The good, the bad, and the ugly

First the bad:  Last night was a bit of a challenge.  It got colder than we were expecting, with a low of 45 degrees, so we couldn't pop the top.  We made a bed for Daisy on the table next to our bed where she slept comfortably all night by herself.  Lilly wouldn't budge from the middle of our bed, and since she hadn't eaten in two days we didn't force her to move.  I woke up at 5:00 cold and wet.  Lilly had wet the bed, again.

We got the bed cleaned up and hit the road at sunrise.

Now the good:  the road out of Silver City was astonishingly beautiful.  We didn't expect it to be so scenic.  The passes were over 8,000 feet.  It was called the Geronimo Trail, and it was a small winding two lane state road with speed limits of ten miles an hour in places.   We met a very elderly European couple on bikes with panniers who had just completed the passes.   I don't know how they did it.  Truly amazing.

We drove to Las Cruces and passed miles of pecan groves.

Now the ugly:  El Paso. John and I agreed it was the most unattractive city we've seen. The best part of it was Mexico across the river and border fence.  Here's Mexico seen from El Paso:

If I lived in El Paso I would want to climb the fence and swim the Rio Grande (which, by the way, ain't so "grande" here) back to Mexico to escape El Paso.

But the Texas state hwy out of El Paso more than made up for the city. Neither of us had any idea Texas was so beautiful.  We drove by Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and wanted to see it but Vanna was especially thirsty today (strong headwind).  And gas stations are few and far between in this part of Texas, so we calculated we would run out of gas if we detoured into the park.

Here are the Guadalupe Mountains:

This was the road south of the park:

We continued on to Marfa and passed this art installation by the side of the road miles from town:

(It's not a real store, and it's in the middle of nowhere). 

Ten miles further down the road is a giant neon playboy bunny symbol.

Tonight we rest at the Thunderbird Motel, very hip and cool.  I'm washing sheets at the local laundromat while composing this. Even the laundromat here is hip; all the machines have names.

Tomorrow we explore Marfa (google "Marfa") and then head south.

One last pic.   I was NOT driving 95 mph, but more like 62mph, confirmed by John's iphone speedometer app.  That Vanna is one big fat liar!

Might be more trouble ahead. Now the speedometer isn't working at all and the steering squeaks badly.  Just means more drinks for us tonight!