Mom begged me to let her stay at an “America’s Best Value Inn & Suites” I was particularly impressed with the two large stains on the couch and the tub that wouldn’t drain. I know Adam really liked the bar in the middle of the sleeper sofa, so much so, we noticed that he had moved the mattress to the floor before retiring for the night. It really was a nice hotel if you were able to ignore how dirty the room was and overlooked the hookers hanging out in the parking lot.

This morning I got up at 5:50am, oops, the clock weren’t reset for DST, so it was really 4:50am. It actually worked out well because for the first time this trip we got on the road early. We filled up the tank ($2.09/gallon at the Pilot), grabbed some coffee (I also grabbed some McDonald’s) and we were off. I caught Adam trying to sneak a window cleaner to his truck and wash the windshield; I made him put it back. I think that may have been a mistake since we used an entire tank of washer fluid over the next hour trying to clean the windshield. I was just trying to help him understand that it was in fact possible for the truck to run with dust on the paint and bugs on the windshield. Oh, we also met a couple driving back from Alaska (heading to California), 2 trucks, camper, boat, 3 kids, 2 dogs…the wife look like they were all on her very last nerve. I was trying to be helpful so I told her that they might have taken a wrong turn because they were in Amarillo; turns out the kids weren’t on her last nerve after all cause I ended up being the one who was.

We looked for rocks in Dumas (Lisa’s birthplace); the only one I found was about the size of a mini bagel. The police chased us out of town for trying to steal Mount Dumas.