The Lower Level

Today, I drove that section of west texas that everyone talked about; the endless, vegetation-less flat part. It was not anything like the I-10 drive that occurred west of San Antonio. That’s alright though, cause the end destination was worth it. I made it to Carlsbad Caverns and had a nice time. The caverns are really cool, and I paid an extra $20 and got the “lower level” tour which involved ropes and ladders. I was glad I got there when I did cause they sort of shut down the caverns around 4 pm. 

When I left Ozona this morning, I took the main drive out of town. It was pretty cool. I didn’t know this when I arrived during the night, but my motel was down the street from the town square. They had a really neat looking city hall, Crocket museum, and a main street with an old time drug store. 

I am currently in El Paso, staying at a red roof inn. Its amazing driving in to El Paso from Carlsbad cause even though it’s a straight shot, there is nothing on the road.  And I mean nothing. Then I got into El Paso, and came around to the hotel district, which sits above I-10 on a hill, and as far as the eye can see its just lights from houses. It’s just interesting to go from nothingness to endless sea of houses. 

I am going to look forward to actually staying put for a few days when I get to Las Vegas. Next is Phoenix though. I will spend a couple days there, after which I’ll hit up the Grand Canyon, followed by sin city. 

I want to give credit to George H. W and George W before signing off on my blog for the evening. I would think it difficult for anyone who lives in West Texas to get elected governor much less President. I didnt make it up to Crawford to see the Ranch, but there is not a whole lot going on in West Texas. 

Now that i am sort of on the subject of west texas, I do want to make one observation. Some one please explain how it makes any sense to try to grow anything in the desert. I mean its dry and sandy and windy. Going across, i saw them watering vast fields that are literally in the desert. I mean this isn't the 1880's. How anyone can think its a good idea to that when water is so scare out here. Texas would easily rival California for population if it actually had water.  

Also, the whole W-Texas landscape seems to be litered with those small oil drills. Not that huge ones, but more like the 15 foot ones. I mean just thousands of them, and it looks like most of them stopped working years ago. I also saw something that was pretty cool. When i came up to this ridge line on I-10, there must have been 100's of big wind turbines. Pretty neat.

Day 2. (no attempt at a clever headline) 2-15-11

I am in Ozona, Texas, which is where they probably filmed No Country for Old Men, or got the real life story of it. The TraveLodge is a little sight for sore eyes, but I have the entire wing to myself. That is a good thing, cause I hardly slept at all the previous night due to extremely poor sound proofing. I swear I could hear every footstep, door shut, and conversation that went on. And that was even with a noise maker on. 

Several things about Texas:

1. The next time some one tells me that Houston doesn’t have any zoning laws (as if that were a good thing), I am going to tell them to go live there.  Other than the Downtown area, the rest of it sucks.
2. Didn’t make it into the heart of San Antonio, just drove around it. I would like to go back sometime and check out downtown and check out Austin just a few miles north. It does look like a pretty cool city.
3. I enjoyed driving through West Texas. I loved the scenery, openness, empty highway, and most importantly the 80 mph speed limit. I was able to go 88 most of the way.
4. Didn’t like all the road kill I saw during that stretch.

Tomorrow I would like to get to Carlsbad Caverns National Park just inside the New Mexico Border.  I have heard nothing but good things about it. 

As a side note, don’t ever speed through Western Louisiana. I counted no less than 25 cop cars on I-10 over a 90 mile stretch. I even got to see a police chase.

For those who drive I-95 north through South Carolina, you know of “South of the Border”. I am not exactly sure what it is, but it has like 40 billboards leading up to it. Well in Texas, its Bucc-ees Beaver. No you perverted minds, it’s a glorified Convenience store. Well, I was tempted with all the billboards, and also because I didn’t really know what it was, I stopped there.  If you want 30 types of jerky, then this is the place for you.  

El Numero Uno Dia (2-14-11)

I hope not to bore with trivial details, but considering all I did today was drive for 13 hours, that’s mostly what I have. The Mobile station at 90^th and Rt. 60 is closed, and the pumps at the Citgo across the street suck. Learned those the hard way. The first half of the drive was quite pleasant. I saw an amazing amount of wildlife, including a bald eagle, hawks, and ospreys, all before I had even left the County. There was no traffic and the weather was perfect, until I got near Gainesville. I just drove past the McIntosh exit when all traffic came to a standstill. It took me 30 minutes to go ½ mile at which point I utilized one of those “official use only” breaks in the guardrail to go back south to the McIntosh exit and jumped on 441. That was a smart move. What was not smart was turning on to Williston Rd to get back onto I-75, as every other person on the interstate was attempting to do that. It turns out some large truck hit the base of the Williston underpass an hour before I got there and the powers that be decided to close the entire North Bound I-75 and reroute everyone through Micinopy (maybe Café Risqué got some good business) onto 441. All three lanes of I-75 were backed up 8 miles. So that cost me an hour and a half. 

I am staying the night in Covington Louisiana. Despite the mishap around Gainesville, I made it a pretty good distance. Mark was right, I could have gone to New Orleans, if I had the desire to spend the money and the energy needed to have a good time. Maybe next time. 

Some observations, Russ lemon style:

The people in the Panhandle are both bossy and helpful. I passed one billboard that said “America, Love it or Leave”.  The very next billboard, however, advised me not to go to Hell, because it was very hot. They must know what they are talking about though, because it looks like the economy is in much better shape. I passed numerous manufactured homes being transported on the interstate up there. 

I passed a billboard for a spine institute at www.gulfcoastspine.net.  The billboard advertised “minimal intrusion into the spine”, and I thought to myself, if any group is going to touch my spine, it better be someone who has a  .com address.  .net addresses just always sound so shady. 

I was informed this morning that I used “think” rather than “thank” in my first blog post. You guys should know that I am an awful speler. 

Now excuse me while I go hit on the girl working the front desk.

The night before the big exit (2-13-11)

"You have to shoot. You are logical. You have to shoot." Yes, spending the night before my first day traveling watching the end of a star trek marathon. It's relaxing. I do not consider myself a good writer, but I want to keep everyone updated as to my whereabouts and misadventures as I travel West. So I have started myself a blog. I hope to make a blog entry once a day, but if I am unable to connect to the internet, I'll just post multiple days worth of updates when i get to a location that provides internet access. 

I am proud to say that I rechecked the flamingo website today and they had an additional deal with 25% off a stay of 4 nights. The good news is that my 4 nights in the Flamingo Hotel will now cost $147 with taxes and fees. The potential bad news is that the reviews on Expedia  have been slightly negative as to upkeep of the hotel. But for such a low price, it seems hard to go to wrong. I need to thank Mike Bielecki for helping me find such a great deal.

I hope to be out by 7 AM tomorrow morning (probably more like 8:30ish realistically ) and make it to Biloxi tomorrow evening.