Hit the border by the morning, let Texas fill my soul...

Location: Austin, Texas, USA

Last night was a VERY long night of nothingness.   We drove all the way across California, Arizona and New Mexico before the sun came up and there was NOT a lot going on.  However, as I am speeding along at approximately 95 mph on the beautiful Interstate 10 and blissfully singing along to a mellow tune on my Sirius, I am suddenly BLASTED by a series of blinding flashing of light.  Speed cameras.

I'm telling you, those things are NOT safe.  I screamed... Jeff thought we were being abducted by alients (thought crossed my mind as well) and John was convinced we were being shot or missiled.  No matter what was actually going on, the three of us sprial into a panic of death and it takes about 5 minutes before my heart stopped pounding.  I literally almost ran us off the road.  Disaster.

After the near death experience, we basically lull back into our daze until the sun started to come up just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico.  It was a beautiful sunrise, and we pulled over in a small town just in time to watch it come over the Organ Mountains.  And in true mobile worker fashion, as soon as the sun came up, Jeff and my radar went off.  Realizing my e-mail hadn't sent to Greg the night before, I scrambled to find wifi in Messina (which is an adorable little historic adobe town just outside of Las Cruces).  We ended up bootlegging from some guys house while sitting in our car in the driveway.  Not creepy at all. But we got the job done and it was off to Texas.

El Paso/Juarez was beautiful in a sort of urban destruction, political invasion kind of way.  I was so amazed to see that while driving down I-10 for a stretch, we were literally the closest thing to Mexico besides a fence and a river.  And even more astonishing than that was the incredible contrast between the US and Mexico that was just as clear as a line in the sand.  Even the air was being discriminated against.  You could see a physical cloud of nasty hovering over Juarez while El Paso looked relatively fresh.  We didn't spend much time, just a quick drive-through and continued on for the long haul through West Texas.  About 30 minutes outside El Paso, I get pulled over.  The cop (who was very cute, btw) asks me for my information, tells me I was going over the speed limit and when I ask how much faster, he just winks and says "faster."  That's never a good sign!! But I escape with a warning encouraged with a little flirting and we continue on our trek. 

West Texas was... West Texas.  The same thing for about 10 hours.  It really wasn't too bad.  There was a lot to look at.  Lots of fields, oil rigs, strange rocks, small towns and strange people on the road.  It was actually quite entertaining.  The only thing i was disappointed about was that I spent a good 20 minutes looking for the darn football stadium when we were in Odessa and nothing.  Couldn't find it.  After passing about a million more oil rigs and a million more wind turbines, we arrive at DFW airport to drop John off. 

After parting ways and wishing him luck on his attempt to get to Chicago, we turn southbound 35 and head on down the road (sorry, I couldn't help it). It was amazing how quickly this drive went by.  Pulling up and seeing the Austin City Lights was just like I remembered it and I am so excited to be here.  As soon as we got into town, we headed straight to John's to pick him up and grab a bite a Kerby Lane (queso, pancakes and beer - gotta love this place) before making another pit stop at Little Woodrow's (just ONE more beer) and heading back over to John's to pass out.

I'm actually not that tired, although I'm sure as soon as my head hits the pillow, i will be out.  Tomorrow will be fun, I'm excited to see the new digs at the Austin office and to get some actual solid work time in before things REALLY get crazy!

XOXO

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