From Fort Stockton, TX to Lafayette, LA

For our second day, like the first, we had no specific target in mind. After all, we had the U-Haul (rented one-way) for another week before it was expected at the U-Haul dealer in Key West.

We awoke in our Fort Stockton Super 8 motel room fairly early, especially considering how late we'd pulled in. To be honest, we weren't too thrilled with the place. The shower wasn't very effective, for one thing. But we weren't expecting a resort, and were ready to leave shortly after awakening.

Considering the trouble I'd had the night before trying to park our rig, it was a relief to discover that the other guests had already left, so I had he parking lot pretty much to myself and getting the truck and boat back on the road was a simple matter.

Personally, I didn't have much hope for crossing Texas in fewer than 3 days, as that's what it used to take me when I was driving a big rig for Schneider in the early 2000s. But I was driving alone then, and for this trip my son and I were sharing the wheel. In any case, we had no specific target in mind for the day, our intention being to simply drive till we dropped.

It was heartening to see that Texas, traditionally an oil state and one known to have a powerful oil lobby, was beginning to take advantage of its prairie winds and wide-open spaces to generate electricity.

John, who is still a 12-year-old at heart, named this "Nipple Mountain".

When we first hooked the boat up to the trailer in Arizona, we'd noted a puddle of water pooling in the tarp that protected the boat. It was a large pool, and since it didn't seem to be hurting anything, we left it. Sure enough, by today, the water had all blown away or evaporated.

As a former trucker, I felt at home annoying current truckers by parking our rig amongst theirs during rest area breaks.

We passed through Houston, which I've always found to be a beautiful city, especially at night.