Day 45-Thurs, 12 Feb 09-Stafford, AZ to Van Horn, Texas

We had a glorious night at the hotel…king-sized bed, living room, etc and I basked in the glory of a bathroom that no-one had used after being cleaned but ME! A good soak, a good sleep and all was right with the world. We had a great breakfast of waffles, eggs, hash browns, and trimmings and hit the road.
We stayed on Hwy 70 to Duncan, AZ where we picked up I-10 through New Mexico. Oh my, what a desperate town Duncan was—like so many other towns that were no doubt thriving 25-30 years ago and are now little more than a ghost town. A few small businesses try to hang on, usually a gas station and a small market but everything around them is deserted and boarded up. You would not think anyone was living in some of these places—they are so awful—but people are still in these rundown homes or more likely, mobile homes. We passed one abandoned gas station that still had an advertisement for gas at 42 cents a gallon so you can tell how long ago it was open! Duncan was the last bit of civilization (?) before the New Mexico border so we filled up and kept going.
The interstates are long, straight, filled with 18-wheelers, and desperately boring. I’m not sure why there aren’t more accidents from people simply falling asleep. Hwy 10 runs through a valley bordered on either side by mountains and once again, the cloud/sun combination made some interesting patterns.
What surprised me most was that we stayed at such high elevations for most of the trip. Gertie (GPS) and the odd sign said we were above 3700 ft elevations all day. There is no longer any sign of snow on the mountain tops, which is nice, and the first stop out of Duncan gave us a chance to peel off one layer of sweaters as the sun was so warm, in and out of the van. We were about 110 miles west of El Paso—where various highways converge—and had to make a decision on where we would be going. I opted to head back to South Padre Island for a while. The weather there is 75+ and we need to work on our tans!
At that point we were approaching Las Cruces and passing the 5-mile stretch of cattle pens that are along the highway. This is ‘modern’ cattle rearing where hundreds or often thousands of cattle are kept in huge pens until they are ready to go to the slaughter house. On the way down we gagged as we drove by and commented that the numerous houses along side these pens must belong to those who work there but the smell would HAVE to permeate everything inside the house! I’m thinking they only socialize with each other—nobody would notice the stink!
We were determined to get some more videos for our ever-growing CD of trains for Ty and one very long train had passed us earlier at a rest stop. At Sierra Blanca, NM, we saw it stopped on the track waiting for another on-coming train to pass so went in to full ‘grandparent alert’ and found an open crossing where the train would have to blow his whistle—gotta get the full experience, you know! Now, you have to imagine Wayne standing right beside the track, camera in hand, waiting for the train. I’m sure there are a few locomotive Engineers who have had a near-death experience seeing someone standing there and wondering if they are about to fulfill their own death experience! However, we got another great video and will soon have enough to send our little angel something he’s going to love! In the midst of all this excitement, Lynne had an IBS situation so missed the whole event but there’s always next time! When we spoke to him on Skype tonight, I told him we’d seen lots of trains….he asked Tim & Kim if he could go to Honey & Poppa’s to see the trains.
We drove through Sierra Blanca and it was another Duncan…perhaps worse. I think I’ll send an e-mail to President Obama (Bill, what’s his e-mail address?) and tell him to ‘come on down’ and have a look at how Small Town America is dying in this neck of the woods. It’s sad really, certainly for the people who have left but more for the people who are trying to hang on and staying. Within 10 years, these will be towns that are on the list of ‘ghost towns’ for tourists to visit.
We’ve pulled in to the KOA at Van Horn, a place we stayed last year while heading down to Big Bend National Park. The internet connection varies from ‘excellent’ to ‘very low’ so we managed a Skype call to Ty and half a call to Tim before it died. I’m getting smarter…I do my blog on Word and then copy to Blogger…I’ve lost a few before learning. Even trying to do e-mails is difficult as I get half way through and the connection dies! Very frustrating but we persevere.
It will probably take us three more days to get to S.Padre Island, unless we find something interesting along the way…it happens.
Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx