The next day traveling through West Texas was unremarkable. Very sparse population, lots of oil well pumps, potash plants, some cotton fields, now harvested, and a few pecan orchards scattered across the flat, brown plain. It looks very dry, even with the torrential downpour we had the first night in Seminole. As we passed by the Guadalupe Mountains, at almost 5000 feet there was fresh snow on the mountains and by the road. We had lunch at a picnic turnout on US180 beside this salt pond, at a lower elevation - still cold but no snow.
We ended up in Lordsburg, NM, last night. First thing this morning, as we were preparing to leave, Gary checked the pressure in all the RV tires, and discovered that the outside right rear tire was low. Fearing a nail in the tire, we found a place near the Interstate that serviced truck tires. They pulled the tire and found only a leaky stem, but the owner of the shop, after examining the manufacture date on our tires (3806 - the 38th week of 2006), convinced us, and rightly so, that we were due, even overdue, for new tires (some say 5 years, others say 7. We were definitely at 7 years). So Gary and I gave each other 6 new RV tires for Christmas! Merry Christmas to us! I feel that we were extremely fortunate to have 1) found a competent tire place that 2) could service us immediately, that 3) had our tires in stock, and 4) that we got new tires before something bad happened on the highway.
We are in Buckeye, AZ tonight.
