Close you eyes and allow me to paint a picture in your mind. Imagine yourself cruising along the 101 towards LA. Traffic is moving along and everyone is cruising at – oh, let’s say 70 mph. On either side of the freeway, there are frontage roads, and these frontage roads are two way. Every few miles you are offered the option of exiting the freeway, and once you exit, you can turn either right or left because the frontage roads go both directions. At most of these exits, there are also entrances, which are commonly used to gain entrance to the freeway. Oh, one very important note…you many ONLY enter or exit the freeway at these designated places. We’ll call them on ramps and off ramps.

We are now in Texas. And yes, there are frontage roads here also, however the majority are one way. So, if you are driving along and see the restaurant or shopping establishment you were looking for, you must drive past it, and wait until you get to the “turnaround”, then cross under the freeway go back and cross under the freeway again and get on the frontage road going the other way. You are now at your destination. It’s okay, we’ve gotten used to it, and it’s just part of the journey.

On occasion we don’t plan well and we find ourselves heading into San Antonio during rush hour. Back in CA if we got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, we’d groan and I would inevitably say, “JD, we should have taken the 118.” He would then give me that “I’ve been driving longer than you have” look! And it may or may not be worth exiting the 101 because the two way frontage road may or may not be going the direction we need. Well, here in Texas there is a phenomenon JD and laughingly call “Texas on Ramps and “Texas off ramps”.

Picture is: When stuck on the freeway in bumper to bumper traffic, no need to just sit there and stew, just take he Texas off ramp! If your unhappy on the freeway, just get off. What? The exit isn’t for another half mile? Shoot! Just get off right here and hop on the frontage road! The same can be said when there is traffic on the frontage road and you want to get on the freeway. Who cares if the on ramp is still a mile away, just use the Texas on ramp! Look at all the tire marks in the median – everyone does it. “Dang, there’s Target and we just passed the exit.” Not to worry! We can take the Texas off ramp! Need directions? Well, you go on down the interstate (they don’t say freeway here) for about three miles, and take the Texas off ramp – there won’t be a sign for that, but you’ll see plenty of tire marks in the grass on the median.

You might even think that because his is Texas, that only guys in trucks would do this, right? Nope! Why, just this past weekend we witnessed a Nissan Altima shift into 4 wheel drive and hop on the freeway right in front of us! It always amuses us and we always laugh, and quite honestly we’ve yet to see anyone get pulled over for doing it. Would I do it? I could, but it would be just my luck to get pulled over. And that would just open up a whole other can of worms when I hand over my CA Drivers License. Yes, that’s right, I still don’t have my TX license…[insert grimace here]