Westward Bound

 

While driving out to Colorado Springs was a lot of driving, 12 hours each way, it wasn't dull and boring. I had my phone packed full of podcasts so I could listen to them but mother nature also provided some entertainment as you will see in the above clips I took from the factor dashcam that came on my newest vehicle. 

We purposely left late and drove only about 9 hours the first day and I wish now we had driven more. The second day we only had 3 hours left to drive on paper but it probably took closer to 5 when all was said and done and that was due to mother nature. In the middle of the night I woke up and could feel my motel bed shaking up on the fourth floor of the motel. I thought it might be my wife until I got up to use the bathroom and saw the water in the toilet bowl sloshing back and forth. Then I knew it was the wind and it must be howling. Several hours later when we exited the motel, I knew for certain it was the wind because I had to use most of my strength to open up the door exiting to the side lot where we were parked. According to what I later read, the wind was blowing a steady 50 mph with gusts much higher!

Needless to say it made driving quite challenging since the wind was coming from the north and we were heading west. I had to grip the steering wheel tightly and input some force to keep going straight. Fortunately the "lane centering" assist that comes standard on many new vehicles helped share in that effort to keep my car centered between the lines. However, not all vehicles come with that or were tall enough no amount of effort on the vehicle's part could keep the vehicle on the road as you can see in the first two clips of the video. Three semis were blown off the road in a span of maybe ten miles or so thought I only managed to save two of them on the dash cam. 

The last 50 miles or so were on two lane state highways and since we were going in a southwest direction at that point, it was much easier staying in between the lines however a snow squall meant I couldn't see them anymore. But we made it to Colorado Springs anyway and got checked into out AirBnB without issue.

A week later, coming home was also exciting as when we reached the midway point of Kansas, it seemed like the whole state was on fire. Indeed, flames were burning right up next to the interstate pavement as you will see towards the end of the video in the third clip. Although I think that clip was probably part of a prescribed burn of some pasture land, there was smoke coming up from about 20 different burns in a near complete circle around us. The news was also reporting many wildfires in nearby Nebraska, one that even claimed the life of an elderly lady, so I'm guessing not all the ones around us were prescribed. 

Fortunately we just kept the recirculation button pushed so that we only had to suffer the smell of ourselves until we got past it all. But all this excitement gave us something to talk about for a few minutes on an otherwise long drive full of podcasts.