living outside of the law...

DISCLAIMER:
So let me just preface this post by stating that it is not intended for the faint-hearted or the judgmental.  To read this, you actually need to be open-minded and understanding.  Actually you need to be adventurous. 

This past weekend my fantastic roommate and I were needing to go on a road trip due to a few different occasions.  (I'm gonna go ahead and give a shout-out to my roomie here since this post includes her completely and she usually only reads this blog rarely for the sole purpose to make fun of me.)  So we were heading south on Hwy 45 which only gives you two lanes to work with for about 15 million hours it seems like.  And then lo and behold, the thing that you dread the most in the world happens.  STOPPED TRAFFIC.  And you see somewhere up far, far ahead in the far away distance a sign that speaks about the unspeakable mandatory one-lane.  And of course there is no exit ramp to be seen for miles.  So if you're from Texas, you know what happens next.  There are THOSE cars that start immediately driving through the grass to get to the feeder road.  You know the ones... the people that just can't even handle the traffic long enough to decently wait for a paved road to exit the highway like a civilized human being.  The people that leave ruts in the grass because there become so many of them that they create a trail.  The people that insist on acting barbariously instead of waiting in the 4.5 hour traffic like the rest of us while we all secretly hate them.

And that's when it happened.  Katie's not from Texas so she instantly thinks it's hilarious that this happens when traffic occurs anyways, but she says "DO IT!"  I of course was appalled at the thought because I am such a law abider... but the thing that actually came out of my mouth was "My car's too low.  I'll totally get stuck!"  And that's when about three cars the size of mine decided to go for it and they all made it.  Hmph.  They showed me.  I was in the left lane so when the truck in the right lane scooted up, Katie said, "You better go now or..." and I don't even remember what the threat was because I immediately turned my car towards the grass and accelerated headed towards the feeder.  The entire time I plowed through the grass all I kept saying was "I hate you.. I hate you.. I hate you.." but I followed the person before me and made it right safely onto the pavement.  The ol' Solara still had it in her!  There was many shouts of victory and high-fives occuring in that car!  And of course Katie made me take the whole "I hate you" thing back.

Then came the next part... getting back onto the highway.  We began driving on the feeder road for quite some time noticing all of the traffic on the highway and for how many miles it went on.  We quickly figured out that definitely would have at least put us back another hour in our trip if we would have stayed so of course more high-fives happened in the Solara as we continued on our drive.  Well the traffic finally ended but still no entrance ramp.  We were of course in the hill country so this tends to happen from time to time where you can go for miles without one.  Well this is when we noticed we had caught up with some of the other cars that had also used the "grass exit" from the highway and it was almost like we were a type of gang as we maneuvered through the hills together trying to find a way back onto the highway.  Katie and I immediately contemplated and figured out that these other people were definitely not new at this and we were the "rookies" when it came to the whole driving outside the entrance/exit ramp limits of the law but we were in now.  I'm pretty sure Katie even broke out in a chorus of "Me and My Gang."  We were officially hooked.  That's when the leader of our pack saw it... the perfect way to get back onto the highway.  If you're thinking that we saw an entrace ramp, you're obviously not ready to join the gang.  It was no entrance ramp... and to be perfectly honest, I don't know what it was.  I just stopped and turned and accelerated right onto the highway with the rest of my partners of crime.  We were back on track and free sailing... and had lost no bit of time. 

And I've gotta say if it wasn't for my crazy roommate that pressured me to do it or my spunky Solara that felt like being a little dangerous... it never would have happened.  But I'm so glad it did... it definitely made our road trip WAY more entertaining.