2 RV's to 1,000 Oaks CA

... spending the night at Gallup NM

Turns out that only the eggs were made to order. Meat and potatoes, etc were all buffet style. Eggs were good. Bacon could have been warmer, potatoes could have had more flavor ... same with the apple juice.

Our first stop is just 20 miles down the road, I / we didn't have enough fuel to get to the next truckstop 160 miles down the road.

Wow. This may be the first time the fuel clerk at Loves did not have to run my card 2,3 ... 9, 10 times to get it right. Young kid, 18 or so, got it on the first try. When I said something, the person was ... ??? ... what's so hard about that?

Seems like TX has put in more passing lanes, still mostly two lane but getting better. From mid KS down into TX there are hotels that had sat vacant for years. Little ma-pa ones that now have been re-done and have more customers than the other old ones that have been in business the whole time.

In one of the small towns there was a four-way stop and I stop, then go ... just as I see a motorcycle going. I hadn't seen him. Luckily I had completely stopped and started slowly. The driver looked at me but may have just been looking at the two matching RV's.

Stratford I think it is. Once had a DQ, they closed and it was a Mexican place for a couple of years and now it is a little cafe.

And Best Western hotel's. Three that I can think of in this leg, two are now 'Budget' hotels and the other looks better than ever but didn't have a name on it as of today.

Coming into Nara Vista, another real ghost town. When I started both the hotel and truckstop were open. The hotel has been closed for a while and was rubble as of today. The truck stop is still standing. Lots of other buildings in town still standing and the only two open are the PO and the scale.

I was following two pickups with trailers, one went into the scale, the other drove past it. The guy who went across the scale got flagged to come inside. The next semi had the green light but he stopped for each axel. BB said she could see the scale person waving the driver on and then threw his hands up in the air. I couldn't see anyone in the scale house so I could see where the semi driver didn't either.

Logan was our next stop. We stopped at Alsupp's today. First time. Last time? BB was not impressed. We had been stopping next door at a different station. 160 miles is just too far without a break. When here we noticed a tow away driver fueling (I'm guessing fuel would have been cheaper elsewhere?) and that the driver had the plate taped to the RV.

... back to yesterday ... we saw one transporter with no plate, no placards. No idea how he got past three scales that way. It was a mixer out of MN.

From Logan to Tucumcari is all two lane highway. BB was in the rear and there was a semi that was right on her tail. And there were 5-6 trucks ahead of us led by the tow driver with the travel trailer going 55 mph.

Finally the semi passes BB and is now behind me. He doesn't ride me as close but he decides to pass me and the next person ahead of me because I am tailgating at this point. Should have had a dash cam. The guy passing the truck ahead of me with no passing signs on both sides of the road and a car coming.

I saw other cars hit the shoulder also as he was passing others ahead of us. And I'm guessing he was doing 20 or so over when we got to the 55 mph area. In TX the main road was 75 mph and the side roads with no center lines are 70 mph :)

We fuel at the Loves in Tucumcari but wait to eat.

Freeway ...

We stop again in an hour at Santa Rosa at the Pilot for PJ's. We pull in and then a pickup with a trailer starts backing in our direction. Luckily he missed me as he was backing blind around another RV. Then another car wanted to leave and managed to find between me and another car. I would not have tried it, hope he could see better than me because I thought for sure he was going to hit me. Three units with trailers and six or eight motorcycles and all we want is a parking spot.

PJ's is out of meatloaf and no one is answering the clerks page so we get pizza instead.

Two changes in this town also. A ma-pa place I have stayed at a few times used to be the Budget motel, it is now the New Mexico Inn. The boom was still up to the highway sign so I'm guessing the change was recent. And across the street from PJ's was an old Denny's I had eaten at. Then it was Annie's and we still ate there. Now it's a head shop so I think we are done eating there.

There is not a good place in ABQ to stop just to stop so we pushed past and stopped at a casino just past ABQ. We've stopped here before. Buffet, hotel, truck pumps. Nice place. Just as we are ready to put our RV's in gear, someone stops right across in front of both RV's in an almost empty parking lot. ???

Then the person came over with two box and BB said 'No' and rolled up her window. The person looked at me, I looked at BB and shook my head no.' Later BB said ... 1st, don't block me in. 2nd, don't be blowing smoke when you are trying to talk to me.

Not sure what it was the person was trying to sell, they stopped in front of us and then left. Didn't hit anyone else up ???

We end up in Gallup for the night. Comfort Inn again. Not sure why, the Sleep Inn across the parking lot also gets good reviews and was $20 cheaper. But we've stayed here before, it is a known.

We walk next door to Dickie's. We get it to go and they give us one wrong side. No a big deal as it is already too much food and we haven't had a freezer the last few nights for our freezer packs and now the temps are up in the 70's so we can't keep anything that HAS to stay cold.

Got our walk in. Not as warm as it looks or was when we got here.

We did see three city buses today heading east. Couldn't read the name on the first two and the third one didn't have a name. But there was work so maybe ...

1st stop - Texhoma at Loves for fuel

2nd - Nara Vista cross over the weigh scale

3rd - Alsupp's Velaro in Logan for the rest room

4th - Loves in Tucumcari for fuel

5th - Pilot in Santa Rosa for PJ's food

6th - Route 66 truckstop in Albuquerque for the rest room

7th - Comfort Inn in Gallup

8th - Dickie's BBQ for food

Tomorrow will be a longer day. 500+ miles to get to Barstow. Then we have about 150 left for Tuesday before delivery. From here on, our fuel discount is not as good as the lower priced gas stations so that will change up how we drive.