After they left, Mark and I prepared for the long trip ahead. As we were getting all packed up Hurricane Texas decided to come through and bless us with a little rain, a little lightning, and a little thunder. This would not have been a problem if our car hadn't been parked 75 ft. from the entrance to Matt and Tori's. Now for Mark's long legs 75 ft. is not that much but, for my Cristy-sized legs it's a bit farther. Add to that the fact that Mark parked in the storm drain because he thought that the water would drain better and cause less of a problem...it didn't. He failed to realize that all the water would drain TO the car causing a puddle of enormous proportions which I now had to wade through to get to the car (Mark was busy composing the previous blog in the comfort of the Malony apartment). Needless to say I returned to the safety of the apartment slightly wetter and a little colder than I had left it. Once I pulled the car into the garage it was easy to load the car up dryly and we were on our way.
Our trip continued on to become probably the most pleasant part of the drive we have had so far. Yes, Texas is pretty flat, but it did have some rolling hills and a few interesting little towns here and there. I must say that it was not quite the stereotypical landscape I had pictured -- you know, oil drill/derrick/rigs scattered throughout the landscape. In fact, we saw very few of these initially, but eventually came to a stretch where they dotted the landscape as far as the eye could see.
Just outside of Van Horn we paused at a nice scenic overlook, or at least it used to be a nice scenic overlook. Don't misunderstand, the view was spectacular! It's just the site itself has been overlooked for several years.
In general I feel that I can safely say that western Texas has one of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen on this trip so far. It was a genuinely pleasant drive, with our company consisting only of a few semi-trucks and some trucks pulling trailers. The most astonishing thing, I think, was the fact that the speed limit was 80 mph for cars and 70 mph for trucks. We cruised!!!
Our day of driving concluded in the Chihuahuan Desert and El Paso/Juarez. Don't worry we are not crossing over into Mexico. Neither Mark nor I brought our passports and we figure those would probably come in pretty handy when we decided to cross back into the U.S..
From the hotel we are staying at we have a clear view of the evening landscape that is Juarez, Mexico, including a lighted caricature of a man done on the side of a mountain. We can't figure out who it is but, we assume it's someone important. The zoom on my camera isn't strong enough to get a clear shot of it, but we could see it with the binoculars that Mark brought along.
Tomorrow we continue on to sunny Phoenix, AZ. We will be spending two nights there so that we can recuperate after having driven 1,100 miles in two days.
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