Black Oil & Brown GrassJan 6, 2012
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Ladies Room mosaic in rest area on I-20
More Ladies Room mosaics, the scenery worth looking at
Prairie dogs in the dog walk area at the rest area -...
Yes, we’re still in Texas, but we’re moving westward. We left Fort Worth and continued on Interstate 20 (which we have followed since we left Birmingham). Our goal was Midland, TX for a couple of nights stay. Now I know you all think we are stopping there to visit with our old friends George & Laura (Bush, that is), but that is really not the case; in fact, we had forgotten that this was where their ranch is until we saw the sign and at that point it was too late to continue elsewhere.
This part of Texas is about the least scenic area we have visited in our 2 plus years on the road. It is oil producing country and after you have seen one oil well they all pretty much look the same. We did visit the Petroleum Museum of West Texas which was beautifully done, and much more understandable than the one we had stopped at in Beaumont; that one made us feel like our alzheimers had progressed past redemption. This museum was designed like an art gallery with beautiful fixtures and was completely understandable to us mortals. I will say that it was definitely slanted towards the oil companies which is to be expected considering where we were.
From there we headed to Odessa to see their meteor crater. It used to be 100 feet deep and was now about 6 feet, having filled in with sand and silt over the years so there really is nothing to see. Suzie enjoyed walking around the site so it was not a complete loss. Continuing past Odessa to Monahans to the Sandhills State Park, provided much more fun. We rented a saucer to slide down the hills and headed back into the dunes. We either weigh too much or needed some of Chevy Chase’s spray on our saucer, because our longest ride was about 5 feet and that was only after a good push down the hill. Suzie had a ball and thought we had completely lost our minds, but didn’t care as she was off leash and able to run free for a good while as there was no one around. We wished we had checked the park out further online as they had a campground with electricity where we could have stayed, but we didn’t think the sites were big enough for Otto. Since it was 40 miles west of where we were staying, it would have saved 80 miles on the jeep and half an hour drive when we left the next day. Live and learn.
I know we are getting anxious to get out of Texas, especially since this part of the state is just brown. We asked if everything was so dead because it was winter or because of their drought and were told it was a combination of both. Regardless, we are tired of it and looking forward to the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona.
