Road trip to Houston with the Airstream

Finally off the road! How insane am I to be driving to Houston AND with the Airstream!

It was a nutty idea to begin with but who would have figured - a fast moving and unexpectedly severe Winter storm that popped up - OMG.

Imagine this? Ready for some excitement? Okay - depends on your definition of excitement. Here goes:

Wednesday and Thursday in Minneapolis - it's Spring-like weather. The Songbirds are singing - the bright red male Cardinals are doing the high-low mating call. The always aggressive blue jays are cawing away looking for food. The woodpeckers are jack hammering the trees. The Canadian Geese and Ducks are heading North. Spring is a time of renewal. The cold, frozen ground covered with deep white snow suddenly has given way to a deep thaw. And I'm riding around on my F650 BMW inhaling the fresh spring air. I'm excited. It's been a long, long winter and I want it to be over.

I'm a lot of things but career wise - I'm a cracker jack sales guy. Been doing the advertising biz over 30 now and coming up with good ways of helping our customers brand their promotions is second nature to me. Having served two major oil companies for all these years, a good percentage of our clients are in Texas. I don't get on the road enough and with the economy the way it is - well you know. You can't take things for granted. My dad taught me the STP formula. See the People.

I thought it would be nice to take the A/S down to TX and leave it there for a month. Work a week, fly home for a week and so forth. The plan is to spend face2face with many of our great customers. That includes you Kathy!

And yes, Robin I want to get together with you too - and meet your horse.

The drive started really nice - got a late start yesterday as many things to prepare for to take a big road trip. Getting samples organized, selling materials, getting a/s out of storage and packing my clothes & loading her up. Lots of work being a sales guy. Lots of work being a human being. We all work hard, even if we're retired - I'm not. My mom is and she's even pressed for time.

Somewhere Mason City, IA the weather started getting funky. It started raining and as the day wore on, the rain changed to what? Snow. Boo! I wanted to get past Des Moines. No offense - okay offense - I hate driving thru Des Moines but that's the way to Texas. The wind picked up and I got as far as I could while still being safe. I hadn't slept much the night before - too keyed up. It was crunch time. Deadline was to leave by Friday and arrive in Houston on Saturday.

No Dice.

Stopped @6 or so at a truck stop to fill up the Cummins straight six with Diesel. 25 gallons x @3. Getting @15 mpg pulling the 4500 # airstream. Not bad. Started lightly snowing - after gas, started pulling off with the nozzle still in the truck. Not a good sign. Realized & stopped. Okay, Kenny's tired - better stop. Asked if okay to rest on side of truck stop - so KT pulls the Dodge Ram 3500 with the Silver Bullet between the Wal Mart and Fed Ex Eighteen Wheelers. Only one small problem. KT is a light sleeper and was looking for some quiet. Did you know trucker's sleep in their sleepers with their motors running? Anyone ever tell you diesel motors are noisy? What did you say? Yea - noise - eee. High decibels. Managed to sleep awhile until the Harley Guy trucker parked the front of his cab right next to the window on the a/s. I'm trying to sleep! Rumble rumble, rumble, rumble - the ground is vibrating annd the a/s is dancing back & forth.

After some real sound sleep, I decide it's time to get up & hit the road - I've got some miles to burn and road to cover. I open the hatch to my a/s and the wind almost rips off the door. The wind is howling and it's S N O W I N G. Lot's of snow. A foot at least.

I mozey to to the C Store and ask the cashier what the roads are like. Meanwhile, everyone that was on the road is sitting inside the store asking the same thing. She suggests I don't get on the road until daybreak.

More later.

Wow, I thought. An early Spring!

I'm soooo grateful to be safe & sound - I didn't say sane.

Left MN yesterday thinking it'd be a 2 day drive - did the drive several years ago.