the trip continues (part 2)

So after running out of gas we were determined to not get into that predicament again. We had to find the nearest town to buy some cans and fill them with gas. This is what the nearest town had to offer, and I almost convinced mama to stay there just for the experience!

I wanted to have dinner here but Mama would not stop

Have you ever seen a cuter motel??

We bought two cans and filled them with gas - there was a whole process about how we were supposed to ventilate the cans, and we could not put them in the closed, hot truck, so we put them on the seats in my car back on the car carrier. We rolled down the windows on the car and were back on the road!

A little more of this...

And a few more hours of this:

There were tons of dust devils whipping up out in the desert that looked like mini tornadoes and I was dying to see a tumbleweed! Then half the sky suddenly (I mean in minutes) got black and there was a freak rain/sand storm...

Wait, the windows are down on the car! Pull over so I can roll them up! I was caught out in the strongest rain, wind, and sand while my mother laughed helplessly in the cab of the truck. I sprained my ankle jumping off the car carrier and changed my clothes in the truck.

I was never so happy to be done with Texas as we FINALLY pulled into El Paso...El Paso is really side by side (literally joining under the interstate) with Ciudad Juarez, which is a Mexican city. There were huge areas that looked like slums behind a tall fence on one side of the interstate, and then huge, brightly lit signs and commercial properties of El Paso on the other side. On the side that is the US, there is a huge Texas star set into the hillside glowing over the Mexican side:

I'm sure the Mexicans appreciate this

We zipped into New Mexico but there was nothing to see since we couldn't really leave the interstate. We stopped, exhausted for the night.

The next morning we were thrilled to head into Arizona, though we had heard that the Sonoran desert is even worse than the Texas desert. Impossible! we said....

The Arizona sign is the only color you will see for the next ten hours

You thought cacti were interesting to look at...

Until you look at them for ten hours. And then the dunes start...

There are truly times you would think you are in the Sahara - except for the border patrols everywhere and the signs every few miles that say:  Prison Area - Do not pick up hitchhikers.
Holy cats!

Even though you have done nothing wrong you get nervous when pulled over by a border patrol. We had to go through three checkpoints. At the first one we were so nervous I am sure we looked guilty of something! The first question they ask is, "Are you both citizens?" My mama was so scared she just looked at me. Yes, yes is the answer, mama!

The second question is, "What is in the truck?" For a second you wonder, do I have illegals in the truck? Might I be smuggling drugs and not know it? I held up my map and we both mumbled something about moving cross country. I am sure they thought we were idiots.

We got a call from my uncle and when we told him about the gas cans we were transporting, he made us stop and empty them into the truck. We took them out of my car and opened them up and they hissed and spurted! We had not ventilated them at all and were pulling them in 120 heat in the desert! Any friction at all could have sparked a fireball - we were delirious at this point, laughing that we could have been pulling a fiery car carrier behind us through the desert!

to be continued...