Glad to hear your coming out.
the way you mentioned is a pretty straight route however they're small roads with not much in between. Personally I would go all the way to Odessa exit off on either west loop 338 and go north to Kermit Hwy (Hwy 302) then go west on 302 all the way to Kermit, or you could keep going past Odessa to 866 then go north till you run into kermit Hwy (Hwy 302) turn west till you get to Kermit.
Once you get to Kermit you can stop at any store and fill up, use the restroom, fill up ice chest or whatever and they can point you to the sand hills.
If you dont get the gaskets load up all the parts and bring them with you and we'll fix it in the trailer.
Later