10/4/11 Day 3 Lordsburg, NM to San Antonio Texas 714miles

Super fun sign near our hotel

After turning out the lights sometime after midnight, I ended up sleeping through the alarm I’d set for 6am. Luckily I have another alarm clock in the form of a 3 year old. He sat up in his bed at 7am and said, “Mommy!” Our plan was to wake up at 6am, have breakfast at the hotel, then be on the road by 7am. For those of you who know me well, you know that I thrive on plans and routines (lists too). So that is surely the biggest way I am being stretched on this trip. Plans become very flexible and routines are nonexistent! So after a few deep breaths and some prayer, we started getting up and ready for the day. The hotel had a fantastic (and free) breakfast. The boys had raisin bran (and then some fruit loops) with milk. Kris and I had toasted bagels with coffee and orange juice. It took a while to pack up the room and reload the car (although we’re getting faster and more compact each time). We were on the road by 8:45am. The weather was cooler and the sky was cloudy.

J doing play doh

Aaron with his play doh

We’ve been on Interstate 10 since Phoenix which makes driving easy, so I’ve been doing the bulk of the driving, especially early in the day when I’m most alert. Today as we started the drive I busted out one of my special trip activities for the kids- play doh. Jonathan’s eyes lit up, “Play doh in the CAR?” he asked totally shocked (for those who don’t know me well, I’m a super neat freak). Before we left Angels Camp, Kris took 2 of my old cookie sheets and glued in a piece of white board so that they could be used as lap trays for numerous activities. They worked wonderfully for play doh. Jonathan happily created animals, alphabet letters , and maps (he loves to make maps of our journey, with an “A” at one end for Angles Camp and a “B” at the other end for Belize- funny thing is that the longer we are into our adventure the longer and more complex his maps become, I think he’s started to realize that Belize is a LONG ways away, lol), in the play doh for over 2 hours!!

New Mexico was also very flat. One thing we’ve noticed is the lack of cars/trucks towing boats (such a common sight back home) honestly we’ve seen maybe 3 or 4 vehicles towing boats on this trip. Another interesting sight was coming upon 2 cyclists on I-10, literally out in the middle of nowhere! Where did they start? Where will they stop? My only idea was that maybe they’ll call someone to come pick them up when they tire out. Crazy!

We passed the Continental Divide in New Mexico. Then in the town of Las Cruces (The Crosses) we saw a HUGE roadrunner up on a hillside made entirely of metal, maybe that’s the mascot of NM?? I’m not sure, but we didn’t get the camera quick enough to catch a shot of it for all of you. I’m guessing it was 12 feet tall and 30 feet long at least! Soon after we crossed the state line into Texas!! We saw about a dozen dairies which caused Jonathan to look up from his coloring (using Crayola Color Wonder markers and paper, another great in the car activity!!) and say, “Mommy, something stinks! What is that smell?” So we had a short discussion about cows and dairies and how the milk gets from the cow to the store where we can buy it. One dairy had a slogan on a huge poster across one of its barns, “Drink more milk, Eat more Ice Cream!” Amen. Especially the ice cream part!

Windy Ft. Stockton

Turns out Texas is HUGE!!! We had hours and hours between towns today. We finally stopped in Fort Stockton, sound familiar? We filled up with gas and stopped in a catch-all truck stop/restaurant/gas station, etc called Stripes. I only take the time to mention it because I saw the coolest hand dryers ever in the bathrooms! They were called Dyson Airblade Hand Dryers.

You just held your hands between these two panels and the air whooshed out at sonic speeds and your hands were completely dry in a couple of seconds! Texas is also windy! We could really feel the wind gusts as we were driving and then when we got out of the car in Ft. Stockton, it was fierce!

Imagine cutting thru the mountain to make the road?!

We stopped for dinner around 6pm in the small town of Ozona, TX, at a Sonic Burger. Sadly the food wasn’t that great and the service was even worse. I ordered the boys cheese burgers with mustard only and got hamburgers with mayo only and my sandwich was completely missing. They fixed the problems, thankfully. The one great thing was that they had an inside playground which the boys were only too happy to take advantage of, after which we thoroughly wiped their hands before they ate.

Some other tidbits from the day, we drove through the town of Van Horn, TX and thought of our friends, Ryan, Lisa, and their kiddos. I wonder if they knew there’s a town in Texas that bears their name? 

We also kept seeing this symbol along the road. We looked it up and learned what it meant we thought we’d educate you too. Its for vehicles carrying hazardous cargo. Jonathan used his color wonder markers to draw his first family portrait, which he said was a present for me, “Just because I love you Mommy!” We also busted out the white board markers that the boys used on their cookie sheet/white boards. Aaron happily scribbled and drew circles while Jonathan drew Angel Fish, maps, and dinosaurs. This activity was especially enjoyed because we usually only use the white board markers while we’re doing school work at home.

Jonathan's Family portrait

We got into San Antonio at 9:30pm and found a hotel. I’ve been researching hotels the night before so that we have phone numbers and addresses for the GPS. It’s worked out really well and helped us stay in our budget too. Tomorrow it’s about 4 hrs until we get to the US/Mexico border. We’re crossing at Brownsville. Prayers for a quick and safe border crossing are appreciated. Also, our cell phones will be turned off just before we cross the border, so you won’t be able to reach us. We’ll probably grab a Mexican cell phone but that will be for emergencies only. The best way to stay in touch will be via skype and email and of course this blog! Thanks for following along with us! We miss you!