Leaving New Mexico

The day after Memorial Day, we got an early start on the road to Phoenix.  We planned on a 2 day trip, so we want to get near the NM/AZ line today.  There are several routes from Carlsbad to I-10, but since we got an early start we decided to take the long (but flatter) route. 

Have I mentioned that Texas is a desolate place?  Well, New Mexico is too.  At least there were oil rigs periodically earlier in TX, NM and this portion of TX doesn't even have those!  We had several hours of driving to reach I-10, but it seemed longer than that with nothing to look look at.  We did get the 'fun' of traveling back into Central daylight time for a bit, then back again into Mountain daylight.

The most exciting part of the trip was the dust devil we saw.  Well, we saw quite a few, but one in particular was in NM near the AZ boarder. We watched in fascination across the interstate as the wind picked up dust and started swirling, then spinning, finally going as a twister on its own!  Pretty cool, unless you are driving towards it...and it starts to cross into YOUR lane...just a few hundred feet in front of you! 

Not being familiar with these buggers, we slowed down drastically and it passed in front of us with just a bit of debris hitting the bus.  We watched it dissipate just off the passenger's side doors.  Neat experience, but not sure I want to try that again.

We ended the drive for the day in Willcox, AZ.  Laundry and swimming took up the hour gained.  Pretty boring day, but they can't all be spectacular - otherwise when would you know the cool stuff was cool?

Wednesday was Relative day!