Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Dirt Devil...


Not the vacuum cleaner - the Mother Nature kind.

A three-state day today.  Well, we were in southwest Kansas, and pass through the skinny part of the Oklahoma Panhandle, then into Texas... before 10:00 in the morning.




I had to chuckle about the "Drive Friendly - The Texas Way" on that sign.  I'll explain later.

This part of the country is about agriculture and energy.  The agriculture is varied: we saw corn, sorghum, cotton, and more.  The energy...



Plenty of windmills, but a LOT of gas and oil wells...




The terrain goes from flat to hilly...



Another hot, windy day.  Temps warmed up early and the wind was quartering: forecast to be around 11mph, actual was at least twice that.

The roads were good and bad along the way today... if I were keeping track, I'd say more bad than good.  And those drivers...



Notice both of those vehicles in the photos above: they are passing on a solid yellow line.  Yeah, no passing zones.  Because of visibility, around a curve for the car, over a hill for the truck.  The speed limit on these crappy 2-lane roads is 75 mph... I do try to keep my speed up, but I do not double tow at 75.  What you don't see in both of those photos: a passing lane less than a half mile ahead in both cases.  There were regular passing lanes in the first half of our travels today.

This helps keep my blood pressure in check...



A sleepy boy in that photo directly above.  Rufus has been a great traveler.  He likes to be by us and has no issue with "lunch on the run" when necessary.

Not as much road construction as yesterday, but enough to keep me on my toes...


And, about those dirt devils: we saw several today...


There is one just to the left side of the road in that photo.  We saw a couple others moving across nearby fields.  And one that wasn't loaded with dirt - I saw the grass on both sides of the road just in front of us go flat, and... wham!  It rocked the coach and pulled on the wheel.  I braced for it when I saw the grass.  Well, that was interesting.

This was our longest driving day this trip; but, we started early and were still off the road by 3:30.  The park we are staying in is new and they are putting white caliche rock (white gravel) down on the roads and the sites... fortunately, the coach, car, and trailer are already grubby, so you don't hardly notice the white dust.

And bugs - we splattered a lot of bugs over the last few days.  The coach and car are going to be in dire need of some scrubbing.  Do you know the last thing that goes through a bug's mind when it hits the windshield?


Its ass.




3 comments:

Hudson River Boater said...

I can't stand a dirty Windshield-- One Speck bothers me..
I drove my wifes car "I Don't Very Often" the other week-- I was like WTF How can you drive like this!! It was a mess..

You must go through a lot of Windshield Washer Fluid while traveling..

Just Curious-- Any idea how many Folks follow your Blog??

Captain Jim and the Blonde said...

Yes, we make it a point to clean the windshield at each fuel stop... and with a headwind and double towing, we stop for fuel each day.

I get stats regarding the number of views - over 900,000. No idea who or how many follow.

Hudson River Boater said...

900,000!-- Wow... I'm surprised more people don't leave comments..