Trip East - Home to Houston, Day 2

May 21st, 2009
Tucson, AZ to El Paso, TX
Miles: Approx 370
Time from departure to Hotel arrival: Approx 7 1/2 Hours

We spent the night at the Hampton Inn, Tucson North. We've stayed there once before. The price was a little high for what you get. The common areas are nice, and the room is decent. But the A/C is an old-style hotel wall unit and very loud. Overall, decent accommodations, but if you find yourself in Tucson and looking for a moderate priced stay, go with the Hampton Inn, Tucson Airport instead. Beyond those two, over the past few years in Tucson we've also stayed at the Hampton Inn Tucson Mall, Windmill Inn, and Best Western Las Brisas - Airport.

We all got up before 7AM and got rolling with breakfast downstairs. Both boys were really good and ate well. Some folks at a neighboring table complimented us on our children's behavior, which was nice. The kids are usually more rambunctious at breakfast though.

After breakfast, the kids did their schoolwork.



While they did so, I went outside to get the car ready. To my surprise, it was a wet and rainy day in Tucson!



I loaded up the cart with our stuff and we got going. How about that for a load?



We got started around 9:15, and not long after my work really got busy. I had three customers with time-sensitive things going on today. So lots of phone calls, and emails from my PDA kept me busy.

Right around 11:30, we crossed into New Mexico.



For most of the drive up until lunch, it was raining. By the time we pulled off to gas up the car and make our sandwiches, it was raining hard. Then a customer called, so there I stood at a truck stop in the rain walking a customer through some paperwork. That kind of thing makes my job really fun for me -- not a joke.

New Mexico is very diverse in topography and weather. This part of Southern NM is barren and rocky without the striking red rocks and soil of other areas. The areas off I-10 are quite desolate with only two towns of any noticeable size between the border and Las Cruces.

By the time we neared Las Cruces, my work heated up again and so we spend an hour at a Starbucks so I could get some urgent issues handled. We were only an hour away from our Hotel, but this couldn't wait.

The kids' behavior was exemplary all day until this point, but they got stir-crazy in Starbucks after all that time in the van. So our ride from Las Cruces to El Paso was a bit nutty.

Here is the border into Texas. See the big star?




As you draw near to El Paso, the 10 runs right alongside the Rio Grande and thus next to the Mexican border. Immediately across the border there are some poorly built and maintained homes. The sign on the factory (US Side) is "Jesus Lives."



The town across from El Paso is Juarez, which has been a major site of strife in Mexico. A great number of murders have been committed by criminal organizations, and the Mexican government even sent military troops there to try to keep control of the city. The US State Department advised that from January 2008 to early 2009 there were an estimated 1,800 people killed in Juarez - can you fathom that number of murders? This is in a city with around 1.3M residents. That is 4+ deaths PER DAY in a city with 1/8th the population of L.A. county.

Just across our border is a dynamic story mostly unreported by a shrinking newsmedia that often repackages PR-fed stories about a politician's new dog or the behavior of a starlet. Perhaps consider a prayer for the people of Juarez tonight.

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We checked into our room at the Embassy Suites, unloaded the car, and headed out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. This is roughly similar to the Chili's chain, except they claim better ingredients. The kids were clamoring for this food as they enjoy the rolls with cinnamon butter. Denise and I both had small steaks for a good price and we all got out of there under $40 before tip. Our one mistake was ordering a small version of that fried onion thing some places call an "awesome blossom." Not enjoyable at all. It was cooked like they planned, but who wants to eat a wad of batter with imperceptible onions? Onion rings are delicious, but I have yet to have any restaurant "blossom" or "fried onion petals" that is edible.




We entered the Mountain Time Zone today, so we lost an hour. Cade couldn't adapt and was in bed for an hour before he fell asleep. Matt went to sleep fine. I'm headed there myself in a few. Good night.