The Windy Road

January 6, 2007

We took the Bird from Carlsbad, NM a couple of days ago to El Paso, Texas, to spend a little time with our managers Beth and Paul Royalty. They are working a big park on the east edge of El Paso; it also gave us a chance to finish up our Tucumcari job by phone and send in the paperwork. We really enjoyed the time with Beth and Paul; we usually only get to see them at company meetings or at a diner on the freeway halfway between our jobs. They drove us to Las Cruces to see the house they have built. It’s a great house, although it’s purely investment, as they only spend four to five weeks a year in it. Lots of Southeast Pub reps have a house because if you do, you can expense the cost of getting the motorhome from one place to another. If the motorhome is your only residence, you can only expense the car costs on the job.

A slightly shorter than usual travel day today, as we left late. We are usually on the road at the crack of ten but hung around today, talking to our friends. Once out on I-10 it’s Texas everywhere, flat, flat, flat, forever. This is where they filmed Giant. The speed limit is 80 mph. Not many towns along the way, though we managed to find a barbecued brisket sandwich at Curley’s in Sierra Blanco. Curley’s wife makes us fries from scratch and tells us we’re living her dream.

We lost an hour with the change to central time and the wind is wearing us out, so we stop in Pecos for the night. The RV park is an Escapees Park – they’re big in Texas. $18.50 per night and only 30 amps so we blow the breakers twice. Chicken tenders, acorn squash and rice for dinner, and a great Seahawks game tops off a pretty typical travel day.

January 7, 2007

We took the high road yesterday afternoon (I-20 goes to Fort Worth-Dallas, I-10 travels south to San Antonio) so we’re back on the windy road headed east. Some oil wells dot the horizon today. It got down to 27 degrees last night but is sunny today. We’ve come down 1500 feet from El Paso; elevation here is 2,500. They were expecting a little snow in El Paso yesterday.

By the time we get 100 miles east, to Odessa and Midland, the landscape is covered with oil rigs and tanks. No stick built buildings, just metal sheds. Lots of rusted, dead tanks. And wind. Dave doesn’t complain but it feels like driving is a struggle. The constantly passing trucks add to our being buffeted on the road.

There are what is called “picnic areas” about every 40 miles on I-20. They are turn outs like our small rest stops but there are no toilets or water. We stopped to have a chicken wrap but didn’t observe anyone at picnic. It appears truckers sleep there.

By the time we get to Sweetwater, quail hunting capital of Texas, the oil wells are specks on the edges of cotton fields. The road is torn up but traffic is still heavy. We’ve seen some cattle spreads but expect to see more when we get past Abilene. Prickley pear and yucca grow along the freeway; lots of salt cedar and mesquite. No trees as we know them. Occasionally we can see rows of wind propellars running along a distant mesa.

We did about 250 miles today and end up just outside Abilene. We try to stay at Passport America parks when we are just moving from one point to another. This park is advertised for the PA discount price of $14.00/night but the manager charges us over $21.00 – new owners, book is not up to date, etc. It’s tempting to unhook the car and drive down the road to the Chinese buffet but we have learned that the dining experience is often worse than anything I can put together. Davey made a loaf of french bread and we have macaroni and cheese and green beans.

Another good football game, but the game is interrupted by storm warnings from Atlanta. Tornado warnings and watches, plus many thunderstorms to the east of us. Our weather path looks clear all the way to the east coast, but we check often. We have a weather radio which goes off and scares the pee-waddings out of us if something comes close.

I’ll check in tomorrow so you can get an idea of what it is to be with swans on the go.

Sam