All day today I thought of the Clint Eastwood movie High Plains Drifter as we drove from Benson Arizona to El Paso Texas. This is all 4-5000 feet and a high plains/desert ringed by mountain ranges. It is so high and flat that the continental divide exists in two parallel lines. We crossed it twice in 20 miles without a loop in the divide! That part of the plateau simple doesn’t drain.

This is a land of tall yuccas, tumbleweed, and low shrubs like mesquite. There was snow on the ground almost all across New Mexico from a New Year’s eve storm. It hasn’t been warm enough to melt it all yet. The wind was brutal, but luckily it was on our tail for much of the day. That gives us good mileage, but plays hell with the handling of the trailer. My fingers are sore tonight. The mountain ranges ringing this basin are beautiful. Each time one range recedes in the rear view mirror (metaphorically because we can’t see anything but Picasso out of the rear view mirror) another range appears on the horizon. Others dot the distant landscape to the left and right.

I-10 follows the routh of the Butterfield Overland Stage line from El Paso to Los Angeles via Deming and Tucson. This is the area made quite famous by 1950’s westerns on TV. There is a trading post a.k.a. stage stop every 20 miles or so. Now they sell cheap tourist trinkets and all seem to be going out of business.

We meant to stay on the New Mexico side of the border at El Paso, but the RV park we had chosen was full. Therefore, we drove through the city and are staying at a big RV park on the east side of El Paso. We got an AARP discount and a large discount for having such a small trailer! It pays to be small.
Paul