Trapped in Texas

Well, woke to 23 degrees today and frozen waterlines. Ron says this is cause for divorce, taking him away from a sunny 80 in Palm Springs into this. We are 172 miles from San Antonio and I 10 is still closed for 250 miles. If you are caught on it, you get a citation - ticket. We have about 500 miles to get to Mission, where we leave for our Mexican Caravan Saturday. We hope to get out of here Thursday.
The farmers aren't worried because the cotton crop is in and as long as the cows get food and water they'll be fine.
There are trucks everywhere, even stuck on the road shoulders. Saw 1 trying to pull the other out of the frozen snow and all that was pulled off was his back bumper. Apparently he'll need a wrecker and in this 'inclement weather' the charge is $1200.00. This is the parking lot of the Super 8 Motel, filled with trucks beside the sign saying No Truck Parking and lined up down the road. We're in their RV Park across the road. Fortunately Ron got the sattelite working even though we're getting far away from Canada, and enjoyed the Canucks game last night. Time for reading and sewing today.

Delay in Texas

Surprise today. Woke to 25 degrees and headed east at 8:20.
There was a skiff of powdery snow on the side of the road. Got 43 miles to Sonora and by then it was heavier and icing over. Starting to look ugly. We found that I 10 East was closed, so we had to backtrack to the campground and here we are for the day and just 1 night, we hope.
The truck stop is full, the hotel rooms are sold out, the town has opened the community hall to stranded travellers, and about 70 big rigs are parked in the motel parking lot. There is a huge storm going through the middle of Texas and we're smack in the middle of it. No wheels turning around here today. Here we are stopped behind the stop sign.

Texas

Our RV Park gave us a buy one, get one free coupon for breakfast at the Petro TA Truck Plaza. I made my own small waffle, which was shaped like Texas and also enjoyed some hot pepper soup - had a hint of chilies in it. It's Martin Luther King Day here, honoring him for his work to achieve racial equality. We're close to the Rio Grande, with Mexico on the other side, and there's Border Patrol vehicles every few miles. We're heading straight East in I10 into the middle of Texas. West Texas is flat now . What used to be a rich hunting ground of buffalo, wild turkeys and waterfowl for the American Indians, and ranchland after the Civil War, has had most water springs deferred to irrigation and is now prairie grass, yucca and greasedwood. Very dry and arrid. By noon, we are following the Texas Mountain Trail. We're going past flat topped hills, mesas, that look like they were all levelled off. Saw some windmills like they have in Palm Springs. These generate enough electricity for 30,000 home using 107 wind turbines. It's the Southwest Mesa Wind Project, one of the world's largest and most productive wind power projects. Cold, even saw frost on the cactus.
We got to Ozona, about 350 miles into Texas to overnight.

A Large Roadrunner

We woke to 22 degrees outside this morning but watched the sunrise and waited to warm up after running 2 heaters all night. We drove east through Arizona until we entered New Mexico at 10 a.m. Flat land as far as the eye can see, rimmed away in the distance with foothills, of which many are shaped like little pyramids. Saw 5 cows once and the pale yellow grassland and sand goes forever.
New Mexico is know for ancient pueblos, the dwellings carved in rock cliffs the early American Indians lived in, adobe architecture, red rock cliffs and ristas, the colorful strings of sun dried Chile peppers draped over doorways to ward off evil, welcome visitors and alert guests to the fiery food served there. We crossed the Continental Divide, and the Rio Grande River which was wide and shallow with sand bars. Saw this roadrunner sculpture, which was about 20 feet high, at a rest stop before
Las Cruces, the only significant town we went through. It means there was a little forest of crosses marking the graves of a caravan ambushed by Mescalero Apaches and became a major supply point in the 1840's for mining and the forts that protected the trade routes to Sante Fe and points west. Entered Texas by 2 p.m., went through El Paso which stretched 24 miles and stopped at the Mission RV Park for the night.

Arizona

Woke up to 21 outside and 48 inside despite having a heater running all night long. We are wondering if we are going in the wrong direction after our sun and swimming weather for the past 2 months.
Anyway, off we went with sunshine, into the flat land of Arizona. The road is straight as far as the eye can see, surrounding by foothills, (they call them mountains) interesting names - Dome Rock, New Water, Eagle Tail, Bighorn and Gila Bend Mountains. I can just image the Indians or people coming across the country by covered wagon seeing these things and naming the area.
Went through Phoenix which looked modern and Tuscan, looked 40 - 50 years old and not renovated.
East California and west Arizona have Ocotillo cactus, which look like a bunch of dried
sticks 6 feet tall, but become green and have red flowers on the tips in bloom. Next 100 miles we saw Saguaro cactus which grow 30 - 40, even 50 feet,and can live for more than 200 years. Here they are with their 'human like' shape. They only grow in 3 places: southern Arizona, in California along the Colorado River and in the Sonora state of Mexico. It's blossom, the state flower, appears in May and June. Native American Indians used the fruit for food and used it for beverages also.
Arrived in Benson, 20 miles east of Tuscan and parked at our AOR park for the night.

Driving in a Sand Storm

Amazing weather. We left Desert Hot Springs Friday, Jan 12 at 49 degrees, in sun but very cold and new snow on the mountains, down quite low. It was even snowing in Banning west of here.We're headed east on I10 to Texas for our Mexico trip. We left California, crossed the Colorado River into Arizona and fueled up at Ehrenberg Flying J Plaza, $178.00. Sounds high but our 'hotel' bills are nothing. Very windy - Ron was really hanging onto the steering wheel. An hour later, we got into a hail storm with zero visibility for 15 miinutes and it built some 'snow' up on the windshield. An hour later it was dry and bingo! we were enveloped in a sandstorm - visibility down to 100 feet. If you look very closely at the picture, you can barely see the headlights of the oncoming car and 18 wheeler behind the 1st one in the left lane. Could not even see a horizon, amazing! Got to Quartzsite at 3:45 their time and parked it.

Dinner at Pak Inn

Bocci and shopping were the choices today and we all went off to the
Pak Inn for a Chinese Buffet of 110 items. All delicious and something for everyone.