The Final Blog of the Decade

Good evening. It is about 90 minutes until the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. My wife & I are still in San Antonio. We still plan to leave Saturday and drive to Wichita Falls that day before heading back to OKC on Sunday.

Tuesday was a cold, rainy day. Thankfully, the rain subsided some in the afternoon, and my wife wanted to see a movie, so while she watched the movie, I went out and did some roadgeeking around San Antonio! I got pictures of U.S. 90, TX 151, and Spur 422.

Wednesday, I drove to Laredo and back to San Antonio via U.S. 90, U.S. 83, and I-35. Not much to report; other than the drive between Laredo & San Antonio is quite boring. I already knew that prior to Wednesday, though, as I did that drive in October 2003 during the South Texas Roadtrip. Which brings me to this point: this trip could also be called South Texas Roadtrip Part 3...

Today, my wife & I mostly stayed in the hotel to watch the OU-Stanford Sun Bowl game on TV (which OU won!), but we did venture out a little bit. We just took U.S. 281, though, which I have already covered this week. I have got to know U.S. 281 quite well this week...

Tomorrow, my wife & I are planning on going to LuLu's Bakery for a large cinnamon roll (3 1/2 pounds!). From there, we will go to New Braunfels & Austin and check out those areas. And, yes, that does include the University of saxeT.

Have a great new year everybody! See y'all later, and drive safely.

ES

San Antonio Trip Day 2

Day 2 of the San Antonio Trip is complete. We have made it back to San Antonio after going to Corpus Christi today.

Trip route:

U.S. 281 South to I-37

I-37 South to U.S. 181

U.S. 181 North to TX 35

TX 35 North to TX 361

TX 361 South to TX Park 22 (includes the Port Aransas Ferry)

TX Park 22 West to TX 358 West

TX 358 West to TX 286 North

TX 286 North to I-37

I-37 South to U.S. 181

U.S. 181 North to I-37

I-37 North to U.S. 281

U.S. 281 North to Loop 1604

Skies were partly to mostly sunny all day. The sun didn't affect nearly as many pictures today as it did yesterday.

Tomorrow, we plan on staying in the San Antonio area. There is a chance of rain so we may not do much tomorrow. Wednesday, we plan on going to Laredo via I-410, U.S. 90, and U.S. 83, then take I-35 North to San Antonio.

ES

San Antonio Trip Day 1

Day 1 of the San Antonio Trip is complete. We left OKC at about 8:30 this morning and made it to San Antonio at about 5:15 this afternoon. Skies were mostly cloudy from OKC to Davis, then mostly clear from Davis to San Antonio. The mostly sunny skies were nice to see, however, it also affected a lot of pictures. I had to delete a lot of pictures because my camera wanted to focus on the sun instead of the road sign! It was quite frustrating but I did the best I could. Sun angles this time of year are not very good for southbound travelers.

Pictures from Day 1 are currently being uploaded to Flickr.

Here is the current plan for the rest of the trip:

Day 2 (Monday 12/28):

Corpus Christi area

Victoria area (if time allows)

Day 3 (Tuesday 12/29):

San Antonio area (forecast calls for rain on this day so there may not be too much road coverage)

Day 4 (Wednesday 12/30):

Laredo area

Day 5 (Thursday 12/31):

San Antonio area

Day 6 (Friday 1/1):

Austin & New Braunfels area

Day 7 (Saturday 1/2):

San Antonio to Wichita Falls via I-10, U.S. 83, and U.S. 277

Day 8 (Sunday 1/3):

Wichita Falls to OKC via I-44

ES

San Antonio Trip Update

Good evening all. We are still planning (and hoping) to begin the San Antonio Trip tomorrow. We are not sure if it will be morning or afternoon, or even if we will get to San Antonio tomorrow, but we are sure gonna try. We were able to leave home today and got to the southwest side of OKC and back just fine. (I live in northwest OKC)

ES

New Trip Plan

After a few hours of venting about not being able to go to San Diego, I have come up with a new trip plan. As of this point, it looks like we should be able to get out of our apartment complex sometime tomorrow afternoon. So we have a new trip plan...

We are going to another major city with two words and the first word of "San". We are currently planning on leaving Sunday for San Antonio, and plan to spend a week in that area. We hope to go to some of the area cities (ie. Corpus Christi, Laredo, Austin) and explore those areas.

More details to come later...

ES

San Diego Trip Cancelled

I have cancelled the San Diego Trip. I cannot get out of my apartment complex. At this time, I don't know if this trip will ever happen.

ES

14 inches of snow!!

That's right, OKC received 14 inches of the white stuff today. That is a new record for single-day snowfall in the month of December. Go figure that it happens two days before I am supposed to leave for the sunny beaches of San Diego.

I have not made a decision yet on the trip, but I will say all options are on the table at this point, whether that means a delay in starting the trip, reroute, or full cancellation of the trip. Believe me, full cancellation of the trip is the very last thing I want to do and will explore all other options before I outright cancel the whole trip. Stay with this blog, it'll keep you advised.

ES

Christmas Eve Blizzard

Well, we aren't just getting snow, we're getting a freakin' blizzard! And, the H.E. Bailey Turnpike is closed from Newcastle to Texas. And I am supposed to be driving on that turnpike on Saturday! So...there is still a possibility of a reroute or delay of the San Diego Trip. :( Stay tuned.

Good news is; I do have the rental car for the trip; a Pontiac G6 with satellite radio! Love me some satellite radio...

ES

Trip route from San Diego to OKC

Here is the planned trip route from San Diego to Oklahoma City. This may change due to weather, but this is what the current plan is:

Friday, January 1:
I-5 North to CA 56
CA 56 East to I-15
I-15 North to I-215
I-215 North to CA 60
CA 60 East to I-10
I-10 East to Tucson, AZ

Saturday, January 2:
I-10 East to U.S. 70
U.S. 70 East to Roswell, NM

Sunday, January 3:
U.S. 70 East to U.S. 60
U.S. 60 East to I-27
I-27 North to I-40
I-40 East to OKC

Tomorrow, I pick up the vehicle that will take us on this trip. Less than 65 hours remain until the start of the trip!

ES

Snow in OKC?!

Well, it looks like we will be getting snow in OK City tomorrow. Yay. At least it's not ice. I guess we may have snow on the ground on Christmas for the 3rd time in my 26 years of living...

Thankfully, this stuff is supposed to be gone by tomorrow night, so we are still planning on leaving for San Diego on Saturday morning as scheduled.

When does summer start?

ES

4 days

Just 4 days remain now until the beginning of the San Diego Trip! In my last blog, I covered the route to San Diego. This post will cover some of the highways I hope to cover while in San Diego. The routes for each day in San Diego haven't been determined yet, but this will give y'all an idea of what I plan to see:

• I-5
• I-15
• I-805
• CA 15
• CA 52
• CA 75 (Coronado Bridge)
• CA 163

The next blog will cover the route for the trip from San Diego to Oklahoma City. Until then, see y'all later, and drive safely.

ES

6 days

Just 6 days remain until the beginning of the San Diego Trip! This post will cover the route we will be taking to San Diego...

Saturday, December 26:
I-44 West to U.S. 277

U.S. 277 South to I-20

I-20 West to Odessa, TX

Sunday, December 27:

I-20 West to I-10

I-10 West to Tucson, AZ

Monday, December 28:

I-10 West to I-8

I-8 West to San Diego, CA

The next blog will have some of the highways I hope to cover on this trip. Until then, see y'all later, and drive safely.

ES

San Diego Trip Update

At this point, (knock on wood) the weather for at least the beginning of the San Diego trip looks good. Cold, but no precipitation. So, hopefully that does not change between now and next Saturday. Within the next 9 days between now and the trip, I plan on posting a summary of what routes I hope to photograph during the trip. Some highways will be covered for the first time since 2004, and there will be some all-new territory covered on the trip.

I am getting anxious and excited about this trip and hope that all goes well!

ES

San Diego Trip to be affected by weather?

The San Diego Trip is scheduled to begin in 11 days, on Saturday, December 26. I am planning on driving from OKC to Odessa, TX, on that day, via I-44, U.S. 277, & I-20. Currently, there are several weather forecasts saying that there will be winter precipitation in Oklahoma late next week. Thankfully, there are still 11 days between now and the scheduled beginning of the trip, but it will be interesting to see what the weather does and if it affects the trip.

If there is winter weather, I would much rather have snow than ice. I have driven in snow on one roadtrip, the Florida Trip in December 2003, where I to reroute the trip from Charlotte, NC, to Murfreesboro, TN, to bypass the NC mountains due to a snowstorm that dumped 8 inches of the white stuff. I still did get to drive through snow between Chattanooga & Murfreesboro but it wasn't very much.

I will keep posting updates on here as time gets closer. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and the trip will go as planned, but this time of year, you never know with Oklahoma weather.

ES

Long time, no blog

It's been over a month since I blogged. I have been busy with a lot of other things. The good news is that I did upload some more 2006 pictures to Flickr. I also took a few pictures from a short trip to Tulsa I did two weekends ago. I got some pics of I-244, U.S. 64/OK 51, and U.S. 75.

I was in Yukon last weekend and noticed that OK 92 shields have been taken down. A couple of years ago, OK 92 was decommissioned between I-40 & OK 66 (about 1.5 miles), but I was south of I-40, and there were no OK 92 shields. So I am thinking that the whole route has been decommissioned, which leaves just the southern OK 92. That OK 92 goes from U.S. 62/U.S. 277/OK 9 east of Chickasha to OK 37 in Tuttle. It once went as far south as Lake Burtschi State Park southwest of Norge, but was truncated to east of Chickasha in 2005.

That is all I have for today. Three weeks from today is the first day of the San Diego Trip!

ES