U.S. HWY. 84, Texas — After 900 miles of traveling Texas roads, I’ve learned a few things.
It’s amazing what happens when roads don’t freeze. I drove quite a bit of Texas highway and didn’t see a pothole other than on an interstate around San Antonio. When roads don’t freeze, ice doesn’t force cracks and those don’t turn into potholes. How refreshing.
Drivers are polite. Excessively. Having driven a lot of U.S. highways, many of them two lanes, I’ve never been in a state where a driver will get over and drive on the shoulder so you can pass them. Most places I’m more likely to have someone try to speed up to cut me off.
Lot of small towns. A lot. Really, a lot. Saw a lot of places with population in the triple digits. Not Coleman, Texas, though. Woo hoo!
And it’s a long way in between them. It was so far from one town to the next on Monday that I nearly ran out of gas even though the warning light hadn’t come on when I passed the previous gas station. Note to the Big 3: Vehicles in Texas should be required to have their gas light come on earlier.
Cactus. Tons and tons of cactus. And goats. But only two longhorns. Perhaps UT-Austin should change its mascot. 🙂
Gas prices are OK but not great. I figured gas would be cheaper here than I’ve ever seen. But it was about 10-15 cents more expensive than New Jersey. Still, 15 cents cheaper than I’ve been paying in Connecticut.
And, well, I already knew this, but things are pretty far apart here. All I hope is that I avoid the propeller planes tonight and get a jet. Then I can sleep without having to worry about my stomach contents. 🙂
Been a good time. Will post separately on the Day 5 games.
On the other hand, I get pulled over for extra screening every time I fly out of this airport. They’re 3-for-3 so far. I asked why I was always singled out at this airport and they said it was “random.”
My ass. It’s not random. I think it’s because I carry a Virginia driver’s license. But if it were random, why would I get pulled out three times in three trips from Abilene and never once anywhere else?
TSA needs some work.
That driving-on-the-shoulder thing is hard to get used to at first, but it’s a custom that grows on you. My West Texas driving pet peeve is getting stopped by the Border Patrol. They have checkpoints on all of the highways that lead away from the border, generally about 50 miles or so north. And for some reason they turn a suspicious eye to a 14-year-old station wagon loaded to the dome light and bearing Ohio plates…:)
Pat: Thanks for coming to Texas to see our basketball. Thanks to McMurry for making it possible. I am an HPU grad but my daughters attended UMHB(1 is still there).I really like the Coleman city limits picture. I graduated from Ballinger High School (35 miles from Coleman) and long ago the Ballinger Bearcats and the Coleman Bluecats were serious rivals–especially in basketball, at least for me. While football was and still is king in West Texas, Coleman had quite a basketball tradition back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. We finally beat them in 1971 to win the district and it was especially sweet to win over them. That was an appropriate basketball sign to pick–at least from the old days. By the way, I think our HPU women have a chance to be very very good–even better than last year when we lost to a final four team in the second round(HSU). I think we just needed a little better inside game and a little better shooting and it looks like we may have it! I really like how our team plays and that almost always goes back to coaching. Chris K. has done a great job.
Pat, I am sorry that I forgot to send you thru Cross Plains, TX on your trip.
Cross Plains, TX is a small town. However its population was 1,068 in 2000, before the devastating grass fire blew thru the town, the same grass fires that prompted the Howard Payne Football team to help a rancher in Carbon TX last April.
http://d3football.com/pressreleases.php?release=1071
Cross Plains is now famous for being the home of Robert E. Howard, better known as the author and creator of Conan the Barbarian.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009378
This is the centennial of his birth (1906-1936), but we can make sure you visit Cross Plains next time you come. I will even tell you the detours that you need to take to get back to Coleman.
You MBA grads may remember that Coleman, TX was the origin of the “Trip to Abilene” in the Abilene Paradox, the 1974 article in the journal Orgainzation Dynamics (American Management Association) by Jerry B Harvey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene_paradox
I had the pleasure to hear Dr Harvey give the Abilene Paradox lecture to an international assemblage of post-doctoral management students in his best Coleman County Texas dialect. Since my friend and I were the only native Texans in the group, we were the only ones who were ROTFLMAO.