Day #14: We've made it to El Paso!

Grandpa Jones and I are at Fort Bliss! It is about 9:30 a.m. and we are going to leave for church in about 20 minutes so I'm just going to quickly tell you about our day yesterday. We left Austin at about 8:00 in the morning under clear blue, blue, BLUE skies and had an uneventful trip of about 550 miles across the great state of Texas. It's really a very beautiful drive, but I did not take even ONE single picture (small miracle). We've driven this stretch of road many times before and I have leaned out the van window trying desperately to snap a great picture ... but really none of those photos work out very well. Suffice it to say, all of the mountains were exactly where we left them, the turkey vultures we flying high overhead, the zillions of ranches were undisturbed, and the wind turbines were rotating exactly as they should have ... it was quite a windy drive, by the way.

Jesse met us at the gate at Fort Bliss and helped us get all checked in for the week. We are staying over at the Annex, which is a mile or so from where Jes and Di are presently living. We were greeted by three very smiley and enthusiastic children at their door, and one very persistent barking dog (Sophie), and spent a few hours just playing and visiting and hugging and loving on each other. Wonderful! We brought some early birthday presents for Matthew, since he turning five early in April and we will not be here for his birthday.

I think this is my eighth visit to El Paso and never before (until this morning) had I encountered anything that truly frightened me. But this morning as I was in this very tiny bathroom, dressed only in my birthday suit (do NOT try to picture this), I looked down on the floor and saw the hugest bug I have ever laid eyes on ... EVER! I think no matter what state in the union you happen to reside in, my scream could probably have reached you! Poor Grandpa Jones came running to my rescue (whew!). I am certainly thankful it was NOT a spider, although I have gotten much better at handling my fear of them.

We are looking forward to full days ahead visiting with Jesse, Diana and the children. I'll try to update with pictures whenever I can. I was very surprised that this picture uploaded so quickly this morning ... so perhaps we will be able to actually post pictures and narrative at the same time during our stay here!