Out of Texas

We finally fueled up and headed out of Texas. Anthony is the last city, or town, in Texas you pass through before crossing into New Mexico. We did actually cross into NM. Honest, we really did. See the sign?? It says welcome. This is where we actually crossed the Rio Grande, not much of river anymore, as it flows south from the mountains around Albuquerque. If we were to jump on I-25 headed north, we could follow it further. Alas, we parted ways in Las Cruces and continued West. New Mexico roads aren't a whole lot different from Texas, (or any where else actually) and we didn't travel a whole lot through New Mexico. Our ultimate destination was Arizona. The sign entering there also says welcome. (People are so friendly here, but that's another story, another time)!? The sun was setting again, so we decided to make an additional stop for the night in Eloy, AZ. This was outside of Casa Grande. We could have continued on, but didn't feel we had to fight the sun in our eyes and arrive Yuma in the dark and try to get setup. We opted for an early night and joined the party at the RV park in Eloy for cake and ice cream. (Halloween and a birthday to boot). A little walk with the doggies and we were all ready to turn in early. Yuma was looming on the horizon. Not long now!!

The Rio Grande and El Paso

El Paso city, on the Rio Grande. (You can almost hear the words to the old song here, huh)? There is almost 600 miles from San Antonio to El Paso. (548 according to the Texas map we picked up along the way). We are not in a real big hurry, so we stopped along the way and spent the night in an RV park outside of Balmorhea. Stopping before dark allowed us to grab a sunset picture and then a sunrise shot also. (Can you guess which is which)? I have hint for you. The one with the power pole is the sunrise. Unfortunately we couldn't move far enough right or left to get it out of view, so think of it as a marker. We headed out shortly after sunrise. The dogs had their breakfast and we had coffee. We couldn't get over the speed limit in Texas. 80 mph for cars and 65 mph for trucks and night time. We continued westward, along the Quitman Mountains. Do you see the Rio Grande?? We couldn't either. We needed to get closer to El Paso. There we got our 1st view of the Rio Grande. The center of the river is the boundry between the U.S. and Mexico. The mountains off in the distance are in Mexico. El Paso is a large industrial city, sprawled out through the valley, bordering the town of Juarez, Mexico. The Rio Grande is all that separates these two cities. Lots and lots of people live here. Lots and lots of traffic through the city. I would like to say it is the largest city on the border with Mexico, but our friend Linda was corrected when she posted this fact. Thus, I will refrain and we will move on.

Leaving San Antonio

Roads leave San Antonio every which way. West is our direction, so West we head. I-10 is a long and winding road. Not a whole lot of traffic once you get away from San Antonio. This was a relief as we motored on down the road. The Interstate road system commissioned by the Eisenhower admimistration in the late 50's and early 60's criss-crosses the U.S. in every direction. The road we travel follows through canyons cut from the rock, still baring the scars of the drill. It becomes quite long and even the puppies couldn't resist a nap.