Day 2766

Another day, another hour closer!

Happy Wednesday April 30th, and the time change is messing with me big time, it’s 4:20 am MDST and I went to bed at 8:30 pm MST, but I couldn’t sleep any more but I kind of feel like I should have, but because our TV streaming service is based out of Phoenix all the times for our shows are all in all very confusing. And if that is not crazy enough by this afternoon we will be in Central Daylight Saving Time, yes when we cross into the Texas panhandle we can rechange all the clocks again, not a big deal for the clock but it is proving harder on me. Mister Sam is loving it because it means his dinner is an hour earlier and so far the change does not seem to be affecting his sleep, at least not as much as our travelling.

Well on the good side the overnight temperature doesn’t seem to have been as low as forecast, and the forecast is mainly sunny for today, and the last time we were in this area was last November and there was a snow cover from the storm that pinned us down for a couple of days. And again I’m up way too early this morning as it will take a few days to become accustom to all the time changes, I worked on my laptop for a couple of hours, until Miss Laurie & Mister Sam joined me at around six o’clock. A cup of coffee with a wee Irish blessing and my day seemed to make a little more sense, our departure time will hopefully be nine o’clock with an estimated four hours of drive time.

But first some breakfast a toasted bacon sandwich makes for a good start to the day, today we will start our downward trend as we will descend from 6600 ft (2011 meters) to 3500 ft (1066 meters) in Amarillo this afternoon. I need to go shopping this morning before we depart, I’m looking for a green chili pepper chip dip that I found on my first trip through New Mexico way back in the spring of 2017, and as luck would have it they had some on the shelf, so 2 tubs of chip dip and 18 eggs wand we are on the road again. This was a reasonably quiet stay for a Walmart, I like the stores that close overnight a lot less traffic but a noticeable noise increase at opening time.

Today’s drive will be reasonably uneventful with no major cities and a spread our as Amarillo is other than some sporadic road work it was pretty much a cruise control day. We will travel only I-40 today and other than a lunch break after crossing into Texas it was set the cruise at 64 mph (101 kmph) and just enjoy the view, as we leave the mountains and start into the rolling hills as we roll into Texas.

On todays schedule is a quick bath for Thunder & Ruby at the Blue Beacon Truck Wash, top off our tanks at the new Buc-ee’s then settle into the Welcome Centre parking lot on the east side of Amarillo. As luck seems to be on myside today there was no line up at the truck stop so we pulled right in and $68.40 ($94.74 Cdn) while not the best wash job we have rinsed off most of the Arizona desert dust. Buc-ee’s was busy but we managed to squeeze 49.134 gallons (185.99 Liters) of diesel into the tank.

Dinner was a smoked brisket sandwich that we picked up at a gas station, and desert was some peanut butter caramel popcorn from the same gas station. If you have never stopped at a Buc-ee’s on your travels it is an extraordinary adventure and one that every person should experience at least once. This particular store is one of the smaller ones but it is still an adventure, because of a technical issue at a pump we will return tomorrow to top off Ruby’s fuel tank before we head out.

So here are today’s numbers: 263.4 miles (423.9 kilometers) 4:25 hours of drive time, we averaged 59 mph (95 kmph), consumed 26.8 gallons (101.4 Liters) of fuel or 9.8 mpg (24 liters/100 km) and the solar array harvested 5 kilowatts of power topping off our battery bank again today.