Road Trip

Wednesday we drove to San Diego.   Marty had a company meeting there on Thursday.  If you remember there are some rules/conditions for these trips.  The driver controls the radio/dashboard things; the sun always hits where Janet sits; bad weather conditions Janet is driving; construction Janet is driving, weird acts of God Janet is driving.

Most of this held true on this trip.  But Marty got part of the hard stuff this time.

We left San Leandro with an extra feature, 30 MPH winds.  Marty starts out driving and the wind is at our back, so not much trouble staying in our lane.  We get on I 5 and the winds continue.  Ever now and then we get a crosswind, not nice. We look at the road and there is tumbleweed rolling across the road. Just ahead of us a 5 ft in diameter tumbleweed blows across.  Marty misses it.

It was wall to wall trucks, buses, and bus sized RVs.  These things blow over in high winds.  Scary.  They are all playing games passing each other, pulling out in front of us with no warning and my favorite . . . the  truck passes another truck and straddles the white line, a bus is behind him, and we are stuck going up the road behind a death trap.  I had a great picture of this trick and other fun things.  My computer is ill again and the pictures are on it.  So no pictures.

We stop for a quick lunch and then my turn to drive.  The winds are still there and I pass an electronic info sign.  It said,  "Warning Gusty Winds Ahead".  Really, it is going to get worse?  Oh yeah, crosswinds, dust devils, and tumbleweed.  There were at least 4 more of these signs before we got to the Grapevine.

I hit a small tumbleweed, it just shatters, no damage or impact.  Good to know.  Marty is sleeping, when all hell breaks loose.  A HUGE  tumbleweed rolls in front of the pickup beside me.  He panics and decides it is better to hit me, a SUV, instead of the tumbleweed.  Granted it is 5 to 6 feet across, but really?????   He comes into my lane, I slam on the  brakes, aim for the emergency lane and I hit the tumbleweed.  The brake action tightens the seat belts and I am screaming obscenities at the pickup.  Marty wakes up just a little bit terrified.  I explained I missed the heavy stuff, stayed on the road and all is right with the world.

After that the trip was a bit anticlimactic, a little dust storm, construction, crosswinds.   We switch drivers one more time and make it safely to Richard's and Luis'.   We are having a great time.  Keep your fingers crossed for a calm day to drive home.