2006 Day 3

I get delayed in Roswell NM today while waiting to have a new rear tire put on. Someday I may learn to always get new rubber before a trip ... these delays are generally avoidable because I look at my tire before I leave, thinking "oh that'll make it to Athens" and then the tread starts looking way too thin when I am still a good long ways from my destination. D'oh.

Champion Motorsports in Roswell is strangely devoid of tschokes with aliens on 'em. Why? I was hoping to pick up gifts here, but only come away with a refrigerator magnet for my sister.

Heading eastbound once again, I come out of the mountains and into the flat plains that start here in east New Mexico/west Texas. Yes, it's flat, and open, and a whole lotta nothing out here! I get into a long stretch of no towns & no gas stations, and realise it's going to be a close thing to make it to the next fuel pump on Hwy 380. Thankfully Brownfield TX comes into view (out here you can see the towns from ten miles away or more) but the wee beastie's engine sputters to a halt about two miles outside the city limits. Today I am prepared ... it would have been a bummer to have to walk those two hot miles, but I am carrying 30 oz of gasoline in a campstove fuel bottle and that's plenty to get me into town. Hooray! I really hate running out of gas ;)

Tonight's stop is in Lubbock TX, where I am meeting Marti. I have great difficulty finding the hotel and make three literal circles around the area before I find the right one-way road to get me there.

Next: Day Four