Deep in the Heart of Texas

October 3, 2008
Whew! We made it to the east side of Abilene, which is about half way across the widest portion of Texas and what sights were there to behold! We took a picture of Juarez, Mexico last night and you really can’t see anything but the lights, but that is for sure Mexico! So we went from the Canadian border and the Mexican border in one trip! We thought that was cool. For about 30 miles east of El Paso, the Rio Grande runs alongside I-10 and immediately it takes you out in the middle of nowhere and we could see Mexico for all that way just a couple miles to the south of us. We the happened upon a road block set up by the border patrol and every vehicle was stopped and this very polite border patrolman asked us our country of citizenship and of course John said “U.S” and then the border patrolman asked “Ma’am how about you, country of citizenship?” I told him “U.S.”. WTF?? We never left the U.S. and then we realized what was going on. Since that 30 mile stretch of desert bordering Mexico has no fence or barrier except for the Rio Grande, they have to make sure we weren’t sneaking anybody into the country illegally. However, we could have had a Mexican or two hidden amongst our extensive wardrobe in the back seat……But it was a little exciting for us. We crossed many miles of desert and then climbed up into the mountains of Texas, which are not as steep as the ones in New Mexico, but our ears did pop a couple of times. We then reached Pecos, Texas and were astounded at the number of oil wells pumping steadily and the oil rigs with guys drilling for more. Also noted were the number of “Help Wanted” signs and the vitality of the whole area at this point. Then we began to get into greener pastures and massive farms of cotton, sugar cane and hay. This land is completely flat and I dubbed it “the big empty” because you can see literally for 10 or 15 miles in each direction. We caught sight of some tall white structures way off in the distance and could not imagine what they could possibly be. We guessed, oil refineries??? But upon closer inspection we discovered they are windmills! Remember our trek from Yosemite to Carmel, CA and passing the windmills? Well, these are the same type but there are thousands of them for miles and miles. There is absolutely no resistance since there is not a tree in sight, so they were all turning and churning out the power. This state is doing what we all need to do, find alternative forms of energy. You will see an oil field in the foreground and windmill fields in the background, then crops and cattle and many horses and a whole bunch of big ole honking pickup trucks, brand new, most of them. We traveled over 400 miles today and we have over 7,000 miles on the Xterra. We are ready to be at home, so we are going to finish traveling across Texas tomorrow and spend the night in Shreveport, LA and then we are going to try to make Meridian, MS on Sunday evening. We can jump on U.S. 80 in Meridian which is a straight shot over to Montgomery and then to Macon via I-85/U.S. 80. John thinks we can get home on Monday, but we don’t have to be home until the 8th, which is the 30th day of our trip and the day the Post Office will burn our mail if we don’t pick it up. They gave a stern warning on our stop mail form about only being able to hold it for 30 days. I am really anxious that they will throw it away or burn it or something awful. BTW, if you stay in the Holiday Inn enough, you will get all sorts of complimentary upgrades. You ought to see our suite. It even has a ceiling fan! You gotta love it.