Best Western Santa Rosa Inn

... boards).<br><br>Two more days before arriving in our second home. The door to the propane tank decided to stay closed. We will have to do without propane until we land. We made an executive decision not to try opening it in case it would not close... The temperature is now warmer and we have electric heater. Time for cold water treatments.

... of what I just found out are called "pump jacks". Those are those things that look like a nodding dog that pump oil out of the ground into holding tanks, see photo.<br><br>Also hundreds, maybe thousands, of wind farm power windmills dotted the horizons as we came south on 84 approaching I/S 20 near Sweetwater.<br><br>Tomorrow we have a bit over 200 miles to go into Austin to stay with Bob &amp; Mary Sue for a few days.<br><br><br><br><br>

... and pulled into a motel under their awning and had a free coffee and were going to call it a day. But the sun came out and with apologies to the motel people and thanks for the coffee we set off. sat the cruise on 75mph, the legal limit only to find the 18 wheelers were passing us, so pushed up to 80=about 130 k's. Soon dried off in the 85-90F heat and hoped to make Alberquerque, did that ...

We are on our way to Santa Rosa, NM for our next stop. Santa Rosa is located on historic Route 66. This will be the first time I have officially traveled along this route and I'm kind of excited about it.<br><br>I am hoping that the excitement of our Route 66 visit will overshadow the excitement of getting pulled over by the Texas State Police just over the border from Oklahoma in the Texas panhandle. I was one of many victims we ...

So today I started by heading into downtown Amarillo to explore the section of 66 that they have ads up all over for. Boy was I disappointed. Most of the stores were just antique stores and every single one of them was closed. Then I went over to the Big Texan Steak Ranch. I was also disappointed in that. It was 23 dollars for my meal which was only an 8 ounce steak. Then it was onto the Cadillac Ranch. Which was ...

... that I could ignore the rather large and dark clouds to the north that looked like rain for the territory under them. I stopped at the Flying C service area where weeks ago I'd met Gail and her husband from MA so fortuitously. Those clouds stayed far away until about half an hour out of SR a forerunner of them, dark but not raining covered the late afternoon sun and chilled us down.

We woke to blue skies and sunshine and decided that we would take advantage of the good weather and rest up at the site for an extra day to allow Neil to do some routine bus maintenance. <br><br>We had a very anxious five minutes around lunchtime when Neil thought someone had stolen his tool box. As a result of the rain (we think), the electric wasn't working on our pitch. So as Neil went off to have his shower, he took his ...

We awoke to a very grey, overcast morning and a big hole in the car park behind us! It would appear that after the heavy rain of the day before, the water pressure in the drain had caused it to rupture and create a big hole. We never heard a thing. It could have been quite a different story though, as Neil nearly parked in that particular corner! <br><br>We were down at Discount Auto Parts for just after 8.00. Once Neil had got ...

... our speed to 50. Route 40 has a 75 miles per hour speed limit. Going 55 and then 50 leaves us in other folk's dust and wind tunnels the whole drive. Often there are pieces of truck tire rubber littered along the sides of the road. This time they were directly in our path and if we had been traveling at 75 or at night, our guess is we would have hit these "road alligators" as they are affectionately called. They do look like gators and can be as dangerous ...

... One scary moment occurred when a truck, just a short distance ahead of us, blew a tire and we had to dodge a large tire on the roadway. We paralleled a railway for most of the day and in TX the trains were frequent and large. All were carrying long loads of containers or piggyback trucks. We stopped in Santa Rosa NM tonight. The weather has become quite cold but promises to be clear for the next few days.