Happiness is Lubbock Texas in the review mirror...

*Sputter Update*

So after reaching out to the volkswagen community (which means spending four hours reading through forums trying to find someone having the same "sputtering" problem that I had been dealing with), and swapping out pretty much every spare part that I had brought along, and thats alot being I pretty much put together three different motors to get the one I got, I finally solved the sputter problem! A 50 cent hose clamp and two minutes of work fixed a vacuum leak and Charlie has been running like a champ ever since! Thanks to everyone who offered help.


After fixing the infamous "sputter" we found ourselves just inside the Texas line, as anyone who has ever driven across Texas knows this state can be quite a task. But we got off to a really good start in Texas, not 25 miles in we pulled off I-20 onto some small backroad so I could fiddle with the engine a bit, wasn't there maybe 5 minutes before some lady stopped and offered a ride. Then this fellow came riding up on his four-wheeler, he was a retired Marine from Seattle who makes his living these days planting and running a Maize Maze, no joke. He even had a shirt on that said "CORN COP" on the back, which got a good laugh from Tina and myself, I guess hes also head of security at this corn maze. Moral of the story is we weren't parked on the side of the road for 15 minutes and had three people stop to offer help (this includes "toothless Jackie", whose plan B in life is to "catch me a trucker"on I-20), not a bad way to start off in Texas.

a pic from somewhere along the way across Texas

Being we were coming in on I-20, there really wasn't any other way to go then right through the middle of Dallas. Which we did pretty much uneventful if you ask me, ofcourse Tina on the other hand might have a different opinion on the matter as she seemed to be on the edge of her seat the whole time while I was swerving through traffic. But it was a relief to finally be through the DFW area because it just seemed like it would never end. Heading west out of Fort Worth on highway 114 I couldn't believe how much it reminded me of Mexico, everything from the buildings to the cars, the only thing missing was the smell of sewage flowing freely along the side of the road. And we also passed our 1000 mile mark while in Dallas.

Dallas

This is what my arm looked like after two days of hanging it out the window

Stayed our only night in Texas at a State Park in this little town called Jacksboro. Its about halfway between Dallas and Lubbock, and it is home to the largest Elvis Presley collectibles shop in Texas, so ofcourse I had to check that out! All the way across Texas we had been taking about wanting to try some Bar-B-Q, and we where hoping Jacksboro would be our chance, turns out both the restaurants in the town are closed on Tuesday, go figure. But we did get to see a dog riding a motorcycle down mainstreet, some guy had his blue heeler riding on his bike with him, and I'm talking a full grown dog. Other than wide open plains, horses and cows the only excitement that Texas had to offer were all the skunks! Dead skunks that is, they were everywhere, must have smelled at least twenty of the nasty little critters. On to New Mexico!

Pic of our campsite in Jacksboro