I decide to take the shorter back roads to Ft Stockton of 418 miles rather than the freeways for 506 miles. Route 285 went down through Peco Tx. I don't think I'd ever been there before. I had to see that.
I gassed up the Van. It took 22 gallons, and I set out east on I-40 to connect with 285 about 40 miles east of ABQ. The dual exhaust rumbled very pleasently as i drove out of town. After a few miles I was gaining confidence in this van. Big Detroit iron has an attraction all it's own.
As an example, I raced unlimited VW stuff in most of my off road career, but one year I ran a V8 Jeep CJ in the Baja 1000 race. It had open headers, and I far prefered the roar of that American V8 to any noise I could get out of a VW.
Anyway I must have climbed 1500 ft or so out of ABQ as i picked up snow on the side of the road.
This picture is high desert in northwest NM. It wasn't really that dark, but it was a cloudy day. I was glad of a low temp day, because I didn't want to stress the cooling system.At one time, I stopped for gas. As I filled up I notice that a gas leak had developed, and I was making a puddle under the tank area. I took a look and there was an 1/8 inch stream squirting from a hole about 3/4 the way up the side of the gas tank.
I figured that my best bet was to get underway before I made a bigger lake in the station. I had at least 15 gallons below the leak, so I motored on toward Ft Stockton. I passed through historic places like Roswell, Carlsbad, and Peco.....still the Van churned on with authority. My confidence with it's reliablity was soaring along with my spirits, in spite of the gas leak. It turned out that I could hold at least 16 gals. That would easily get me to Ca.
As I drove through the back country, hundreds of example of the population abandoning the country life for the city life. These old building are left to return to eventual dust. A sort of recycling, I don't like it.
Pecos Tx had a historical block. I Couldn't resist a once around through there. Remember Judge Roy Bean? Faint lettering can be seen on this old building.
More of Peco is seen here with the Pecos Mercantile building
in the background.
So with the sight seeing over for the day, me and my van rumbled on into Ft Stockton at about an hour before sundown. Luckily I found the tow driver at home. He was more than happy to help me cobble up a ramp to load the bike.
The Van already had a couple of hold down hooks bolted to the floor in a great place to hold the bike.
I wondered why the driver was at home. He said that a cop had run his license a day or so ago, while he was out on an impound, and that he failed the test, so he was home permanently while he cleared up his driving privileges. Never a dull moment in Ft Stockton.
I felt bad for him, so I paid him 50 dollars for watching my bike for me. He didn't want the money, so I told him to give it to someone who did need it, then. He said ok, finally.
Although it was dark, it was way too early to go to bed, so I motored on out of town with Van Horn Tx (120 miles) as a destination for the night. I rolled in there at about 9:30pm. The couple hours of night driving was ok, because there isn't much to miss in West TX.
The room I selected was 29.95 with free wifi. It was way sleazy, just the way I like it. I logged on to a desert Inn Wifi. It wasn't the Desert Inn that I was staying at, but a peculiar thing was that two days later in the outskirts of Phoenix, I was again connected to the Desert Inn wifi. But this time I was in a residential district at the home of Ye Wilde Ryder, and 5 miles from a freeway. I had 5 bars of connectivity. The world is too confusing for me. LOL
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