Wind blowing. Sand blowing. My high-profile van is rocking and swaying as I drive the interstate into New Mexico. The last 20 years I have seen the signs about low visibility possible when the wind and sand are blowing across the road. I’ve read the signs posted at various intervals along the hundreds of interstate miles here in New Mexico.
Don’t stop in travel lane. Pull over, get off the road. Turn off your vehicle. Turn off vehicle’s lights. Keep your seat belt on. Do not put your feet on the brakes. Signs posted in areas that during this trip did not even have wind and sand blowing. I was ready, if need be.
And then it happened. Traffic slowed as the wind-blown sand created low visibility. I thought, let’s be careful folks, no multi-vehicular accident today please. We crept along … so very slow … and we were going okay keeping a distance between vehicles. Then … there was no vehicle in front of me. Sand filled the air! With my van moving slowly, still in a driving lane, the next moment I saw the vehicle in front of me. It had stopped. So did I, and thankfully so did the vehicle behind me. We all sat … for numerous minutes. Here was a parking lot on the interstate!
Any minutes when the air cleared, traffic slowly moved forward, then stopped for minutes at a time on the road. I was so thankful to be surrounded by patient drivers as this would have been awful if we did not all cooperate in our stopping. We were at this for a long period of time to only travel a few miles. Emergency messages were numerous on my phone. Here is one still after I had stopped for the night … road may have still been closed.
My destination was Hatch, New Mexico. However, the direct road to Hatch and the round-about longer drive on the interstate to Hatch were both closed to traffic. The sandstorm prompted the officials to close the roads. We all descended upon Deming, New Mexico. We could go no further. My travel plan changed and I slept in my van at a Walmart parking lot along with many others who could travel no further. I don’t know what time the roads eventually opened. My van rocked in the wind till at least 9:30pm despite the weather predictions of less wind at 7pm.
