We left Las Cruces yesterday mid-morning and drove through the wasteland of Western Texas. Hundreds of miles of nothing but small desiccated shrubs, clumps of brown grass and garbage. We both noted that this stretch of interstate was the most littered we have ever seen. Garbage everywhere and none of the standard "adopt a highway" signs. We also independently noted that almost all of the traffic is semi trucks (therefore, most of the garbage is probably a product of them). It was a rare sight to see a passenger car or even an RV on the highway.

In the afternoon after we had driven for over five hours and were about 25 miles from our destination, Odessa, Texas, our day turned "just peachy" (Sharon's polite word for a four letter expletive). Our Tahoe suddenly stopped running and we coasted off the side of the road. Fortunately we had adequate cell phone coverage so we called roadside assistance through our insurance company. Three and a half hours and many phone calls later the tow truck arrived.

It was a real chore. The tow truck driver knew that we had both a disabled vehicle and a trailer (one of the many phone calls mentioned above) but he only had a 2" ball on his truck. Our hitch is a 2 5/16" but we tried it anyway. Sure enough, we couldn't jack the larger hitch off the 2" ball once it was secured so we successfully made the drive into Odessa. The tow truck cab was very small so Abby had to ride on our laps - she was just short of traumatized. The driver dropped us off at our campground, the Midessa Oil Patch RV Park, around 7:30 (just before the park office closed) and then delivered our Tahoe to a Chevy dealer in Odessa. Needless to say we are all exhausted today. We had made reservations for two nights at the RV park simply so we could see local sights and relax a little. This is fortunate because this park fills up every night and if we don't get our Tahoe back until tomorrow we might not be able to stay (of course someone would have to tow us off the property).

We talked to the Chevy service folks this morning after they had diagnosed the problem. Just as we had speculated it is an electrical issue. Apparently during some earlier repair a wire harness was not properly secured so a wire has been rubbing against metal. It finally rubbed through the insulation shorting out the system and burning out a fuse that controls the truck's computer. So everything shut down. They replaced the wiring and the Tahoe was ready to pick up around 3:30 (and they sent a shuttle driver to pick Rick up). 

The weather here continues to be warm (it was 83 at 4:00 today) but very windy and dusty. Neither of us have recovered from the dust storms a few days ago and still have sinus headaches. But with the Tahoe fixed we went to see one of the local "unusual" sights on the campus of University of Texas of the Permian Basin (UTPB) in Odessa:  Stonehenge.

Even Abby got to go - lucky dog!

We head out tomorrow morning for another long day of driving to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day than yesterday.