Part 1 of the Texas Shuffle

I haven't blogged in a week now and with good reason:

I have been busy!


Reagan came in last Friday to Long Beach and we saw as much of California as we could in the 4 hours we had before sundown then grabbed some food and went back to our apartment where I began (yes, BEGAN) to pack for this month long stretch here in Texas.

Reagan at the Long Beach Teeny Tiny Airport

Saturday morning we loaded up and headed out at around 7 o'clock and were shooting for El Paso (about a 12ish hour drive I think.)

For the most part our Excellent Adventure was relatively uneventful...except the first 15 minutes.

We get on the highway and head to base where we stopped to get gas b/c gas on base is always cheaper and I figured I should take advantage of it before we headed out into the civilian wilderness.  I also kinda wanted to show Reagan a tiny bit of base.
After we filled up and Reagan got to take in a bit of the scenery we went over the overpass and turned to get on the on ramp and my car JOLTS like it sporadically stopped working and then decided to work immediately afterward.

Immediately we're both like "CRAP!?"

We continue on cautiously...driving a LOT slower than the California speed racers that are zooming past us.  My car is generally low maintenance, the only problem I've had with it has to do with the air supply (fan belt, hoses, AC.)  So I turn off the air conditioner to see if it runs better (it wasn't running poorly but I was overreacting to every bump in the road like my engine was going to show up in my rear view mirror.)

As soon as I kill the AC "smoke" starts coming out of the vents, Reagan points to it, and I just pull over.  We evaluate the situation.  The car was running fine, nothing seemed off, the "smoke" seemed to just be vapor from the AC so we decided to press on.

My poor little car just really doesn't have a lot of "oomph" so the mountains are hard on the poor thing but we made it, slowly but surely.

We stopped in Yuma (right outside of the California border) and as soon as we were off the highway and idling at a stop light to turn....the check engine light comes on.  That stupid unholy light...and we were maybe 200 miles into the trip....with like 1300 left to go.

To wrap up the story...we made it to Texas with no further worries from the car.  The check engine light stayed on the entire trip but the car drove fine and aside from some sketchy truck stops we hit up for food/gas it was a pretty routine drive.

When we got into Austin we decided I'd go ahead and eat dinner with Reagan before making the rest of the trip to Cleburne...but after we got some tasty Torchy's Tacos in our bellies all I wanted to do was sleep so I crashed at her place for the night.  It was the best decision I made b/c I was able to chill (literally) watch some tv, got to watch How to Train your Dragon and absolutely pass out for the night.  Woke up bright and refreshed and finished off the drive easy the next morning.

So here I am till the end of June.