Destination: The South West

Molly showed no mercy on me. It was 5am, and I had heard her whining for a while. tried to ignore her – to no avail. If a dog needs to go out it needs to go, regardless if the owner is trying to catch some more sleep. So finally i gave in and got dressed. It was biting cold in the rig, so i turned on the furnace. Molly was so good to have it done real fast. Once I was up I made coffee and breakfast for both of us, which finally brought Bea out as well. The van was all frozen up around the windows and I turned on the engine before we left to thaw it out. At 7.30 we were rolling down towards the Oklahoma border.    Following Highway 54 which has a fair amount of truck traffic, we got down to Texahoma and into the State of Texas. Texas must be the state with most rest areas along any highway. They came like pearls on a string. Weather was beautiful and it warmed up quite a bit. After joining the I-40 at Tucumcari we had put our hopes on the first rest area for an overnight stay. But New Mexico government had closed this area. Very disappointing! The next possibility was the TA-Truck-Stop at the Santa Rosa exit 277. It was an unbelievable busy place and we could not find a spot for the night. So next best was the Santa Rosa Campground. The place is located a bit off and below the main drag, which should ensure a quiet night. We paid $27.00 for electric and water. We don’t need water, but have the trailer hooked to power.              Today’s nice 642km stretch gets us within 1295km to Holtville,CA Weather was nice all day, and it warmed up gradually over the day. But then we got a problem. This was the problem: It’s called Goatshead, and Molly had one in her mouth. She probably pulled it out of her paw, got it lodged somewhere else. All-of-a-sudden she went beserk and we couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly how she desperately tried to get rid of it. Surprisingly, she succeeded. We found the sucker on the floor. Apparently, outside are millions of it. It’s hell for a dog, and I wouldn’t want any of them in my shoes either. We would not be able to stay in a place like this for more than a night. Well, I’m tired again and need to relax a bit in front of our new flat-screen TV.   Thanks for trudging along here!