Mile 1120.9

About 20 miles after that last post, I noticed that the “Scenic Route” singes I was originally following had disappeared. The entire area was littered with ranch access roads, and roads marked with “Private Property” signs that lead to the various oil equipment, and I guess I was just to busy enjoying the scenery, and pondering over how much it reminded me of where I grew up that I missed an important turn.

I could have just turned back. But I still had my bearings (if not a good sense of distance), and since roads like these were literally where I learned to drive, it only felt natural to just push on forward and get back to the interstate on my own.

Suffice it to say, I got myself royally lost.

I knew the relative direction to the interstate, sure, but on farm access roads that really does not help you much. To make things worse, they were in the middle of re-surfacing all of these gravel roads, meaning almost every mile had a different driving surface. Some roads were well packed gravel, some were fresh unpacked gravel, some roads had just had the top layer of gravel upturned, one road had been completely plowed up and was impassible to my low-clearance beetle. Speaking of the beetle, it did not get along with the gravel roads. Something about the low-clearance and plastic body work meant it rose a serious racket at even low speeds.

Eventually I managed to work my way back to civilization, but at the cost of going south when the interstate was well to the north. Mostly I just wanted to get off the dirt roads. In the end, I think I only added about 50 miles to the journey, and probably wasted 2 hours driving time.