Yesterday, on our way back from Galveston we were stuck in traffic yet again. The glory about Texas its frontage roads. If the freeway is backed up, the frontage road is usually moving faster. Except in our case, the freeway backed up, we moved to the frontage road, then the frontage road was bumper to bumper and the freeway started to speed up and the dang on-ramp was miles away. Anyway, we were frustrated that our normal 1.5 hr trip to Galveston took over 5 hrs to complete, and that we drove my sedan and couldn’t hop over the median like all of the other trucks and SUV’s were doing to hop on the freeway.
We approached the toll booth on Beltway 8. We have a TxTag which allows us to normally drive through without having to stop and pay the toll. For some reason, Fernando is driving in the lane that is marked “Exact Change.” I’m thinking that this is strange, but maybe Ferd wants to get rid of some change or something. As we get closer, I realize we are going very fast, like 60-65mph, and I look ahead and see the usual stop sign and that red and white stick blocking the enterance to the road beyond. I yell “Stop! there’s a…” I closed my eyes and braced myself like I usually do when near death experiences happen…and WHAM! Without even slowing down, and possibly even accelerating, we hit it. Amazingly enough, the stick didn’t break our windshield, but bounced off, leaving a nice faint red and white mark as a reminder.
Sorry Ferd, but I had to tell. You scared me.
Diane and Fernando 