Plans? What plans?

When I left L.A., my plan was to spend two nights in Blythe and use the day in-between to clean and reorganize my van. Then I saw the weather forecast for the day I planned to leave Blythe and saw that it was going to rain for the first time in a couple of months.

When I learned to drive in the midwest, I was taught to be careful during the first few minutes of rain because the water would mix with oil accumulated on the road to create a slick surface. When I moved to California, I was taught to be careful during the first rain of the season for the same reason, but bigger -- since it likely hadn't rained for several months, the amount of oil on the road would be much greater. That first rainy season, after I thought it had rained plenty to clean off the roads, I took a freeway on-ramp just a little too fast and started to fishtail. The main part of the road had gotten enough water and wear to clean it off at that point, but the ramp was more lightly traveled and was still slick. My snow driving skills served me well and I was able to correct the skid, but ever since then I've taken the beginning of rainy season very seriously.

I decided to stay in Blythe an extra day until the roads dried. Then my plan was to drive to Lake Havasu City. I had some thoughts about what I'd do there and my intention was to find a place to camp. I got as far as Parker and wanted to take a break so I stopped for a quick food and restroom break. While I was sitting there, I saw and heard an ambulance go by in the direction I planned to go next and thought to myself, "I sure hope that's not on its way to an accident..."

I also noticed some roadside stands across the street. The big yellow word LEGGINGS caught my eye. Leggings? There wasn't just one, there were two venders offering leggings for sale. And they both had half mannequins to show off their wares. I was amused, so I took a photo:


In case you can't see the mannequins in that photo, here are some enlargements:



Then I got in my car and headed for Lake Havasu City. I passed a casino, quite a few RV parks, beautiful geologic formations, a gas station with a chicken on top of its sign, and then a few more miles up ahead traffic was stopped. Dead stopped. Nothing moving in my direction for as far as I could see, and no cars coming in the other direction. I joined the minority of vehicles opting to make a 3-point turn and head back toward Parker. I stopped at the gas station with the chicken on the sign and filled up at Arizona prices -- almost a full dollar less per gallon than in California. I fired up my phone to see what my GPS software knew about the road situation. It showed a yellow zone but that should mean that traffic is moving, so I tried again. This time the traffic was backed up way farther and still looked completely stopped. The very last car in the line was just before the entrance to a left-turn lane into an RV park, so I used the lane to turn around and go back to Parker. 

Fatigue and discouragement set in. I went to a motel and got a room. I'm not entirely happy with this decision, but I was not liking the vibe in this area, and one of the biggest messages I got at the women's RTR is "follow your gut." My gut landed me in this motel room tonight. 

I sent out "plans have changed" emails to my core team of Karen trackers and exchanged a few email and text messages with folks. I'm not sure what I want to do next, but I can decide to do whatever I want. Then I may or may not be able to realize my plans.

So, what do you suppose is the reason that people are motivated to buy and sell leggings by the side of the road around here? Any ideas?

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 28, 2018 at 11:17 PM

    I can't speculate about a roadside leggings stand...but your comment about the first rain of the season in California reminded me of how I discovered the issue. I was driving in Mountain View, on El Camino, and stopped at a stoplight .When the light turned green, I hit the gas and my wheels spun, but the car didn't move forward. I eased off on the gas and *then* was able to slowly accelerate. I had never experienced anything like that before (but I was new to California at that time).

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