On the Road Again - Travel Day Five (from Ridge)

Walmart, Midland, TX

On Saturday, Oct. 26^th we were up shortly after 6. I’m sure Gibbs is confused that he walks into his home at the end of the day but nothing outside is like the Ridge. 😊 However, he is fully enjoying all the new puppy smells out there! Getting up early, of course, means that we leave early. Since today is another long day, we like an early start.

Good morning!
This was last night's sleepover spot.
Much prettier than a Walmart.

We pulled out of the rest area, which was close to the interstate and noisy (but not with ear plugs!), at 7:10 am. There were a few clouds in the sky but at 66F/17C, who cares? We needed to fuel up Black Beauty so 15 minutes down the road, a Valero offered diesel at $2.85/gallon. Yay! We’re loving the fuel prices so far. When we were ready to pull out, I noticed the beautiful sunrise on the horizon, although missed the ball ‘pop’. It was in our rearview.

We needed to fuel up.
How many of you caught it?
Can you imagine paying $758+ to fill your tank?
Look at how many gallons it took!
This was the pump beside us.

At the fuel station, I saw this performance
taking place. Wow! I missed the sun come up though.

We had planned a destination for tonight but after discussing it on our route, we decided it wasn’t worth heading north those extra miles just because it was a familiar stop. 

This was at the corner of the station.
I just liked the looks of it.
There are so many interesting things, I capture a very
small portion of the ones we see.

Yah, the sun's rising adorned these clouds in
the west sky.

We pulled into the Hopkins County Rest Area at 9:15 and, as our gps says’ re-calculated. 😊 I found a Walmart Supercentre along I-20W which made much more sense so that’s how we went.

It was a pretty rest area to walk around.

Outside and inside.
Sometimes the washrooms are keen for a photo.
Look at the doors on the stalls!
Very nicely done and well kept.

It meant driving straight through Dallas on I-30 but other than a couple of slowdowns due to construction, it wasn’t too bad. The 635 bypass was crazy busy with traffic trying to get on it, that we think our choice was the better one. It was Saturday, after all. The Rest Area was lovely, clean and a few picture-worthy flowers too. Most are clean, their staff are awesome.

A couple of those interesting things.

This large lake was incredible!
We 'bridged' over two sections of it.
Lost of fishing boats out there.
I never did find the name for it.
White Rock Lake or Lewisville Lake, maybe.

As we entered Royce City, TX, we had some tight squeezes with cement barricades on each side due to more construction areas (no workers today) and as we were entering Dallas, we crossed over a large, beautiful lake. I couldn’t find the name anywhere on my gps or phone so had to Google it after the fact. Uneventfully, which is always nice, we passed through the big city, then Arlington and then Fort Worth. If you want to see a confusion of overpasses, take this route. Wow!

Interesting things, right?

The temperature was better today for driving, especially for Bill in the sunny seat all the way. We hovered around 75F/23C most of the morning and then rose to 79F/26C by mid-afternoon. At 11:45, we pulled into a QT fuel station for another fill up, usually once we are just below half a tank.

Mr. & Mrs. Fort Worth
Don't you agree?
She is much more feminine than he.

Our elevation is rising too, from 375’ first thing this morning to around 2,000’ by 2 pm and 2800’+ by end of day and that affects Black Beauty’s mileage and fuel consumption. Obviously. 😊 While there, we ate our homemade egg salad sandwiches and had a 20- minute break. This fueled our bodies for the next part of the day. Somewhere along that route, I-30W became I-20W and neither of us even noticed. It is a good highway.

While on the subject,
Tin Man or water tower?
The big fat Big Spring tower was impressive too.

Also, somewhere along this route, we received some disheartening news about the managers and hosts at our winter park. We are very sad about it and hope and pray that they are okay and that we still have a good time. ☹ I’ll explain in a later post, when we’ve had time to come to grips with it all. For now, we are forging on, looking forward to what lies ahead.

And Jed Clampitt's money maker.
Let me tell you all a story 'bout a man named Jed.

Next stop was at 2:30 at Sweetwater, Texas. It is the centre of the leading wind power generation region of the Western Hemisphere, commonly known as the “Wind Turbine Capital of Texas”. Yes, I looked that up. 😊 We drove for another 2 hours before topping up BB’s fuel tank once more, so we didn’t have to do it too soon in the morning. The Valero station in Stanton, TX was more but still not terrible at $3.29/gal.

Sweetwater's welcome sign is
a turbine blade.
This one is off the Google site, the present one
at each end of Sweetwater is much prettier.
It's one of those things I saw, but missed on camera.

We were all ready to stop, two long days in a row are tough but we’re still pleased with the jiggled destination where we ended up. A Walmart Supercentre in Midland. The first one I called (because now I’m gun shy) was right along I-20 and she bluntly said NO. The second one is on the 250 Loop around Midland and she said YES, as long as we were not ‘in the way’. Ha ha, she has no idea how big we are but we like to be out of the way just as much!

This interesting vehicle, we need help
identifying. Any clues? Bill saw it coming
up beside him but I didn't see the front.
Weird and ugly.

We found the best spot, backed into the corner and set up. Wendy’s, one of our favourite fast food joints, was a 5 minute walk away and although they didn’t have the Uncle Burgers here in the US, we ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger combos and carried them back to the Suite. Gibbs is already asleep as I type this. ♥ His day was not the best for some reason. I didn’t put his thunder coat on him and it seemed to have made a difference. He didn’t lay down much at all. ☹ Remember to check out Bill's travel blog here.

Our Wendy's supper was delicious, for fast food.
I treated us with a Pull-Apart Cinnabon to share.
Oh my!

Tomorrow, I will put it back on. I walked in to the store for a handful of groceries and finished my blog when I returned. It gets dark too early! This has been a good day, a long day but still good. Sunday will be shorter by a couple of hours, we think, and the next one shorter than that. It is quite warm, reaching 80F/28C with mostly clear skies. A cooler night is ahead so windows will be open again.

Here we are for the night.
Good night!

Thank you for your drop by!