Day 31

A month on the road. I'm beginning to settle into the routine.

I set out this morning to get the oil changed in the truck. I bought the oil and filter separately so that I'm sure that they are the right ones. I was going to stop at the local oil change place, but Monday morning seems to be when everyone wants their oil changed. The place was packed.

So I went to New Braunfels, 25 miles away. I was planning on going there anyway to get some trailer supplies. The first place I stopped at there was only going to give me $4 off the full price. I said no thanks and went to another. They were going to give me $10 off (still a rippoff) so I said yes. After they did it, they told me they had to charge an extra $2 because the truck was 4wd. WTF. Their cost, plus the cost of the supplies, is as much as I would pay at the dealer.

As long as I was there I hit the pawn shops looking for CD's and a ratchet wrench. The shops had few tools and fewer CD's. I did pick up one CD - country drinking songs. I also picked up some barbecue at Rudy's - one of the area's best barbecue places.

I finished up the day exercising the dog. The city has a park with two spring fed rivers running through it. The water is warm year round. Lucy loves swimming in the river. She did over 30 water retrieves followed by 20 land retrieves. She wanted to do more, but I thought that that was enough. It seemed so later because when we got home she just sacked out on the couch for the rest of the day.

The truck turned 25,000 miles on the way home. We've owned the truck for 20 months, so that averages out to about 40 miles for every day we've owned it. That's on a vehicle that has spent several of those months unused.