Well, the drive from Tucson, Az to El Paso, Tx was very exhausting. Mainly because this drive came hard on the heels of late nights and early mornings in Disneyland and then a VERY early morning drive to Tucson followed by ANOTHER early morning drive to El Paso. I usually try to stay awake until the sun comes up, so that Tanner has someone to talk to, and then I take a short nap and then I drive for a couple of hours so that Tanner can rest.
Hehehe...that didn't happen on this leg of the trip. I did stay awake by listening to The Horse and His Boy, but somewhere between Shasta meeting Aravis and the long journey to Mt. Pire, I fell asleep. I'm pretty sure a slept through at least 1 1/2 disks before I suddenly jerked awake because Tanner said, "Um...Noelle, I, um...forgot to get gas..." Yup, you've all felt that heart thudding, sticking moment, but when I felt it, and looked around us, there was absolutely nothing. We were in the middle of nowhere. It was just ranch land, and it was empty ranch land at that. It was more empty than the Warm Springs Indian reservation on the way to Bend. Let's just put it this way, the next McDonalds was in El Paso! Tanner had planned to stop for gas as we passed through Las Cruces, New Mexico, but since he was tired, and I was sleeping, he forgot. We checked Garmin. Next gas 20 miles ahead. Las Cruces...20 miles behind. Our gas tank?? Maybe, it had 10 miles left in it. Yeah, it was more than empty.
And, of course that's the time when a person should start to pray, so I did. I kept asking God for some crazy miracle, like a brand new gas station that Garmin didn't have on its system. I knew we'd be okay if we ran out of gas. The morning was cool, and we had water in the car, but I REALLY didn't want to be stranded on the side of the road either waiting or walking with the kids. And then, our little miracle happened. A huge billboard loomed up in front of us proclaiming gas at the next exit just a mile ahead. We were so happy, we pulled off the freeway, and came to the end of the ramp. No gas station. So, we headed over the freeway and came to an intersection, guessed to take a right and ran into a very gaudily painted gas station. Yes, it was open at 5:30am, so we got gas, and decided that I'd better drive the rest of the way, so that Tanner could rest. We headed back for the freeway. Now, this is where the story gets interesting. There was no on ramp for the freeway, instead the signs told us to go AWAY from the freeway in order to get to the freeway. Talk about spooky. We're in the middle of nowhere, traveling along the U.S/Mexican border, imagining banditos hijacking our car as we're moving toward the Mexican border with a promise of running into an AMERICAN freeway, with 3 kids in the back of the car.
Sorry, Mom. I know you've got to be just a little freaked out about this, but the road did indeed lead us back to the freeway, albeit a little circuitously, and we did make it to El Paso, a Burger King and a Starbucks. Whew!
This drive is beautiful. I've been trying to thing of how to describe it, and figured the landscape best resembled a serving platter with jagged edges. It's weird how the mountains seem to surround us on all sides, but we never seem to cross any of them. But, as Tanner says, enough beauty, we want the drive to be done, so I'm staying up late tonight, letting the kids play while Tanner tries to sleep. We'll head out of here at around 2:00am, and we're hoping to go straight through to our final destination instead of stopping again. We'll see how far we get by sunrise and then make the decision from there.
And after that, we have to figure out how to buy a truck, dressers, beds and at least a tiny couch of some sort, since we had to leave all of that stuff behind in good ol' PDX.
As a last little note, today, the History Channel did a documentary on underground dens and speakeasys in the U.S. And guess what city they featured? Portland, OR. It kind of made me homesick to see the downtown streets and Waterfront Park, but then I remembered that today, when Reagan was throwing a tinsy, tiny temper tantrum, I was able to nip it in the bud because it's completely legal to give your kid a swat in Texas, so the tantrum didn't turn into a full blown, kicking and screaming, two year old, I want my own way scene. She started to pucker up and got the shock of her life. Mommy gave her a swat in a public place. Sigh. I miss Portland, but I love being free in Texas. Like I heard in a comedy routine, "America. Texas. Home."
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