There is an interesting thread on the RV.Net forum discussing a Forbes magazine article on America’s Scariest Highways. Since we are considering taking US Highway 50 across Nevada in a few weeks, I found it interesting that this route, known as “The Loneliest Road in America,” was among those listed.

The article says US 50 gets its “scary” designation because it crosses miles of open desert, where you may not see another vehicle for 30 minutes or more. Okay, so how does that make it scary? I love lightly traveled roads, don’t you?

We’ve driven many of the highways listed, and while some were not much fun (Interstate 70 through Colorado), others left me wondering why the authors of the article find them problematic.

For example, US 1 though the Florida Keys was listed. Except for the Seven Mile Bridge, which I drove over several times and didn’t find to be a problem, most of the drive is delightful. Slow, if there is a lot of traffic maybe, but far from scary.

I’ve been on some scary stretches of road in my time, though I think one man’s terror ride may well be a piece of cake for someone else. Many years ago we took the advice of some locals (never a good idea) and took a “short cut” on our way to an Escapade rally in Lancaster, California that took us across State Route 138 from Cajon Junction to Palmdale. The road was a narrow two lane route that climbed and wound around a mountain side, with a steep drop off on one side and solid rock cliff on the other. Now throw in crazed Friday night drivers headed out to party, coming the another way, crossing over the  centerline as they sped around the curves. By the time we got to the Elks lodge in Palmdale, I was a bundle of screaming, frayed nerves.

US Highway 60 through Arizona’s Salt River Canyon used to intimidate me with its hairpin turns and steep drop offs, but I have driven it so many times over the years that I don’t even notice it any more.

Some of my least favorite roads include the above mentioned State Route 138 in California, and Interstate 70 in Colorado as it heads downhill into Denver, along with Interstate 75 through Atlanta, and any highway anywhere around Los Angeles or Houston. 

My fear of bridges has gotten a lot better, but it’s still a very real issue for me. A lifetime ago, I lived on the Washington coast and owned newspapers in Long Beach, Washington and Astoria, Oregon. I have crossed the Astoria Bridge over the Columbia River in everything from cars and pickup trucks to motorcycles and vans, but the first time I approached that bridge in a motorhome, I took one look and drove 75 miles upriver to cross on a lower bridge, and then drove 75 miles back to the coast!

I have driven Interstate 75 across the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan, and it scares the hell out of me every time. The last few times, Miss Terry drove over the bridge, but I was still just as scared.

One (actually two) bridge crossings that I’ll never do again are the two narrow, high bridges on US Highway 60 that cross the Mississippi, and then the Ohio River, within just a 1/2 mile or so near Cairo, Illinois. Miss Terry did that driving, but I was still a basket case by the time we got to the other side.

Don’t even mention me traveling over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Virginia. It’s just not going to happen!

What about you? What are some of the highways you find scary, and why? Come on, fess up. I can’t be the only neurotic wimp out there!

Thought For The Day – Don’t simply seek interesting surroundings, but be continually interested in whatever surrounds you.

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Is there any greater treasure than the people you love in this life, and those who love you?

Yesterday Terry and I spent the day visiting with two very special people, who have helped enrich our lives in so many ways that I could not begin to count them all.

We met Tim and Ann Moran at our very first Escapees RV Club Escapade rally, in Lancaster, California in 2000, and there was an immediate bond that has stayed strong through all the years that followed. Maybe it was slogging through the mud to get to our motorhome, the four of us laughing and giggling like school kids as we slipped and slid across the muddy racetrack where the RVs were parked that let us know that we had met kindred souls.

In the years that followed, we all have had our ups and downs, and Tim and Ann have been there for us when we needed friends the most. During the darkest days of Terry’s battle with cancer, Tim was a strong shoulder I could lean on. In the hard times that followed as she recovered from her illness, and we recovered from the terrible financial hit it had given us, Tim and Ann were always there. At one point when we were not sure if we could carry on, they stepped forward and made it happen.

When we bought our MCI bus, Tim and Ann drove to Kingman, Arizona and spent two or three weeks helping us as we started the conversion project. We could not have done some of the big jobs early in the conversion, such as enclosing the sides and cutting in the new RV window openings, without Tim’s help.  

Tim has been facing some serious health issues that have caused them to make the decision to stop fulltiming and settle down close to his doctors. It had been way too long since we saw our friends, and visiting them was the reason we came to the Titusville area.

We spent the day together yesterday, enjoying a tour of their new home, and the opportunity to just be together.

Tim is a feisty retired Navy Chief Petty Officer with a positive attitude you just can’t help but admire. His illness has knocked him down several times, but like the stubborn little Irishman he is, he just gets back on his feet, shakes it off, and charges right back into the fight. I know he’s going to win this battle, because he’s just too damn stubborn to throw in the towel.

Tomorrow Tim and Ann are taking us on a tour of the local area, and we’re looking forward to spending more time with our friends, and learning more about Florida’s Space Coast.

While we were off visting, Bad Nick wrote a new Bad Nick Blog post titled Sometimes It’s Because You’re A Jerk.

Thought For The Day – You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind.

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For whatever reason, once we were parked at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds Tuesday after driving to Albuquerque from Show Low, Arizona, I just could not get to sleep. I tossed and turned all night long, and I think I managed about two or three hours of sleep at the most.

Since we arrived at the fairgrounds after normal parking hours and dry camped in the parking lot, we had to be up early yesterday morning, because the fellow in charge of the parking crew had said he’d be at our rig bright and early to get us moved into our assigned space.

So I rolled out of bed a little after 7:30 a.m., which is long before my normal time, and then you have to consider that our bodies are still on Arizona time, which is an hour later. Needles to say, I was kind of fuzzy headed most of the day yesterday. Yes, even more so than usual!

This place is filling up fast as people arrive for the Affinity rally, and we have run into several people we know, including Tim and Crystal Ryerson, from Inflatable Boats 4 Less, as well as Tim and Sue Daugherty from Sky Med, and Chris and Charles Yust, who represent Good Sam’s Roadside Assistance plan. All of these folks have been vendors at our Gypsy Gathering rallies, as well as Gary and Cheryl Green, who are also parked nearby. Cheryl is a representative for Creative Memories scrapbooking supplies. It was fun visiting with everybody, and just to make the party merrier, Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour arrived and are parked right behind us! We’re all just one big happy family out here on the road.

We have made so many wonderful friendships among the RVing community, and if it is possible, even closer relationships among some of the vendors we see at rallies all over the country.

Another vendor couple we have been close with for years is also here, Jack and Doreen Ingle, from AON Recreational Insurance, which has just undergone a name change and is now called PoliSeek Recreational Insurance. We met Jack and Doreen at our very first RV rally, an Escapade in Lancaster, California, during our first few weeks on the road, and we’ve been pals ever since. Like I said, one big happy family.

Since we’ve been at an RV site with just electric power for the last couple of weeks, with no water or sewer connection, our laundry had piled up. Miss Terry said it was time to either go shopping for a new wardrobe, or wash the ones we have now. So after we were parked in our designated site, we checked out the vending area, and then found a nearby laundromat. Terry much prefers to use the apartment size washer and dryer we have in our bus instead of going out to do this chore, but sometimes that doesn’t work out. We were lucky and found a very clean laundromat where all of the washers and dryers worked, which isn’t always the case.

Back at the fairgrounds, several of us got together for dinner at a Chinese buffet somebody had located, and when we returned from dinner, Jim and Chris Guld came over so Jim could resolve some issues Terry was having with her computer. I don’t know what we ever did without our mobile computer geek buddies! Chris has helped me with getting my two blogs up and running, and whenever I have a hardware issue, I call Jim. If you have not been to one of their seminars yet, be sure you do at your next RV rally. They really know their stuff, and make learning complex things easy and fun.

By the time Jim had things taken care of on Terry’s computer, it was 10:30 p.m. and we were both tired. But we still had to make the bed, and I had to get this blog and the Todays Hero Blog posts ready to go. I’ll tell you what, the bed sure looked nice by the time we were finally ready to turn in!

Thought For The Day – If raising children was going to be easy, it never would have started with something called labor!

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