The Blitz West, Part 4: Truck Issues on Our Way Out of Texas
Catch up on our blitz west posts here:
Part 1, when we had to drive through downpours and flooded roads
Part 2, when we saw whether or not the rumors were true about I-10 in Texas
Part 3, when we decided to detour ourselves very, very far south
The time had finally come to make our way out of Texas, after a wonderful week-long detour down to the Big Bend region. We can't wait to share our stories from Big Bend National Park, but there's a lot to share, so we'll catch up on all that in upcoming posts. Once we had our Big Bend adventure, though, our eye was on the finish line. We were due in Tucson, AZ by February 22 and had about 600 miles to go. This would only require one overnight, but we had a few days to complete our journey, and so we needed to decide where we'd hang our hats within these 600 miles.
Option 1 was to have a quick overnight in the El Paso area and then head to Tucson early. Option 2 was to break up our travel days and spend a few nights near El Paso. The decision was made for us when our truck started having some issues. We noticed that our gas gauge stopped reading accurately. This was not a convenient time, considering we were in Big Bend, where sometimes there were 80 miles between gas stations. We dealt with it as best we could and thankfully never ran out of gas, but our truck was due for an oil change soon anyway, and there's nothing more important than a well-running truck when we know we'll be in the boonies quite a bit this year. So we made the choice to find a GMC dealer and reserve a campsite near it. The GMC in Las Cruces, NM had appointments available, and so that determined our destination: We were off to Las Cruces!
Las Cruces is a place we would love to explore more someday. It has slot canyons, is an hour away from White Sands National Park, and is rich in heritage. We only had a few days in the area, though, so this stop would be regrouping only. We made our appointment at GMC and had big plans for errands, laundry, and taking advantage of our full hookup site at the Las Cruces KOA Journey.
We must have been less full on our fresh tank than we thought when we arrived to our Big Bend campsite, because after only 6 days we ran out of water. We didn't want to fill using our campground water because it's well-known for being non-potable, and though we have our filters, we didn't want to risk it for an entire tank fill. Instead, we bought a couple jugs at the country store and decided to stay empty until we reached the KOA. Our black and gray tanks still had some space left in them, but they were fast filling up, so our KOA would give us the opportunity to dump and flush out these tanks.
But first, we needed to get there, and for the first time ever, we actually planned our pitstops ahead of time. We know some RVers do this every drive day, but we usually just stop when we feel like we need to. One of us says we'd like to stop in the next half-hour, and I do some research on where would be a good place, and that's about it. This time, though, we were in the middle of nowhere, didn't have a working gas gauge, and also had some things to do.
The best part about driving US 90 is, even though parts are super remote, there are still sights to see. Some, like the mountains and canyons, are natural. Some are not quite as natural. We'll be talking about Marfa, TX in a future post, but it's a town outside of Big Bend known for its quirky art installations. Some are right downtown, but others are a drive away. We knew we'd hit a few on our way out of Big Bend and decided to make a stop at the famous Prada Marfa, an art installation that looks just like a Prada boutique, only it's not real and it's the most random thing to see on the desert highways of West Texas. Why not make that the first place to stretch our legs? We're not fashionistas by any stretch, but the history of this place is fascinating. The building used to have real Prada items on display, until items kept getting stolen, and so the building needed to be reinforced with heftier materials. Security cameras were added, and the Prada items were replaced with display-only items. They're still real Prada, but the purses have no bottoms and the shoes are all left feet. When you're done looking at the randomness that is this boutique simulation, you can walk around and see a bunch of love locks that have been added to the surrounding gates by tourists throughout the years.
We had to cover over 320 miles that day and therefore couldn't stop to take photos of any other art, but on US 90 you'll also see famous road art such as this Giant sculpture, made for the Oscar-winning movie Giant starring Elizabeth Taylor and filmed in Marfa. We also were perplexed by this blimp that we saw in the distance. Was it also art? Nope. Upon further research we discovered that it's a border patrol blimp that monitors aircraft to ensure no drugs are being smuggled in from the skies. Clearly, there is no shortage of sights to keep you entertained on US 90 west.
Stop 2 was a gas station as soon as we got into Van Horn, the hub that connects US 90 to I-10. We were happy to be back in civilization so we'd no longer have to be as worried about our gas situation, but we continued to fill early and often.
And finally, stop 3: Time to get the rig washed! We hadn't washed the trailer since last summer and the grime level was high, due to the treated roads for winter up in the northeast, the coastal sand on the roads through the Carolinas, the mud and floods in Louisiana, and now the desert dust. We knew more desert driving would just make the rig dirty again, but a reset was necessary. We don't have a lot of truck washes in the Northeast, so an actual professional wash was new to us. Texas has a lot of Blue Beacon locations, including one just east of El Paso, and so we added that stop to our travel itinerary.
We learned a lot about truck washes, like how you don't even need to be a truck or RV to use them. You can go through them if you're just in a pickup, or even a smaller car! Granted you're getting a personal wash done by humans, so the price is higher, but if it floats your boat, then you're more than welcome. Clyde fits into some automated car washes, so we usually find one where he fits and use that. That's what we did when we took this video, which got very popular. But we can see the appeal of a truck wash, because then you know your pickup will fit.
Besides the fact that actual men wash the vehicles in the truck wash, there are a few other differences between truck washes and automated car washes. You pull into a bay and, when directed by the workers, you get out of the vehicle and go into the office to pay in person. Then you time your re-entry to the vehicle between sprays of the hoses. Like car washes, there are tons of options for washing, finishing, and brightening your vehicle. We just got the regular RV wash, with soap and water. Nothing fancy. If we had wanted, we could have gotten a protectant on our trailer, or even had our wheels brightened. When you approach the bay, a worker will come out and ask you what you want done. Note though, that because of safety issues on tall vehicles, that they don't do roof washing, but they do rinse the roofs off with their power hoses.
This Blue Beacon had two wash bays, and when we arrived there were lines of about 2-3 vehicles in each bay. Obviously it takes a while to wash big rigs, but the guys are efficient. There were about 6 workers per bay, and for the big Semis, they pull in part-way, get their cabs washed, and then pull forward to get their trailers washed. It takes about 10-15 minutes per wash, and so between waiting and getting washed ourselves, we were there for a little less than an hour. Sometimes you'll get lucky and show up to an empty bay, but we went on a Saturday and expected it to be crowded. So if you plan to stop at a wash on a drive day, be sure to factor in an extra hour just to be on the safe side.
We've heard that some Blue Beacon locations are better than others, and we believe it. The guys did a decent job, but there were still some grimy spots when they were done. I think given how crowded it was, they were trying to be more efficient than diligent. The job was enough for us, just to get decently clean before dirtying the rig back up again, but it wasn't the best. In total, for our 28ft trailer and 22ft truck, it cost us about $48 for the wash.
After that, we hit a little traffic going through El Paso, but before long we were crossing our first new state border in 2 weeks. We had an incredible campsite awaiting us at the Las Cruces KOA and were actually looking forward to being in civilization for a few days while we got our truck serviced.
We spent the next few days enjoying the view from our campsite, catching up on work, and running our errands. We were able to get our truck's oil change and tire rotation, but unfortunately, they did diagnostics on our gas gauge and couldn't figure out what was wrong. That means, until we can spend extra time at a mechanic, we'll need to continue to be diligent filling up on gas, plus we're doing our best to calculate how many gallons we've used so we have a sense of how askew our gauge is at any given moment. It's more a nuisance than anything else. When we're on the road, we have a lot of things to worry about: our hitch, our GPS, our tire pressure, the weather, and the road conditions, to name a few. This is just one more thing. But it's not something that's going to halt our travels...
...but other things might!