The Adventures of Me & My Shadow #42 in TX, NM & AZ
1/23/00
1622 miles this trip, odometer now 55,414 total miles this year
2464.
From , The Melody ranch near Sonoita, AZ Hi Everyone!
I want to fill in some more adventures that I wanted to put in
the last letter but I ran out of room. I'll start with the lunch
that my brother-in-law took us out to. I had asked him to take
me to Sam's Club, when we got there he led us over to the sample
dispensers. It was about lunch time and he informed us of that
fact and we started down the line sampling every thing. There
was a good variety of food but the portions were quite small,
(a good way to hold my weight down) and the price was right, we
even got desert. I'll have to remember to plan my next trip to
Sam's Club at lunch time.
Next I want to let you know that Gus again took me on that awful
Texas road that looks like something from the 1930s. It was worse
than the last time I was on it, there were small hardwood trees
at the edge of the road and they are spreading out into the road.
I found out how hard they were when I had to veer right to avoid
a deep hole and a small branch took out the mirror on that side,
it sounded like it took out the whole side of the coach. If there
are any good lawyers out there who are not yet 12 feet down, get
in touch with me and we'll try to collect some damages.
The Comish took us over to Fort Worth to have lunch with another
cousin, Don Van Slyke & his wife Patty. Their daughter Pam
showed up and we had a nice visit, I again ate too much. It is
sure nice to be back where the drivers are civilized and use their
turn signals and are smiling when they go by but I do miss the
good roads back east. Too bad we can't have both good roads and
good drivers at the same time. After several days at the feed
trough, and several good meals I thought the food supply was about
gone and my mail had arrived so I bid Rod & Roseann good by
and headed west to check in with Billy Massey, my friend and web
page editor.
After I left the Comish's district I found some better roads and
I want to let you eastern drivers know that it does work. I'm
talking about using the turn signals to make you feel better.
I had not seen this since I was up in Canada. It happens when
another vehicle is overtaking you in a no passing area on a two
lane road. Instead of speeding up or making the other driver slow
down just turn the right turn signal on and get over on the shoulder
and let the other driver go by. Two things happen, it makes the
other driver very happy, and believe me, you will feel real good
when the other driver waves and gives you a big smile as he or
she goes by. It happened several times to me going to Brownwood
and again on the way to Houston. Some times I was the giver and
sometime I was the receiver, either way it made me feel good.
Another thing that made me feel good was the temperature here
in Houston on the 18th and 19th of Jan. It was over 80 degrees,
I heard Texans complaining about the heat but it sure felt good
to me. I even run the air conditioner in the motorhome just to
make sure it will run if it really gets hot. I really felt good
when I saw the weather map on TV with a lot of snow from Nebraska
east. Too bad you all can't be down here with me, but then some
of you would probably complain about the heat.
I have had another of those "if it sounds to good to be true,
it probably isn't" adventures. It started the last time I
changed oil in the old GMC. I have been concerned about the amount
of oil it goes through since I had the engine rebuilt. I have
about 60,000 miles on it now and I have to add oil about every
500 miles. I wondered if it would be better if I went to a heavier
oil, I had been using 10W40 oil and I decided to go to 20W50 and
see if it would do better. I have installed one of those vacuum
systems to check the oil level, I can check the oil level while
I'm driving. It has always worked well and I like it. Every time
I checked the oil after putting the 20W50 oil in, it showed green,
it will show red if it is a quart low. I kept driving and checking
and I thought "boy that heavy oil sure has cut the oil consumption".
I kept driving and checking and after 1,500 miles I thought "how
can this be, it's still not a quart low". The oil pressure
and temperature were always normal. I had also switched that old
car of Jenny's (240,000 miles on it) to 20W50 and it showed a
reduction in oil consumption but this old GMC was unbelievable.
When I got to Houston I had some time to kill waiting for a prescription
refill I had ordered so I started checking things out. I opened
up the engine compartment and pulled the vacuum tube up out of
the crankcase and the damn indicator still told me it was not
a quart low. After I fixed the indicator and reinstalled it I
put 4 quarts of oil in before it told me the crankcase was full.
The heavy oil may have helped a little but not as much as I first
thought.
My friends Bill & Jean Haws here in Houston have taken good
care of me, my mail that Jenny forwarded to me has arrived, the
prescription refill I ordered has arrived, a cold front is to
arrive tomorrow so it's time for me to move on. Headed west and
my fist stop was in the Texas hill country at the Circle T Ranch
about 6 miles out of Fredericksburg, TX to visit my friends Ken
& Ruby Thoma. I expected to see some livestock on a ranch
and I did, 2 cats on the porch and 2 deer in the brush. Ken said
he had been raising goats but because it had been so dry for so
long there was no feed for them. Found out that Ruby and I both
share February 10th as a birth date so we will have to get together
sometime for a big celebration. Had a nice visit and then again
headed west and you should know that there is a whole lot of nothing
in west Texas and way out in the middle of it I saw this stalled
Chevy pickup with a horse trailer behind it on the shoulder with
a banner saying "NEED HELP, CALL POLICE". After I had
passed it, I thought "maybe I could get him going" so
I pulled over and backed up, got out and I approached the guy
standing by the pickup facing the oncoming traffic thinking he
was all alone. When I asked him what his problem was he jumped
about a foot. I scared the living hell out of him. I'll bet if
I had grabbed him he would have passed out. After we got done
laughing, he informed me that he was from Seattle, WA and had
brought some horses to Texas and was headed home but his engine
had given up and he needed a tow truck. After listening to it
I agreed with him and told him we could try my Cell phone, it
had no signal, we tried the CB radio to no avail. He then informed
me that some Canadians had stopped before I did and told him they
would call the Police when the got to the next town. I wished
him luck and headed west, the road went strait as a bullet to
the horizon. I got to thinking about Texas roads, there are narrow
ones, wide ones, smooth ones, rough ones and some are as crooked
as an Arkansas lawyer running for public office. When I looked
at my fuel gage I see I had burned half of my fuel and I thought,
I sure would hate to run out of fuel out here. About that time
I came to a little dumpy looking filling station, the price for
unleaded was $1.49, I figured that any thing would be better than
running out of fuel so I put in 25 gallons. The gal behind the
counter had a nice Texas smile on her face, I don't like anyone
who smiles when they are ripping me off. Went down the road another
40 miles and saw unleaded for $1.29. It happened again when I
pulled into El Paso, I figured the price would be higher in NM
so I filled up at a $1.29, went about 10 miles and right at the
border at a Flying J station it was $1.23 and I have a Flying
J card that gives me another penny a gallon off. Flying J always
have good chow besides a low price for fuel so I pulled in, ate
chow, made some phone calls and slept till the sun came up.
Headed to the Melody Ranch near Sonoita, AZ.
Till next time, Dallas or Dad if it fits.
Me & My Shadow, with Gertrude, Gus & Keith on the road.