We spend a quick night in Van Horn, Texas, don't even unhook our car, jump up the next morning and get ready to take on more of Texas, we only have a little more than 100 miles to go
But first we must get past El Paso, the sign says no trucks in the left lane for 25 miles, and we can see why, for 25 miles the city unfolds next to the freeway
El Paso is the largest U.S. city on the Mexican Border, and Juarez, is the largest Mexican city on the border, together they have over 2 million people in them
This is one of 5 boots places that I saw in El Paso, must be the place to get them
The border to Juarez is in the middle of downtown, Juarez is the most violent border town in Mexico, since last Friday 5 U.S. citizens had been killed there, the most ever
The is downtown El Paso, you can see the haze, look to your right and you will see a smoke stack spewing out something into the air
It just keeps going on for miles and miles, El Paso celebrates their Thanksgiving in April, that is when a group of people crossed the Rio Grande and had a Thanksgiving in 1598, 23 years before the pilgrims
More smoke stacks at the edge of town, didn't we take an Asarco smoke stake down in Tacoma because it was too toxic? I think they are tougher in Texas
Last thing we see as we leave Texas, the Texas star, I think it was all the billboards that we saw that didn't make us feel so welcome, the ones that said, "Welcome, Wintering Texans"
But here we are in New Mexico, they have free Wi Fi, free coffee, I feel Welcomed
Until I see the free Rattlesnakes
I don't feel so welcome now, what in the world am I doing here?
Gracie won't go on the rocks, it's just too unlady like for her
She wants to drag me in to rattlesnake country, but I am adamant, Gracie doesn't go for another 3 rest stops, no grass, she becomes a camel, Timmy however goes on the cactus, no problem, those girlie girl dogs are so high maintenance
I wonder if New Mexico was enchanted before or after Shirley McLaine came to live there?
First thing we have to do is go through the border patrol checkpoint, you know New Mexico has the smallest Mexico border but through political reasons managed to have the Border Patrol Training Facility put there, and not in Texas, where the majority of the border patrol are
They are not as serious as in Texas, ask us if we are citizens of the U.S. and that's it, no walk around with the dogs or anything
New Mexico looks a lot like Texas, but we only have less than 100 miles to go through it
We are over 4800 feet right now, the mountains look like the Smokies here
The roads are bad and Gracie is impossible, Timmy tries to calm her down
I couldn't get any pictures of her diving under the steering wheel, as I was pulling her out
Just as we think we are going to have to lock Gracie up in one of the bathrooms, we reach Arizona and stop in Benson, not far from Tucson, we will be refreshed when we get to Yuma
Another fact check: San Diego is the largest US city on the Mexican border.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you weren't able to go further north in New Mexico. It definitely feels different from Texas up there. I loved living in Albuquerque.
San Diego????? Isn't that kind of stretching the on the border, last time I was there it was a little ways from the border, El Paso has the border in it's downtown, come on library cub, check your facts again.
ReplyDeletePatty Murray won, so it's still a democracy,so let's vote for biggest US city on the border. I vote for El Paso. San Diego has a couple of cities between it and Baja, like National City and some others I can't think of right now.I'm so relieved that Gracie finally got some relief, too. It's hard to be a girly girl sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThe city of San Diego has a weird shape. The downtown area is about 15 miles from the border, but the city does have a border with Mexico, about 10 miles long. See the maps at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_diego or http://www.sandiego.gov/neighborhoodmaps/. (I only know this because I lived there.)
ReplyDeleteAs much as I don't miss Mesa, Arizona, I have to admit the state flag, is the best looking of all the state flags. Factoid: for my first tattoo, I almost had the flag done on my ankle, but opted for a palm tree instead. Hey, seen any roadrunners?
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