Texas, desert to hill country....

Saturday, October 30, 2010
Today, El Paso to near San Antonio, Texas.  For the first part, we still had those wonderful mountains in view.  Then, miles and miles of grass and scrubby bushes.  Went through another Border Patrol check point early on - I-10 runs parallel and close to the border for quite a few miles.  Then, the mountains/high hills changed to more what I would call ridges - all
flat across the top.  One, in the distance, had some type of bush or cactus across the top.  I commented to Dan that it looked like Indians lined up ready to charge the settlers (like in movies we used to see as children).  
You know you're in the middle nowhere when the one billboard you see is advertising a hotel that is over 100 miles away!!
I was just thinking that it seems like there should be windmills out here, like we saw in Montana and Wyoming - and, then, there they were!  All lined up on top of some of those ridges.  Hundreds of them - in the distance and close up.  They're all still right now, but I'll be much of the time that wind blows, with nothing to stop it for miles and miles.
We did have a bummer moment today - we finished our book on CD, and I looked on the Garmin for the next Cracker Barrel - not for another 350 miles!!  That's so wrong!
Since we're just trying to cover as much distance as we can and we're on the interstate, we're running faster - about 70 MPH.  Up until now, our mileage has been running around 12 MPG - not too bad when you consider we're in a big truck with a camper and pulling my car.  But, that was when we were running around 60 MPH.  This extra speed costs about 1 mile for every gallon
- worth it for now.
As we got within 100 miles or so  of San Antonio, the terrain changed again.  Now, we're in the Texas hill country.  Where the road is cut from the side of the hill, we can see that the soil is very thin.  But, as far as you can see, thre are
bushes and small trees, all green, and between them is rocky dirt.
I have underestimated the ground we can cover when we just go faster, and the roads are straighter, and we don't stop for anything but fuel, potty, and food.  We'll be almost to San Antonio tonight, and we may just clear Texas tomorrow - only two days, instead of the three that I had thought!
We finally came to the Cracker Barrel, had a nice dinner and got another book for the road tomorrow.  Yippee!