The sun went down not too long after I got underway, but I managed to put in about seven hours on the road.
Night’s a funny time on I-10. There are very few cars, but you pass anonymous white truck after truck pushing on along the highway. With the darkness, a sort of grim relentlessness envelops the road. All business, all the time.
I stopped at the El Oso Flojo Lodge, Inc. in Balmorhea, a couple hours beyond El Paso in West Texas. At $79 before tax, it was by far the most expensive lodging of the entire trip. Cranky about this when I rolled into my room, the place turned out to be the nicest motel of the trip as well. It is run by Joel and Flora Madrid, and the room reflected their personal investment in cleanliness and a tasteful eye for decorating. (Link at right.)
Wednesday was bright, sunny, and all Texas!
The speed limit there sure was a help in moving along fast!
The state became greener and greener as I zipped east. The beginnings of the green zone, still awfully scrubby, seemed to appear around Fort Stockton. Things got positively lush around San Antonio, a very attractive city from the highway. Temperatures throughout the day were mostly in the high seventies.
It was a couple of easy hours from San Antonio to Houston, past towns such as Weimar and Katy.
Upon arrival in Houston, I encountered my first serious rush hour traffic of the trip! The highways in this city -- lane upon lane, overpass over overpass, and kaleidoscopic cloverleaf interchanges -- rival Los Angeles. Impressive.
No comments:
Post a Comment