass") conjured up all kinds of western images in my minds eye. I was looking forward to dusty streets and old wood storefront buildings, and beautiful women in long dresses and bonnets, and friendly guys in tall hats and pointy toed boots carrying six guns on their hips. I could hardly wait to get there and take it all in.

Interstate 10 westbound follows the Rio Grande ("big river") for a ways, and I could south across into Mexico. How unfortunate for those people right across the river, the homes and villages looked really poor, while on this side of the river the homes were grand, and cars and trucks we drove were shinny and modern (except for Grunt of course, perhaps I would look more in place on the other side of the border?). Also tragic was the horrendous crime in the Mexican border towns, as the economy softened, the drug dealers in Mexico started an open warfare for territory because of their dwindling income, hence all the violence you have all heard about just across the border. For the first time in history we have taken Mexican refugees into the US because of the violence just across the border. We are all fortunate to live in a prosperous country with mostly competent law enforcement. I never felt in any danger at anywhere I traveled in the USA, even when only a few klicks from one of the most lawless places on the earth. The traffice became very heavy as I got closer to the city limits, and now I am there, I am thrilled.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of El Paso since it was dark by the time I arrived about 7:30 pm. Consider that I have been on the road now for 11 hours, and I am still in the same state! I made it only from Austin to El Paso, and I did not lose that much time putting water in my radiator (perhaps 45 min in all, and I also drove very fast most of the way too). I was disappointed to find El Paso a very large modern city with shopping malls, sprawling subdivisions of nice newer homes, high rise offices and similar infrastructure you will find in Anycity, USA. And heavy automobile traffic too, not a horse nor a cowboy to be seen anywhere. I did not need day light to see the city, it was all alight from the street lights, bill boards, and high rise buildings. It was anticlimactic, oh well. I needed gas anyway, and badly to empty my bladder, and something to eat. I found a cheap place for gas, and I had to wait in line to use the rest room (I was NOT comfortable at all!). But I made it without wetting myself. On my way back to the Interstate I passed a popular Texas burger chain called Whataburger. I wanted to try one, so I went through the drive-through. It was not bad, but not as good as I hoped. This was only the second, and last, prepared meal I would buy on the trip. Eating out adds a lot of cost, and it takes a lot of time too. So we avoided it for the most part and I do not regret it.

After El Paso hwy 10 turns north toward New Mexico and away from the international boarder. By now it fully dark and I was a disappointed to not be able to get a good look at the Rio Grande as I passed over it at Las Cruses ("the crossing"?), New Mexico. In Texas I passed over a lot of large dry washes that were identified as "rivers", some even had a bit of stagnate, boggy water in them. And this was in January! It is hard to imagine all those dry washes, they call rivers in Texas, ever having much water in them at all. Of course in Western Washington state where I live, our rivers are very large and full of water from bank to bank. Many of our "creeks" carry more water in the summer than the rivers in Texas do in January. So I wanted to actually see the water in the Rio Grande for myself. Not on this trip, I think I caught a slight glint of the surface down in the darkness as I passed over the bridge.

I continued westward through the mountainous region of New Mexico and eventually reached the Arizona state line. I wanted to make up as much time as possible, but of course avoid the attention of law enforcement. My strategy for this was two fold, one and the most obvious, always make sure you are not the fastest car on the hwy (and in Texas that is easy anyway), but in New Mexico and Arizona the limit was lower, and it was dark. There is also an old saying among the traffic cops about driving over the speed limit. Most give you some leeway, just to make sure you are well over the limit before they cite you, and to make sure the ticket will not be contested. They say "at 9 you are fine, but at 10 your mine!", meaning you get busted at 10 over the limit. Some small towns of course use their radar guns to generate revenue for their city at only 4 or 5 over, so beside slowing down at all little towns, I also have a 4-band radar detector. It helps keep the trip cost down, I bought it at a garage sale for only $4, and it works great. I do not make a habit of speeding (of course you cant much in a Tercel anyway), but I just like to have an "early warning" system to let me know where the cops are, especially a long way from home. The reason I bring this up here is because I kept getting a lot of strange wavering signals is a band I have never seen law enforcement ever use. I was driving among a lot large long haul trucks the whole night, and my signal indicator kept pegging out as if I was right in the beam of a radar speed measuring device. But I never saw a police car even once. I did notice however that the signal would spike as I pass some of the large trucks. They must be using some kind of tracking system that gives off a signal I was picking up. Many of the heavy hauling companies can track their drivers using GPS, but I never heard it giving off false signals in the police bands. It seems this would interfere with law enforcement's ability to generate revenue. I finally turned off the detector and put it away, the signals were getting annoying.

I called my parents to tell them where I was, and when I expected to arrive. They of course were concerned that I stay awake and safe during an all night drive. I said I did not want to, but if I must I can pull over and sleep since I had overnight gear with me. I said I was coming up to Tucson within the next hour, and that is when my mother told me that one of my sisters was living in Tucson right now. Really? Since when? Her and her husband had been unemployed for a while and they just recently moved there to look for work, my sisters husband's family is from Tucson. I said great! Give me the number and I will call her. So I arrived at my sisters place in Tucson about midnight. I had a place to stay, and a great but short visit with my sister and her husband in the morning. I had not seen her for several years, so it was a great coincidence, and the last place I would expect to find a family member. Another fortunate turn of events by choosing to go west from Austin, rather than north. That is one of the great things I love about road trips, full of surprises.

Next installment, for Saturday, Jan 9th, 2010. Tucson, changing the T-stat (in sunny 72 degree weather!), and Los Angeles.

[keith]

I'm waiting breathlessly for the next installment. If you don't mind, I'd like to post a link to this thread on CarTalk.com. They enjoy good road trip stories

[Petros]

Yes, I am sorry I have not been able to get to it sooner. I would have thought I would have it finished by now, but I am under a lot of finacial stress right now and have to work long hours to get all caught up. Hopefully I will get it back to it soon.

No problem with the link, as many people want to read it is fine, that is why I posted it here. You might give another week or two so I can finish up however. I was also going to link it from a few other lists I have been on, when I am done with it.

[dlb]

holy doodle petros, even before you're finished it's still an epic (in the true sense of the word) journey! i had a VW passat wagon that died just before my fiancee and i were about to drive down to burning man in nevada last summer. luckily, i had bought ron (my terc) a month or so before the VW died and had just enough time to do his brakes and rotors before the big trip. i was nervous about taking a new car on a 3000+ km roadtrip but just watched his temp gauge and checked his fluids regularly and miracle of miracles, he didn't falter once. i wish i had taken more pics but i'll see what i've got and maybe post them.

i look forward to the next installment!

[Petros]

okay everyone, I finally had a chance to add text to the pictures above. I was not sure if an extensive edit of an old post would show up as a new post or not. Enjoy all.

Davideluscbarnes, wait until I get to the part where I replace the head gasket almost on the side of the road! That will come in the next installment.

[neddflanderz]

I lived in Tucson for several years. It's a nice place. I would gladly move back there.

[keith]

It keeps getting better, thanks.

[blakesmith90]

just spent the past 2 hours reading this! great story . do you have plans to finish it? i know its a couple years old but would love to hear the rest of the story

[Petros]

yes, I want to finish it. keep waiting for a time when I am sick and home and have nothing else to do.

[North of 64]

yes, I want to finish it. keep waiting for a time when I am sick and home and have nothing else to do.

I agree, your garage is clean now, forget the sickness and get writing!

[blakesmith90]

yes, I want to finish it. keep waiting for a time when I am sick and home and have nothing else to do.

glad to hear it was not forgotten . cant wait to see the rest

[egillgu]

That's some journey!