Updates from the Equator, Part 2 - Southwest Road Trip Blog

By Mark Williams for PickupTrucks.com

Part 1 - Road Tripping Through the Southwest with Suzuki’s Midsize Pickup
Part 2 - Thoughts along a Texas Highway

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1. There’s nothing sadder on this planet than a salvage yard full of lost treasure. Texas is riddled with amazing pick-your-part lots chock full of rusted-out jalopies, including the elephant graveyards where neglected and decomposing classic big-rig go to die, like the one we found on our way to San Antonio. We almost felt bad enough to call the Chrome Shop Mafia to begin this resurrection but our wallets wouldn’t allow it.

2. The great thing about Texas is that it’s a Truck State. Even during the light stretches, we counted at least one pickup truck for every four or five vehicles, and we weren’t even counting the medium-duty, heavy-duty big-rigs, or built full-size SUVs. I’m sure this segment in Texas is being hit just as hard as other states where new vehicle sales are way down, but from what’s driving on the road, you’d never know it. From the looks of it, the people around here still need their trucks; they just might be keeping them a little longer than before.

3.There must be a law that requires there be at least one Harley Davidson showroom for every fifty miles of this highway. They are everywhere and we even saw one with a new Harley F-150 sitting out in front; unfortunately, we weren’t able to grab our camera in time to get the shot. Likewise, for all the moaning about the economy and how poorly the motorhome and travel trailer markets are doing, we saw at least a dozen businesses selling Class A and C motorhomes and toy haulers. I’m told this part of the country still likes to explore and get out into the backcountry.

4. We found a touching site just outside of a common lunch spot. Seems that a big brother is in town and thought it would be nice to take out his little brother to the local sandwich shop for some one-on-one time. We love how this time of year gives families a chance to get closer to one another, even if they’re as different as coil and leaf.

5. Could have sworn I saw a busted-up Cadillac Escalade on the back of a flatbed Dodge Ram HD wrecker (one of those nice ones with the hydraulic ram sliding bed that makes driving or dragging the wrecked truck easy to pull onto its back real easy) driving across Texas with the same license plate as Tiger Wood’s vehicle but it sure wouldn’t make any sense to take that infamous SUV on a tour of the Southwest. At a time when Cadillac could use some good news, this probably isn’t the type of publicity they’re looking for their fullsize SUV lineup to get. They can’t catch a break.

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