As we got nearer to Texas, the traffic almost disappeared and for many miles we had the road almost to ourselves.
We started the day driving through hilly areas with beautiful vistas and very little development nearby. By noon, the land flattened out, the fields got huge with tracks of green pasture with well kept cattle; many Angus, and different sorts of horned cows. We even saw a farm with dozens of miniature horses! Of course, there were many horses on the loose in roadside reservations. We also saw ambitious houses with large stables, exercise areas, and show horses on the front lawns...
By mid-afternoon, we passed up gas at $3.189 expecting to find cheaper further on. We'll, the rest of that particular village was completely dead, or barely breathing. A dozen miles later it became obvious that the chance of gas on our road was getting slim. Carmen found us a choice of four gas stations just off the highway we were on. We picked one, Carmen showed the way and we paid $3.199. Feeling better, we took a different route towards our highway, but not before passing two gas stations with a price of $3.189. Go figure.
Carmen then directed us to use a Farm Road, so with teeth gritted, I turned right. I'll tell you that our farm roads and Texas farm roads are different: this was paved, in good repair, with the same speed limit as the Interstate, 70 MPH! ... and no slow farm vehicles or turnip trucks!
By then, not only was everything as flat as possible, most of the land was just scrub land. Some areas had been cleared with the scrub pilled up into burn piles. Some of these cleared fields were quickly returning to scrub land, the burn piles still unburnt.
By the time we got to Odessa, we were in the thick of oil country. Farm Implement Dealers were replaced by Oil Drilling Equipment Dealers, complete with drilling equipment, oil pumping equipment, and all manner of weird machinery on display. Transport trucks were loaded with such equipment and cast the most interesting silhouettes as they drove overhead on the overpasses.
All in all, a very pleasant day,fog and rain notwithstanding. We stopped driving at 6:30 or so and found a Whataburger for a cheap supper. As it turns out, it was a good choice: I recognized the Wattaburger styrofoam glass being carried by a chap at our hotel and mentioned that we had just eaten there too. He said he had driven up and down most of the restaurant strip and every restaurant had a waiting list, so he went to Wattaburger because it didn't look busy.
On the face of it, it wasn't busy, only a couple of patrons inside. As we looked on, they had a steady stream of drivers at the drive-through [or drive-thru, as they say in Texas] and by the time we left, there were lots of people inside also. This place was not nearly as good as the same chain in Calgary, but the veggies were fresh, the fries very crisp and hot, and the price a fraction of Calgary's. Out total for two Wattabugers, fries and a machine drink was $12.73 or something.
I forgot to mention that we stopped at the Texas Welcome Centre where we asked about weather conditions. The lady mentioned that the Interstate 40 W had just re-opened about an hour ago, and it would be slow going for most of the day. We mentioned our destination as Wichita Falls, and she said that would be fine all the way, and likely fine all the way West from there.
Carmen is programmed to route us the fastest way, which for this trip would have been to take I-40 W, the same highway that had just been slammed by the snow storm with blizzard conditions yesterday. It's a good thing that we've always headed for Wichita Falls for the simple reason that going further south would help us avoid winter storms. I'm sure that we missed the storm by just 50 miles or so, what a fortuitous break! As it turns out, we haven't seen an inch of snow anywhere since we left the Folly. Let's hope that going West tomorrow will not change that.
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