Day number three on the road and I'm feeling very refreshed after a solid night's sleep. It's freezing outside, a good 30 degrees. I check out after taking inventory of all the things I brought into the hotel room the night before. Almost forgot my toiletries on the bathroom counter! After checkout, I head over to the truck stop near the hotel for some breakfast. The coffee was strong enough to make my lips tingle. I have two cups. Texas toast, bacon and two eggs sunny side up should hold me over for most of the day. The meal was enormous! Not sure what kind of chickens were laying these eggs but they were testament to the saying that everything is big in Texas!
After my hearty breakfast, I was ready to make the drive across the great state of Texas. I made sure I had a full tank of gas and made a mental note not to let my gas go below a quarter tank. Several coworkers advised me of this as gas stations become few and far between the further into Texas I get. I found that it was true, dozens of miles would go by without seeing a gas station, so word to the wise: keep an eye on your gas. My fellow travelling nurse Jen who made the drive a few days in front of me had come dangerously close to running out of gas before finally coming to a station to fill up.
I found that contrary to the stories of boredom that people experienced while driving across Texas, I was actually having a good time. The few hills outside of San Antonio quic
kly gave way to miles of flat desert-like terrain. Driving was very easy and there were eerily very few cars travelling on the freeway.It was very tempting to drive at speeds that would undoubtedly land me in a jail cell so I made use of the car's cruise control and resolved to just enjoy the drive. Even then, the posted speed limit a few hours outside of San Antonio is 80 mph (which as everyone knows actually means 90 mph)! The Audi performed flawlessly and was a pleasure to drive as the miles melted away.
I attribute my lack of boredom to the many music CDs I had brought along for the drive and the snacks that my brother and his fiance had so thoughtfully put together for me. I also played silly games like trying to see if I can drink out of a soda can without using my hands or how long I can balance peanuts on the steering wheel. I also think that mindset is also important to enduring these long drives. I made up my mind that I was going to have a good time driving all the way across the country and sure enough, there I was, having the time of my life!
I stopped for a late lunch in El Paso at a Taco Cabana at my brother's insistence. It was rather good, but not as good
as the Mexican food I had in San Antonio. I was surprised at how dirty El Paso looked. A piece of road debris struck my windshield while driving on the freeway. Scared the hell out of me! I was glad to see that city in my rear view mirror!Traffic and road debris made way for dust and sand as I exited Texas and entered New Mexico. Visibility was sometimes limited as I drove through several small dust storms.
New Mexico slowly melted away as I made my way towards Arizona. Flat desert was replaced by hills, rock formations and mountains. I could see the sun inching towards the horizon, giving everything a nice orange glow. At this point I had been driving for almost 8 hours and was starting to get a little tired. The sun in my eyes made it hard to see the road and was making me a little sleepy. Good time for a little break from driving, but no rest stops in sight. I wanted to make it into Phoenix for dinner so settled for a few minutes on the highway's shoulder and a quick leg stretch outside.
The rest of the drive towards Phoenix was relatively uneventful. I was getting more and more tired as the hours passed by. Highway construction through the city made for some white-knuckle driving and served to keep me awake but I was starting to feel the effects of the day's long drive. My eyes started to get tired. By 10:00 pm I decided to start looking for a hotel to sleep in. That's when things started to get interesting. Turns out hotels were all booked for the next few days in preparation for the Superbowl. I pulled up a list of local hotels on the Garmin GPS device and found that all were booked. I kept driving, hoping to get lucky and find a hotel/motel just outside of the city. Bad move. No hotels and I was starting to
drift off to sleep. I needed to get off the road. I decided to pull into a truck stop and decided that the car was going to be my hotel room for the night. I was not surprised to find many other cars in the truck stop possibly in the same predicament as myself. This was not going to be fun at all. I made a conscious effort to park near the other cars, not directly under any light, but in an area easily visible by others. I've never slept in a rest stop before so I was making up the rules of safety as I went along. Seemed like a good idea to park in a well visible area. I looked around and inside the cars around me were other travellers, bundled in jackets and blankets. I couldn't help but to chuckle at my situation. The thermometer on my dash read 30 degrees. I leaned my car seat back as far as it would go, which needless to say, was not very far due to all my stuff in the back seat. This surely was going to be a VERY uncomfortable sleep. I was beginning to regret not having made reservations at a hotel ahead of time.
