Texas

[AAAA]

I used to hate the place. I'm not sure where it stemmed from, but I think it was getting into a 5 hour traffic jam in Austin the only time I ever drove through the place.

I used to think everyone there drove horribly, and I was completely wrong. They are courteous and very nice in general. I also used to think everyone there was dicks and/or loud obnoxious black women. GOD was awesome, totally not a dick, and the gay dudes we met were some of the nicest people ever. That, and we didn't see one obnoxious black chick, not even at the bars. The bride's family was a different story, but like I said, that is a different story.

I guess my only real complaint was the heat, the humidity and that shithole Fort Stockton. Oh, and the long, boring drive between El Paso and San Antonio could use some livening up.

The people there are so patriotic it makes your heart swell. I think I kind of like the place.

[AAAA]

I didn't want to make you go all the way to SA. Plus, I posted about it like four days before....

[GOD]

Austin is notorious for the shitty traffic.

[Artemis]

There are some nice rest stops between here and El Paso. There are also plenty of places to bury a body or two. You just have to keep your eyes peeled.

[m8lhead]

hmm that's something to keep in mind

[AAAA]

Fuck yes there are. Those rest stops have WiFi....you're lucky if the water works at ours.

[GOD]

They've made a lot of improvements to our rest stops, and it's pretty nice, considering how big the fucking state is.
Having WiFi at a rest stop is fucking awesome.

[LoveTownHippy]

I've only ever driven through. We were going to stop in at the place in Amarillo with the 72oz steak, but it was busy and no one really felt like trying their hand at eating close to 5lbs of meat... so we kept going.

The giant cross is still creepy.
http://www.crossministries.net/

They have one in Illinois as well though.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/4116

We saw both of them on our trip. Not on purpose. So- can anyone tell me what is up with the giant crosses? When I see them I just imagine judgmental bible thumpers who think because their cross is bigger it means they are better christians.
The whole cross thing seems WAY weird to me as well.
If Jesus would have died in an electric chair would you wear a replica around your neck?

For serious.


Anyways- the drivers in Texas rock my socks. They always drive on the right, and I never have anyone sitting in the fast lane. I am ALWAYS able to pass. California drivers are OMG scary. PNW drivers are slower than normal, and they hang out in the left lane and sometimes it is hard to pass, but there is never any stress, and rarely ass holes. The rain has taught us never to be in a hurry. Midwest drivers drive slow too, but they switch lanes for like... NO REASON, and it confuses me.

[LoveTownHippy]

I tell you what, I really liked New Mexico. We didn't go to Albuquerque.

We came in on HWY 60 and went South/West on HWY 70 to Roswell. Then South on 285 to White's City outside of Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Carlsbad = amazing. A good stop for a day, and Roswell was entertaining for about an hour. We went to the UFO museum and got some stupid alien trinkets and went on our way. My Alien sun glasses got broken though. I'm kinda pissed off about it.
People that don't take care of other people's things really anger me.

After we saw EVERYTHING there was to see in Carlsbad Caverns and the surrounding dessert, we headed back up HWY 285 to HWY 82 through the Lincoln National forest to HWY 70 and cruised around White Sands.

WTF, Jipson in the middle of the desert. There were also missile test grounds or something out there... effing creepy.

We then took HWY 70 to I-10 and headed to Tuscan.

Yeah- lots of ghost towns and abandoned shit out there and long dark, dark stretches of road in the middle of the desert.

I wouldn't not go back.

[AAAA]

Yeah, White Sands Missile Range is the largest missile range in America area wise.

People used to joke that the sand was white because of the radiation from testing nuclear weapons. I know they offer other explanations, but I wouldn't be shocked either way. Also, I'm pretty sure there were areas out there they didn't let people near for years.

There is a place near Socorro where you need a Geiger counter just to go in and some days people aren't allowed in because the radiation is too high. There are also areas of the tour that say if you pass this fence you WILL be shot on sight. Pretty scary shit. Plus, our mountains are stock piled with explosives. I love how no one ever suspects us.

They are working on building the first commercial space port here as well. It's a retarded waste of time, I'm sure, but still interesting.


When you said Gypsum I thought you were referring to the plant at first and I was going to tell you no matter how cool they tell you it is when you eat it don't. You'll probably end up in the hospital.

[LoveTownHippy]

Sorry. Yeah. Whatever that white 'sand' is.

At Carlsbad we saw a bunch of lizards, a giant centipede (super creepy), a couple deer, and a jack rabbit the size of a dog. I actually thought it was a dog when I looked at it from behind. Then we saw it's giant ears pop up and it turned it's head and we were all like "WTF IS THAT?" and realized there are jack rabbits in those parts.

I was really surprised how much wildlife is in the desert. I guess we weren't too far from the Guadalupe Mountains, but for serious. Awesome.


I don't know if I would want to check out places with high amounts of radiation. Not sure if that is my thing.

Also, the 75 mph speeds on the weird highways rocks my socks. We didn't expect that and were always ahead of schedule.

[AAAA]

They are 80MPH in Texas. That was awesome.

What speed did you expect?

[LoveTownHippy]

We have crazy mountain roads. Not safe to drive over 50 or 55, so we planned for that speed.