A Beauty all its own!

Because no one else would want it??

We left Midland, Texas at about 9:15 (CST) this morning and stopped for the evening at 4:15 (MST) in the afternoon at Las Cruces (Spanish for "the Crosses" as in Jesus and the two thieves) making this an 8 hour driving day.

West Texas is unique there's no doubting that.  It is virtually barren.  Here's a picture that Irene took:

 The mountain on the left could be seen from about 100 miles away.  Here's the same mountain as we finally went around its face 2 hours after we first saw it afar off.

Much of the landscape is gypsum rock (along with sandstone and limestone).  We went across numerous washes that had white beds and white stones in them.  Here's a picture of the "lake" that is near Salt Flats, TX.  It is white from the gypsum rock. That is dissolved and turned to sand from the water.  Probably 9 months of the year this lake bed is dry.

All three of the primary types of stone - gypsum, sandstone and limestone are HIGHLY erodible by either water or the even MORE common cause - wind.  The wind was merciless today.  There were easily gusts in excess of 45 mph. The wind is the greatest contributor to shaping the landscape of the area from the Sierra Nevadas in California to the Rockies and from the Rockies to the plains.  With so little rain there is a dearth of vegetation and virtually no grass.  Therefore there is NOTHING to hold the soil as the wind howls.  Here's a picture of the types of mountains that you get from the relentless assault of the wind:

Notice the little "button cap," "nipple" or (South Afrikaans) "kop" that you get from the wind shown on the one mountain in the middle of the picture.  Last year Irene and I went to Monument Valley in Utah where the wind does this to the sandstone:

You can see the similar 45º angle at the base of both mountains.

As we approached El Paso the lower portion of the mountains were shrouded in brown dust.  Three times there were signs advising "High Profile Vehicles" (i.e. - US in an RV) to proceed with caution.  The Trekker dun real good though!  I mean, I could feel the wind pounding on the rig but it was the rarity for it to be moved even a couple of feet by the wind.

Guess what Irene is doing tonight?  If you read the family email #2 you might have guessed (hint: "rewearables")- she's washing the clothes.  It's been since Ocala, Florida that we had water.  We had to dry camp in Red Bay because they shut the water off since it was 11º at night and didn't want the water lines to burst.  Then we got into Camp Bee about 1 hour before Wednesday night Bible Study and didn't have time.  Last night we dry camped again in the Fairmont Park church's parking lot and only had electricity.  So we stopped at Las Cruces at 4 PM to have time to do laundry.  Since there is a fair amount we might be up late and have to leave a little later in the morning.

We will arrive in Tucson tomorrow afternoon.  We are looking forward to seeing Josh and Chris.