February 14, 2005

February 14, 2005

Fort Stockton to Pecos, Mexico

DAY 241

 

Happy Valentine's Day. Today was sunny and hot. When we arrived at Tra-Park SKP Park in Pecos this afternoon, the temperature was 92 degrees. With low humidity, and a light wind, it was very nice ! I worked outside wearing shorts and no shirt. I'm so glad to see the sun again after 2 weeks of clouds. I was already suffering depression from lack of sunlight.

This morning I discovered that in addition to running out of fuel twice yesterday, I also got a flat tire, and didn't realize it. First thing this morning, we drove from the Wal-Mart parking lot to a grocery store about a block away. While Joanne went inside to buy groceries, I re-installed the turbocharger shroud I removed yesterday. After I finished that, I did my normal daily preventive maintenance. On Mondays, that's checking the truck's tire pressures. Fronts ; 65, 65, okay. Rears ; 80, 80, 80, 0. Zero ? ? ? The inside rear tire on the curb side was flat ! That explains the strange "whooshing" sound we heard last night just before we ran out of gas for the second time. I just thought it was a noise from the exhaust due to water or dirt in the fuel from the bottom of the tank. < sigh > Unhitch the trailer, remove the spare tire out from underneath the truck, jack up the truck, remove the two curb side rear tires, install the spare on the inside, re-install the outside tire, lower the truck, put everything away, < sigh > hitch up the trailer. Big job. And tough to do with two burned finger tips.

We left Fort Stockton, heading northwest on Hwy. 285. The desert became flat again. But no more cacti. Just lots and lots of sage brush. And trash ! ! ! I stopped a couple of times to take pictures, and every time, out in the middle of nowhere, you couldn't find a 50 foot stretch of road side that didn't have litter. I'm really appalled at the amount of litter evident everywhere ! ! ! Service stations, road side rest areas, all along the road side ... everywhere ! ! ! Water bottles, aluminum drink cans, plastic bags, tires, wheels, ... litter, litter, and more litter !

HEY ... you Merkins ... CLEAN UP YOUR ACT ! ! !

About halfway to Pecos, I realized it was probably not a very good idea to be driving across the desert, in the middle of nowhere, without a spare tire. As soon as we got to Pecos, I stopped at the first tirerepair shop I saw, and had the flat tire repaired. WOW ... big nail hole ! After having the tire repaired, we checked into Tra-Park, the Escapees RV Park here. While having a late lunch, I noticed the thermometer on the trailer window read 92 degrees. I took off my shirt and jeans, and put on a pair of shorts. I spent the afternoon working outside. It was beautiful. I changed the tire ... again ! I wanted to keep the spare that I put on this morning as the spare. Changing a rear dually tire twice in one day is an awful lot of work. We washed the truck. We went to social hour. We trimmed Teddy's claws. We trimmed Bo's claws. Oops ! I cut the quick on one of Bo's nails. DAMN ! It hurt, and bled a lot. Poor Bo. His nails are black, so I can't see how far the quick extends into the nail. I won't trim as much next time.

Joanne made a great home made pizza for supper, and we watched TV. This park has a cable TV connection at every site. I just noticed on the TV news a story about a local land developer selling 10 acre parcels of this slightly useless desert land on the internet for $80.00. Eighty bucks for ten acres of gravel and sage brush ? Too much !

DSK