Day 6 and NOT AGAIN

Where Are Today

Elephant Butte State Park

Elephant Butte New Mexico

Our 438.7 mi. day started out by being on the road by 7:40 this morning. Today’s route took us across the rest of Texas and as far as Albuquerque New Mexico on I-40.

Up and Down

I-40 was in good condition with an 8 out of 10 to the New Mexico state line. From there to Tucumcari NM it was the pits, the right-hand lane is always the lane that is the worst. This section gets a 5 out of 10.

Open Plains

Some would say to move over into the left-hand lane, but I don’t feel that is right to do. Posted speed limits on I-40 are 70 to 75 mph, I only travel at 60 to 65 mph, so I won’t move over and make some doing the speed limit slow down and have to pass me on the right. Trucks are to use the right-hand lane, I consider myself a truck and large trailer, so that’s where I drive. If there is no traffic behind me, I will move until there is.

After Tucumcari, I-40 became a much smoother road to travel on, even some new pavement, all the way to Albuquerque. It also gets a 8 out of 10 for this section.

The high plains of Texas and New Mexico are wide open with little to see, except the mountains in the distance at Albuquerque. There are grades to climb and descend, which doesn’t make for great fuel mileage. We probably won’t take this route again.

Here we go again

At Albuquerque, we turned south onto I-25. We hit a stretch of road work where two lanes got pushed down to one. We were driving partly on the paved shoulder. When the lanes opened again, we crossed over the rumble strip that runs along the edge of the shoulder, which we had been straddling. Here's where our day went in the garbage, we blew the front tire on the passenger side of the trailer as it crossed the rumble strip.

You can see the outer tread that gave way.

For the third time in two years, I am on the side of the highway changing a tire, and to add to the pot, one of the tires on the other side has a leak, which I think is the new valve stem that was put in last month.

No caption necessary

Needless to say, I'm bummed and will be dealing with this tomorrow. I am thankful that we are safe and no other damage to the trailer.

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