East of the Pecos

Would you put your valuables in this safe?
No. Neither did we.

Pecos was our start today and the nice motel -with the crappy safe - gave us a hot brekky to get started.  All the usual stuff but in front of all the condiments was a large bowl of salsa(?)
So I spread a little on my eggs and fries.  Whoosh.   Hot brekky alright!!

Off to an early start, we needed fuel.  I still haven't got the system worked out.  Yesterday I managed to pay at the pump with credit card.  It asked for a zipcode and so I added a zero to my 4 digit postcode.  It worked.
Today, same brand, same card - no dice.  Ah well, go in and leave money with the attendant, back out to fill then back for the change.

First we had a fifty mile run on the two-lane to Fort Stockton, then another fifty mile run along the multi-lane I10 (or "Eye One Oh" as the song says).  The second fifty was a lot quicker than the first.

A few of the hundreds of wind turbines visible from I10

Enough of that - uses too much fuel.  So we turned off on to US190 which runs somewhat parallel to the superslab and much more relaxed.
Stopped at an overlook for a photo op.

Overlook on US190

Sharp bush

The ants look a bit prickly too

 This route, like the one in to Pecos yesterday was full of oil wells.  Mostly busy due to a current lift in oil prices.  A boom in production is going on right now.  There were lots of new drilling sites and heaps of those iconic nodding pumps.

The roads were long and straight for quite a while until another refuel at Brady.  After that the country became more interesting, with quite a few sweeping corners in the road.  The countryside reminded us of Queensland around the Burnett area.  Needed a few gum trees to be the same, but the oaks made a nice change.

One of the straight bits - one of the oak trees

In Brady, even the dogs are catered for

Sand mining operation

A few signs on fences show the locals are not too happy with the sand mining - for silica - going on here.  It does make a mess.  We could show them a thing or two.

We arrived in Austin around 2pm in the heat of the day and found a Yamaha dealer to pick up a filter for the next oil change for the bike.  We decided to get out of the heat and got ourselves a room.
After it (and we) cooled down a bit we went out for a nice meal.  Even in the evening it was still near 100F so all the eateries were misting water over the guests.

418 miles for the day