Trip of a Lifetime-Observations on State Differences...so far

I forget that southern California is a desert.  Driving the Hwy 8 route out of the state, very definitely reminded me of this fact.  As I mentioned before, the landscape was layered with boulders upon boulders.  However when we entered Arizona, the boulders all but vanished.  Replaced by the "sentry" cactus previously mentioned in my 1st posting. The gas prices went down about 35 cents from best Cali price.  That was good news to be sure.  The journey thru southern Arizona was pretty unremarkable.  Only large city was Tucsan.  Otherwise nothing.

When we entered New Mexico the landscape initially stayed the same.  So it was hard to note any difference from sate to state.  One thing I got a laugh from were the warning signs along the N.M. freeway.  They said: "Dust storms may exisit".  Actually they definatley exist, just remains to be seen if they may happen while driving down the road. LOL LOL  I wonder what state offical came up with that statement.  New Mexico finally started to get  some changes in the landscape, some little little hills. Not always completely flat. In Deming we spent the night.  Next morning went to my sister's father's grave along with his parents.  They passed 2 & 3 years after he did.  The strange thing, Bersabe died 1 year exactly to the day after her husband. How amazing.  My mom said that she was very devoted to Jose, so who knows....

We had to go south into Texas, then sort of "u-turn" in El Paso up to Carlsbad, N.M. I noticed that the freeways in Texas seem to be of a rough texture as compared to Arizona and California freeways. Those are usually smooth surfaced.  We tried to think of a reason for this.   Only reason I could think of was maybe Texas has more rain storms and it's to keep better traction during those thunderstorms.  Anyone have ideas about this? 



There were some pretty run down building along the back country roads.  Seemed like people just gave up.  The buildings stand as a silent testament to the attempt those hardy people made to tame the desert.   

I tried to buy some groceries at this store, but, go figure, no one was there. ;-)

More stuff to follow....