Cuernavaca to Ottawa - Winter, 2004
This is the first time we have headed north in winter, so we were not sure where we would first encounter snow on the roads. Going Interstate nearly all the way was the plan.
Saturday, February 7, 2004 - Cuernavaca to Matehuala
We left Cuernavaca at 9:25 am in a cool 19°C sunny, blue sky day. When we reached the saddlepoint between the mountains, at 3,100 meters (a little over 10,000 feet) the temperature dropped down to 13°C. As we descended the pass, we started to see and smell and feel in our eyes and throat, the petrochemical smog of Mexico City. We reached the southern toll gate of 95-D at 10:08 am and took the Periferico around the city. With about 26 million inhabitants and more than 5 million cars, this 6 lane highway is bumper to bumper all the way. Sometimes stopped dead and sometimes bumper to bumper 100 km/h driving. Always tense. In 59 minutes we reached the northern toll gate of 57-D and headed up to Queretero. We got to the Queretero bypass at 12:30, continued on to San Louis Potosi bypass by around 3 pm and arrived at our Las Palmas Midway Inn at 4:25. 7 hours elapsed time and almost 700 km.
We had brilliant sunshine until Queretero, but it then became overcast for the rest of the trip. In Matehuala it was only 7°C as I stepped out in shorts and sandals. I had donned a sweater, but it was cold. We had a nice dinner at their restaurant (one of the attractions), and, both being quite tired, went to bed early at 8:30 pm.
Sunday, February 8, 2004 - Matehuala to San Antonio
We left Matehuala in 7°C overcast weather at 9:30 am. The weather stayed overcast and cold for the whole length of the "altiplano", the wide high altitude plain between the east and west branches of the Sierra Madre (in Spanish, the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre Occidental). The altiplano ends at Saltillo where we have to negotiate the mountains and then on to Monterrey, bypassing both cities via toll bypasses. Then onto the toll road to Nuevo Laredo where we arrived at the car permit place at 2:17 pm. We finished this chore by 2:54, not too bad, and then cleared US immigration and customs by 3:10. We decided to get right on I-35 north to San Antonio.
We forgot about the secondary customs check 20 miles north of Laredo, which then took another few minutes in a long line-up. We arrived in San Antonio at a few minutes after 6, a somewhat long day and another 700 or so km. Fortunately, the temperature got up to 68°F at Laredo and dropped slowly to 62°F as we got to San Antonio. The motels charged extra because there is a once a year rodeo on for two weeks and this is the start of the second week.
Monday, February 9, 2004 - San Antonio through Dallas and beyond
We slept in to 8:30 am and got off to a slow start. It was overcast and mid 50s F and stayed that way all day with occasional showers, sometimes hard showers, but never for long. Different from the solid rain predicted from last Friday's web weather research. We went by Austin and then by Waco and reached Dallas around 2:30 pm. We spent some time in Dallas and had our first Starbuck's coffee since Ottawa. It was very good as usual and we savoured it slowly, esconced in large brown leather arm chairs. We left Dallas at about 5:30 pm and reached only Mount Pleasant, TX by 7:30 pm, in the dark and at a cool 41°F. However, we covered almost 700 km, which felt just fine to the sole driver as it was broken up into two well separated legs.
Mount Pleasant does not have much to recommend it, but we had a light, simple but good supper and stayed at a place where they have free wireless high speed internet service for guests. Fortunately this is becoming more and more common. In a few years, it will be as required as "colour TV" and "free cable" or "free HBO" have been for years. We just watched an hour of TV after supper, composed this, sent it and went to bed.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004 - to Memphis
We woke at 8 am, had breakfast and left at 10 am. It was 42°F; there was only high cloud with sun trying to break through. We headed up to Texarkana and then into Arkansas. As good Conservatives/Republicans, we sailed by Hope Arkansas, birthplace of Bill Clinton, without even slowing down. We had lunch in Little Rock and then went on to Memphis.
We stayed in a place we have stayed at before, near Germantown, a suburb just east of Memphis.
We ate well at Corky's Ribs, as we had done before. These Memphis style "dry" ribs are excellent. They offer to FedEx you a set of ribs for 4 with trimming s "anywhere" for a fixed price of $57, shipping included. I suspect that anywhere does not include Canada, but who knows?
Wesley Clark was in Memphis today, celebrating his poor placing in the Tennessee primary. Kerry supporters were celebrating all along Beale Street, with their energy keeping them warm, as it was about 42°F in the evening.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004 - Memphis to Cincinnati
We woke again at 8 am and left again at 10 am. It was cool, in the low 50s, and a hazy sun most of the day. We lunched near Nashville and continued on to Bowling Green, near where we entered Eastern Standard Time, and lost a hour. Then, by Louisville and on to Florence, KY, a suburb of Cincinnati, again a place we have stayed before.
Now we have free wireless internet access again. Very good. No snow yet, but since we are headed for roads just south of two of the Great Lakes, we are expecting some lake effect snow, which seems to be forecast for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Thursday, February 12, 2004 - Cincinnati to Erie, PA
We left again a little before 10 am in a nice hazy sunshine in the low 50s F. We stopped briefly at a mall in Cincinnati and again at lunchtime in Columbus, for lunch and shopping. Then we headed on to Cleveland, bypassing it to the east and heading along I-90 to end up at Erie, PA once more.
About an hour north of Columbus, still in sunshine, we noticed a large cloud bank over Lake Erie and as we approached Cleveland it became a solid cloud cover. In Cleveland it turned into a light fine snow flurry that swirled on the highway, but did not settle. All around us were white fields and the temperature was down below freezing, at 28°F.
We arrived in Erie at about 5:30 pm, rested up, settled in and went for a nice supper at a local steak house in this summer resort, which some establishments call the North Coast of the USA in their advertising. That is a bit of a joke in winter as all you can see is snow and ice.
Friday, the 13th of February, 2004 - Erie to Ottawa
On this lucky day, after brushing the snow off the car, we left in a light snow flurry with a temperature in the mid-twenties F. We got to Buffalo around 11 am and then between Buffalo and Rochester, encountered strong winds and blowing snow across the Thruway. Plows were busy, but it was not slippery. After Rochester, we started seeing blue specks in the sky and by Syracuse we had brilliant sunshine and the temperature climbed above freezing to the mid-thirties F.
After a late lunch in Syracuse, we headed north and by Watertown, the clouds closed in again and the wind picked up and then we were driving on snow covered roads watching snow plows valiantly try to combat the drifting snow. This did slow us down, but we were getting closer and closer to Canada so we continued on. After a brief stop in Ogdensburg, NY, we crossed the border and it was clear sailing with dry clean roads and no snow plows anywhere, all the way to Ottawa.
We got home at 6:45 pm and unpacked. It was +1°C or about 34°F when we arrived.
Statistics
Our total distance was 4,775 km or about 2,978 miles and it took us 49 hours of driving spread over 7 days.
That comes to 7 hours per day, about 682 km per day or 425 miles per day and an average speed of 97 km/h or 60 mph.
Feels good that it is over!
February, 2004
