When will things get better?

October 12 – What a CRAPPY day! And we seem to be having our share of them!

Once we had breakfast it was time to put the legs up and hit the road.  I started up the RV while Bill was taking the trash to the dumpster, I barely had it started when the engine coolant light came on AGAIN.  I turned it off and told Bill so he opened up the RV and he had to put a gallon of coolant in.  Once we lifted the legs and I rolled onto the exit he checked the ground and there wasn’t any wet area.  So we headed on our way.

We pulled off at a truck stop where the diesel was the cheapest we’ve seen all summer.  Then I went in and got Bill as chicken meal as I had the leftover chicken from yesterday for my lunch. 

Oil derrick

I do have to say, Texas produces 42% of the US cotton grown, and I think I saw every single cotton bush today!  In addition, there were fields of sorghum.  We did see a lot of antelope again as well.  My favorites were the rows and

Cotton and Wind turbines

rows of wind turbines.  Then as we drove the truck into Abilene, we saw lines of blue flashing lights out in the distance, high up like they were on a line but eventually we saw they closer to the highway and they were on the center of the turbines.  Not each one, but every 2 -3.  Mystery solved!

Cowboy along the road

Everything was going fine as we were headed Sweetwater, TX.  Then about 20 miles out the engine coolant light came on and I did not hesitate to pull over about 2 feet off the side of the road.  Bill made calls to his brother who was an auto mechanic, and

Back of truck with RV on trailer

our friends Paul and Bruce.  Since we had just put coolant in this morning and no one knew if it really was a coolant issue or water in the fuel line or something weird, we opted to call AAA this time and waited for a tow.  We have the Premier RV package so they sent a huge truck with a trailer long enough for the RV to be driven up on.  He secured it with chains and drove it to Abilene.  That is the closest Freightliner to where we were.  It’s about an hour away.  I pulled over before 5.  Being the weekend the driver was on call so had to go to the tow place,

RV on trailer

prepare the truck, do a safety check, drive an hour, spend close to 2 hours getting up loaded, then drive the hour back to Abilene.  We left once he got the RV loaded but was working on the chains to secure it.  He pulled in minutes after we did.  He said we could park outside their fence and run our generator until Monday when Freight-liner would be open.  They have a 24 hour watchman on the property and they have drivers coming and going all day and night.  We are basically directly across from Freight-liner on the other side of the interstate.

Since we were along the road for so long, we just had snacks for dinner and once we got here we were pretty tired and ready for bed.