Today was a planned travel day. We said we would drive through all of Texas and we made it to the far western side today where we are flirting with another time change, but staying just east of it. We hit the road at 8:45 and 57 degrees under clear blue skies, for the first time since we left Florida, and hopped right onto I-10.

And as we left San Antonio, we entered the Texas Hill Country once again. They call it hill country, and it is certainly not as flat as Florida or even the east coast of Texas, but it seems to me that in Texas they call small changes in elevation hills and they call hills mountains. The road was straight and flat, thanks to the fact that they built it by cutting through the bumps in the topography rather than going around them. This provides for an interesting view of what the land actually looks like below the surface. It is primarily limestone of the pinkish and sometimes yellowish hues in striations of varying tones. It's pretty to look at and provides for some interesting focal points for the eye.

As we drove through Texas, it seems clear to me that the people here are proud of their state. We have seen signs that say "Don’t mess with Texas" everywhere, even on the interstate. The Lone Star seems to be attached to almost everything…buildings, masonry, bridges, and anything semi-permanent. And the state flag…it flies everywhere. Sometimes it is below the US flag and often times it flies alone. I admire that. It says something about the people who live here. Oh, and I should mention cowboy hats. Perhaps the times of JR Ewing are long forgotten. The only hats I have seen were on the heads of Texas Rangers.

As we made our way west, Junction, TX seemed to be the gateway into the desert where we began to see fewer trees, more scrub, and mesas with light green ground cover growing part way up the sides, sage growing out of the rocks, and a crown of yellow stone up near the top. The further west we went the dryer the ground appeared. At first it had a light green cover. That gave way to yellow grass and finally to rocky sand, tan in color, with cacti and sage bushes, some silver green and others brown as they were dead or dying. I expected to see a lot of oil wells, but we only saw a few pumps, some hammering up and down in their now familiar rhythmic motion and others sitting still, abandoned and rusting away. Then the surprise…hundreds and hundreds of wind turbines, stretching for miles, on the desert floor and on top of mesas and plateaus. They stood stately and still, waiting for a breeze to come along and set their graceful dance in motion.

We drove through the town of Ft. Stockton and I wondered if this might not have been   original to the history of the old west when the cavalry came to protect the pioneers. My research tells me that I was almost right. It was first manned by Company H of the First US Infantry for the protection of the freight wagon trains, and later by the 9th Cavalry to protect  the early settlers from Indian Hostility.

We took a side trip south of I-10 into the “mountains” and on our way back we saw a real live roadrunner. It was running across the road in front of our car. He was way to fast for a photo op, but I was able to see that he was quite large and kind of a silver blue in color. Perhaps he was not as cute as the cartoon, but he was the real thing!

We reached our destination, Van Horn, TX around 5 PM and checked into a seedy hotel in what is an old run-down town. Our hotel is across the street from the railroad tracks and it seems there is a train going through about every 10 minutes. Perhaps a little sleep aid will be in order tonight.  

Tomorrow, Carlsbad Caverns.