Day 18:
I left San Angelo at 10:34am on my way back to Houston. Headed southeast for a while before I met up with I-10 west of San Antonio, passing Fiesta Texas along the way (I never realized that it was just off of the freeway!). I rounded the city and made through it and continued on I-10 to home. I stopped in Sequin for some gas and food, hopped back on I-10 and that is when it began. A horrific 80mph to screeching halt traffic jam, over and over again. Looking at the traffic on the NAV, it was going to be this way all the way to Houston. From what I could see, most of the problem was caused by idiots hanging out in the fast lane, not passing anyone, just cruising along. Arg!!! That is so frustrating. To this day it just dumbfounds me that people can be so clueless as to basic rules of the road and courtesy. I'll move on cuz this will turn in to a rant very easily
The traffic was awful. We'd be cruising along then bam! slam (and I literally mean slam) on the brakes. The red light was flashing and beeping in the windshield and I got to see how good my reflexes (and those behind me) were. At one point, both lanes of traffic moved to the fast lane to make room for a stream of cars entering the freeway. And then it happened--slam on the brakes. One car ahead of me swerved into the grass, an 18-wheeler a couple of cars behind me began emitting copious amounts of swirling gray smoke from its tires, as the cars entering the freeway slammed on their brakes and swung to the shoulder to give the big rig room to stop.
At that point I had enough. So I instructed Samantha to avoid freeways and began my trek along old highway 90 and several small FM's and state highways. Samantha did a wonderful job routing me through the back country. It actually turned out to be a great little ride through some lovely country. All in all, it actually ended up being a few miles shorter to get home, but a little longer time-wise. I rolled up into the driveway at home at 5:48pm (original ETA before all of the traffic was about 4:20). Not bad, and I was relieved to be home.
Final 3 fuel-ups came in at 20.32mpg, 21.76mpg, and 19.03 (thank you traffic
) with a final odometer reading of 14983.6.
So, here are some stats for you all:
Total Miles Driven: 5,853.2
Gallons of Gas Burned: 267.74
Average Gas Mileage: 21.86
Amount Spent on Gas: $962.65
Average Cost per Gallon: $3.595
Seeing and Doing All That We Did: Priceless
I hope you all enjoyed our trip
If you have an questions about any aspect of it, including any advice planning your own trip, feel free to ask!
