The lure of the open road is strong. I love road trips and I love to drive. Today I am behind the wheel of our thirty foot rv which is towing our Chevy pickup. My husband completed the first shift coming out of New Mexico. He navigated White Sands missile range, Alamogordo, and Roswell. I happily did some work and had a snack as he pulled over the mountains.

We couldn’t find a place to park the long rig in Roswell and instead opted to have a sandwich while parked on the shoulder. No aliens were encountered. However somewhere in the mountains, we unexpectedly found the birthplace of Smoky Bear. Who knew, he was a real bear?

I take the wheel near the Texas Border. The road becomes flat and the high winds begin to blow. It takes all my concentration to hold the rig steady on the road. The speed limit climbs to 80 officially. Unofficially, it is whatever you can get away with. At sixty five, our rv begins to sway in the wind. I can sometimes push my speed to seventy, but am uncomfortable going much faster in this wind. I feel like we could easily blow off the road if I am not careful.

The truckers zip by, giving us a bigger push of wind. I try to keep my eye on them so I can brace for the side winds. If I know the are coming, I can steer into the wind and prevent swerving.

To complete the challenge, it is a three lane road. Two lanes in one direction for a few miles and then it alternates to two lanes in the opposite direction for a few miles. This results in a race to see who can pass before the two lanes turn into one. No one wants to be stuck behind slower traffic.

I spend the next hours trying to make sure I make it into the remaining single lane before I run out of road or before I am cut off by a truck and unable to safely merge. It is mercifully flat and straight. High speeds and high winds are tough. A winding road may be too much for my sanity.

The road goes on and on. There is nothing in this part of Texas except grazing land, wind mills, and an occasional oil well. Everyone we meet is in a hurry to get somewhere else. It is a good thing we have a large gas tank, because filling stations are hard to find. And so it goes….

It is at this point that the lure of the open road turns in to, “are we there yet?” My husband asks if I want him to take over. I do, but I see no where to safely pull over. It should only be another hour to Lubbock. We will stop for the night and regroup. He can figure out how to get us to Oklahoma in a few days. Right now I just want to find a way out of the relentless West Texas wind.