Shoulda taken a left at Albuquerque

Today was another driving day. After a tasty breakfast at Cracker Barrel (which I'm realizing is Pop's favorite place to eat while on the road) we bid Abilene adieu and began our trek through the vast emptiness that is West Texas. Did you know there are actually tumbleweeds out there? Honest to goodness tumbleweeds that skitter across highways and parking lots. Turns out they're not only in cartoons :)

The driving was a bit rough because we had a 30mph headwind all day! That kills the gas mileage! Born Frees are very aerodynamic for RVs, but every now and again, we'd catch a crosswise gust that would would wake us up and make us grip our wheels a bit tighter!

There's also a lot of cotton grown out there. The cotton fields, punctuated by giant windmills and oil drills, are actually quite beautiful. We saw a few of the cotton picking machines at work (not sure what they're called). It was pretty fascinating - being from the midwest I've never seen a machine like this before. And the most amazing thing was that they piled this cotton into enormous bales that are literally the size and shape of semi trailers!

While this country is desolate, there's something about the wide-open plains covered in scrubby trees and cacti and the distant buttes that beckons. Makes me want to get on a horse, ride toward the horizon, and go see what I can see. And I don't like horses ... I suppose it's not that I don't like them ... it's that I don't trust them. Every time I've ridden one, I've been very cognizant of the fact that if that horse wants to go somewhere I don't (or worse, wants to scrape me off on a tree), I couldn't really stop it.

Before we left this morning, I spent a good half hour plotting to see if I could find a way to take us through Roswell, NM, but alas, I couldn't do it! The ufo stories intrigue me! Guess I'll just have to add it to my list of places to visit before I die.

At a Travel America truck stop in Santa Rosa, NM, I was waiting in line to pay for our fuel, and a tall skinny cowboy looking guy walked past, talking on his cellphone. I use the word "talking" here very loosely. This guy literally sounded just like Boomhauer from King of the Hill!



I have good news! Gram is threatening to make another post - so look forward to that tomorrow!

We're in Albuquerque tonight and we'll be here till Thursday morning. Come and see us if you're around!