Friday, June 24, 2001

Today we leave the McMillians after a wonderful visit with lots of stories and laughter.  We got out right at 9:00am after some creative hitch coupling because of their very steep driveway.  We stopped quickly for gas and found the freeway.  Oh, this day is just going so easy.

We drove about 10 minutes on the freeway that circles around the south side of the city, when there was a loud startling bang.  We were passing a semi-truck and I thought the truck had blown a tire but Stanley shouted AH S*^&%T.  We quickly pulled off with our hearts pounding and walked around our rig.  No flat tires; we were fine.  It must have been the semi because someone had a flat and (thank God) it was not us.  Still shaking we got back on the freeway and settled in for a drive across the Texan desert to Midland TX.

We are making better time today.  The speed limit for trucks is 70 and for cars is 80.  The miles are rolling along.  We are driving in-between short mountain ranges all around us on a rolling highway between mesquite and dry grass. We pass an occasional field of alfalfa or an orange grove.  We are driving through what Texas calls Big Bend Country.

When we left I-10 and vered onto I-20 the mountains faded into the horizon until all round us was nothing but flat land as far as our eyes could see.  We passed an exit sign for "Boracho Station" (Drunk Station).  We can envision, in this desolation, where that name came from.   

Pecos, TX is on our route today so we are going to stop.  Pecos Bill and Judge Roy Bean come to mind.  Signs along the highway announce the "West of the Pecos" Museum.  We pull off into town and follow the signs to this quaint museum.  It was housed in the original saloon and the Orient hotel.  This a museum that houses the memories of those who lived in the area.  Personnel collections of barbed wire, arrow heads, pre-historic mammoth tusks and ephemera from Judge Roy Bean.  There was a old-school auto-matronic bartender who told the story of a gunfight in this saloon complete with bullet hole in the wall. 

There were 50 rooms in this museum and many of these rooms were decorated to show the life as it was for lawmen, ranchers, doctors, banker, schoolmarm, saloon keeper and their families. 

Pecos began as a crossroads for indian migrations, overland cattle trails, Calvary exploration and westwards bound pioneers fording the Pecos River.  Within 30 miles, old cattle and wagon trails such as the Butterfield stage line, Chisholm and the Goodnight -Loving Trails crossed at such river crossings as the Emigrants Crossing and the Horse-head Crossing. 

We are trying to collect cookbooks from each stop or state.  Our first one was at Appache Junction in Arizona.  Today we collected "Recipes of a Pichfork Ranch Hostess: The culinary Legacy of Mamie Burns" as our second cookbook and the one representing Pecos. 

We asked for a good place for lunch and they suggested Mexican, Mexican, Mexican, Mexican oh yes and Chinese.  We decided to keep driving and eat the lunch we had in the cool chest in the truck. 

We left Pecos and it is just flat land all the way to Midland.  When we got to Odessa the dash of the truck lite up to tell us that one of our tires was going flat.  As I had parked in a dirt lot in Pecos it was not hard to believe.  I pulled off the highway and measured the psi of the tires.  Each was different with the passengers side tire being 48 psi , the two rear tires being 45 and 46 psi and the driver front being 42.  I was sure that was the culprit. 

There was a big truck repair station down the frontage road so we went in there and put air in the driver's tire and went on.  Got into Midland and the dash lite up again.  Pulled into the AV park and found we did not have reservations but they had just had a cancellation (some one who wanted shade) so all was fine.  We unhooked the trailer and drove into "Bill Williams" tire center and had the shop look at it.  I am sure that they though I was nuts.  We had started with too much air in the tires.  In this hot environment they should not be above 40psi when hot.  They got it straightened out and we were back into camp for a BEER and ICE CREAM.  All was fine.  The perfect end to another good (although somewhat tense) day.