This is the part of our trip that abounds in long driving days and comparatively few play days. Yet the drive is often a memorable part of our travel experience, and not merely a nuisance to be endured. While it's true that the AC has been inoperative since Salt Lake City (but for a brief - and expensive - respite between Moab and Grand Canyon), we have each made our peace with the experience of the wind roaring past the open windows at 70 mph for hours on end. We're not sure what we're going to do when it rains, but as we parallel the historic Route 66, we feel a kinship to those earlier explorers who braved the territory without the buffer of air conditioning.
Truth is, we can live without it. And this morning, we learned that we are going to live without it for the rest of the trip. The shop I drove to at 7:30 this morning in Santa Fe found the leak: a couple of O-ring seals in the condenser. To replace them requires several hours of labor, and since we had the AC system overhauled for this trip, I believe the repair might fall under warranty in Wilmington. At any rate, we did not have time to wait out the lengthy repair, so we opted to mush on across New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma sans chilled air.
And we survived.
We had lunch at a Micky D's in Tucamcari, New Mexico with a bunch of folk headed for Fresno, California on a Trailways Bus. Then we drove into Texas and a new time zone - as well as totally new topography. Gone were the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona (as well as 5000 more feet of elevation above sea level). Texas was flat as far as our eyes could see. We passed loud and proud Christians - notably a "Jesus is Lord (not a cuss word)" Truck Stop, the "Largest Cross In The Western Hemisphere"(!) and a silhouette of a cowboy kneeling before a cross. Though we blasted through towns with names like Conway, Groom, Wildorado, and Gruhlkey, it took a while to drive through Amarillo, home of the 72 ounce free steak (free, that is, if you can wolf it down - along with shrimp cocktail, salad, roll, and baked potato - in 60 minutes without throwing up!).
We gassed up at Shamrock, Texas, and got some ice cream, 65 miles from our destination. The 21 gallons of gas brought our total for this trip to 290 gallons, or $750 at an average $2.55 per gallon (more in the west). We've averaged just under 18 mpg tugging the trailer up and down mountains for lo these 5443 miles (with more than 1600 to go!). We made it past a last bit of road construction and pulled into site #42 at the KOA between Elk City and Clinton, Oklahoma, where we'll bed down for the night.
Vicki fixed a great supper of ham and sweet potatoes on the grill, and green beans, and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset "sooner" than we thought possible (heh, heh). Tomorrow it's back on the road for a short leg to Lake fort Smith State Park in Mountainburg, Arkansas (a piddly little 300 mile jaunt), and a day to explore the Ozark mountains. Then on to Nashville, Virginia, and home!
As I close today's blog entry, I can hear the sounds of trucks rolling along I-40, not more than several hundred yards from where we have set up camp. It's just as well, for this memorable month, the highway has become our home. The highways we have traveled have opened up a storehouse of treasures across America this summer, as we have driven past (and marveled at) endless lakes, breathtaking mountains, and vast prairies and fields. We've been able to stop and savor a small percentage of what we have driven past along the way. I have been reminded on this trip of the riches that abound in this country - far beyond the time any of us are given to explore and appreciate them.
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