Thursday, December 25, 2008 - Uvalde TX
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Flying Low, Foscue Creek Park, Demopolis AL, December 1, 2008
Throttle position sensor report
I put on about 175 miles today and am happy to say the new throttle position sensor I installed yesterday cured the the stumbling and transmission problems I've been having. Even better, it smoothed out the transmission shifting which has always been just a bit rough. And as a bonus the cruise control works again. It never did work reliably and eventually it quit altogether. It hadn't occurred to me the throttle position sensor might influence all these things. My automotive experience predates the computer age and I really know very little about how these modern engines are controlled. Anyway, we have a happy camper here. I don't exchange gifts on Christmas but I'll accept this one.
Continuing my journey west
My plan is to follow US 90 west to Alpine TX over the next couple of days. I-10 and US 90 are the only practical choices one has to cross southern Texas and I prefer to stay off the Interstates when I can.
Travel route for the day
From San Marcos TX I went
- West on TX 12 W about 10 miles then
- West on TX 32 W about 8 miles then
- West on TX 306 W about 12 miles then
- North on US 281 N about 2 miles then
- West on TX 473 W about 15 miles then
- South on TX 474 S about 15 miles
To Bourne TX and then
- West on TX 46 W about 10 miles then
- West on TX 16 W about 12 miles then
- West on TX 470 W about 28 miles then
- South on TX 187 S about 1 mile then
- West on TX 1050 W about 15 miles then
- South on US 83 S about 30 miles
To Uvalde TX
Get directions and a Google map
Night camp
Wal-Mart Parking Lot in Uvalde TX
Wal-Mart Supercenter in Uvalde TX
Wal-Mart Supercenter Store #782, 3100 East Main, Uvalde, TX 78801 - (830) 278-9117
- This store has a nice level parking lot.
- Verizon cell phone service - Roaming, decent signal
- Verizon EVDO Broadband service - Access is via Verizon's Extended Network, signal is good but internet access is at dial-up speeds
- Find other Wal-Marts in the area
- Check the weather here
Five Trillion Spiders
Spiders begin their hunting with a few handicaps. They're often smaller and weaker than their prey, and they have no wings to give chase in the air. Some species extend their legs by hydraulic pressure, using the same liquid that carries oxygen from their lungs, so they have a hard time running and breathing at the same time. Even their poison may be no match for their victim's: a crab spider's bite is to a honeybee's sting as "an air-gun compared with an elephant rifle," John Crompton wrote. Yet spiders kill at an astonishing pace. One Dutch researcher estimates that there are some five trillion spiders in the Netherlands alone, each of which consumes about a tenth of a gram of meat a day. Were their victims people instead of insects, they would need only three days to eat all sixteen and a half million Dutchmen.
From Spider Woman by Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker magazine, March 5, 2007, page 69