Go West – to New Mexico – Day 1

7 July 2021

What idiot purposely drives into a tropical storm with 65 miles per hour winds with a carrier on their vehicle? Oh wait, that’s me! At least I made it to Quincy without issue.

I managed to get everything taken care of at the house this morning and was ready to leave at 9:30 am. As I was walking out the door, the bulk trash pick up was loading my bulk trash into their truck. I had a lot.

I usually have my coconut palms trimmed once a year to prevent coconuts from becoming canon balls during hurricane season. I was a little late this year. The guy who normally trims them seems to have a conflict with my bulk trash pick up (first Wednesday of the month) and he never got back in touch with me. If he has to haul the trash away instead of using bulk trash pickup, it’s an extra $300. My next door neighbor came to the rescue.

He lives directly across the street from me and has a landscaping business, Reyes Landscaping. I asked him to give me an estimate for removing the dead coconut palm in the front, trim the queen palm in the front, trim the coconut palm, Washingtonia palm and sabal palm in the back, and remove an overgrown wild lime and oak. He quoted $550.

He showed up yesterday and his crew worked for around three hours and WOW did they do a great job! Not only did they do what was asked, they trimmed everything in the front and back and cleaned up every bit of debris. My yard has never looked so good. I’ll use them always from this point on. I wrote a check for $600 for all the extra they did. If you are in south Florida and need a service, I highly recommend him. Let me know and I’ll give you his telephone number.

On these trips of mine, I have a routine of stopping at one of the turnpike plazas for Dunkin’ Doughnuts (maple frosted and chocolate frosted) and a large coffee. Which plaza I stop at is dictated by my bladder. I made it as far as the Port St. Lucie/Fort Pierce plaza before pulling in.

After the bathroom stop, I stood in line for about 15 minutes before getting to order. For some reason, Dunkin’ D is always three times as busy as any other place in the plaza. During that 15 minutes, I counted three people in line (me included) wearing a mask. Only two Dunkin’ people were wearing the mask correctly. The other four people behind the counter wore it over their mouths but not their noses.

By the time I got to a rest area above Gainesville on I-75, no one but me was wearing a mask and everyone looked at me like I was from outer space. Obviously, there is no longer any danger from Covid – I just didn’t get the memo.

After I hit Wildwood, Florida on the turnpike, it started raining. Up to this point, it was sunshine all the way. For those of you who don’t know Wildwood, it’s the northern terminus of the Florida Turnpike (ahem, Ronald Reagan Turnpike). The turnpike meets I-75 just below Ocala at Wildwood. From I-75, I cut across to I-10 at Lake City. From Wildwood to Gainesville, the bottom fell out of the sky. There were several times I had to slow due to poor visibility but I never pulled off the road.

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Is it me or has everyone become much more aggressive as drivers since the pandemic? It seems like everyone was in way too big of a hurry and were weaving in and out of traffic. There were only a few highway patrol on the turnpike but on I-75 they were several pulled over trying to help cars in ditches.

I pulled into Quincy, Florida around 5:15 pm. Hilton has this system where you can get a digital key on your phone and you don’t have to check in with the desk. It didn’t work. I had to stop by the desk.

The Hampton Inn has seen better days. I was able to chose my own room and I opted for a 3rd floor room so I wouldn’t have to hear people above me. Next, I needed to find a place for diesel and some food. There’s a Gulf station next to the hotel that sold diesel. However, you couldn’t pay at the pump. You had to walk inside, give the pump number, swipe a card. The cashier asked if I thought it would be more than 40. I thought she meant gallons. I said no. She meant dollars. My tank holds over 20 gallons and I was down to a quarter of a tank. Forty bucks only got me 3/4 full. I’ve never seen this system before. She said if it was less than $40 that it would be reimbursed on the card.

When I was on the turnpike, the jeep was getting 30 miles per gallon, even with the car top carrier. After I started heading west on I-10, the mileage dropped to 26 miles per gallon. That was some head wind. I could tell that on I-10 I was getting a lot of wind pushing me across lanes ever so slightly. It was almost like the tires were shimming. The carrier on the roof wasn’t a big help.

I felt safe driving 70 mph even in a heavy downpour. There is good tread on my tires and the jeep has an anti-skid system for wet pavements. Have I said before I love my jeep?

Finding food in Quincy was tough. I have a feature on the jeep navigation that lets you get a route to local restaurants. Every restaurant that interested me was closed. As a matter of fact, many businesses in Quincy are closed. I don’t know if this is due to the pandemic or if Quincy was depressed before the pandemic, but it once was a cute , thriving little town that I drove through on my way to Mississippi when I visited my folks.

I did eventually find a KFC. Looks like my vegetarian diet is on pause during this trip. I chose the two-piece combo, crispy. I did get the Cole slaw along with the mashed potatoes so I got my unhealthy veggies in. I’ll gain all 20 pounds I’ve lost after this trip.

Tomorrow is a 6 1/2 hour drive to Baton Rouge, home of the hated LSU Tigers who pick on Ole Miss all the time. Hopefully, the rain is gone and I can see clearly now.