Training the Best

I woke up early to head out for Corpus Christi. My new roommate and API classmate, Richard Carmean, was meeting me at Waffle House for breakfast at 0900.

As a military member I have the option of having the military pay for movers to come and get my stuff or moving it myself and getting paid to do so. Since I didn’t have much furniture I decided to rent a U-Haul trailer and move it myself. In true U-Haul fashion, they rented me a piece of crap. I tried to inspect the lights when I signed for it, but the fuse in my light hook up was blown so I had to take it without testing. Of course, they were all jacked up. It took about thirty minutes of diagnosis with a voltmeter/ohmmeter and trail and error to get those damn lights working. After all that work, all I had was parking lights on both sides and a brake/turn light on the left side. No light at all on the right. By the time I figured this out it was too late to take the trailer back, I had to be out of the old apartment that night and the U-Haul place was closed already. Lesson learned, be prepared to inspect anything you rent.

On top of this hassle, this was going to be the first time I had ever towed a trailer. It seemed easy when dad did it, but I knew there were differences and dangers with towing. I thought the trailer would be light, but it turns out I have more stuff than I thought I did. Empty truck weight was 4,190lbs. Weight with trailer fully loaded was 6,790lbs. That might explain the 10.8 miles per gallon. Carmean got a chuckle every time I had to pull over for gas. His Mustang, even though it was a 4.6 liter V8, was sipping gas at about 29 miles per gallon. I still contend that he owes me a few bucks for the draft I created.

So on a sunny Monday morning we caravanned through Florida, then Alabama, then Mississippi, and Louisiana. Alabama looks pretty much like Gastonia (from the highway anyway), but once we got into Mississippi things got weird. It’s hard to explain, but there are just visual cues that let you know you’re a long way from civilization as you’ve previously known it.

Louisiana was interesting too; we were traveling on I-10, in the southern most part of the state and going through a lot of swamp land. At one point west of Baton Rouge, we were on a part of the highway that was elevated about twenty feet above the water level for miles and miles. On both sides were trees, but it was nothing but swamp land. I really would like to go back and see it in the spring, I’m sure it’s beautiful. There was a sign just before the Texas border for an alligator farm. If I wasn’t on a timeline and not hauling all my worldly possessions with me I might have stopped.

Funny thing, traveling with all your stuff, it makes you single minded; you just want to get there. There’s a lot more security when your stuff is in an apartment or house. It may or may not be any safer, but it makes you feel better.

Texas is flat. That is the best way I can explain it. JT once remarked how the east coast felt claustrophobic at times since she had been in Texas. I now know what she meant by that. You can see to the horizon in both directions almost all the way from the border to Houston. You know that mirage effect that they dramatize in the movies when they are set in the desert? When the objects on the horizon look like they are floating a few feet above the horizon? I’ve now seen that without the help of a telephoto lens.

The frustrating thing about that flatness is the wind; especially here on the coast. The wind is ridiculous. It is almost constant and it is intense. Probably two days out of the week the wind is so bad that you have to walk with your head down to avoid losing your cover (hat for you civilian types.) Maybe it’s just because it’s March, but even for March this is intense.

Well that catches me up to our overnight stop in Houston. I’m tired and have another long day tomorrow so I’ll update later.

// posted by Josh @ 3/08/2006 12:09:00 AM