Tucson, Arizona

This is more the outskirts of Tucson and driving closer to it as the sun started to set. There aren't any pictures of the actual city because who wants to see another city? That's boring. Not nearly as boring as mile after mile of desert shrubs and brown patches of dirt with mountains in the distance.

The above picture is the view to the left. And below is the view to the right:

And here is the view looking down:

He got tired from all the excitement going on outside. Sunset in the desert. Above it is a dissipating thunderstorm cell.

The Moon

And here is the best picture of the day. The sun setting made the sky look like the Rising Sun flag.

Once I reached Tucson I tried to find the same Best Western Hotel I stayed at when I was a little kid. But because my GPS is so worthless, it didn't have it in it's database and led me to the wrong one. Stupid GPS.

Van Horn, Texas

After finishing up training in Jacksonville, I rented a twenty-six foot Penske truck, smashed all my stuff into the back, shipped my car, and started the first mile of a 4,000 mile trip. I left Sunday early evening and made it as far as Marianna, Florida. Still not out of the stupid state. Day two had me past Pensacola, through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and into Texas. Wonderful Texas. The greenery lining the highway was now a bunch of brown dirt and tumbleweeds, but I was out of Florida and that's all that mattered. Day three had me going through El Paso - basically Mexico in the United States. I could see the border, which was just a giant brown see-through fence about fourteen feet high. That immediately brought back unpleasant memories of a trip to Ensenada. An hour later I was out of El Paso and back on Highway 10 surrounded by brown hills of dead weeds. A few hundred miles ahead was a town I hadn't visited since I was ten or so - the illustrious Van Horn, Texas.

Back then, my Grandpa, Mom, sister and I took road trips from California to Austin, Texas to visit my Aunt. I remember staying in this one street town twice and eating at a local Mexican restaurant both times. The town seemed a lot smaller to me then, which may be surprising because it's still incredibly small. Here are the outskirts (gas is only 2.59!):



Further in:

Here is Chuy's, the same restaurant I ate at more than a decade ago:

I'm really disappointed this one didn't turn out too well because I'll probably never drive through here again. But here it is. Still the John Madden hall of fame too.

And back on the road. I never actually stopped in the town because stopping a twenty-six foot truck and trying to find parking isn't worth it...even if I'll never return.

There I go on the right of the picture. A friendly driver took this for me. Just kidding.