Day 17 Plain sailing Sunday

I rose at 7, the fishermen had departed at 4 am and managed to hitch up their overpowering boats to their overpowered pick ups without recalling me from the land of Nod. Wandering around the corner to a gas station that I had spotted the night before, I was disappointed to find the shop closed and the pumps signed ‘card only’. I hate ‘card only’ because my English cards don’t work on account of not having a zip code to enter on the numeric key-pad at the opportune moment, sometimes they do not need a zip code but, as disappointment often offends, I avoid them like the plague. Instead I have to go into the shop, proffer a deposit greater than the expected tank full and then return for change having filled up. I kept walking, sure enough there was another around the corner, like London buses they cluster.

No coffee! the water was off because recent flooding had turned it brown. I returned later, packed and checked out and took a tank full of 100% gasoline (no ethanol) only 87 Octane (which is not the same as European RON – 87 US is equivalent to 91 RON) available but she seems to like it. I headed up to the lake to see if I could see my recent neighbours and, sticking to my new rule even turned back to take this short video so that you could hear the sound of a reservoir drain.

It surprised me, looking as tranquil as it does, perhaps there were turbines involved, I couldn’t see any wires.

The clouds were low, sometimes low enough to wash the flies from my visor that I’d neglected to clean last night. On the way into Springtown they cleared and I paused at a scrap yard/farm to snap these bad boys.

I stopped for gas early, in Springtown, the lack of mobile internet coverage spooked me and I had concerns about where my next tank full was coming from. Ardmore gave me free WIFI and a sausage burrito at a ‘Jack in the box’ food outlet, where I caught up with the post then headed out onto the increasingly plain like but not plain plains. I saw oil wells but not so many that I could stop and get a good picture then I spotted my first (I assume) gold mine, the tumbler barrel on the top being the give-away to me.

There were plants and birds and rocks and things…

… and more horses than you could throw a stick at, not that I would. Cattle too, in huge pastures yet they all seem to hang out by the road to watch the passing action. Another big snake, spiralling across the road stopping my heart as I swerved past its tail, and potential road kill of the day two tortoises that I nearly stopped to speed on their way, out of harm’s.

Onwards over the Red River, it was, into Texas and down to Wichita Falls that fell short of my expectation, not the promised land, where after some heated and hot searching around for free WIFI and a motel, I realised that my iPad had 4g but not my phone. Pairing the phone to the pad found me connectivity and a LaQuinta motel, switching to my UK sim fixed the phone, AT&T’s pay as you go unlimited having hit a limit. I met Chas and his dog, neither of whom had met an English person before, and a nice man from Montana, Brandon, who recommended the Beartooth Pass and the Motel and Cabins that he owns, should I get that far.

A wash and an oversized tin of Budweiser set me straight and I ventured out into the night to walk a mile to the nearest bar, overcoming my trepidation about snakes and scorpions was not rewarded by the “Lonesome Dove” which had many more seats and cowboy hats on the ceiling than customers and only one beer not including the word ‘Lite’ in its name. Gerald brought me home and cautioned that this was not a great neighbourhood to be walking in.

The road layout is becoming more rational with north-south and east-west options, I think that I head towards Roswell, where better for an alien, because then I can decide between Albuquerque and El Paso.