Day #7: Drive, drive, drive

Today was quite uneventful, and we like it that way on driving days!

We got packed up and out of the hotel by 8am, which was pretty good!  I had originally planned to make it all the way to Sonora, TX tonight, but Steve did the math and decided I must have been high when I planned that leg of the trip, because we wouldn’t get in until 3am!  So, once in the car, I dutifully cancelled our hotel in Sonora.

I'm thinking they're done in the car...

Steve also had his own personal agenda as he really wanted to see Marfa Texas and the Marfa Lights (ghostly lights that appear at dusk and continue until the morning which no one can explain)  So, we decided to head to Marfa and have a bit more of a drive tomorrow to make it the rest of the way to Austin…which wouldn’t be too bad.

Storms...in the desert??

Well, we hit some pretty nasty storms in El Paso.  That combined with construction really slowed us down.  It became obvious as the evening wore on that even Marfa wasn’t going to be attainable tonight.  We ended up stopping at a Ramada Inn in tiny Van Horn around 10pm.

Storms notwithstanding, the drive was pretty nice.  We drove through California, Arizona, New Mexico, and a bit into Texas.  El Paso was pretty cool.  In between the rainstorms, we could see a row of lights in the distance (it was night by then) which we think was the Mexico border.  It was as close to Mexico as we were going to get!

As for food, our stops were not very memorable today as we stopped at a Subway for lunch and McDonalds for dinner.  It’s very typical road-tripping food.  I’m looking forward to much better fare once in Austin!