A Jolly Holly Christmas
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Day 7: December 25, 2009 A Jolly Holly Christmas |
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It hadn't snowed in nearly 24 hours and the temperature had broken into
the two digit range when I pulled out of the motel. I pulled through the
big intersection and continued on out of town. It looked like the reports
of hazardous driving conditions were true. There was a goodly amount of
bare pavement but there was also a fair amount of glare ice and packed
snow.
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By pure luck, there was a clear spot near this eye catching Renault 4CV in
Hollis that allowed me to pull over and snap some pictures. A 4CV appeared
on this site earlier
and I used that as an excuse to tell about owning one myself. I'm doing it
again. I didn't own mine through an entire winter and don't recall driving
it in a lot of snow. It was rear engined so what little weight it had was
over the drive wheels so it may have done alright. I do remember driving
it in the cold. Being both air and water cooled, the engine never got too
hot or at least the little radiator never did. The radiator was between
the rear seat and the engine. A dash mounted switch turned on a fan that
blew air past something connected to the luke warm radiator and out a
single small opening beneath the rear seat. A door allowed the opening to
be closed in the summer. I'm sure this provided many a chuckle to the
Frenchman who called it a heater.
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Crossing the state line into Texas didn't change much. Bare and covered
pavement continued to alternate.
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There were long stretches of clear or nearly clear pavement that ended in
a patch of ice or packed snow. In a way, the clear bits increased the
danger since they could lead drivers to relax or increase speed. I saw
many cars off in the ditches but got no pictures. I probably only caught
the truck because it's so big. Plus, it doesn't appear to have slid off
the road. It looks more likely to be the victim of a fuel or other
problem.
It took me just about five hours to cover the 110 miles between Altus, Oklahoma, and Lubbock, Texas. Note that the conditions shown on this page are not the worst. In fact, only the milder examples got photographed. Only then could I spare a hand for the camera. This is particularly true in the next two panels in Lubbock. |
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In Lubbock, drifting made for some pretty deep snow and what little
melting occurred led to some fairly deep puddles. I knew the
Buddy Holly
Center would not be open but stopped by anyway. I'll be back tomorrow
when it is open.
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Holley is the correct spelling. The 'e' got dropped on a recording
contract so the world knows him as Buddy Holly. Not only was the name
surprisingly free of snow, there was a clear spot to stop in front of the
grave. After paying my respects -- and taking pictures -- I drove on,
found a place to turn around, and drove back past the grave. That's when
the third picture was taken.
Today' background is a negative of a photo of the big tree in the park at Altus, Oklahoma. |
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