1 truck heading to Houston TX

... spending the night at Ozona TX

Breakfast was a sandwich we had to nuke.

We did get out of the motel by 7 AM but it still took us a while to get going. Then I wanted to see where the CNG pumps were so we went through town (the fact that this move made me miss the weigh scale was 'just a coincidence.') The map showed the CNG was at the Pilot, it is not, it is at the Flying J across the street. And because of some bumps in the road, BB's stuff went flying and we had to stop on the side of the freeway so I could look under the seat. One of the things that went was her glasses, not something that should be left on the floor too long.

Not too far down the road this AM I see what looks like a exhaust smoke. As we get closer, nope, FIRE. Smoke is coming out of both windows of a semi on the on-coming side of the road and there are flames coming from something that has fallen off the truck underneath the cab. Three cops are already there but no fire truck even though we are less than five miles from the next town. I look back a couple of miles down the road and still see big clouds of black smoke.

1st stop is in Las Cruces at the Pilot for fuel. I saved a buck by stopping here instead of the Loves a couple of miles back. The Loves would have been on the correct side of the road so I'm guessing faster in and out.

Down the road before El Paso, there is fuel for $.20 cents cheaper but it hadn't shown up on the GasBuddy site. Fuel in El Paso was $.20 more than I paid. It was just cheap at that one exit.

From here I am remembering my trip just about two years ago. December 2018. We spent two weeks in TX with a bus that kept braking down and we finally left it without delivering.

2nd stop is a rest area near Fabens TX. Short trip from Las Cruces but otherwise it would be a three hour plus drive. Not today.

3rd stop is the McD's in Van Horn. We had talked about stopping at either the Pilot or Loves but the online map made them look small. We've stopped at the McD's before, maybe for the same reason. It has a huge dirt lot. Acres. But that lot has craters so we have to take it slow. No indoor seating at McD's but we can order inside. But no seating outside. I would have thought by now that locations would have been adding out door seating. We ate outside by our truck and the pigeons.

As we are standing there eating at the back of the truck, out of the wind, we finally realize how to open the back truck gate :) That would have made getting our suitcases in and out easier.

4th stop is another Pilot for fuel. This time in Fort Stockton. This one has lots of room and also RV pumps which are away from the usual gas pumps.

Fort Stockton. Was here once years ago and road the Greyhound for 36 hours home. That reminds me. This AM when we were leaving the motel I noticed that all markings had been removed from the old Greyhound station next door. So I just looked online and it is still listed as the bus stop. ??

5th and final stop was at the Quality Inn in Ozona, but 1st we stop at a BBQ place a half a mile away. We could have walked later but I'm getting tired of eating cold food at 7-8 PM. The BBQ is in an old gas station so no place to park, but it turns out that there are Pilot pumps across the street. No station, just the pumps. So lots of room to park for a few minutes.

Because of the latest increase in Covid, we now have to order at 'the window' instead of walking inside. We both got chicken BBQ with two sides. One order would have been enough. I might be eating potato salad and chicken for breakfast.

Motel has a huge paved truck parking lot plus lots of car parking. I'm guessing there are a couple of hundred rooms (?) and about 10 customers tonight. So lots of room. If I haven't mentioned it before, my truck has visible items in the back and no way to secure the truck so we are just trusting that no one will take them enroute.

Governors are starting to lock down their states again. My state had the 3rd highest number of cases today of any state. So far we are planning on staying working. We spend 90-99% of our day behind the wheel alone.

My mileage is going up. I was running at about 1,900 rpms at 55 mph. That is where I like to run, but that adds about 2 hours of driving every day so as soon as we left CA I started driving 65 mph. Then we turned on the AC. And the mountains. Finally today the mileage started going up again. I am now getting about twice the mpg that I am being paid for. I like that.

Load board

US - 162

IA - 8

MN - 3

WI - 8

We are using a different rental car company coming home this time and we don't know how easy it is to make changes so I guess we won't be making changes. Likely go straight home, get there on Wednesday. Then try to leave out Friday or Saturday. Get delivered Monday or Tuesday and pick up something and keep moving over Thanksgiving. Or we will be in a rental car coming home over Thanksgiving.

The load board started going up

2019 - Nov 17

2018 - Nov 15

2017 - Nov 16

2016 - Nov 15