Snow Melt

Snow's Crazy Road Trip

The August 17, 2013 prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum"  is
Tell us about the craziest road trip you have taken, where did you go and with who? Did you think to yourself this is so worth it? Or did you regret doing the whole trip?

I am taking a break for the WDC Power Reviewer Backpack raid to respond to this prompt. This is the fifth break I have taken since beginning the raid review sometime early this morning. I can accomplish only two or three reviews before taking a break, since I completed fifteen reviews this is my fifth break. I did not set a specific goal for the number of reviews I need to complete before 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 18, instead I will do three reviews at a time before taking a break. My daily review goal is three reviews a day, so I am already twelve reviews over today's goal.

What is the craziest road trip I've ever taken? The components of the craziest road trip I've ever taken wee three cats in three carriers in the back of a hatchback and my mother and I in the front seat. Fortunately, the backseats of the hatchback laid down to make more room because there was three or four suite cases belonging to each of the humans plus two or three cat litter boxes and a bag or two of cat food. The water dishes for the cats were inside their carriers, but I or rather we did not put food in the cat carries because I did not want to clean food out of the water dish every time we stopped for a litter box break or a food break.

It was a short road trip because we were driving from San Diego (the San Diego Naval Base) to Las Vegas. The car had air conditioning, which did not overheat the engine as long as I did not turn it on in the city. We drove from Las Vegas to San Diego across the desert at nigh to pick up the cats. We also drove at night on the return trip, I don't remember if we used the air conditioning in the car or just rolled the windows down. It was late fall or early spring when we took this trip, so the desert nights were refreshing boardering on down right cold.

I've did a lot of weird and downright stupid things in my life. I'm not sure which category this road trip falls under, but it has to be one or both of those. The reason I say that is because a person who is directionally challenged should never attempt to drive across the desert from San Diego to Las Vegas without a GPS system (which weren't common in cars at the time) or a compass. Nor does it matter that I drove from Las Vegas to San Diego without getting lost or ending up on restricted government property, such as Area 51 or Groom Lake. None of that means a thing when you are driving from San Diego to Las Vegas with three cats and another human being in the car.

Anyway, I managed to get off the wonderful four lane interstate onto a two lane highway leading to nowhere. Well perhaps not "nowhere" because I think the lights we saw in the distance was the entrance to the military complex at Area 51. I didn't get that far because I decided to follow my gut instinct and turn around. Since there were no cars coming from either direction and there was a gravel shoulder to the road before you entered desert or a dry lake bed (Groom Lake) wasn't that dangerous. Anyway I got back to the four lane and checked my gas tank, which still had three quarters of a tank of gas.

I found a gas station, after turning off the four lane again and driving up a mountain. I put more gas in the car because I didn't know how far we were from Las Vegas and I didn't want to chance running out of gas in the desert. This decision was not the most intelligent or thought full decision I made on that trip. After leaving the gas station, I realized I had turned the wrong direction (again) and had to turn around on another dark as interstellar space two lane highway with one side dropping off into a canyon and the other side a shire mountain wall. I got turned around without backing off the cliff, running into the mountain, or encounter other drivers. I'm sure I didn't encounter other drivers on any two lane highway because I was probably the only driver on the road that night who had no sense of direction. Anyway, the cats, my mother, and I survived that trip without any more incidents and without encountering a UFO or any military vehicles.

Road trip
driving without a crashing
into a mountain
or slipping into a canyon.

Road trip
avoid two lane highways
at night
because they can deceive
into believing
they are safe
or lead to your destination.

Thought of the Day: “The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle.” - John Green, Paper Towns