BACK EAST TRIP, PART 2 ~~ DAY 3, MAY 31 ~~ DAY 4, JUNE 01

BACK EAST TRIP, PART 2

Last week's blog took us through the first two days of our journey back East. Join us in today's blog as we continue on our trip from Washington to Florida.

DAY 3 -- MAY 31

On this day we travelled from Kingman, AZ to El Paso, TX. The day before we had said goodbye to the high desert of Nevada, passing over the High Desert Summit at 6,280 feet. Having driven southward through the entire length of Nevada, then turning eastward in Arizona, we finally found ourselves in the lower elevations of the Southwest. The terrain here was more like what you think of when you hear the word "desert." The vegetation consisted mostly of various kinds of cacti, and the huge mountains gave way to more rolling hills, similar to what we have around Yakima. Rock formations were everywhere, so I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures out of the window.

Cactus in Arizona

Arizona rock formations

Typical Desert Scenery

Nowhere was it made more clear to us that we were entering the dry desert of the Southwest than at a rest area we stopped at in Arizona. This sign was prominently on display right beside the entrance to the ladies restrooms. I was extra careful after seeing this!

Danger!

At our lunch stop, we were joined by a friend begging for a scrap or two. I threw down a couple of corn thin crackers, but apparently he wasn't interested. From the looks of his large beak, I would guess this fellow was a Raven of some sort.

Raven?

After traveling eastward through Arizona, we came to the tiny bit of New Mexico that drops down between Arizona and Texas. It did not take us long to traverse this area, and we landed for the night in El Paso, TX. As we entered the city, I sang a song that I remembered from my younger days, "El Paso" by Marty Robbins. Luckily for us, our motel had a restaurant right in front of it, so we walked over and had a nice, relaxing dinner, plus a couple of well-deserved beers. Mr. Cardinal joined us.

The road-weary travelers

DAY 4 -- JUNE 01

We hit the road bright and early the next morning, said goodbye to El Paso and continued down the highway. At one point we came upon a strange sight and neither one of us, nor Mr. Cardinal, could figure out what it was. I guessed it was the wing of an airplane, but it didn't really look like that. We passed three of these objects before they exited off and drove across the overpass to the Interstate. I looked down towards where they were headed and it became clear what these things were.

A few miles from the overpass we could see a field of wind turbines. Then it was obvious these things we passed by were blades for a wind turbine. I know those turbines are big, but I never would have guessed the blades would be THAT big!


Linda and I both shared the driving chores on this trip, and believe me, it was a chore. We did have  a lot of fun along the way, but it was a very long haul. Mr. Cardinal did his part by lifting our spirits up whenever he could.

One interesting thing that we encountered in Texas was a border patrol checkpoint. You wouldn't think they would have these on an Interstate, but we ran into one on I-10 near Sierra Blanca, TX. There was a huge shelter across the entire Interstate, with armed guards everywhere. We had to stop our car and state that we were indeed citizens of the United States. Only then were we allowed to continue on. It was a strange feeling.

Mid-afternoon in our trek across Texas we made a pit-stop for gas and restrooms and came upon this cute little fellow below. Mr. Cardinal wanted to stay and visit for a spell, but we were on a mission and so we stayed only long enough to get a picture.

Even though the speed limit in the western part of Texas was 80 MPH, it took us all day to go about two-thirds of the way across the state. We went around San Antonio and stopped for the night in New Braunfels, TX. It was here that I knew for sure I was in the South because I saw my first American Cockroach! I spied him running across the parking lot of our motel, and he was really booking it, too. Thankfully, he was the only one I saw the entire trip, because those things are my nemesis.


At this point we are two-thirds of the way through our trip and are thoroughly tired of driving, but we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Join us again next week, when the blog takes us to our arrival at our first destination.