Big Spring, TX -> Mount Pleasant, TX
Well, we didn't make it across Texas in two days. We've been making a lot of stops. (11 today, 7 yesterday, 6 Monday.) My collection of photos of Texas highway rest area bathroom murals has been growing.
Turns out there's a wind farm just outside Big Spring. We took a little side trip this morning to get a closer look at the wind turbines. We didn't find our way to the site itself, but I got some pictures from closer than Interstate-20. There was an interesting contrast looking back towards Big Spring and seeing a refinery.
East of Big Spring there were fewer drinky-bird oil wells, and many of those that I saw were not running. Some wells had oil tanks with them (instead of feeding into pipelines, presumably). Cotton appeared to be the major crop as we moved east. There were cotton "bales" the size of truck trailers. I don't think we saw any more wells east of Abilene.
There was more and more green vegetation as we moved east, along with more and more creeks, ponds, and standing water. East Texas actually has rivers and lots of lakes (mostly(?) man made), in contrast to west Texas and New Mexico (and then Arizona gets you into real desert). anniemal took a stint at driving as we approached Fort Worth. Unfortunately, it was getting towards rush hour, and we had thunderstorms. I drove again from Dallas. We made several stops for almost any excuse when the rain was really heavy. (There's a Radio Shack -- we need new foam earpads for our headphones.) The lightning put on a great show. Eventually we were driving in light rain with occasional lightning flashes illuminating the entire countryside brighter than our headlights on the road. Perhaps I could have made it to Texarkana tonight (another 64 miles (103 km)), but we would have been driving in rain the rest of the evening.
Tonight we're at a Super 8. Fridge and microwave; no clock radio(!), coffee maker, hair dryer, or pool. Breakfast will probably be rather basic. $10 charge for the dog. We seem to be the only ones in this separate building. I guess the dog's barking won't bother anybody. There was a lightning strike quite close as we began to unload, and the motel power went out. It was back on again in less than a minute. But we're keeping our flashlights handy, and our laptops charged. (Thunder's still rumbling through out there.)
The WiFi's working fine, but here's yet another motel that doesn't get the AC-power bit. There's one open socket in the main area and two in the bath area (occupied by the coffee maker and hair dryer at fancier digs). There's 3 more unused behind the TV/drawers furniture -- next to the desk and the wired Ethernet drop, but unaccessible.
The desk clerk gave us a booklet from the Chamber of Commerce. I just noticed a little ad for the "Mt. Pleasant Moonlight Jubilee & Outhouse Races" back on May 14-15. One can only imagine.... (No, one can also Google -- May 13-14 in 2005.)
And anniemal keeps asking "How much energy do those pumping oil wells use?"
Not real answers, but some info: link, link, Ajusta pump.