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| Closing Thoughts |

 

10:28 am we are on the road again. We were up pretty early today at 8:00 am but we stopped for breakfast and had to do our daily filling of the t-case and oil...the oil pan still leaks a bit so we ad to add half a quart of oil.  If anyone wants to retrace our route they could go to Tallahassee and follow the line of Lucas tranny fluid all the way to Snow Flake, AZ. We are regretting that we did not ask Lucas Oil to be one of our sponsors. So far we have gone through 7 quarts.

Will also did a McGiver road-side fix to the soft top support by widdling a small piece of wood to use as a screw. So now, we've got wood, but still haven't been able to get a screw. We'll keep you posted as to whether or not we can keep our wood until we get a screw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are really starting to feel the effects of 41 hours and 53 minutes in the Willys (according to the GPS...and it hasn't lied yet).  We were both quite stiff when we got up this morning (nope...I'm done with the hooker/wood/screw jokes), and less excited than usual to load our gear back in the trailer and do our daily t-case ritual.

It is once again very windy and the temp is in the low 70's which is one of the warmer mornings we have had in the past few days.

We hope to get 300+ miles today and get through Oklahoma, Texas and into new Mexico.

Mile 1,539 at 11:01 am we crossed into Texas....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,578 at 12:06 pm we saw a tree so we stopped to get pictures.  As it turned out it was only a shrub so we carried on...and we thought Oklahoma was flat and bland.  Texas is so flat that you can see the curve of the world in the distance.  It is alot like Saskatchewan, which is one of the provinces that does not rely on tourism.  I'm thinking northern Texas doesn't get alot of its' picture taken either.

Mile 1,610 - Driving through Texas is alot like the Driving through Colorado, except without the mountains, trees, wildlife and creeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,632 at 1:26 pm we left TX and entered new Mexico.  We are already 1 mile into New Mexico and the scenery hasn't changed at all.  We are very disappointed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shortly after arriving in NM we passed an old Willys in a Wal-Mart parking lot so we had to pull in and check it out.  The owner came out while we were there so we visited with him for a bit.  The Jeep was a 1942 and he had inherited it from his grandfather.  He still drives the old Jeep quite regularly around town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,636 at 1:40 pm we ran out of gas 23 miles east of Logan, NM. Oh well, we needed a stretch anyway.  Good thing we brought spare gas for this occasion. The small tank on the Willys can't get us from one town to the next in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico. We are really screwed if Logan doesn't have a gas station because we won't make it to the next town after that on 5 gallons of gas. The only good thing is that we won't lose too much time if we have to walk the rest of the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,640 we just passed someone else filling their car with a spare gas can...we feel much better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we stopped for gas we ran into a guy towing a 1959 Willys Wagon so we chatted with him for awhile and swapped some Jeep stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shortly after we arrived in NM we learned from a guy at a gas station that it is illegal to drive in nm without doors.  Not only do we not have doors, we don't have signal lights, windshield wipers, seat belts and a license plate.

Will and I have gotten along amazingly well on the whole trip. We hadn't met prior to taking this trip, so I think that we were both a little leery.  We have gotten to know each other very well over the past 10 days, especially given the circumstances of the peaks and valleys of this trip. We share alot of the same beliefs in life, and have the same sense of humor, which helps immensely during the challenges of this trip and makes the peaks all the more enjoyable.  The only thing we have argued about so far is the language barrier between Canucks and Americans.  He insists that we "top off" the tranny oil while I continue to correct him that we "top up" the tranny oil. If you are reading this and you agree with me then feel free to send Will an email and let him know.  If you agree with Will then save yourself the embarrassment and keep it to yourself.

Mile 1,680 at 12:46 we had to stop and clean the windshield for the first time. The bugs in TX must be boneless. Up until now, we are going so slow that whenever we hit a bug they just bounced off the windshield and gave us a dirty look.

Mile 1695 at 3:40 pm we got on route 66.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a piss on Rout 66...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had our first close call which happened to be shortly after getting on route 66.  We came to a "slow 10 mph/curves ahead" sign, and so far we have been able to ignore those types of warning signs due to the fact that we are already going slower than the signs say to slow down to. This time, we came over a hill doing about 30 mph (right after the sign) and there was a 90 degree turn into a narrow concrete tunnel (pictured on right).  To make it worse, Vance was driving and unable to assume the "put on the brakes" acrobatic move so we were forced to ride it out at about 25 mph. The only things that saved us from becoming a spot on the concrete tunnel was the Porsche-like handling of the Willys, the kick-ass trailer suspension (from adventure trailers) and Vance's "Bruce Lee" reflexes combined with his Mario Andretti driving skills...We got our kicks on route 66 alright.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,705 we ran into a rain storm...bummer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1752 at 4:30 pm (time change) we stopped at the "route 66 auto museum" and spent 20 minutes walking through and admiring all of the classic cars.  We were disappointed that they didn't have any old Willys or jeeps, but if you are ever in the area it is certainly $5.00 well spent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,774 we hit yet another rain storm and the temp has dropped quite a bit, so we are more anxious than usual to get to a hotel for the night.  We are going to stay in Vaughn, NM tonight which is another 8 miles.
 

We had planned on stopping at Vaughn for the night.  When we arrived there at 6:30 pm the only hotel with rooms was an absolute shit-hole.  We were tired so we checked in anyway and we then went to the only restaurant in town and had a disgusting meal.  During our meal we both decided that we would just rather get out of Vaughn while we still could. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff and headed to the office with a sad story about why we had to carry on.  He wasn't willing to give us a refund so we figured that the $50.00 investment was worth walking away from in order to keep our health and sanity.  We then carried onto the next town on the map - Socorro, NM which is 140 miles further. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,914 at 11:00 pm We finally arrived at Socorro very cold and tired.  We crashed as soon as we got into our room so we are once again behind schedule on posting pictures and journal entries to the website.  We will get the rest of today's pictures posted as soon as we can.

click on the pictures to view the full size...

Don't worry mom, it's t-case fluid.

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