Really? Winter Storm Warnings?? Seriously???

We planned our departure time for a good weather window along our route.  I really do not like the weather weasels.

It was a pretty start to our day...

It was chilly (48º), but no wind.  We were rolling as the sun came up.  It is generally a two-day trip across west Texas for us.  The weather forecast changed in the last 24 hours: they are now calling for Winter Storm Warnings in the Fort Stockton area tonight and tomorrow.  Unbelievable.  Instead of doing 250 to 300 miles today, we are now going to go for 550.

I have joked about west Texas.  Really, there isn't much to see...

We got about 2 hours down the road before we ran into the first rain...

The temperature dropped into the upper 30s.  The Winter Storm Warning has now been extended west, to include Van Horn.  Still tonight and tomorrow, but the rain was getting heavier.  By the time we got to Fort Stockton, the rain stopped... it was chilly when I had to get out to fuel up, but at least I wasn't getting wet.

Between Fort Stockton and Van Horn, I got my hopes up: there was blue sky ahead...

Lots of nuthin' out here...

I began to think we would make it into El Paso without getting rained on again... I was wrong.  The sky looked ominous as we approached the mountains in west Texas...

Then, things really went into the crapper...

Lots of movement in those clouds... and the ugly yellow/green color that I remember from the tornado warnings when I was a kid in Iowa.

Yep - here comes the lightning.  Lots of indication of shear in those clouds...

Joan pulled up a weather radar app - yep, downright fugly.  Lots of yellow and red on the radar, and we are in the middle of it.  I looked around to see if there were any witchy-looking old women flying by on bicycles.  (Wizard of Oz reference)

The good news: the rain let up as we reached the eastern outskirts of El Paso.

The bad news: you can't see the white lines on the road, due to the wet.  They have been doing road construction on I-10 in El Paso for years - there are white lines that have been painted over with black, but they all look the same when wet.  Not that it makes much difference... the drivers in El Paso don't concern themselves with silly things like staying in a lane.

The roads were lousy with crazy-ass drivers...

They also don't concern themselves with slowing down for bumper-to-bumper traffic... if I leave some stopping space in front of me, it is quickly filled by assholes coming from any old lane... yes even if that lane is a couple over from me.

The really bad news: the Winter Storm Warning has now been extended west through most of New Mexico.  Doesn't matter - I am wiped.  We are stopping at the RV park on the far west end of El Paso.

The shitty news: when I came back out to the truck after paying for an RV site for the night, Joan said, "A little bad news - while you were inside, a guy came up to the truck and said we don't have any lights on the cargo trailer.  The plug came out somewhere today, and the connector is ruined and the cable is a mess."

Fun.  I will pick up a pig-tail somewhere along the way and get it wired.  For now, I just want to put this circus train down for the night.  2/2/2 Rule, my ass.  After the rain, the temp in El Paso was around 60º as we rolled through town.  Here comes the front: the temp dropped 20º and the wind is out of the north at are-you-shitting-me??? miles per hour.

We put some water onboard and put away everything except the 50 amp power cable.  It is supposed to be 34º and sleeting rain first thing in the morning.  If we get out of here, we may be able to get far enough west to get out of this crap.  They are calling for sn... sn... sn... I can't bring myself to say it... by noon.  Temperatures dropping all day.

So much for planning ahead for a weather window.  We called the RV park where we will be staying in Tucson and moved our reservation up a couple days.  Last I checked, they should be west of the Winter Storm Warning.

Sheesh!