The Commander, Lord Kadizzle, and Miss Patty set off for Flagstaff on a simple mission yesterday. Patty needed to sell some books at Bookman's. The rest of the trip invovled checking out some of the local fribble stores, that stock such things as candles shaped like catus. Another part of the mission was to buy some MRE's. MREs are meals ready to eat, used by the military. Cissie and I ate them one nite at the Grand Canyon. They were not that bad, but the best thing is that they have a neat heating system that makes them ideal for emergencies, like wars, and hiking. We could not find the genuine item, but did find some repackaged in a sporting goods store. It is actually illegal to sell them, so that may explain part of the problem. None were bought.
Finally we headed back to Rim Rock. Now the fun began. It started to snow. Very quickly the road was covered. The road from Flagstaff to Rimrock is one giant hill. It wasn't long before a car did a spectacular spin in front of us and went in the median. Next all traffic came to a halt. We became stationary from 3:15 to 8:30. The incompetence of the Arizona Highway Patrol was beyond belief. About 2 miles in front of us,two trucks wrecked on a bridge on the interstate. Obviously,there was no organized plan with how to deal with it. Getting tow trucks and wreckers to the site was the first major problem. With an ounce of intelligence, they could have had an officer organize the stranded cars so the wrecker could get past. No such luck. I ended up going down the line on foot getting people to move their vehicles out of the way. The Highway patrol thanked me, but did not have enough sense to send two officers in a car, so they could do the same thing.
The communication system that was supposed to help motorists was useless. If you dialed 511, which was supposed to provide information, you merely were told there was a wreck. They did not even have enough sense to close the road. So traffic continued to back up for hours. There were so many simple common sense things the State could have done to make the whole mess simpler to deal with. My sister said this happens frequently. If this country is supposedly capable of dealing with terrorists, a simple wreck on the interstate would show it just ain't so.
For a while, traffic was shut off on the North bound lane. It could have been because of a wreck, or perhaps they actually engaged their brains. At 8:30 when we were finally were able to move, we could see the same mess developing on the North bound lane. Beyond belief, the Arizona Highway Patrol did not stop traffic south of the hill climb to Flagstaff, nor did they tell tractor trailers to stay off the road. Instead, they allowed another five hour traffic jam to develop on the North lane. I am 57 years old and have never seen a traffic mess of this magnitude. Cars were backed up for fifteen miles on the North bound lane, and more were driving up the hill as fast as they could to participate in the stand still. The fact that this apparently happens all the time and the State of Arizona has no communication plan to deal with it is beyond comprehension. The State actually has some of those large digital signs over the highway that can provide information. Why they don't use them is incomprehensible. The whole thing is equivalent to letting people drive off a cliff for hours and not realizing you could tell them there was a cliff ahead.
As we sat in the car for hours, the MREs I did not buy seemed like a good deal at seven dollars apiece. Now the biggest problem in the whole mess turned out to be women peeing. At some point this problem has to be resolved. The choices are (1) go down in the woods behind a tree (2) pee between the front door and rear door of the car (3) squat in front of a tractor trailer. Number one would not work, because if traffic started to move while you were in the woods, all cars must move. Some older ladies chose the tractor trailer route. If you use this choice remember to tell the driver so he can shut off the headligths, and not drive over you. Miss Patty, and the Commander took choice two. Choice two works pretty well unless a nit wit comes along driving on that side to head for the cut across.
Something tells me that the next time Arizona has this situation, they will learn nothing from it. Like most American problems we accept them rather than solve them. Had the highway patrol simply gone down the miles of parked cars and told everyone to move as far to the right as possible, emegency vehicles could have very quickly moved to the scene of the problem. The current system the state has developed involves emergency vehicles passing on the right for a while and then on the left if this doesn't work. The net result are hours of unnecessary delay. Also the state has the option to send the heavy tow trucks from the south in the North lane. This would be quite simple and effective, but must not have ever occurred to them.
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