Life by a Thread - Day 2

Today started out like any old day on a road trip should. In a hotel, in Phoenix. It was hot. We took our time getting ready and didn't get out of town 'till around 11:00 am. We headed straight for Tucson, wanting to get there as quickly as we could.

Unfortunately, Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson is under a bit of construction. About halfway to Tucson, we passed a sign informing us that there was a 45 minute delay ahead. 45 minutes? You've got to be kidding me! Fortunately, there was a detour that took us off the freeway in the middle of nowhere. We were a bit hesitant of this detour at first, as we were the only car to get off the freeway at the detour. All of the other hundreds of cars kept zipping by, oblivious to what we thought would be a long wait in traffic. We contemplated getting back on the freeway, to head south with the many other freeway travelers who seemed unconcerned about the delay. Surely they must've known something that we didn't. Maybe there wasn't really a delay, we thought. Maybe by taking the detour we would in fact, make our trip much longer. This off-ramp did happen to be in the middle of nowhere, and we had no idea how long we'd have to drive 'till we were able to get back on. As we looked to get back on the freeway, we noticed that the on-ramp at this particular location was closed. We now had no choice but to take the detour!

We turned onto a small frontage road that paralleled the freeway and continued to head south. After about 5 minutes, traffic on the freeway was at a standstill! Thank heaven for detours! That was probably the single most effective detour I have ever taken in my life! Had we kept on the freeway, we would have been stuck with the throngs of all the other sheep who kept driving straight when the sign said detour. Now, here we were, buzzing along at a fairly steady pace, passing all the stopped cars on the freeway! Amazing.

When we finally got back on the freeway and in to Tucson, we drove straight to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I'd call it more of a zoo than a museum. There are all sorts of animals and wildlife at the museum that are native to the Sonoran Desert. We saw snakes, lizards, fish, a mountain lion, raccoons, bobcats, wolves, and more. I thought it was a lot of fun, but I think I was the only one. It was quite warm out and most of the museum is outside. Max and Shayla were both drained of energy pretty quickly! After we had seen enough desert animals and cactus to last us for the rest of the trip, we were off on the road again!

Shayla and Isla at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Playing at the museum.

The drive from the desert museum to Tucson is amazingly beautiful. The road winds through rocky hills, forested with giant Saguaro Cactus. Smaller barrell cactus dot the hillsides, and prickly pear are also abundant. It is probably one of the more scenic short drives I have taken in my life.


We got back on the freeway, wound our way through southern Arizona and into New Mexico. The trip so far, had been nice. The scenery was beautiful, the traffic flowed smoothly, and things were quite comfortable.

New Mexico was about to change all that. I don't know what it was, but there was something about New Mexico that makes me want to never go back. Maybe it was the lack of scenery. It was mostly flat. Small mountains loomed in the distance, but they were nothing to write home about. Or write a blog about. Forget I even mentioned them. Maybe it was the large and frequent signs warning of possible dust storms that ruined my impression of New Mexico. The signs were large, they were bright yellow, and you couldn't miss them! Immediatly after the dust storm sign, there was another sign warning that visibility, during these storms, could be at ZERO! That's right, ZERO with all capital letters! Sounds like a place I'd like to hang out at for a few hours when it gets a little windy. Maybe it was what Shayla and I affectionately began to call Purple Death that makes me never want to go to New Mexico ever again. Ever. EVER!

It all happened as we were minding our own business, traveling in the right lane of the double lane eastbound freeway. We came up behind a large semi-truck, traveling a few miles an hour slower than us. As fate would have it, it no longer became feasible for me to drive behind said semi-truck at my current speed. I was getting closer and closer and so naturally, I checked my blindspot, switched lanes, and proceeded to pass this rather normal-looking truck. At about the moment that our front bumper passed his rear bumper, the driver of this truck flipped on his blinker, indicating that he too, was going to pass the vehicle in front of him. All was still quite normal. I continued to pass this truck, moving up along his side, his blinker continued to blink, waiting, I assumed, for me to pass him so that he could pass as well.

Assumed wrong I did. When we were about halfway (or just under halfway) past this truck and his 53 foot trailer, this truck and trailer began moving over into our lane! The truck driver didn't veer back quickly into his own lane, as is most common when someone fails to check their blindspot fully and later notices that there is another vehicle already there. No, he just kept on coming! this truck forced us onto the narrow (probably 3 feet wide) shoulder of the freeway. Not really sure of what to do, my gut reaction was to gun it and get pat this thing before we ran out of road! And so gun it I did!

Now here we were, easily doing 90 mph on the very edge of the freeway. My tires had no more room to move over. If this truck would have kept on coming, we would have been pushed off into the median, possibly spinning out, losing control, and having to seriously reconsider our travel plans! Luckily, we shot out past him before he was fully in the lane. Had a couple more seconds lapsed during this, and had the truck moved all the way over into our lane, we would probably at this very moment be a roadside attraction.

I felt lucky to have escaped alive. The truck driver however, had very different feelings. After we passed him and were now in front of this said truck, which by now, we knew was purple, the driver of this truck sped up! We were now both doing 90+ on the freeway, his front bumper mere feet away from my rear. Not wanting to get into this anymore, I moved over to the right lane and slowed back down to normal freeway speeds. The purple semi-truck proceeded to pass us, honking his horn the entire way. Classy.

I thought that was it. He wasn't finished though. As soon as he passed us, he quickly swerved in front of us, causing me to place my foot on the brake and slow down even more. As soon as he was completely in front of us, and was no more than ten or fifteen feet away from us, he locked his trailer brakes sending his rear trailer tires skidding and throwing smoke, road dust, and gravel up at our windshield. I had to brake even harder to keep from running into him!

This guy was mad! I was a bit confused as to why, as he was the one who cut us off and moved over into our lane in the firstplace! Apparently he had thought I had done something to him, and felt that now he had to get back at us! Right. Like I'm going to take on a freaking semi truck! This guy was going ballistic! He almost killed us! Twice!

Where was one of those, "How's my driving?" stickers when you need one? Not wanting to risk our lives anymore, I held back behind him for quite some time. It was only after he had to pass another truck that we decided to pass him immediately after. We quickly came to call this guy Purple Death! We did take down his license plate number and the name of the company he drove for, so if anyone out there wants to call LRB Enterprise Inc in Pensacola, FL at (850) 304-9036 and complain about a truck with license plate number C80 13W, be my guest!

The rest of the drive was less than eventful and we were just fine with that! We quickly got out of New Mexico as fast as we came in, not stopping for anything, and landed ourselved in El Paso, Texas! Anyone who knows anything about El Paso, knows that just across the river lies Juárez, Mexico. Home to the proud title of "Most Murderous City in the World!" I read in the El Paso Times tonight that 1,900 murders have occured there this year to date. That surpasses the measly 1,600 murders for all of last year! We can easily see Juárez from our hotel window. It is only 2.5 miles away!

Not to mention the fact that right next door to our hotel is a prestigous and very classy establishment identified only by a sign that reads, "Foxy All Nude"! I think it goes without saying that we will not be spending much time in El Paso tomorrow. We're planning on waking up early, getting out of town and away from El Paso's dirty little nightclubs and murderous neighbors to the south as quickly as possible!

Wish us luck!