Once when I was much younger, which turned out to be a bad experience. I got violently ill, vomitted everywhere you can imagine, then the second day my cousins banned me to sleep in the car. Why? Apparently I spread out in the tent so widely that no one else could sleep in the tent. My award winning snoring was a close second to the tent hogging. Anyway, it was a fair at best experience.
Now, today we went to Roosevelt Lake. Allow me to start off from yesterday when the fun really began (Friday). I made a simple left turn in my car and immediately heard a noise coming from the front left fender, since the car is under warranty I took it to the dealer. Knowing that we were going to Roosevelt I let the service guy know I would be back for it today (Saturday). Now in the midst of all of this I am dealing with my third sinus infection since February. Argh! So needless to say I don't feel well. Remember this is all happening Friday the day before the trip to Roosevelt.
So, I get home for the night around 10:30PM, go to bed about 11:00PM. I lay there relaxing waiting to fall asleep. Around 2AM I am beginning to think somehting is not working because I'm still wide awake. I get up for a few minutes move around and go back to bed. It is now 3:15, and I'm not getting any closer to falling asleep. This is a problem as I know I have to be up early to drive to Roosevelt. Well at 5AM I began thinking that I'd be better off just getting up and loading the car so we can leave when the rest of the family wakes up. Well right around 6AM I must have fallen asleep, Steph woke me up at 7:30. Ouch!
Well we all were awake and on the road far later than we should have been, but regardless we were on our way. Unfortunately I didn't feel well, but was feeling okay, just extremely tired.
For those of you who don't know where Tucson is in relation to Roosevelt Lake allow me to show you. Click here to see the map.
Anyway the drive is about 2.5 - 3.0 hours. About 2/3 of the way there I realize that I am so tired that if I plan to participate with the family at all I need to rest now instead of in the car once we get there. So, I pull over and trade seats with Stephanie and let her drive. Well the XUV (isn't that the dumbest thing you've ever seen XUV, Crossover Utility Vehicle) we drive is a Ford Edge, now we both REALLY like it a lot, but the one thing we now both know we would change is the headrests
notice how they angle forward? Well that is the most uncomfortable thing in the world when trying to take an in car/road trip nap. I ended up tossing and turning in the truck and just couldn't get comfortable, now in the mean time I tend to get car sick if I'm not driving, so as you can imagine it hit me with a force. I asked Steph to pull over when she could, not the easiest thing in the world as we are driving up a mountain on a curvy, windy road. Anyway, she gets pulled over and I exit the truck quickly for a fairly obvious reason. After a minute or two of standing there I realized that there is a rest area at the bottom of a steep hill, so we drive down and go to the restroom to splash a little water on my face. Whoops! It's Arizona! There's no running water in the rest area. So I take a couple minutes to get some fresh air, and then went back to driving and believe me I wasn't in the best of shape to be driving but it was better then the other option.
Finally we are close to civilization, the plan was to stop at the first crappy hotel we could find and I was going to sleep while the family was at the lake. Well as we got closer I started to feel a little better so we pushed on and headed for the lake. Well we got there and cell phone service was back, so we called my in-laws to let them know where we were. They said we were about 20 minutes from them. So we headed to the predesignated meeting place. It took about 40 minutes to get there. So we go to the meeting place, it is closed and deserted to say the least. So, we go to the location where we were told they were going to launch the boat. Strike Two! Closed and deserted.
We no longer have cell phone service, and I'm not driving 40 minutes back to get it. We drive up and down looking for the in-laws but can't find them anywhere. In the middle of all this we see my brother in law who was about 35 minutes behind us. We connect with him and his wife and finally frind the "true" launch point. We go there but no one is there from our group. We all drive to the edge of the lake where the boats are launched. We are looking around and not seeing anyone, so I decide now is the perfect time to grab a nap. This way I won't be upset that we can't find the family and they won't be upset about me napping.
Well didn't that sound like a great plan? Yeah I think so too. Anyway it didn't work! Everyone including my brother-in-law/sister-inlaw, wife and kids kept opening and closing the doors to retrieve things from the truck. It was maddening, but I dealt with it. Finally the door opening stops, and I am just about asleep, I mean if there is a stage between asleep and awake I was moving into fully asleep. Then my brother in law opens the door on my side to tell me that they tracked down his parents. I DON'T CARE! I just want to rest for like 15 minutes. No chance of sleeping after that.
We all load up and go back to one of the deserted meeting points.
We get there and everyone unloads and we go down by the beach to sit, have lunch and relax. We get everyone down there and things are going pretty good but my body is cooking from being in the sun for so long. So I went back to the truck to rest. Next thing I know everyone is packing and prepping to leave. So, all in all we have been there almost two hours. Did I really just drive, in misery, for the last four hours to spend two hours like this? Apparently.
We begin the trip home, I am feeling considerably better so I figure it's all good. We start driving and I eventually catch up to a Chrysler PT Cruiser, this of course would be my Mother in law. I am now stuck driving whatever speed she is traveling. Why? Because if I drive the speed I want to drive I'll never hear the end of it. Fortunately they had to pull of for something so I got to zoom past them.
We stopped in Mammoth Arizona, which is a hole to say the best! Eat dinner, and head back out. My mother in law informs me that she would be more comfortable with me being the lead car since I have a radar detector. So I told her to go ahead and I would catch up them.
Well while driving to catch up to them I am passing as many people as I can in the passing lanes that this particular state highway allow. Well while zooming past some of the slower traffic we start up a fairly steep hill that has a passing lane so I floored it and the truck was taking this hill with no trouble at all.
Then the radar detector went crazy! I had just gotten hit with radar, and have no idea from where, but I slam on the brakes and downshift to get slowed down. Now the radar detector logged me at 101mph. The Department of Public Safety (Highway Patrol) Officer clocked me at 105mph, and 92mph on the deceleration. Needless to say I just looked for a safe place to stop while he took the time to catch up to me. He's coming up behind me and finally hits the lights.
Now I am pretty much freaked out big time here okay. I know that I am busted for alleged speeding. I also know that when traveling (allegedly) at this speed you are probably going to jail. He approaches the car and asks me the basics. "Do you know how fast you were going?" A piece of advice, NEVER ADMIT THIS! Which is exactly what I did, I really couldn't say, I was in the passing lane and moving past slower traffic, but not sure how fast..." Needless to say two things happened, first as always I asked if he would let me out of the ticket. NO. Secondly, I got a ticket. He was willing to drop it to 75mph in a 60mph for my alleged speeding violation.
Why do I keep saying "alleged" because I have not been to court yet and have not been found guilty of this alleged charge. :)
I traveled home considerably more slowly the rest of the way home.
Then we get home, all is well, but you'll never believe this...I couldn't fall asleep. Sometime around 5AM I dozed off though. I am quite happy to say I have finally gotten a fair amount of rest today.
Oh Roosevelt Lake, How I Hate Thee! DC
