Sunday, November 10, 2013

Crossing Texas

Its Sunday night and we are currently in S Llano River State Park
just south of Junction Texas in the Central Texas Hill Country.

Today marked our crossing once again from the dry of the western
deserts into the greener and more humid climate zones of the East.

We entered Texas yesterday on I-10 just west of El Paso.
We drove for several hours and spent the night at
Balmorhea State Park - a very unique Oasis in the dry West Texas
Desert.   I posted a blog about it last trip.

You can access that post here.

After a delightfully cool and dark evening we woke up with the late sunrise and
continued east about another 300 miles to our current locale.

South Llano River State Park is another jewel that we've been fortunate to visit.


We are tucked into the trees in a very private site with 30a electric and water.

The park is a nature lovers paradise with abundant deer and wild turkeys.
In fact it is a prime wild turkey roosting area and there is a viewing blind where
you can watch them come to roost in the evening.


The campground is only about 1/3 full - more than I expected - I think some folks have
a long Veterans Day Weekend and have tomorrow off.

We headed off for our pre-dinner walk with the Doods.


Looking back at our site.


Later we complete the loop and get back to our site - #21


Our reward...  happy hour under the watchful eyes of Gracie.
(Ron aways spots her)


Tomorrow we'll continue our eastward migration thru Texas...
It is a big state.  Interstate 10 runs coast to coast - From San Diego, Ca to
Jacksonville, Fl and over 1/3 of that roadway is located in Texas...
Almost 900 miles.

It is our hope and intention to see a couple of the Painted Churches
of East Texas tomorrow and then stop in a KOA or some such
RV park in the area of the churches.

Some technical info for those who are interested:
My fuel milage difference between towing the Monty and hauling the Dog House.

Running around 65mph with the Monty I average about 10mpg.  My high is around 11.5
and my low (excluding headwinds which kill the mileage) is around 9.8.

With the Dog House I'm getting about 13mpg average
Today crossing in the dry air around Ft Stockton I was up to 14.5 over a 100 mile run.
As soon as I hit the humid air further east my mileage dropped to 12.7 over a 100 mile run.
My theory is that in humid air - water molecules displace oxygen molecules and you
get less efficient combustion...  hence less fuel mileage.

This change in mileage was running on flat land using the cruise control.
Nothing had changed other than the atmospheric conditions.
Altitude was within 500'

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the update. Interesting info on fuel milage.
    Safe travels.

    ReplyDelete

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