996 and packed it to the roof with stuff reserving space for the urns containing the ashes of both my Mom and Dad. I'm currently in Barstow CA looking at low grey rain clouds with the knowledge -- checked the road conditions -- snow will be on is on the I-40 freeway in the Flagstaff area and points east. I have no desire to drive the 996 through the snow again so I will head south on I-15 (and based on the TV news probably end up driving through mud instead of snow) and catch I-10 and take the southern route. It is 819 miles or a bit over 11 hours from Barstow to El Paso Tx. That's a day's driving. Then another long day 947 miles or 13:32 hours/minutes from El Paso to Joplin MO. I'm not pushing it like I used to. In fact I got about 16 miles out of Barstow last night hoping to at least reach Needles CA before stopping for the night but decided to cut the stay short at around 8pm. Needles was another 2 hours away but I just thought I'd take it a bit easier this trip. So I turned around and spent the night in Barstow.

Oh, I could have taken the Boxster on this trip -- I certainly could have used its extra cargo space, the 996's front trunk and cabin are full -- but that suspected starter problem bothered me. The 996 got a road worthiness inspection before I left and there are no leaks, vital fluids were ok, the oil (Mobil 5w-50) has just under 1K miles on it so I think I can make it home before having the oil/filter serviced, and the tires are in good shape with nothing shiny showing in the tires.

About the only problem so far has been VISA disabling my credit card cause I guess I used it too much yesterday. Funny it let another card get used fraudulently in several different areas of southern and northern CA and even back in Chicago that would require the mobility of Flash and didn't flag the card but I use it every 3 or 4 hours or so to fill up the car's gas tank and all Hell breaks loose. Spent 30 minutes on the phone last night and got the card working again. I have other cards of course, but I wanted to use this card for this trip.

Marc, sorry to hear of the trip you are making. Hope you can make the most of it and have clear roads for your journey.

What is your final destination?

I see you are going to be in Joplin. I travel there for business about once or twice a month. I live in Springfield, MO.

Hit me up if you would like to meet for coffee along the way. 417-576-5768.

Safe travels!

but I'm not going to make it. My sister is talking about flying to KC Mo and making it to Joplin. She wants to be there when Mom and Dad are buried. I may have to skip Joplin and head up north to take care of some family business then drive back to Joplin for the burial on Monday then turn right around and head back north. I have tons of stuff to do and I'm running out of time and running into the holidays.

I wanted to leave last Saturday but I had a short notice job interview Monday afternoon and I didn't get on the road until 1pm Tuesday. Not the early start I had hoped for.

Safe travels. The trip gives you much time to reflect. On credit cards, using gas stations and then places you normally don't use it is a sign of fraud. Gas stations because there is no clerk to cut up your card, so it is common for thieves to try stolen cards at a gas station to make sure it is active. Went from DC to CT once to visit my mother. I stopped on the Jersey Turnpike for gas, then the next use of the card was in a Wal-Mart to buy my mom a folding table. It got rejected at the Wal-Mart. Had to pay cash. Wife called the CC company, to straighten it out. Off to the Stop 'n Shop for tailgate supplies, rejected again. Glad I wasn't out with clients, but still embarrassing to drive your mother to a Wal-Mart in a Porsche and have your card declined.

Marc,

I hope your trip goes well and that you have a safe journey...

Credit card fraud detection is sometimes weird, I got mine disabled once mainly because I did a long road trip and back the same day. We went to pick up my mom's new dog to a breeder north of Toronto, total about 1600KM from home to the breeder back home in less than 15 hours. Once I got home, the card wouldn't work to refill the car. I guess visa thought that no one in their right mind would drive that to end up at the starting point ...I proved them wrong.

Hang tough !

E.

When I go on a trip out of the area, I call the credit card company a day in advance and let them know where I'll be traveling. Worked for me every time.

I've had the card rejected as little as 200 miles from home before when I didn't do that. Now, with doing it, 2,000 miles away or even countries away are no problem.

AZ and into NM. Light to moderate. Damn wipers are skipping like crazy. I have to get a new pair on ASAP. Would have liked to make El Paso but it didn't help I hit Phoenix at rush hour. Took around an hour before I was out of traffic and could resume 75mph. But I had to slow down when I encountered rain.

It's a short hop off I-10. The town square adjacent to the Basilica of San Albino in the Mesilla section has some nice shops, etc.
Mesilla
There's also a street fair on a couple days each week:
LasCrucesSteetFair
At the very least the stop-off might give you some distraction from your sadness.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2014 09:06AM by Laz. (view changes)