Well. We had an interesting nite in our cheapie "Motel 6" in Phoenix. First let me say that I applaud the approach of Motel 6: get rid of all of the things in a hotel room that you don't NEED - and bring down the price. Those things include: the little box of tissues in the bathroom, the shampoo and conditioner that nobody uses (at least *we* always prefer to use the ones we bring - with our own brands) - and even a lid on the toilet (seat included - no lid). We got a GREAT price on the Motel 6. But it was simultaneously (and amazingly) near: The Airport, The Train Tracks, AND 12-lane-wide Interstate 10 and they were ALL busy ALL night. It was actually *funny* because the office had a sign warning of "Planes, trains, and automobiles" and the noise wasn't a problem - except at about 9PM when a train came thru and - I swear - blew it's horn for at least 60 seconds *straight*. Kathy and I looked at each other and smiled when it started - then laughed as it continued, then couldn't believe it as it just *KEPT GOING*. Not "toot toot toot" - one *continuous* blast. We thot we were in a Ben Stiller movie or something. Anyway. Even with that said, we'd still recommend "Motel 6's" for people who only want to pay for a clean, reasonable hotel room - rather than a bunch of stuff they won't really use.
Anyway. Got packed up and on the road - and kept an eye out for somewhere to stop and get coffee for Kathy (I'd promised to stop somewhere since the room *also* doesn't include coffee-makers in the room). We jockey'd with the *substantial* big-truck traffic on I-10: frustrating since there were only 2 lanes and usually some truck would be trying to pass another truck - and going perhaps *1* MPH faster - so it wound up blocking both lanes - which was *particularly* frustrating on a highway which is *marked* for 75MPH. Sigh. No "road rage" HERE.
Finally found an exit with a mini-mart gas station so I could top off the gas - and Kathy could get some coffee - annnnd so that *somebody* (male) could get an iced cinnamon bun (total junk food, but I like them). No big deal, except that we noticed that our right-rear tire was quite low. Worry! But the station had an "air" station, so we filled the tire - and decided to *watch* it as we did some *serious* driving today. No problems: it's still inflated, but we'll still keep an eye out.
On to Tucson and Saguaro National Park. Ummm... Cactus. BIG Cactus:
LOTS of cactus. Actually, I thot this was cute: it looks like the cactus is "directing" the orchestra of the other plants:
Did I mention: LOTS of cactus?:
Kathy, of course, saw the beauty of the diversity of the desert plants.
But I tired of it quickly. LOTS of cactus.So we set Leila for "Carlsbad Caverns" and hit I-10 again to try to really put some miles on today. We cruised along nicely at 80 (finally getting out of the truck traffic) and just enjoying watching the desert slide by. We *think* we passed the "airliner store-yard" between Phoenix and Tucson: GOBS of airliners parked out in the desert - not that far off I-10.
And we finally stopped for lunch at about 2PM - at a non-chain restaurant. Good food - home-made green chile stew and enchilada's. And we noticed as we were having lunch - that we got lucky again: the gas station across the street was just changing their prices (we're told that most stations change their prices on Thursdays - to prepare for the weekend) - to $2.29/gallon. And we had waited to fill up until *after* lunch - so we got a tankful of cheap gas (how ironic that I think that $2.29 is *cheap*) - and Kathy took over for a few hours of driving as I got onto the Aircard and set up our hotel in Carlsbad for the night.
We crossed the Continental Divide again - once we got into New Mexico again.
We got stopped by Border Control just after we slipped thru the little "ear" of New Mexico - down into Texas - rather close to the Mexican border. No. Really. Leila had us down off I-10 and they have a Border Control facility set up stopping *all* vehicles. We stopped and chatted a bit with the nice agent - until she was satisfied that we were US Citizens and that our van only had *2* people in it.
And, as we gently curved thru the extreme west of Texas - to eventually re-enter New Mexico - I realized that we were - again - in an area where there were NO lights - for a LONG LONG way. So we stopped "Monroe", turned off the lights, and looked up for a moment or two. It was only a moment or two - because it was COLD!!! (45 degrees!) - but it was - again - an amazing display of stars - reminding us that there are still VAST areas where there *aren't* people.
We started a new book on CD - a romantic novel - and rolled up the miles - finally arriving at Carlsbad, NM - ready to go caving tomorrow. We did about 9 hours of driving today and rolled up about 600 miles. Kudo's to both Monroe and Leila.
We crossed the 8000-mile mark today: 8115 miles so far.
Life is good - and I am pointedly NOT looking at what the stock market did to us today (smile).
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