We are moving right along....

 

Our Location: Mile Marker 144, near Van Horn, Texas

 

The morning dawned coolish in Brady, Tx and we turned the heat on when we got into the Dogsled to give us a bit of a warm up. We packed everything up, checked the tires, pulled in the slides and connected the Igloo and Dogsled, wheels rolling just a tad after 8:30 AM, CMT. 

 

Prickly Pear Cactus and a Century Plant along the roadside.

More Prickly Pear.

A very long and lonesome highway is Tex 190 West.

 

Course hard top with lots of well worn grooves make up Tex 190 West.

We continued along Texas Highway 190West for most of the morning until we reached I-10 near Iraan, Tx. The highway was good, only a very few rough spots and even then, not that rough but it was a long drive on a two lane course hard top. Some rolling hills, some flat land and again into the rolling hills. We found it very uninteresting and that has us thinking we won't be using it again. We would drop straight down from Menard to I-10 instead of following Tex 190 for such a long distance. 

 

You could build a house from all those rocks and have enough to build another one too.

Our rock cuts back home don't have prickly pear growing out of 'em.

A stunning view!

 

Fuel is running anywhere from about $4.69 to $5.40, with gas usually being between $1.50 and $2.00 cheaper per gallon than diesel.  We gave the Big Dog a drink at Murphy's in Stockton where he lapped up about 27 gallons of his preferred drink at $4.99 per gallon. Considering we had a bit of a headwind/crosswind in places he did well. Temps are running from about 45F/8C night time lows to about 78F/29C for day time highs. 

 

We are seeing the outline for far off mountains.

The rolling hills of Texas on I-10 West bound.

 

Our original plan was to stop at or near Fort Stockton (226 miles/364 km from Brady), but we opted to keep the wheels going since it was pretty early in the day to stop. We added another 100 miles/160 km to the end of our day which makes things easier for the next couple of days. We travelled a total of 342 miles/550 km, which is a long day for us.

 

 Much better than our morning drive views. See those wind turbine way over there?

Much of the land in this stretch looks like this.

 

Prickly Pear cactus has been evident for a number of days now and even the yucca type Century Plants are in abundance too. Lots of scrub land today, lots of oil being pumped out of the ground too, along with a fairly big number of wind turbines. In fact as we were just coming back from our walk we noticed a single blade for a wind turbine sitting on a very, very, very long joined trailer pulled in on the opposite side of us, my goodness but he's long!!!

 

Very artistic way to hold the dirt on the side of the overpass, don't ya think?

The view out our door tonight.

 

Birthday wishes go out to SIL Barb (brother Rick's lovely bride) who turns 29 again today. We hope it's been a fantastic day Barb even though it's cold and damp. I asked Dad to have a piece of cake for both Riley and I!! Also happy birthday to Hazel, granddaughter of Barb the birthday lady. They share the same day, Barb just had it first. Hazel however is not 29 but 4. Happy Birthday Hazel Beanerrrrrrrrr. Haha. 

 

Not a bad view when you turn your head either.

The picnic spots here at the rest area. They include a grill, garbage cans, shelter, wind break and table with benches. Sign says NO SLEEPING ON TABLE AND/OR BENCHES .

A chat with daughter Bradey last night, they are all fine and Auston is enjoying his swimming lessons a tiny bit, so that's good news. He's such a shy little fella. Lincoln is growing in leaps and bounds. A chat with Dad today finds their temps in the single digits, I think he said 7C/44F with dampness in the air and high winds. Seems most of the trees are leafless now due to the winds for the last couple of days. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

Until next time..

 Take care, be safe, 

 

Deb