Hello dear Family and Friends,
We have moved onward, "Westward Ho!"
As you can see we went from Ft Stockton through New Mexico. The passage involved travel through the high desert of west Texas and miles and miles of scrub brush and sand. Oh, did I mention it was HOT!? Temperatures high 97!
The road west was interesting with varying scenery of rolling hills and distant mountains. It seemed to be a repeating song of rising up over a hill between small mountain tops and descending into a basin, travel across the basin, up another hill, and down again into another basin. Mile after mile until we closed in on El Paso TX.
Here the road begins to nudge closer and closer to the US and Mexico border. It got more and more filled as we closed in on El Paso. The lanes increased from two to four to six per side as we got into the city, with rapidly increasing levels of commercial buildings, offices, restaurants, motels, and other businesses. The houses spread out and begin to climb up the surrounding mountains the go along both sides of the city on both the north and south sides. The interstate curves around several times and after one turn you are looking at Juarez Mexico just a stone's throw on your left and the bustling city on the right. The differences are stark and eye opening. There is the wealth and high rises on the US side, there are small houses and the barrio on the left! Still, life is vibrant, both sides of the border, identified by a high fence, are crowded and busy.
You climb up a steady mountain side as you exit El Paso to the west, and suddenly there is a calm quiet in the number of buildings and the road settles back to two lanes.
Within several miles you are in New Mexico, approaching Las Cruces NM.
Well, our steady steed, "Adri", a 2012 Hyundai Genesis began to get a tire wobble that was starting to affect the ride and steering. It got progressively worse. Now the good girl has over 68,000 miles on her already and her shoes are original. I had the Hyundai dealer check the tires before we left and he said they were good to go.
Well, the tire wobble got worse and worse. We looked up a dealer in Las Cruces and found one. Luckily Las Cruces is a small city and we got to the dealer quickly.
They checked all the tires and one of them had a large bubble showing that the casing was separating from the main frame of the tire.
Now you know that every adventure has a glitch, no matter how much you prepare and plan. Sure enough we had ours. We decided to replace all four shoes so we wouldn't have to worry about safety and ride for the rest of the trip. The negative was that it took nearly THREE hours! And a lot of money! But security is not cheap and we did get very good tires for a very good girl! Now she runs smooth and quiet and I'm not having to worry when another tire will leave us stranded somewhere.
And, we looked on Yelp and found an OUTSTANDING Mexican restaurant. This close to the border you expect good Mexican food and sure enough it was. The restaurant is a "dive", an old drive through that the owner had bought and turn into a family business. It's called the El Jacalito in Las Cruces. It has 5 full stars on Yelp, and let me tell you it earns 5 stars from me too!
The salsa, home made of course, is the best I have ever had. I really, really like Mexican food and this place is the BEST I've ever had. I had the combo plate which had a Taco, two enchiladas and a pork dish with beans and rice, all for $6.00!!! The food was super delicious, the price right, actually it could easily have been more for the freshness and quality of the food!
Adriana had grilled chicken a la fajitas and she said it was just right!
I don't normally get carried away about food, but this is a gem, a true 5 star place. Look it up on Yelp and you'll see others comments. I totally agree. Well, it was a nice bonus to an expensive but necessary and unplanned stop in Las Cruces New Mexico.
We got on our way. The interstate in New Mexico is nicer and smoother than west Texas (hey, New Mexico, how about paving that US 285 to Carlsbad? I think the potholes and such on that terribly rough and tough road may have caused the tire damage!) We moved along nicely. West Texas speed limit on I 10 is 89 mph. New Mexico is 75. Still moves along quickly. There is a full border patrol stop early on going into New Mexico where they check every car and truck... guns, full id check, and such. The immigration issue came alive right there.
We drove through and arrived in Arizona without any more problems. The border lacks a Welcome station, in fact all the rest stops were closed. Guess it's to force the tourist to stop at the few businesses/gas stops along the road. Scenery change from high dessert to lower, hotter and sparser desert. Lots of dust devils and warnings about dust storms and low visibility. It wasn't too hot yet but there were numerous mini tornadoes/ dust devils as we drove west.
Finally got to Tucson around 6 p.m. Checked into the Air Force Inns at Davis Monthan AFB. Nice, older VOQ with 70's style furniture and set up. Gave "Adri" a nice clean up. She needed it, with all the bugs and road dust and grime. The base has a do it yourself car wash and we took our time to give her a good clean up. Then another quick Mexican dinner at the El Sur Aserdero. This one is also a "mom and pop", but it doesn't compare to El Jacalito. I'm ruined for life I think, because that food was truly memorable!
Well, we settled down for a short summer's nap nice and early local time, but because Tucson is on Pacific time, it's 3 full hours earlier than Sarasota, 2 hours earlier than Houston. So 9 here is actually 12 for us! Early to bed, early to rise makes us healthier and wiser, I hope.
Tomorrow, Tuesday we meet with Adriana's old friend from New York for a bit. Then onward to San Diego and adventures on the West Coast.
Until then,
Be safe, be happy, be good, and do great things!
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