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We just got back from a 1,100-mile motorcycle trip through the Davis Mountains and the Big Bend area of Texas. We started going out there in the late 80s. The fast routes back home to San Antonio and the Hill Country are I10 or US 90. The speed limit is 80 on I10 now and 75 on two-lane US90 (except for passing through the handful of towns west of Del Rio). I remember how we used to run 80 mph, on a hair trigger if we saw a trooper (and they actually rarely ticketed us; usually we got a warning). The whole trip back on 90 yesterday, we locked our cruise controls on 80 mph as much as possible and didn’t worry.
The difference between back then and now reminded me of the whole 55 mph deal. It foreshadowed some things to come. First, it was started as a response to a real problem, the Mideast oil embargo or whatever it was called in the early 70s. It was framed as one’s civic duty to comply. Then, when states didn’t get on board, the feds used financial disincentives to bend recalcitrant states to their will, and ultimately it stayed on well beyond its useful life. I got pulled over by a Montana trooper in the late 70s who told me I could go to court or pay him $5 on the spot and get a receipt. Montana called it a “failure to conserve natural resources” citation instead of speeding. There was massive civil disobedience, yet we still had the self-righteous who would hold 55 in the left lane. Nanny state people like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety kept the 55 alive until the mid-90s.
I wonder - are these the same people who became COVID-scolding nannies? Or their precursors? It seemed a lot worse during COVID, but then again, we aren’t masking 5 years later yet the double nickel lasted over 20 years. It seems as if these people have always been with us and will always be there, waiting for a chance to nag.
The pictures are from 1990 and this week. The spot is on the river east of Presidio - background mountains are in Mexico. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend the Davis Mountains and the Big Bend. Wild and very lightly attended.
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Yes. People who nag enjoy it.
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That's why so many become HOA presidents . . .
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A reminder:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” ~ C. S. Lewis
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And wild, wide-open spaces are great in some ways, with the caveat that if something happens, help could be hours away.
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The location where we took the pictures is about 500 feet above the river. There is a crashed truck down on the edge below the overlook. The road takes a huge rise from just above the river level in about a mile, (15 percent grade) the road clinging to the side of the cliffs. Once years ago we were stopped at the top and a family came up the hill in a clunker car, smoking and struggling with the little kids laughing and cheering from the back seat as they crested the top. Some more pics showing aging and bikes.
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