We spent our last day in Tucson on Wednesday. I had to take my iPhone back to the Apple store again, it was still locking up. So, this time, time they just replaced it. Hoo-ray.
We went to mid-week bible study at the church where Josh preaches on Wednesday night. After that we were supposed to meet Chris (who had to work late) at "La Dolce Vita" - "The Sweet Life" afterward but she wasn't feeling well. So instead she suggests a 5:30 AM Thursday (as in before the sun even has gotten up in the morning) breakfast at Brueggers Bagels as a means of atonement. We are going to leave that morning and that was e-a-r-l-y to drag it out of bed, but for her - OK. We hit the road and drove to El Paso yesterday. We left Tucson @ about 9:30 AM (after a 1 hour nap) and got to El Paso by 3:30 PM. It was a pretty easy drive - all Interstate 10.
We got up this morning and hit the road at about 10:30. We made it to Midland at about 5 which was only 4 in Tucson. so it was a 5 1/2 hour drive today. We will be in Midland until Thursday morning visiting with Joel, Brenda and Phoebe.
The portion of the interstate 10 from El Paso to Van Horn, Texas is called the "Texas Mountain Trail." They aren't the Rockies, but they have a beauty to them. Here are some pictures Irene took while I was driving.
The next 6 pictures are of a mine. If you look in between the ridges of the mountains in the picture below you see a white area.
In the pictures below you see a white dust in the air.
The cloud was around the building in the picture above. As we drove by I could see the sign on the top of the building said "American Talc." So, this is a Talc factory - a talc mine. VERY interesting.
I'm a train buff. I've owned trains since I was 3 years old - Lionel O gauge, HO gauge, N gauge, G gauge and now (in the RV) Z gauge. My favorite railroad in the Union Pacific. We saw a LOT of trains on this trip. Here is a common sight 4 engines up front and about 150 cars and 1 or 2 engines in the rear (pushing) to get through the mountains here.
Below is a short video of one of the shortest trains we saw on the whole trip
Whether we like to admit it or not and regardless of our political bent it must be admitted that OIL is the "lifeblood" of the American Economy. Virtually all goods come to market via the use of oil based derivatives whether by boat, plane, truck or train. A large portion of the electrical grid is derived from petroleum being burnt in the production of electricity. Plastics are typically petroleum based. Midland is in the middle of the "Permian Basin" one of the larger Oil Fields in the continental US. With the invention of "Fracking" the oil boom is on again in the basin. Here are some pictures of the oil fields along I-20:
Here's a picture of the well being drilled and a "grasshopper" in the foreground:
And we close this post with 3 pictures of an Oil Refinery in Odessa, Texas
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