Day 24 Saturday, July 20, 2013

Today we traveled from Santa Rosa, NM to a little place called Sanderson, TX. We covered just over 400 miles. We started the day off with a homemade bagel and egg deluxe and coffee. The temperature was rising early in the day at our site. It was climbing close to 30C even before we got on the road. It was somewhere in the mid-20’s in Sanderson, TX.

Our site in Santa Rosa Lake State Park.

Views near our site.

A little friend in the park.

We raced a train across New Mexico and even with a headwind and the truck camper sitting high, we won! Julie notes “The songs playing on iTunes seemed to be complimentary to our journey again. Cat Stevens was singing ‘I listen to the wind, to the wind…’ and we did too as we drove into it. I am thinking Brad is glad now that I talked him out of buying that giant long horn steer hood ornament. I argued on the basis of wind resistance, not style (’cause nothing says style like horns or other bull parts on your truck) and he agreed.”

We stopped in Roswell, NM to visit with family but we couldn’t find them. Julie notes “That was the gas station attendant I think, photo bombing our picture. Finally someone who’s head is bigger than Brad’s!”

Julie notes “Even these Roswell children couldn’t help us find our relatives. They were polite but on the quiet side.”

Running with the bulls in Roswell, NM. Julie notes “Brad said as we left the campground, ‘We have to hit some banks today. I thought he meant Bonnie and Clyde style. The long arm of the law, and his bull, chased me down.”

Lunch on the road compliments of the sidekick. Julie notes “Is that still spinach in my teeth from the other day?”

After lunch, we headed on through West Texas. It is a barren, desolate place filled with oil wells, and a lot of industrial traffic. Not the prettiest scenery in the west, that’s for sure. Julie notes “Well any scenery is hard to compare to the lovely scenery he sees sitting next to him every day (above pictures being the exception). No trip is without its interesting moments. Earlier as we were driving by a big horse ranch of NM, ‘We’re going to Ride Forever, can’t keep horsemen in a cage…’ a song by Paul Gross (one of mom’s favourite eye candy). We passed other ranches with interesting names such as ‘Mile High Ranch’ – we were not tempted to join that club as the cactus are big and prickly here and Brad’s pretty sure he saw a tarantula on the highway. ‘The Roadrunner Ranch’ – we saw neither feather nor fur of the fast little Roadrunner nor his arch nemesis Wile E Coyote, but for some reason Brad spent the next few hours on the lookout for an Acme store to buy gadgets and gizmos and paint that makes rocks turn into tunnels. And of course there was the ‘4Dinkus Ranch’. We’re pretty sure we know some people who could work there. ”

…onward to McAllen, TX tomorrow, over and out, the muleskinner and his sidekick – thanks for all the comments, we love reading them. Keep them coming.

Julie notes “Ok get the scary deedah, doodoo … music going in your head for this crazy coincidence. Way back in the day when video clips were first being shared via the magic of email, there was one with a female alien walking out on stage singing and giant disco ball falls on her. She was singing ‘I Will Survive’ and get ready again with the scary music … Guess what song was playing as we pulled up to the Roswell gas station. If you guessed the Chantay Savage version of ‘I Will Survive’ you would be correct and probably totally freaked out!!! I am wearing my aluminum foil hat for the rest of the day until I am sure we are far enough away that they can’t read my thoughts. Or this blog. ‘Cause then THEY’LL KNOW I’m on to them!!!”