Nov. 18, 2009

From a Rest stop along I-10, just east of Van Horn, Texas. N 31° 2.527 W 104º 45.267.
We got started from Paul and Ann’s house in Spring Branch, Texas at about 10 AM. It was only few miles before the adventure began. When I was planning the route the DeLorme program showed the route to be US-281 north to US-90 near Johnson City and then west to I-10. The Gremlin showed a turn on Texas FM 473. I took to turn. Not a bad road but a lot of curves and dips. The coach suspension got areal work out what with the load shifting so often. We intersected I-10 at Comfort. The route was shorter but I’m not so sure about quicker.
As we left Hill Country in the afternoon, I noticed a jagged purple line on the horizon. Mountains at last. It made me very comfortable when we got further west and I could see mountains near with rows of taller ones in the distance. Of course the landscape turning form trees and other green foliage to desert brown with muted green helped me feel more at home every mile. I love the desert, the bare craggy mountains and the chaparral.
The Gremlin acted up again just before we got to the intersection with I-20. It gave directions to turn north, but I know this road and didn’t fall for it this time.
I drove until about 5 PM. We stopped for the night at a rest stop on I-10. It’s pretty close to the Interstate with traffic noise, but we will get some sleep and make an early start in the morning. We had a pretty sunset with the few clouds making bands of goldish orange. As it got darker we could see the lights of Van Horn a few miles away.
We should be out of Texas before noon tomorrow.