The longest day

Today was 582 miles in the heat. We started around 10am in McComb and stopped at midnight in Ranger, Texas. We enjoyed the first leg of the trip which was off the interstate across Mississippi and Louisiana on Routes 98, 84, and then 1 to Shreveport. Ambient temperature in the cabin was just below 100 degrees, and the car ran perfectly at 84-88C and no vapor lock using the McComb no-ethanol gas from Pump And Savor. In Shreveport we filled up at a Citgo with non-ethanol gas and launched across Texas on I-20 at a slightly quicker pace (65 vs 60mph), and it was much hotter (104F-106F in the car). The car ran perfectly for the first couple hours until we got down to about a quarter tank, and from then on and even into the night we had vapor lock issues (which were always solved using the auxiliary fuel pump, but disconcerting nonetheless). Now that we're stopped for the night, we'll start again anew tomorrow with everything fully cooled off and hope for no further vapor lock issues. We planned to fill up with ethanol free gas at a station that was touted on pure-gas.com as having non-ethanol gas, but it didn't...so we went to another just west of Weatherford, Texas. It was expensive, and Abilene (another 60 or so miles west from where we are now) had ethanol free fuel, so we put "only" $75.00 worth of gas in so we can fill all the way up in Abilene.

On a whim, we called up family in Fort Worth, Texas about 2.5 hours before we hit the town and said, "Hey, where's a good place to eat, and do you want to join us?" You can see the picture below of the Brewers (Robin, Lou, and Sarah) after dinner at Hoffbrau's Steakhouse. We had a great visit and hope we can meet more friends and family along the way -- thanks for coming out to meet us!

We really didn't mean to drive this late but once we left Weatherford there just wasn't anywhere to stay so we took the first spot we could find -- The America's Best Value Inn in Ranger, TX. The room was hot so we just fired up the A/C, the fridge was broken so we switched rooms, but alas there is a nice little swimming pool with milky green water, and next door is the Liquor Store!

More tomorrow, as we finally can start taking it easier. Looks to be about 350 miles to Whites City, New Mexico, and after that we won't have any more days (on the way out to Lake Tahoe) at that pace.