Like many Americans my age, I’ve been driving almost every day for several decades now. I think my driving experience is quite varied, in terms of topography (Great Plains, deserts, rolling hills, mountains, coastal), weather (desert heat, ice, snow, sleet, torrential rain, fog, strong crosswinds), road conditions (big city traffic, busy freeway, rural highway, gravel/dirt/muddy farm or ranch roads, fire roads in the mountains, seemingly endless interstates), and vehicles. I’ve driven station wagons (estates), sports cars, midsize coupes (like my current Accord) and sedans, vans, pickup trucks, and a variety of SUVs. Over the past seven years, I’ve made four solo return trips between San Antonio and Aspen, to attend a scientific meeting and to have a vacation of sorts, driving across West Texas, northeastern New Mexico, and much of Colorado, including this exhilarating stretch of road up to Independence Pass:
The latter motoring adventures lead some people to think I’m crazy, but I’d prefer to think that I’m just a competent driver who enjoys long-distance driving. Not a stellar or especially talented driver, mind you … just competent. Therefore, it’s always kind of a surprise to encounter, as I did on Friday, a driving situation that leaves me questioning my judgment. Nothing bad happened – no accidents, breakdowns, skids, flooded vehicles, or punctured tires – but that could just be happenstance, rather than skill or good judgment on my part.
I drove to Houston on Interstate 10 on Friday, and ran into apocalyptically bad weather east of Seguin. Hail, torrential rain, wind gusts, lightning, tornado conditions. Water was pooling on the interstate, and the drainage channels along the sides were filled with rushing torrents. Some motorists were pulling onto the shoulder, underneath the overpasses … probably because of the hail (which was fairly small, maybe pea- or bean-sized). Since many were trying this strategy, a few drivers stopped their vehicles in the middle of the interstate and then reversed to squeeze in to the protected space. Bad idea, since some motorists (myself), as well as all drivers of 18-wheelers (large articulated lorries), kept driving, albeit at much reduced speeds.
I slowed my Honda to between 40 and 45 mph, turned on my flashing hazard lights so my vehicle would be more visible, and monitored the splash zones of a van and a large SUV in the lane ahead, in hopes of avoiding deep water. At that reduced speed, I could see the lane markers and shoulder (which was under construction and very uneven) pretty well, and could occasionally glance quickly at the drainage channels (raging torrents) and the sky (to check for funnel clouds). I had passed the exits for the town of Weimar, and the nearest upcoming exits were for the town of Columbus, on the banks of the Colorado River (of Texas). I decided that getting stuck in deep water after descending to a riverside town during a torrential downpour was a distinct possibility, and so decided to keep going. If I’d been driving my high-clearance truck, I might have chosen differently; however, Smaug gets terrible gas mileage, and can behave rather badly on wet roads, by lashing his tail around unpredictably. The weather improved markedly as I drove out from under the squall line near Sealy, and the rest of the journey was uneventful.
I’ve encountered this particularly heinous variety of Texas weather several times during long drives, as it’s fairly common in the spring and early summer. Hail, torrential rain, straight line winds, retina-searing lightning strikes, tornadic activity, flash flooding. Always in the past I’ve stopped driving and sought shelter, especially when I’ve been caught out in the Panhandle, which can be a scary place even in apparently good weather. Biblical plagues scary: locusts, frogs, beasts, gnats, livestock diseases. This time, I knew that the storms would continue to build and roll across central Texas over the next 24 to 36 hours, as the feeder bands sucked moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico. I’m still not sure whether I made the best motoring choice, or whether there was indeed a best choice to make. WWJCD?‡
Anyway, the drive back today was beautiful … not a cloud in the sky.
‡ What Would Jeremy Clarkson Do?
I’d let you drive me in your vehicle anytime. (Brains over beauty, Richard W.) Your description was very evocative. I know of someone caught in a highway dip in creeping traffic here in the greater Toulouse area. The water came up so fast around the car that by the time the driver (wife of a colleague) got scared, she would not have been able to open the door anyhow. She and their child had to get up on the roof of their car through the window! I don’t remember how they were picked up, but I believe it was by an aforementioned high-clearance truck. So even just pulling over is not always the best choice.
Jeremy Clarkson, methinks, would probably choose a vehicle with rather low ground clearance, high fuel consumption, and a very large carbon footprint. But since, from my perspective, he’s got possibly the best job in the world, I hesitate to gainsay him.
Speaking of which – yes, Heather, in those circumstances I might just choose a brainy (brawny?) Land Rover over one of my normally preferred rides (all this is theoretical of course – in Kristi’s nasty weather I would have been quaking in my boots in my underpowered, lightweight, tiny-wheeled, aging Mazda. The Accord would have felt like a Humvee by comparison.)
It’s rained a lot on occasion up here, but seldom to the point of flooding (it just doesn’t do that here; for the most part, flooding in these parts is due to poor storm sewer design, not major acts of nature). Black ice is the most treacherous road hazard here – fortunately confined to just a few months per year.
@ Heather: After growing up in Houston, I was pretty accustomed to tropical downpours and the potential for flooding. However, none of that prepared me for the speed with which water can move through and rise suddenly in the terrain of central Texas. Every year there are high water rescues and, tragically, deaths … usually involving people who drove around barricades marking flooded areas. On Saturday a man in Houston drove his car into a drainage channel that feeds into a bayou, and five young children in the car drowned. The man was intoxicated AND he swerved off the road while answering his cell phone.
@ Richard: Of course Clarkson would have been involved in some sort of race, which he would HAVE to win, so there would have been no stopping or even slowing down. And I agree, he does have a great job … though I still think that Top Gear needs a female presenter, and that I would be a good candidate. I can drive the SUVs and pickup trucks. I’m willing to emigrate. :-D
What we get a lot of in Norfolk is FOG. Sorry, I’ll say that again. FOG. In which people never learn – there we were creeping home from Norwich in a right pea-souper after having seen Waiting for Godot, with peopel just hanging on to the tailpipe all the way up. I turned on my very bright rear fog lamp and they got the message.