WELCOME TO TEXAS?

Just a mile from the Texas border we can see what appears to be an accident in front of us. 

At a distance we weren't sure what the commotion was about.  But as soon as we skidded on the bridge realized it was ice.  That rain encountered for miles had frozen.  Thank God Gary had taken over driving so he took control well.

At 2:15 p.m. we stopped in Longview, TX.  And I mean literally stopped right on the interstate.  Due to the heavy load we were pulling and the road's solid ice we couldn't get enough traction or enough speed to make it up a hill and exit to a motel.  Thanks to some good ole Texas boys in a GMC truck they pulled our heavy load into the Holiday Inn parking lot.

How is it they could get us with 2 vehicles pulled up and off but we couldn't?  Don't have an answer for that.  We heard on the CB that the entire rest of the west was crippled due to the ice storm.  Hell, we should have been in Big "D" (Dallas, TX) by now but here we are at 3:15 shaking off the tension with an early cocktail and thinking about the settlement deadline on our new California home.

Our room is overlooking a one hole golf course, beautiful pool, palm trees and garden area.  But, it is freezing cold.  

                                                  

There were some folks at the Holiday Inn who were on their way to the Cotton Bowl but changed their minds and decided to drive back home.  If you read the newspaper article shown below, this was the worse ice storm in 30 years.  Am sure Texas doesn't have state highway snow/ice equipment and retardant like we have on the east coast.  The parking lot and roads are solid ice, SOLID ice.  I've never seen anything like this on the east coast in my life.     

At 9 a.m. we're sitting in the restaurant drinking coffee and waiting to be served our breakfast.  We were in the restaurant 45 minutes before we received our breakfast. While we were there a big older man came in for breakfast too.  He was seated next to us, one man brought his coffee cup, another poured his coffee, still another brought his silverware and linen  napkin (not paper line ours) and his breakfast was delivered to him in 9 minutes after he was seated.  Gary noticed the priority treatment he received so decided to keep track of time.  Everyone called him by name as tho he was very well-known and/or very wealthy.

Greg and I went to the vehicles and saw there were people still struggling to get out of the parking lot.  Everything in the van is frozen solid, the water in the cooler is a solid block of ice.  

At 12:30 p.m. we are finally on the road again.  The ice in the parking lot had started to melt a little, enough for us to get backed out using both the power of the Scout and the van to do it.

1:15 p.m. the roads are looking a tad better, Dallas is 110  miles away and we have a low cruising speed of 40 miles per hour.  Greg and I started keeping track of all the vehicles who skidded into the median or shoulders and those who skidded in front of us as we drove.  There have been so many accidents and near misses we decided to stop keeping records.

The trees are gleaming, encrusted in ice with 3 p.m. sunlight.  Any other time the sight would be beautiful.  But the roads are freezing again at 5:30 and we are on our way to Ft. Worth for a motel.

A motel can't come soon enough for us to get off the interstate safely.  Am sure Gary needs a break from the stressful driving.  To be continued ...

Saundra

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