We left Fort Bliss this morning at about 8:15 and drove almost 600 miles today! I am presently sitting at a nice corner desk in our room at The Liberal Inn ~ Liberal, Kansas! I don't think it matters very much that we are a couple of conservatives, do you?
Since we are making two very important stops on our way back to Grand Rapids, we routed ourselves north and east through New Mexico towards Alamogordo and Tucumcari (which I think I have misspelled) and then back into the panhandle of Texas, making a diagonal northwest crossing into the Oklahoma panhandle, essentially cutting diagonally across the middle of it, and then crossing the Kansas border to ... Liberal! When the cold front came through here last night, it brought 70 mph winds and some damage with it ... glad we were safely in El Paso!
Grandpa Jones mapped all of this out last night while at the Lodge at Ft. Bliss. He had maps scattered everywhere ... and now I know why! For the entire 9-10 hours we were driving today, we were no further than two minutes from train tracks, grain silos, train bridges ... including more than a half dozen moving trains! I think the mountains were my favorite ... sheer cliffs, forbidding yet challenging, the dancing and shifting shadows, vast and stark in their beauty.
A cold front came through last night, and it was actually COLD this morning! It really didn't warm up past about 52 degrees the entire day! It was blustery and windy too. There were times the dust was blowing so thick, it completely obliterated the mountains from our view. We drove past miles and miles of these amazing mountains, surrounded by desert with wild deer, cattle ranches and immense areas of nothing else!
Some of these peaks reach 10-12,000 feet and are actually 12-20 miles from the highway!
We drove past dry wadi beds, abandoned shacks and barns, as well as wineries. We dodged sagebrush and tumbleweed blowing across the highway ...
We also drove by way too many feed lots. I couldn't help but picture several of our small grandchildren grabbing their little noses and grimacing with the horrid stench of it! The smell was so unpleasant, it almost brought tears to my eyes ...
Most of the trains we saw were Union Pacific, but we also saw Burlington Northern Santa Fe. I tried to shoot some pictures through the window while moving at 65+ mph ... those shots don't turn out very well for me. Actually, I saw so many amazing desert and mountain scenes I wanted to photograph that if we had stopped for each one, we would STILL be on the road.
Wind turbines in the Texas panhandle"LORD, there is no one like you!
For you are great, and your name is full of power.
God made the earth by his power,
and he preserves it by his wisdom.
He is the creator of everything that exists ...
the LORD Almighty is his name!"
God made the earth by his power,
and he preserves it by his wisdom.
He is the creator of everything that exists ...
the LORD Almighty is his name!"
Select verses from Jeremiah chapter 10
3 comments:
Jackson would have loved that route too! What a fun drive for dad and hopefully the mountains made up for the trains for you. Have fun tonight with your cousin- I'm praying for continued safety in all your traveling.
Oh! I'm so excited that you are going to see Suzie!! Give her a hug from me!
I love reading your blog. It gives me hope that someday Bram will meet and marry someone who is as sweet as you, and who loves and understands him, like you love and understand Mr. Jones. Bram SO loves to see trains when we are traveling, and always wants to find the tracks we saw on a map. He will be thrilled when he can drive himself, and can map out routes by train tracks!
Lois! Suzie and I talked NONSTOP for almost 7 hours last night ... but I didn't check my blog beforehad so I didn't see your comment and the requested hug ... I did tell Suzie that I was determined to see more of my sweet Grand Rapids cousin in the future!
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