1 Bus to Austin, TX ... spending the night in Sonora, TX.

Still making good time.

Breakfast is served in the same area we ate last night. Sign says $9 or show your room key. We've seen a few of these that are open to the public. Not sure if they ever get any takers. Real, thick, bacon. I only had one piece today, plus eggs and yogurt. A server gets us our drinks and everything is real, plates, glasses, silverware.

Pull out at 7:30 just as it is getting light. Traffic is light most of the day.

1st stop is an hour down the road, cheapest fuel we will find is just as we enter TX. Almost thought we were at the wrong place. Didn't recognize the sign. TA Express. We were looking for a Petro Express, but they have changed the name. Small place and only one truck but no quick in and out. After I swipe my card, it asks for my perks card. When I say skip, it says see cashier. So the cashier starts my pump after a few tries. But the pump won't start, so I have to have someone come out and look at it. They knew what the problem was before they got to me. The last person had not hung up the DEP hose hard enough so it was still on the prior transaction. From there things went well. Clean little place. (Huge savings)

A little more traffic in El Paso, at one point there is nothing between the freeway and Mexico.

Glad we were not heading east. Coming from the east, 1st there was stalled truck in the traffic lane so traffic was down to one lane. Then there was an accident, maybe death, as the freeway was closed and dozens of cop cars. All traffic was routed onto the frontage road ... frontage roads run on both sides of the freeway in most populated areas. Then there was road constructions which had traffic backed up for miles. We however sailed through at close to the posted.

2nd stop was at the McDonalds in Van Horn, big dirt lot with lots of craters, but no damage to the bus. We had picked here as the Pilot at the next exit was small and online it showed they were the Greyhound stop. Greyhound signs were gone today but it is still a small lot. Loves was at the next exit and the aerial shots of that showed trucks backed up out into the street. This was a real truckers McD's. As we were walking in, there was a guy on his cell saying he couldn't make it to LA because he didn't have the hours. Inside there were two guys talking about hours of service and a third guy at a different table taking pictures of his trucking paperwork to send in.

3rd stop was a rest area about 20 miles before Fort Stockton. We took our 15 minute walk here watching out for the snakes. Not too likely today, it is pretty chilly. Called the drop from here, pretty sure we will make it by 3 PM close tomorrow.

Saw quite a few transporters today including a couple Carvana trucks. Even we could move those, haul our car instead of towing it.

Speed limit in TX is 80, but a lot of trucks run at 65. Had one that was running point something less than me and I tried to pass him a few times when there were breaks in the traffic then gave up. Finally I had a long enough time to get half way past him before traffic started backing up, so instead of letting me get in front, he hit the gas and got a couple of truck lengths in front of me before slowing down again.Thanks.

But later when we had to get over to go around someone on the shoulder, he did slow and let me past ... but that was a half hour / hour later.

Only had one border check point today. They asked it anyone was with me, 'my wife,' and is SHE was a US citizen. Never asked anything about me.

4th and final stop was in Sonora, TX, two hours past where I originally thought we would be. Now we have less than 300 miles to the drop. Sonora, Quality Inn and Pizza Hut right in the parking lot. Cash only. Chicken and Bacon pizza, it was good. We finished it all.

Called dispatch while we were waiting for our food. Need to know if it was OK to wash 60 miles out of route ... he said yes, or I could backtrack 400 miles to Fort Stockton.

Sometime overnight they added trucks out of San Antonio going to NC, same town as some of our trucks. I called this AM on them but by the end of the day, IA had put enough good runs out that we are going to head home as soon as we drop.

Board is up over 50 and will likely stay there until mid-March. And I have my DOT medical right in the middle of this. Used to be April but it is slowly creeping a little every year.

Spent tonight looking at all the routes and using Google Street to make sure I can get my bus where I want to go.

Three hours to the truck was. There are two Blue Beacon's in San Antonio across the street from each other and the next closest are 100's of miles away ??? From there we will drop BB off at the airport if we have time. And I found that the address I have is for the front door, buses enter off a different street.