I love Texas. What a great state. It’s big! When I say big, I mean big. The song about Miles and Miles of Texas is true. There are lots of roads and lots of things to see in Texas. I was just out there and got to see a lot of the roads and sights. I also got to witness something that couldn’t be done but the State of Texas did it.
Every road in Texas is under construction. People said it couldn’t be done but Texas DOT has done it. God bless Texas.
Okay, I’ll admit that I will exaggerate some, but I went through all sorts of construction sites on my recent trip to Texas. Of course Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina are not far behind with having roads that are being built, repaired, rerouted, and blocked off for some sort of construction. There are some other neat things about some roads in Texas.
Texas has toll roads that are really cool. You don’t pull up to a tollbooth and pay money to get on the toll highway. A camera system takes a picture or your license plate and sends you a bill. You pass signs that say you are getting on a toll road. You don’t have to slow down. You just keep driving and you’ll find out what it costs later.
There is another great thing about getting on some of these toll roads. The speed limit is the bomb. Normally, you get on the interstate and the speed limit is 70 MPH. I know, you set your cruise control on 75 and let it roll. Some of you flirt with 78 to 82 MPH. There are plenty of people headed toward 90 because they are in a hurry. I’m one of the 75 people.
I got on the toll road and it was a different story altogether. The first thing I see is a speed limit sign for 75 MPH. This was a new road and it was incredibly smooth. Well, if the speed limit is 75 I won’t get stopped for going 80. Wow! Eighty and I’m not worried about getting a ticket.
Then it gets better. The speed limit changes to 80. Now there are people zooming past me at 90. I have to get up to speed to keep from being run over. Then we notice that we still have 200 miles to go to our destination. Remember, Texas is big? That’s the distance from Charleston to Spartanburg. Finally, the speed limit changes to 85.
I admit that I chickened out at about 88 MPH. It was getting dark and even though people were zooming by, I felt that I had about gone as fast as I needed to. It did make the miles roll past though.
The toll road was fun but it ended too soon. Shifting lanes and concrete barriers brought traffic down to 45 MPH even though everyone else wanted to still be at 90.
Several hours of dark roads with flashing lights, poor road markings and an occasional accident kept the traffic poking along for a few hours. Even getting to run at 90 MPH for a few hours made my trip a long one.
On the way home, we took a different route and got to see construction projects in every state we went through. Don’t think they is a monopoly on construction projects only in Texas, even with that, there seems to be a Buccee’s available for breaks.
When I got home, it was time to re-evaluate how I was going to make my next trip to the great state of Texas. Surely, some of the construction will be complete before I go back. I don’t know whether to try a different route or just plan on going from big truck stops to Buccee’s. If I get to get on a toll road that has an 85 MPH speed limit, I’m getting on it. That’s fun.
