January 13, 2012

January 13, 2012

Happy Birthday to our son-in-law, Dwaine!  It sounds as if you had a great day in beautiful Colorado.

Years ago, Bill and I created a “road classification” chart to cover some of the roads that we travel.  Here is a refresher course in case you have forgotten:

Interstates are rated 1, although sometimes that is debatable.  

Secondary are most state highways, especially in Texas.

Third-indary are narrower, but still in good condition.

Fourth-indary are rough and in need of much help.

Fifth-indary have pot holes so big that ducks can swim in them after a good rain.

That’s as far as our classification project went at the time.  But that was before we discovered the desert regions of Arizona.  The “roads” two days ago would have probably rated at least an eighteenth-indary because they were little more than tracks and not at all flat...lots of steep inclines (and what goes up must go down) with washed out places to give them more of a challenge.

We ventured back up in the hills this morning, but not as bravely as before.  We had threatening messages from some of our children and, for now, we’ll listen to them.  We also had a comment from Dwight and Sheila Meeks, whom we have traveled with sometimes in the past 14 years.  Their opinion was that we needed to join their “Idiots Club.”  I guess Sheila has forgotten about the time she and I got stuck in the sand at a very remote beach in Mexico...but that’s another story!  

This morning we walked further to the caches in order to avoid the worst of the roads.  (See how much we take comments to heart.)  I was really tired when we got home and treated myself to a two hour nap.  Ah-h-h!