This morning dawned dim and foggy, but by the time we were organised, the cloud was breaking up.
Onto the 290 West for a long drive towards Tucson. We hope to get as far as El Paso, 9 hours away, but still in Texas.
Austin looked to be a lovely city, worth exploring another time. The highway out of town was populated with small bar-b-q joints, each unique and non-descript looking, but already drawing crowds at 9.30am.
The countryside is lush and hilly, peppered with national parks. We listened to Sarah Jaffe, the great support act from last night. I downloaded some of her music on iTunes this morning. Texan music for a Texan drive.
Saltbush, cacti, knarly Post Oak trees, wild flowers. The coloring is that faded blue-green of the Australian bush, rather than the brilliant green of the east coast.
We stopped at Fredericksburg for coffee. It was a German settled town, in the midst of a festival, with people everywhere. It had beautiful stone buildings, gun and boot shops, jewellers, and a bakery with tasty danishes and good filter coffee to go.
For miles around the properties and streets had German names. There were vineyards, orchards and grazing lands with cattle, sheep and goats.
Soon after Fredericksburg, the desert landscape began to appear. Thinning vegetation, rocky outcrops. We saw skunks, porcupines, deer and wild hogs, albeit a little worse for wear beside the road.
Wide plains, vertiginous mesas, a natural pyramid, nodding donkeys, hundreds of huge wind turbines and a long, long road. Speed limit is 80 miles an hour - the fastest of the journey so far.
We climbed up onto the high plain and saw miles of greener fields, with crops.
And then the mountains appeared, looming up on the horizon. They looked impressive above the plains, with the highest peak at 8700 feet. It was a really beautiful drive.
As the Mexican border closed in from the south, the entire eastern lanes were blocked by Border Patrol, checking for stowaways.
We crossed into Mountain Time, giving us an extra hour in our day. The roads had been such easy driving that we continued on across the border into New Mexico and the town of Las Cruces. It was a ten hour drive today.
As we passed through El Paso we could see the Mexican border. Very cool.
Farewell Texas. We'll be back.
PS: We rolled into Las Cruces looking for a place to stay. I saw a pizza place with a hotel across the road and asked to stop. The restaurant carpark was full - a good sign to me.
The hotel had a room, and across the road we went for dinner.
We sat outside at Luna Rosa Winery & Pizzeria, in a courtyard, under the stars, with the smell of woodsmoke in the air.
Dinner was fabulous, but more impressive was that they made their own wine at a vineyard not far from here. And they were fabulous wines.
Even better than that was the live entertainment, a singer/guitarist named Matt Morgan, a local with an incredible voice. What a night. Cheap, but unforgettable.
No comments:
Post a Comment