Home is Where we Hook-up

I’m looking at the Atlas and flipping through my scribbles of the first days of the trip, trying to remember if we even stopped in New Mexico after that rock-shop. If we did it was an uneventful and short stop, for fuel maybe. There were long stretches of highway that I kept myself amused by the fact that even in the middle of nowhere, I had an uninterrupted internet connection. I’m one of those people that can not read on car trips, for the risk of car sickness. Browsing the internet was no exception, but I could check mail, chat with Sherryl and show her live web-cam of her brother driving across the country, do mapquest, research upcoming small towns on Roadside America for weird and wacky things to see.

This is what I was doing when we entered El Paso, a part of Texas I had never been to before. Casual glances confirmed the desert highway we’d been on had now turned into full blown freeway, and though I was interested in the strange cluster of shacks on the other side of the little muddy river to my right I didn’t comprehend just exactly whose backyards I was looking into. Finally Keith helps me along with my concentration (or lack thereof) and says,

“You can just tell you are looking into Mexico, at Mexican houses there, can’t you!”

His words sunk in, sorry to say – slowly, and then I erupted,

“THAT’S Mexico???? Right THERE!!!”

“Yes,” he smirks back, “Thaaaat’s Mexico – right there!”

I quickly grabbed the Atlas and located Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Right on the other side of…

“Oh, my God – that means – That’s The Rio Grande!!! THAT’s the Rio Grande???”

Hmmm, somehow I just expected something of a more magnificent river, not a little muddy creek would be what creates the border of U.S. and Mexico. Regardless that the ole’ Rio Grande doesn’t seem so Grande at all, I became VERY excited about being so near to Mexico, and couldn’t wait until we were able to cross the border in the next few days.

From El Paso, TX we would drive another four hours that day. I continued surfing the net, googling RV parks in the distance and chatting with Sherryl. I was trying to put the web-cam in position for her to see the sunset that Keith and I were enjoying as we drove down highway 90 towards Alpine – our nights destination. Keith says

“Did you see that building? That said Prada. They have Prada out here?”

Unfortunately, I missed it, but I believed him and Sherryl and I both quickly googled “Prada Marfa, Tx.” Try it for yourself, you’ll get a laugh!