Yesterday was a moving day. I wanted to get half way to Austin. If I were traveling by myself, I might have done the whole thing in one fell swoop. Since I am traveling with mom, I decided to break it into two parts. First goal, Van Horn, TX. I had never heard of Van Horn before I started researching this leg of the journey. It is a teeny town somewhere between El Paso and Austin on I-10, just to the East of where the Central Time Zone dividing line is. But once again, I am getting ahead of myself.
It was kinda hard to leave Andy and Ethel's. They were so great. Great to mom, great to me. Sniffle. But as hard as it was, we did. Managed to get out close to my hoped for departure time. Only to find that my GPS wasn't charging. Grrr. So we went to find a Best Buy. Luckily the GPS had enough juice to get us there.
I stood in line for what seemed like forever. Both of the Geek Squad guys acted as if they were made of molasses...eventually I made it (one whole person had been in front of me) (the other Geek guy was handling some sort of large purchase...) and told the man my problem. He took the GPS, and a few minutes showed the green "Yes, I am recharging" icon on the GPS. He told me that he had reset it. "Reset it?" I said? Apparently you can hold the power button down for about 10 seconds and it resets. Well, restarts at least. Who knew? Apparently, he did. I got in the car and tested it myself and it seemed to be working correctly, so off we headed. Only an hour had been used by this side trip. Yay/grrr.
The trip was pretty smooth. We stopped for lunch (after losing an hour) at the Kranberry Restaurant somewhere in New Mexico. Nice place, decent food. I opted for an enchilada style burrito (which means that sauce was poured all over the burrito) that mom and I shared. We also got chips and salsa when we ordered from the Mexican part of the menu. When we left, mom bought postcards. We had seen a cool plant by the side of the road and asked what it was: a yucca plant! I tried to convince mom that the plural of yucca was yuccki - but she didn't buy it. Oh and we saw an actual tumbling tumbleweed!
Next stop was 100 miles into Texas. A border (huh?) patrol checkpoint (in America). At least they didn't ask everyone for their passports. They did stop every car (the trucks whizzed through without pausing, it seemed like) and glare and act tough and say "Are you and American Citizen?" "Anyone traveling with you?" (Hidden inside my butt?) I so wanted to mess with them, but I was pissed off enough about the 15 minute delay, that I didn't want to compound that by pissing them off and getting the car searched or something. I did ask the twelve year old border guard where the time changed and he shrugged. So I explained the concept to him (knowing that it was only a few miles down the road in all likelihood) and he said, "I have no idea." At least he had the decency to look sheepish about not knowing. Great! Thank you for protecting our border! Mom was equally irked. When I pointed out that this is exactly what she wanted (mom wants illegal aliens to be rooted out and sent back where they belong) she hemmed and hawed. Oh well.
We got to Van Horn and stopped at America's Best Value Inn and Suites - because we had a coupon for an inexpensive night's stay. Turns out the place will soon be changing its sign to reflect its new ownership - Whitten Inns. A new motel mogul is coming up in Texas! The desk clerk, Daniel, said that the food he had eaten from the restaurant next door was good - so mom and I headed there for dinner.
Cattle Company Restaurant was pretty busy - it was Saturday night after all - but we got a table without waiting. Our server was not optimal, but nice enough. For dinner, I ordered shrimp cocktail and half an ale roasted chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. Everything was tasty and mom and I shared it. As it was, we both got quite filled up, which is a good thing.
Back in the room, it was already late. My body clock was a bit messed up, losing two hours in one day, but I managed to sleep anyway. Today is another long travel day!
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| At least Diggs is looking towards the camera! |
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| Our lunch meal |
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| Sleeping Place |
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| Dinner |
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