Deb and I are really starting to click on the tear-down and set-up rituals. This morning we struck camp quickly (and without incident), hitting the road a half-hour before we’d planned. And this afternoon it took us only ten minutes to get parked, powered, hooked up and planted.
Our motivation, on both ends of the day, was to keep Ernie’s air conditioners running — the dashboard AC for the drive and the rooftop units after we parked.
It was another relatively short jaunt today, so short that we had to busy ourselves for a while to avoid arriving before our destination campground’s check-in time. We’d logged over 250 miles since our last fillup, so we ran west to a truck stop, took on 26 gallons of diesel and bought lunch. Afterward we drove a couple of miles east on the frontage road and pulled over onto the shoulder, bent on checking an item off our bucket list.
“Cadillac Ranch,” created in 1974 and moved to its current location in the late 1990s, is a roadside legend — ten vintage Cadillacs buried up to their windshields along old Route 66 (now I-40). These days they’re magnets for tagging, and a concession trailer parked at the attraction (and staffed by the former groundskeeper for the guy who commissioned the installation) sells cans of spray paint enabling visitors to do just that.
A sign nearby warns that it’s illegal. That sign is covered in graffiti.
Less than a mile farther down the road we rolled past another landmark, this one right up our constitutional alley. The “Second Amendment Cowboy,” originally created to draw customers to a muffler shop, stands over 20 feet tall and reminds Americans of their right to keep and bear arms.
We did a drive-by. Deb snapped some pictures. And we pulled into our campground precisely at check-in time.
I love it when a plan comes together.
The afternoon high here was 103 degrees. Winds continue to be brutal — a steady 25mph, gusting to 40mph — and our slide toppers are buzzing like kazoos. The temperature probably won’t drop below 100 ’til the sun sets.
We’re fine, of course, having learned a lot while simmering last week in Bandera. Applying those lessons has kept Ernie’s living space in the mid-70s. That new fridge, by the way, is running perfectly.
It was a great day. Deb and I laughed a lot. Times like these validate what we’ve chosen to do with our American Life.
More to come.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath