12/13/11 Fort Stockton, TX to Tucson, Arizona 556 miles

After making oatmeal for breakfast and digging out our warm clothes we left Fort Stockton at 9:25am. It was cold out but the weather was cloudy and clear, no fog or rain like the day before.  We got gas in Van Horn TX and paid $3.09/gal. After only being on the road for 25 min the car started acting up again. We said a prayer and pulled over, Kris repeated his adjustment trick and off we went. The car ran well. We’re not sure exactly what the adjustment does, but we are so thankful that it is working and is allowing us to move quickly toward home.

Beautiful Texas mountains

 The highlight of the day was definitely stopping in El Paso to visit with my college roommate Stacey, her husband William and their two kiddos Angelica and Willy. They just moved to El Paso so that William could take over managing the Double Tree hotel there and they’d arrived only the weekend before. We hadn’t seen each other since Stacey’s wedding two years before and so it was wonderful that the timing worked out for a visit today! We met up with them at the hotel (which I’d highly recommend if you’re ever in the area, as it is super nice!) and then went to Taco Cabana for lunch. We hadn’t eaten there before and it was fantastic. After a long lunch we went back to the hotel and let the kids run around on a patio that was on the same floor at Stacey’s room. Angelica is 6 years old and William is around 18 months. The kids all had so much fun playing together. We got into El Paso around 1pm and left around 5pm, Stacey bought us coffee for the road (thanks so much Girlie!). We sure wish we could have visited longer, but we are really anxious to get home and wanted to get a few more hours on the road.

Angelica, William & Jonathan

Stacey reads a Jonah book to Jonathan

Angelica makes a bus out of patio chairs- So creative!

Aaron chowing on a churro!

Angelica, 6; Aaron 3, Jonathan, 5

Me & Stacey

 We decided to make Tucson our goal to stop for the night. We thought we were a lot farther away from Arizona until Kris pulled up the Google map and saw that by being in El Paso, we were actually already halfway through New Mexico and making it into Arizona tonight wouldn’t be too difficult! We stopped at a Wal-Mart to stock up on snacks and to get more bread for sandwiches and oatmeal for breakfasts. By 7pm we were headed towards Arizona. At 8:30pm we crossed the border in to Arizona and we gained an hour. Then the rain hit with a vengeance and the car started slipping again. We pulled into a gas station to take cover so Kris could try adjusting it again.It seemed to do the trick and we set off again. Before long the boys were fast asleep.

Amazing Texan sunset!

I agree!

Then it started snowing!! Snow in Arizona??? It was sticking to the grass, but not the highway. It alternated between snow and rain for about 20 miles and then cleared up. We pulled into Tucson a little after 11pm and found a hotel. We got a room at The Western Hotel for $45. Only 828 miles to go!!!

Snow in Arizona!!