An Enema...

 

"Ohhh, Jim, you do not have to tell us about anymore medical stuff.  Really!"

You people crack me up.  A longer driving day today.  We went further today than the last two days combined.  Also went further on this tank of gas for the motorhome, getting 9 miles per gallon.  As you'd expect, prices in west Texas are higher than anywhere else along our route... because... you're in west Texas, what are you gonna do about it?  There's pretty much I-10 to get you from San Antonio to El Paso; in eastern west Texas (is that really a description?), the gas prices stayed around that $3.15 range.  I had to get gas for the motorhome in Fort Stockson, where it was 14¢ higher.  In Van Horn, it is another 25¢ higher than that.  Because you are a captive audience.

We're down for the night in an RV park in Van Horn; it is pretty much a gravel parking lot with audio provided by the traffic on I-10 and long trains running (Doobie Brothers reference) on railroad tracks on the other side of us.  I will be sleeping with an AirPod in one ear, and the other ear pressed into the pillow.

"What about the enema?" you ask.  I thought you didn't want to know?  It seems that I made a joke about overnighting in Van Horn on an internet boating forum years ago... I said, "If you were going to give the United States and enema, you would insert it in Van Horn."  Well, it seems that one of the readers there had a grandfather who homesteaded in Van Horn, and he was offended by my joke.  Of course, I felt bad about that... no, I didn't - it was a joke!  And you know what Lenny Bruce said if they can't take a joke.

I tried to make up for it by saying, "Well, an asshole is a necessary part of the human body.  I can't think of any reason for Van Horn to exist... well, except for the Annual Blowing Dirt Festival, which takes place January 1st through December 31st each year.  Yes, that's another joke.  Well, the blowing dirt isn't funny, but the fact that anyone would celebrate it lets you know... yeah, another joke.

What the long drive across west Texas lacks in charm, it makes up for with occasionally crappy road.  We still have another 140 miles to get out of Texas... but, today I had to put my noise cancelling AirPods in the last hour or so of the drive because of the constant thump-thump-thumping from the road surface.  I had a phone mount on the windshield - it came loose on that last stretch of road.

A few photos from today's drive: a foggy start to the day...

Rufus napping on my lap while enroute...

West Texas views...

As you can see (above and below), there are mountains in west Texas.  And a giant bug that splatted while getting this photo...

The humidity changes as you go west, putting us in the nose-cracking dry level now.  Our RV site for the night...

 

Dirt and gravel; quite a change from last night's stay.  I'll see if Rufus wants to take a walk this evening.

An easier day on tap for tomorrow, to get us the rest of the way through Texas, across New Mexico, and into Arizona; about 60 fewer miles than today.

On the bright side, this RV park has cable TV, and we have decent Verizon coverage for our own wifi (with Visible).  And we'll be able to run our electric heat this evening.

Ruf did want to take a walk...

We didn't stay out long; the boy likes to have some grass to sniff.  He waited at the front door to get his paws wiped... dirt and those white paws are not a good mix.  He's a good boy!