FURTHER WEST

January 3rd we're finally on the road at 9:20 a.m. in Fort Worth, TX.  The last three days Gary has been driving under a lot of tension with road conditions due to icy roads.  There are so many overpasses and bridges that even if we get a good patch of road to speed up, we have to back it down for the bridges since they freeze faster.  And if driving the underpass the sun doesn't get there to melt the ice so it is a no win situation either way.

I spoke about it before but horrible visions of our furniture's welfare keeps entering our thoughts as we see accidents and then these 18-wheelers on their sides.  

Roads beyond Ft. Worth are also bad.  We are now at the 419 mile marker and someone on the CB said ice ends at the 400 mile marker so only 19 miles away.  Sure hope they are right.

Farmland in parts of the Texas landscape has the blackest soil I'd ever seen, perhaps because of the oil below.  Here are a couple scenes showing rigs reaching for that Texas liquid gold.

We stopped for gas at 3 p.m. and getting back onto I 20 the roads are wet and snowy.  Just had another incident where the van and Scout were at an angle or perhaps a road slide but the Scout behind us pushed the hell out of the van and Gary almost lost control.  Was eating lunch when that occurred and lost my appetite.

El Paso, TX is 324 miles away at 4 p.m. with temperature of 36* but when the sun goes down the wet roads will freeze.  We've only gone 261 miles since 9:20 a.m. and didn't even stop for lunch, just eating our packed food (fruit, sardines, crackers, cheese, pepperoni).

We stopped at a Great Western Motel for dinner at 6 p.m.  I had filet mignon and for cattle country these people are ignorant on how to cook good beef.  They must export all the good stuff.  We decided to travel after eating supper in an attempt to catch up for lost travel time.  Our destination is El Paso and we should get there approximately 12:30 a.m.

With less than 100 miles to go until El Paso at 10:30 p.m. our Scout had a blow-out on the right rear tire ~ out in the middle of BFE (foul translation).  We were unable to raise anyone on the CB, the van spare tire wouldn't fit the Scout as he thought when we left Maryland, and had no spare for the Scout.   The nearest truck stop was 22 miles behind us and 40 odd miles ahead was the nearest.  Gary didn't want to leave me alone along the highway with the Scout while he got the tire fixed so we got out the pillows, sleeping bags and attempted to get some sleep.

At 1:30 a.m. when Gary woke up I was sitting in the front passenger seat trying to rest in the freezing temperatures.  He suggested I turn the car on to warm the interior.  He got up, we discussed the problem and decided to unhook the Scout, leave her and drive to the truck stop 22 miles behind us.  Hoping the Scout and trailer hitch would still be there when we returned.  The 22 mile trip was unsuccessful and about 2 a.m. we settled in for what we hoped would be a short winter's nap.

Already awake at 6:30 a.m. I'm writing and waiting for the gas stations to open to get the tire fixed.  Must admit I'm so happy to be alive and see day break.  I was afraid of being rammed in the tail by a sleepy 18 wheeler or being vandalized/terrorized during the night.  We didn't manage to make up for lost travel time after all.  As I think back there were ways the blow-out could have been avoided:  1) had a spare for the Scout, 2) had purchased those tires Gary wanted to buy when we first entered Texas but which I talked him out of.

Even if we had felt angry at the other it wasn't shown and since there is still about one-third of our trip to go tempers wouldn't have cured our problems.  One humorous event out of this situation was when son Greg and I were trying to get situated in the back of the van to go to sleep.  Gary said, "I guess you wouldn't want me to mention about the tires I wanted to buy earlier, huh?"

I said, "No, but what about those boots you wanted to buy instead?"  Then with a carefully calculated thought he replied, "Well if I had bought them you'd be wearing one up your ass by now."  I thought Greg would choke laughing, he laughed so hard that his throat gurgled.

To be continued  .....

Saundra

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