I drove from Tucson to Texas, through New Mexico, yesterday. The Sonoran Desert of Arizona is beautiful and full of unique plants like the saguaro, the ocotillo, barrel cactus, cholla cactus, and more. It is so dry there, though, that I passed several signs that said, "Brush fire danger extreme - use ash tray." It eventually becomes the Chihuahuan Desert near New Mexico and through Texas. It is even more arid, dry and hot. It is also very bleak, especially through New Mexico. I know there are beautiful places in New Mexico - I saw some when I was young - especially around the Four Corners area. However, the part of NM that I-10 cuts through is awful. It is flatter, hotter, drier and more desolate than any of the other states I've been through, including Kansas, though there are mountains in the distance, decorating the horizon. The ground is white and gray sand and dirt. There are places where the dust blows around so badly there are signs on the highway warning you to be careful, not to stop in the middle of the "travel lanes" and use your lights if visibility gets too bad. Dust devils swirl in the distance periodically. At one point the dust was so bad it looked like a thick fog rising up from the ground. There was little in the way of human habitation between the larger places like Deming and Las Cruces. Then I-10 dips into Texas. El Paso is right on the border of both New Mexico and old Mexico. Driving along I-10 through the city, I could see the fence that marks the border between the two countries. The urban sprawl of the city of Juarez extends right up to the fence or the small canyons it runs through. The houses are smaller, more colorful - often painted colors like turquoise or green - and the streets don't have the same kind of order to them. There are large business buildings and highways over there - I could see the cars zipping along them just like here. It makes El Paso seem larger than it is, as though it were really one big city, which it is not. Driving out of El Paso toward San Antonio, the scenery becomes a little less bleak though still hot and dry. There are more grasses and trees, especially cottonwoods and mesquite, and more hills and mountains that I drove through. They don't just decorate the horizon here. There were old, banged up looking trailers by themselves surrounded by rickety wooden fences. There were patches of green where someone is trying to irrigate and farm. There were small towns with truck stops and cheap hotels. I ended up in one, searching for a campground my AAA triptik promised was there. The first campground, which I thought was the only one there, was closed, so I panicked and got a room at one of almost a dozen cheap hotels. The next morning I discovered that there was another, further down the road. Oh well. I found out via Facebook that a number of old friends from my Gypsy Scholar days teaching overseas for the Univ. of MD live just outside of San Antonio. I hope to get to see a few of them! That is my goal for today - to reach San Antonio.
Note: I am having trouble working with my photographs on my very old Mac laptop, so I may end up not doing much with them until I get home and can use my PC.
Note: I am having trouble working with my photographs on my very old Mac laptop, so I may end up not doing much with them until I get home and can use my PC.