Tucson AZ - From Jeff

Greetings Friends, Family & Followers,

We have arrived in one piece in Tuscon, Arizona from Ozona, Texas! What a freaking long drive, all of it on the same road, Interstate 10. All three of us - myself, Larissa and the Pony need a rest after this day.

Ya know, I mentioned to Larissa that I thought it would be a good idea to take a different path back home instead of the same highways that we took coming east. Well, now that I have seen much of Interstate 10, I can scratch this off of my list of must do roads for the future. I have a renewed sense of respect for truck drivers (the good ones) who drive for a living. Throughout our trip, we have seen Stimulus Funds at work. There are massive road construction projects going on everywhere and for miles at a time. Lots of workers (great thing), lots of new bridges and pavement (great infrastructure redevelopment), lots of slow cone zones (acceptable annoyance). These endless construction zones remind me of airports for some reason...

Of Interstate 10 and much of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona that it passes through, I can say this: fuel tank draining, bladder bursting, mind numbing, often scenic, more often endless miles through nothingness. Things got quite dicey going through the congestion in the big cities like New Orleans, Beaumont, Houston, El Paso and Tucson. Getting back to the open road was welcome and there were many small towns of both interest and bleakness all wrapped up together. It is a conflicting story of the economy to see 1) towns left struggling by the highway with boarded up or simply abandoned buildings, 2) lots of empty billboards, 3) booming road construction projects and 4) new hotels going up left and right in these same struggling small towns. I am not sure of the message or the lesson I have gained from this trip except that the common thread of Americana is that the entire country is having a rough time dragging through this economic mess. Real estate prices are frighteningly affordable again, ambulance chasing lawyers want you business, gulf state enterpreneurs will help you recover from hurricane disasters (for a fee, of course). Super clean restrooms, always fresh coffee, mechanic on duty 24/7, free WiFi hotspot, authentic American food, tire sale, gator petting park, cajun fried catfish and crawfish, rooms from 24.99 and up, good jerky in 30 miles, weigh station - all trucks exit, prison area - please do not pick up hitch hikers. Are we there yet? We're still in Texas?!

There is plenty of beautiful desert Southwest scenery. There are oil well steel donkeys pumping away next to brand new huge wind turbines. There are railbeds with supersized trains running on them. There are state police / troopers / highway patrol (whatever you call them in each state) appearing in the middle of nowhere catching speed demons. There are homes in the middle of nowhere leaving one to wonder what reason is there to live there other than to be away, really away from it all. There are structures in ruins much like European castles except nowhere near as old. Grinding poverty blocks from a new hotel being built. I do not understand.

We leave in the morning for Las Vegas. One more leg to go after that before we get home to our kitties who will either be happy to see us again, or grouchy, or both.

Here are some pictures of the more interesting scenery on the never ending Interstate 10.

Jeff