On the road to Amarillo

We've had a number of small earthquakes here in the Oklahoma City area the past few days.  None of them have been that large, but we did feel one very slightly on Sunday.  Nothing like we used to have when we lived in Costa Rica and earthquakes were very common.  If they were less than 4.0 on the Richter scale, they weren't even mentioned.  The 7.5 earthquake in 1992 did get our attention.  

When I checked the weather forecast for the next couple days in the Oklahoma City area, it didn't look good.  We were planning on leaving Tuesday and the forecast was for a windy & rainy day.  The decision was made to leave early Monday morning before daylight.  We were up at 5am, had coffee, brought in the slides and turned in the parking pass.  We fueled up at the casino service station and paid $3.50 gallon for diesel.

One problem with filling this unit with fuel is that the filling tube is constricted and when we use truck fuel pumps, the diesel backs up and splashes out of the filler.  That is what happened during the fillup and my coat sleeve was covered with diesel fuel.  The jacket has been washed twice, but still smells of diesel.  Looks like another washing is in order.

When we hooked up the Saturn it was discovered our tail lights didn't work.  The turn signals and brake lights worked so we took a chance and hit the road.  We had to drive about an hour without tail lights until it became light enough that we didn't need lights.  Since the traffic wasn't that heavy and nobody was tailgaiting us, we made it fine through Oklahoma City before rush hour.  I-40 in the downtown area was a mess last year when we went through, but this year it had been repaired and was a smooth ride.  

The wind between OK City and Amarillo was pushing us around for most of the trip until we got about 40 miles out of Amarillo when it shifted and was from the rear of the coach.  Any push that way is appreciated.

There is a Speedco Oil & Lube station for large trucks off of I-40 and we headed there to get an oil & filter change.  They said they could take care of this in 30 minutes so we had them do the job.  Their 30 minute estimate was off by about an hour.  They didn't have the correct fuel filter and substitued another filter for it.  I wasn't happy with this and called Cummins about whether the substitute was acceptable due to the flow rate.  Now what?   Well, there was a Cummins dealer down the road about 4 miles and they had the correct filter.  I picked up the correct one and Speedco staff installed it quickly and we were on our way.

One problem with Speedco was that they didn't have the air cleaner and would not install one if I bought it at Cummins.  If this is their policy, then we don't plan on stopping there again.  I want the whole job completed at the same time.  Guess we will head for a Cummins dealer for the next oil change in 15,000 miles.  It was easy to remember this oil change since the motor home turned over 50,000 miles a short distance from Speedco.  That is a number I can remember.

We pulled into the Oasis RV Resort west of Amarillo right off exit 60 and were glad to get off the road.  The first time we stayed here they had a special where you paid for two days and got the third day free for a total of $40 +tax.  Last year it was $29 a night and this year it was $65.70 for two nights.  Now our COLA is going up by 1.5% in January, but I think camping is outpacing that.  Maybe they can add that to the mix next year.  Fat chance of that.

We have a nice campsite with a concrete level lot, full hookups, free wifi and cable tv so I can't complain that much about the rate.  We checked out a Passport America park and to say it didn't measure up is an understatement.   It was next to I-40, railroad tracks and the sites were so unlevel that a motorhome had one of it's front wheels off the ground.

Tonight we ordered a great pizza from the park office and enjoyed it very much.  Nice to walk over and pick up a meal for a reasonable price.

Not that much interesting, but that was our day.  How was yours?