LAS CRUCES rest stop. Liked the flat landscape.
… not to mention the cat. This is the second day on a road trip I took 30 July to 05 August 2016. Dear friend and fellow writer Debra bought a house in southern Alabama, leaving her California home of forty years. Traveling in her car with her and her cat Loki across the United States was a privilege and an adventure.
Tucson, Arizona to Van Horn, Texas
July 31, 2016
442 miles
Good sleep in the Tucson motel except for Loki waking me at 2am and keeping me awake till 4am when I finally understood that her water dish was dry. I filled it. She tried to talk me into more kibble, but I said no. She accepted that and allowed me to return to sleep.
We decided to make Liquid Starbucks our breakfast as our lodging provided nothing. We drank cold brew in Benson 35 miles away. Again with lovely, friendly Arizona spirit.
I should mention that this trip was almost entirely made on the 10 freeway. We did use Garmin which perched on the dashboard, Debra’s iPhone for detours like motels and Starbucks, and Auto Club TripTics. Debra marked down the mileage at the end of the day. We kept running totals during the day so that we’d make out target mileage goals.
LAS CRUCES rest stop again. Great desert plants.
Landscape appeared much like the previous day, but the saguaro cactus begin to give way to ocotillo and palo verde.
We had fun at a fresh jerky stand where the samples filled out our foraged lunch of fruit and trail mix. Yes, I’m a fish eating vegetarian, but was entirely satisfied with my salmon and tuna jerky bits. I hesitated over the Python and gator, but I didn’t mind passing them by in the end.
Loki was much better behaved today, only fussing once when she wanted more than one barbecue potato chip and again when we drove off with her car door partially ajar. Her tantrums sometimes made us laugh. When her fussing turned lawn mower loud, we knew it was time to pay attention.
Last photo at the LAS CRUCES rest stop
We crossed the New Mexico border and encountered a splatter of rain that soon ended. I believe we were in New Mexico for only about three hours, including fifteen minutes spent at this lovely Las Cruces rest spot voted best in 1992. You probably noticed all my photos in this post were taken there. See the mammoth metal sculpture of a roadrunner!
Crossing into Texas took us through a several miles long security corridor between the two states. El Paso is a large city that took awhile to pass; we travelled on the loop around the city. Not much in the way of towns or landscape after that till we landed in Van Horn. Texas accents are thick here. We are now on Central Time, lost two hours in one day, and both time zones crossed in Texas.
More Texas tomorrow!
Trip report respectfully submitted by,
Michelle K
Michelle Knowlden writes... 
Love the memory; made me laugh out loud. Loki was absolutely too much. She carried on so much she was practically talking. I swear I heard her say “No!” a few times, and “Help!”