Ozona, Texas - From Jeff

Greetings Family, Friends and Followers!

We find ourselves in Ozona, Texas. O what? The O Zone? The ozone capital of Texas? The merry old zone of Oz? Might as well be. We had enough of driving for the day this was the next stop on Interstate 10. This state of Texas is much bigger in person than it is on a map!

So where is the Zone of O? I is roughly 4 hours west of San Antonio and a day east of Tucson of the Arid Zone. If you can shake the creepy feeling that you are suddenly living an episode of the Twilight Zone, you find that Ozona has multiple facets: gas stations and hotels including a soon to open brand new Holiday Inn Express, a visitor center with chamber of commerce, old stone (circa 1902) city buildings with a nice park, old brick homes some of which are very nice & well maintained and then other homes that are of various states of disrepair and occupancy. It is a two stoplight town with a baseball field where the outfield terminates at the carved out hillside - suggest you let those flyballs go... If you wanted to find an out of the way place to live, this would be it although the area could also be used to film period movies from the 1940's or 1950's. Primary industry in the area, other than supporting transient highway travellers like us, appears to be deer hunting - reminds Larissa of Danielsville PA (just kidding, LOL). The total number of ATM machines here, when it works, appears to be one, at the gas station / convenience store / pizza joint. The pizza was OK here in the land that time forgot. Larissa needed help from a local pizza regular interpreting "thin crust or thick crust?" from the pizza maker who had a very heavy Asian accent flavored with Texas drawl. We can not help but feel really out of place here. At least there were three local Mustangs here so our car did not draw quite as much attention as in New Orleans except for the gray Mustang who followed us through town for a while apparently thinking we were the local red Mustang - surprise!

We drove for hours in the morning towards the smoggy skies of Houston. I love the smell of Oleum and Sulphur in the morning! I-10 runs right through Houston, stop and go with accidents aplenty. I have never seen such large oil refineries or as many in one place before since I went to Corpus Cristi back in 2001.

We made it to San Antonio in time for lunch. After the disappointment of New Orleans, the Riverwalk more than made up for it. Larissa figured out how to use the camera in video mode and recorded most of the tour, including the tour guide's comments. (Larissa here: and Jeff thought that buying a camera on clearance was a BAD idea and he wasn't too keen on taking the video, he kept insisting I take still pix instead. )

We are staying at a very nice Best Western which is either recently new or recently renovated. We got in just before all the paint covered workers painting radio towers showed up first at the above mentioned pizza joint and then here with their equipment trucks, all of them. I am not expecting the Mustang radio antenna to be painted but I am sure it could be done really nicely if I asked.

We also realized our plans to visit the Grand Canyon were too grand. Texas is BIG. The state, the stop signs, the Ford trucks, and the array of purses. You can get a free 72 ounce steak dinner, provided you eat all of it and the salad by yourself, otherwise the meal costs a dollar an ounce - we chose not to try. So, crossing the state is taking two days and then going straight to the Aliante in Las Vegas. Tomorrow, we drive a reasonable 9 hours; Thursday is a quick trip of 7 hours and then Friday is back to the 9 hours. Just a relaxing jaunt back home, right? Don & Cheryl, come join us Thursday night at the Aliante - that blackjack machine and I have some unfinished business to settle from two weeks ago...

We have reserved a room in Tucson for Wednesday night. That is 600 plus miles from here. Before you think we can just blow out the carbon on the Mustang and get there in an hour, guess again. Texas state troopers, local police, county sheriff, all of them were out in force on the road. The speed limit out here in the middle of nowhere is 80. I cruised at about 75 on cruise control after seeing 5 cars pulled over in 5 miles on a particularily isolated stretch of Interstate Nowhere. Yes, I am a chicken. Texas is mile after mile of nothingness - rocks, shrubs, powerlines, vultures, bugs, trucks, semi squashed armadillos, oppossums and deer. Larissa keeps trying to convince me that the armadillos and oppossums are just sleeping by the side of the road with their feet straight out. Yep. Can anyone tell me what Nature's purpose for armadillos is other than being a food source for the ugliest vultures I have ever seen by the side of the road?

Well, that is it for now. Big country takes long time to traverse. Next time I ship Mustang by overnight Fed/Ex or UPS, with me in it.

Jeff and Larissa