The last leg of the trip was not bad at all. We were hyped up about getting to NM today so that made things more interesting! As we left our hotel in Midland, TX (yes.... boyhood home of G.W.) I noticed that we had been surrounded all night by oil wells! I had forgotten how many of them you see from I-10 in west Texas. At times it smells like you are driving around a service station!!
It was good to get further west and begin to see mountains after so many hours of flat, desert landscape. Driving along across TX I tried to imagine how it would have been to do it by covered wagon. It would definitely have taken much longer than zipping along in the Prius at 70-75! (The speed limit is 80 in much of west Texas.) Don't think I would have made a very good pioneer. But it did make me admire their courage and fortitude even more.
Our departure was earlier than we had planned because we had the good fortune of getting a call from our Mozambican son early this morning. So we just got up and got going earlier, after going first to the exercise room.
Yesterday we ended our trip just as the Duke/Loyola game finished. I almost felt sorry for Loyola but was glad that the Blue Devils ended 2008 with such a decisive win. Today there were no games that interested us so we enjoyed listening to several presidential historians on POTUS and C-Span as well as a rerun of a Brookings presentation with three current and former press secretaries. It made the time go by fast. We are enjoying our Christmas present to one another – satellite radio. It’s nice not to have to constantly find a good station that will come in…. especially around this area where there is mostly twangy western music (which I like in small doses) and televangelists (which I don’t like even in small doses!)
Since we gained another hour this morning we ended up getting to El Paso sooner than we had planned. We tried to go to a restaurant on the airport road that we knew about but it was closed for the holiday. Across from it was a small, local Mexican restaurant so we decided to take a chance on it. That turned out to be a very good decision. It was friendly and the food was great. The waiter had gone to the same high school as Dan and they had fun talking about Las Cruces. We also had some interesting conversation with the owner about the economy, politics (of course) and other topics of mutual interest.
I was reminded of how often these types of conversations happen out here. We are always running into someone we know or someone who just wants to chat. It's definitely a small town atmosphere. It was wonderful to have enchiladas made with real chili sauce, too --- not that tomato stuff we get back east. Although I'm usually not much on buffets, this one was good --- wonderful homemade soup with big chunks of veggies, chicken in mole sauce, tacos, enchiladas, taquitoes, veggies, beans, rice, etc. Dan even hit the dessert section.
We arrived at our house around 2, unloaded, put things away and took a nap! We decided that we were really too tired and too full to go out for dinner tonight so we went to the grocery store instead. Now I have no excuse for not cooking. Nevertheless we will probably make our trip out to Mesilla tomorrow to have that special dinner.
Tried to call "our" fitness center from last year but the phone has been disconnected. We fear that they have gone out of business. We liked it because it was small and intimate without too much fancy equipment. Guess we'll check tomorrow to see what's happened and where else we may be able to get "snow bird" rates.I'm sure we'll sleep well tonight. It will be nice not to have hundreds of miles of travel in front of us tomorrow, too.
It was good to get further west and begin to see mountains after so many hours of flat, desert landscape. Driving along across TX I tried to imagine how it would have been to do it by covered wagon. It would definitely have taken much longer than zipping along in the Prius at 70-75! (The speed limit is 80 in much of west Texas.) Don't think I would have made a very good pioneer. But it did make me admire their courage and fortitude even more.
Our departure was earlier than we had planned because we had the good fortune of getting a call from our Mozambican son early this morning. So we just got up and got going earlier, after going first to the exercise room.
Yesterday we ended our trip just as the Duke/Loyola game finished. I almost felt sorry for Loyola but was glad that the Blue Devils ended 2008 with such a decisive win. Today there were no games that interested us so we enjoyed listening to several presidential historians on POTUS and C-Span as well as a rerun of a Brookings presentation with three current and former press secretaries. It made the time go by fast. We are enjoying our Christmas present to one another – satellite radio. It’s nice not to have to constantly find a good station that will come in…. especially around this area where there is mostly twangy western music (which I like in small doses) and televangelists (which I don’t like even in small doses!)
Since we gained another hour this morning we ended up getting to El Paso sooner than we had planned. We tried to go to a restaurant on the airport road that we knew about but it was closed for the holiday. Across from it was a small, local Mexican restaurant so we decided to take a chance on it. That turned out to be a very good decision. It was friendly and the food was great. The waiter had gone to the same high school as Dan and they had fun talking about Las Cruces. We also had some interesting conversation with the owner about the economy, politics (of course) and other topics of mutual interest.
I was reminded of how often these types of conversations happen out here. We are always running into someone we know or someone who just wants to chat. It's definitely a small town atmosphere. It was wonderful to have enchiladas made with real chili sauce, too --- not that tomato stuff we get back east. Although I'm usually not much on buffets, this one was good --- wonderful homemade soup with big chunks of veggies, chicken in mole sauce, tacos, enchiladas, taquitoes, veggies, beans, rice, etc. Dan even hit the dessert section.
We arrived at our house around 2, unloaded, put things away and took a nap! We decided that we were really too tired and too full to go out for dinner tonight so we went to the grocery store instead. Now I have no excuse for not cooking. Nevertheless we will probably make our trip out to Mesilla tomorrow to have that special dinner.
Tried to call "our" fitness center from last year but the phone has been disconnected. We fear that they have gone out of business. We liked it because it was small and intimate without too much fancy equipment. Guess we'll check tomorrow to see what's happened and where else we may be able to get "snow bird" rates.I'm sure we'll sleep well tonight. It will be nice not to have hundreds of miles of travel in front of us tomorrow, too.
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