From El Paso, Texas to Telleson, Arizona (just outside Phoenix) - January 30

We covered 442 miles on Thursday, January 30.  Traveling out of Texas, through New Mexico and into Arizona on I-10 W.

At 7 AM MST in El Paso the temperature was 35 F. When Erick & I checked out of the Holiday Inn at 8:35 AM and took I-10 W toward Las Cruses, New Mexico, it was 50 F.

Massive cattle feeding operations were in evidence along the Texas and New Mexico 

stretches of I-10 as well as pecan orchards.

Miles and miles of cattle

Pecan groves

NM-AZ border customs
 station in rear view mirror

Tourist trap

At 10:30 AM, we switched drivers at a rest stop – a chance to stretch and take a photo.

Near Lordsburg, Arizona we saw a sign for the continental divide (4585 ft).  To the west, water drains into the Pacific Ocean; to the east, into the Atlantic.

All day, in both New Mexico and Arizona, we periodically saw signs alerting drivers to potential dust storms. It was windy, but we didn't encounter any.

At around noon, Erick needed to stop and have a conference call with a client for which he needed an Internet connection. So, we stopped at the library in Bowie (boo-we), Arizona. In order not to disturb the patrons, Erick used the Internet from outside the library building. He had to contend with noises from birds in the trees, trains passing by about every 15 minutes and the sound of the wind.

The call took two hours, which gave me plenty of time to walk around Bowie a bit – a very poor town by the looks of it. One of the locals told me about a gift store nearby. I bought pecan delights (pecan bits with a delicious coating), pecan butter, and dark chocolate jalapeno fudge.

Wild petunias

By 1:40 PM, we were back on the road. At Wilcox, we stopped for a quick lunch and by 2:45 PM MST we were headed for Tucson. It was 77 F and windy. When we arrived in the Tucson area, 316 miles from El Paso, it was 81 F.

Arizona state logo

All along I-10 we saw trains like this one

An example of the decorative overpasses we saw along I-10 W 

We started seeing Saguaro cati

 

From Tucson, we continued the drive, passing through Phoenix in heavy rush hour traffic. Even using the HOV lane (high occupancy vehicles = 2 or more in the car), it was a slog. At 6:15 PM, we checked into Premier Inn – Tolleson. We were too tired of driving to go out for supper. So we had some of the fruit, cheese and salami that we keep on hand in a small cooler for such occasions.

We were a bit too early for the fair

From Fredericksburg to El Paso, Texas

It's about 500 miles from Nan & Mike's in Fredericksburg to the Holiday Inn El Paso - Sunland Park. As you'll see from the photos, the scenery changes several times over that many miles.

Nan & Mike's garden shed in Fredericksburg

Mike's nifty deer fence

We left Fredericksburg at 9 AM CST when the temperature was 19F, heading south to I-10 via US-290.

Cedar-lined US-290

Scenes from I-10 (the road that we'll continue on into California - near LA).

 

Texas has many F.M. and R.M. roads - exit sign above.
They are paved farm-to-market and ranch-to-market roads
built starting in 1949 as supportive infrastructure.

Missing is scenery between Ozona and Fort

Stockton.  At 11:15 CST, I took over driving.

The landscape was filled with mesas on both sides

of the road.  Some had windmills in operation

atop them. By Ft. Stockton the elevation was 

over 900 meters and the temperature 55F.

Decorated underpass

Happily you are spared photos of the traffic jams we encountered around El Paso because of construction on I-10.  I was driving that stretch.  We passed into the Mountain time zone before we got to El Paso.  

The next couple of photos are taken from the Holiday Inn grounds.  We arrived here around 4 PM MST.  The mountains that are visible are the Franklin Mountains.

I'm just about over my cold.  Erick is about a day behind me with his.  We put in a long day, but the driving conditions were good - including 80 mph speed limits along much of the route.  The Holiday Inn has a restaurant.  That meant we didn't have to drive to dinner.

More I-10 travel tomorrow - with a midday stop to allow Erick to teleconference with a client.