We woke up early at our hotel in Phoenix and hit the road. Lots of hills and valleys and rocks and what have you. There's not much to write about. We drove.
...and drove.
...and drove. This was the scene we gazed upon through the windshield for seven hours. New Mexico is alright. Did you know the official state nickname is "The Land of Enchantment?" I mostly think about a cancer-ridden chemistry teacher cooking meth in the desert when I think about New Mexico, but hey, different strokes.
We camped last night at a pretty neat campsite. It was strange at first, because we pulled up (and it takes about 25 minutes to pull up, through the six-mile driveway), and we were the only people there. We dropped ten bucks in a slot to reserve a campsite for the night, and we were literally the only people there for a while - no rangers, no fellow campers, no one.
Well, okay, there were some cows, so we weren't completely alone.
Pam had me take a lot of pictures of the cows. These are the best ones.
Our campsite was on the side of a mountain, and the view was quite beautiful.
Lots of mountains and greenery in the surrounding areas.
We set up our site just in time for sunset.
Thankfully, we were once again lucky with the weather. It rained just a little bit as we were rolling through Las Cruces, but once we got to the campsite, all was dry. Aside from one or two flashes of lightning late in the night, the weather was perfect for camping.
It was a great sunset. We climbed on top of a big rock to watch it.
Contemplating the beauty.
Facebook!
Then it was time for some wine.
There was lot of vegetation around.
And lots of creepy crawlies, which we tried to avoid at all costs.
Although I tried to go into the men's bathroom, and saw the creepiest crawly...
Doesn't look that big in this, but the scorpion was huge. God bless the man who tried to relieve himself in here late at night.
That's it for the pictures, but the following 24 hours were really nothing to see.
It got dark, and we just hung out in the tent, hoping the scorpion would stay outside. Lights out seemed like it last about five minutes. Before you knew it, it was 4:30, which was wake up time, and we were on the road by 5:15, brushing our teeth and eating breakfast at the first gas station we came to.
Camping was definitely worth it. We saw some beautiful sites, we saved some money, and we got some fresh air and a good (short) night's sleep.
Today was a long day. It was driving, driving, and more driving. We drove from Las Cruces, NM, to Houston Texas. Don't ask me how many miles, I'd rather not try to remember at this point. My left leg is killing me from being cramped up all day.
But! Staying positive! We didn't get lost once. We remained optimistic even though we were cooped up. We beat most of the traffic. We experienced Texas and the true vastness of it. We followed the same truck for like three hours and hopefully freaked them out. We somehow ended up in downtown Houston accidentally but got a nice BBQ dinner while we were there and made it out without any trouble whatsoever. And we had each other to keep company, except when the person riding shotgun was asleep (which alternated every three hours or so).
And we're here in Houston by the airport. The hotel, on a scale from crackden to Hilton, is just on this side of safe, but still really crappy. Like, we're saving some money, and let me reiterate again that it's definitely not dangerously crappy or anything, but it's by far the worst hotel we've stayed at.
But! Staying positive! The internet works well. The air conditioning works (woah, totally not used to this humidity). We saved a bunch of money, money that we can now spend in New Orleans. Oh, and we're gonna freaking be in New Orleans the whole weekend. Can't wait.
So, we're over the hump. Today promised to be the worst day of the trip, driving-wise at least, but we got through it, and easily at that.
Should be a great weekend.
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