Moving Erin to Texas

We left Longmont Thursday morning at around 6:14 A.M. Erin rented an Enterprise cargo van to haul all of her worldy possesion, which due to her age she was not allowed to drive. So I drove the van while she drove her car. Amy rode with me and Connor rode with Erin.

Driving through Denver a little after 7: A.M. we hit some slow trafic around 104th. I was following Erin in the right-hand lane. Merging traffic was coming in from the right. Mostly people were pretty good about letting people in but since I did not want to get separated I did not immediately allow this nice lady to enter the lane between us. She proceeded to put the nose of her car in front of me to the point I felt I had to let her in or hit her. Now generally, I am a pretty nice guy but I hate being forced. After the nice lady pulled in front of me I laid on my horn, just a little, to show my frustration. The nice lady flipped me off in response. Some people are so classy.

At around 9:30 we hit fog. We did not have to stop or anything but you could not see more than about two cars in front of you. In Hugo, Colorado, home of the Genoa-Hugo Pirates, we saw a truck carrying wind mill blades. Do you realize just how huge those blades are? A semi-truck can carry two and only two. These things are big. The next time you see a wind farm wind-mill, try to imagine the the blades are 18-wheelers, it will give you a perspective on their true size. We must have seen ten or more truck-loads of blades. At one point, I do not remember where, we also saw a a large group of wind mills that had not yet had their blades attached. I think that would be cool to watch.

Just South of Lamar, Colorado we were stopped by construction for 20 to 40 mintes. None of us really noted the time but it seemed like forever. It was still early in the trip, everyone still in good moods. Erin and Connor entertained themselves; Erin doing a Mexican Hat Dance with a sombrero she had in car. Connor has been wearing a tam lately. Amy queried if he was doing an Irish Tam dance. Eventually the pilot car (a new VW Beattle) got to our side of the construction and lead us back ten miles or so.

At 12:06 we reached the Oklahoma border, 12:41 the Texas border, and 1:06 the Central Time Zone. We did not seem to be making wonderful time. If you you look up driving directions on Google from Longmont to Austin, they are simple; I-25 to I-70 to I-135 to I-35 to Austin. For some reason when Amy looked them up it decided to send us through back-country Texas. We rolled into Austin at 1:00 A.M. Friday morning.