We woke up really early this morning, since Cejas started howling at people in the hall at the hotel who were moving around. After trying to get the dogs settled down and back to sleep, we finally gave up and got up. It had poured down rain during the night and there were huge puddles where yesterday there was nothing. We walked the dogs and on the way back to the room, there was a little brown/reddish pit/terrier mix standing at the edge of the parking lot, ears perked up, head cocked to the side, just watching us. He didn't have a collar and when I kissed at him, he kind of startled and then ran off to the side, so he is probably a stray. Poor little guy. My heart just ached - he was probably looking at our dogs thinking how nice it would be to have a family of his own. Hopefully he will find one... I of course, had to go check on the frog - wasn't in the pool, so I figured he is ok. Didn't see any of the cats, but cats usually sleep and hide during the day. We got the car loaded up and were on the road at 8:00 on the dot! We pulled out of the parking lot and smack into a huge traffic jam - two cars had hit each other head on right in front of the hotel. So, we did a detour and managed to get on the interstate without getting lost or having an argument!
We drove through Southeast Arizona for about two hours... lots of rock formations that are beautiful, creepy, inspiring... they look like something that aliens left. We stopped at Council Rock rest area and the dogs had a break and so did we, and then we were on our way again. We were listening to the radio so we could hear any traffic alerts and when that station ran out, I hit the scan button and they were playing "Waltz Across Texas" - fitting for our adventure! The next song on was Jimmy Buffett - Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes - one of my all time favorites of his and also very appropriate for our trip. I've been listening to that song for over 27 years and it has become an old friend that gets me through some tough times. I'm still so sad to be leaving my cats... but they are in good hands with Kate and they will be fine and hopefully they can't count the hours since I've been gone.
It was raining when we left Tucson and it just got worse and worse as we went on. Henrietta was being a little mischief maker. But our travel guardian angel was watching out for us, and we didn't have any mishaps. We crossed into New Mexico and didn't even know that we were getting there so didn't get to take a picture of the welcome sign. Bob says we can get it on the way back, but he's kind of missing the point! :) We stopped for gas (in the rain still) and then I drove for about three or four hours, from the AZ/NM border to just before El Paso. I drove over the Continental Divide (missed that sign too!) and over the Texas border. We couldn't really see much of the scenery in New Mexico, just a lot of rain and clouds. Visibility was down to about half a mile or so. We drove past Las Cruces and then on into Texas. Bob took over again just before El Paso and we could see Ciudad Juarez, which is in Mexico, on the right. It is pitiful. It looks like a slum shanty town. It makes me sad to think that all of the people that are living there in deplorable conditions are doing it because that is "better." Anyway, we crossed over the Rio Grande at Las Cruces and then followed it through El Paso... and then we were on the 10 through miles and miles of Texas.
The most exciting part of our day was trying to figure out what the heck time it was. We couldn't figure out what time zone we were in... and the GPS was telling us that we would arrive at the hotel in Sonora at 7:30 - which we thought wasn't too bad, considering the bad weather that we went through that slowed us down, plus the potty/gas breaks and then a couple of breaks for the dogs. When we finally figured out where we were and what time it was, it turns out the GPS was still on PDT - not Central time... so our ETA was 9:30, not 7:30 - making it 13 hour day of driving! We realized this when we hit Van Horn, which we thought we had passed through about two hours earlier... we got to Ft. Stockton and I told Bob we should just spend the night there and then go to Brownsville/Weslaco tomorrow, and we could do the paperwork at the border on Saturday, then go back to the States, enjoy the three pools and the hot tubs at the hotel, and then cross over on Sunday... but he wanted to get to Sonora tonight, so looks like we will do the paperwork at the border tomorrow afternoon. I am always nervous about the dogs... at the hotels, and now I'm worried that they will turn us away at the border. I'm sure it will be fine... Redbeard has sent us a detailed list of what to do and Shirley and Dave have sent us info too. I still need to make reservations for hotels in Mexico, but we were going to try to figure out the route that we were taking and where we wanted to stop first... wish us luck!
The good part about driving the extra two hours tonight was that we got to watch the sunset behind us. It played off of the mountains and the rock formations and there were so many pretty colors... dazzling! And after the sun was down, we could see hundreds of stars in the sky... almost as many as we see in Akumal! I couldn't get a picture of those though... still trying to learn how to use the new camera.
Ok, off to get some sleep... we want to be up and out early - by 7:00! I'll never make it!
manana....
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