After four wonderful days visiting friends and exploring the Tucson area, we were back on the road.
We drove east on Arizona Highway 80 to connect with Interstate 10 just past the New Mexico state line.
We had an easy drive through New Mexico and into Texas and approached El Paso at the beginning of evening rush hour. Google indicated that Interstate 10 through the heart of El Paso was the fastest route, but only by a few minutes. And, we know from passing through El Paso at rush hour last year, that it’s chaos, especially where I-10 runs just yards from the Mexico border. So, we quickly chose to take an alternate route through Franklin Mountains State Park. Great choice! It was a prettier and far more relaxing drive. And, no doubt, much faster than driving through El Paso!
After making great time on our drive from Arizona and through New Mexico, we boondocked that night at a truck stop in Fort Hancock, Texas. The temperatures were below freezing and most of the semi trucks were running their engines all night. But, unlike our boondocking experience in Arizona the previous week, we could park far in the back; away from all the trucks.
We woke well rested and ready to hit the road again. It was an 8 hour drive to our next destination, Austin. We didn’t expect to make it there in one day, but we thought we’d get close. We were wrong.
As we headed east on I-10 from Fort Hancock, the highway led us up and down small hills; nothing extreme. Tom noticed our truck was a little sluggish going up the hills so he stayed in the right (slow) lane. He didn’t think much of it because this is only our second trip with our new truck and camper. It’s our first trip fully loaded down and pulling a Jeep. About 60 miles into our drive, a semi truck passed on our left side. It was fully loaded with new vehicles and one wrecked pickup truck. Just as it passed us, two chunks of metal from the wrecked truck flew off and at least one of them hit us. The driver watched it happen through his mirror and pulled over to help assess the damage. The metal tore a big gash in the roof of our camper, but seemed to have missed the truck. It could have been a lot worse! We found a safe place to patch it up until we could have it repaired. We were back on the road! But, not for long…
As we continued east on I-10, our brand new #Dodge #RAM 3500, with less than 3000 miles, displayed a message indicating “DPF Filter Full. Reduced Power. See Dealer.” Our already sluggish truck was dragging even more. We slowly made our way to the nearest Dodge RAM dealer, about 100 miles ahead of us in Fort Stockton, Texas. They agreed to look at our truck first thing the next morning. So, we pulled into the nearest RV park and unloaded our camper... for the night.
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