Day 12 - West Texas

Doc and I headed out of Las Cruces early this morning and headed to El Paso to visit Barnett's Harley-Davidson - the largest HD dealer in the world - or so they claim.

It was pretty impressive. While there, Doc noticed that he had lost the main bolt holding on his front engine guard. He got another bolt and nut there, and we fixed it in the parking lot.

The ride from Las Cruces to El Paso was beautiful, and I was surprised by the amount of greenery and farming. There were lots of orchards. The sharp mountains were also impressive.

El Paso was a crowded city and I was not sorry to leave the traffic behind.

Now, West Texas was another matter.

We had been through Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, and the deserts of both. With all due respect to our Texas friends, West Texas just seems like a waste of space.

We rolled along the Mexico border, then turned towards Pecos and Odessa. We left the mountains behind around Pecos, and then everything got FLAT and DUSTY. We stopped in a small town called Sierra Blanca, which seemed to have died. Every store, gas station, restaurant and hotel in the "main" part of town was closed and boarded and falling apart. There was one gas station/store and small cafe.

Pecos was pretty much a disappointment. I am not sure what I expected, but I imagined a thriving cowboy town. Pecos was also dying. On the main intersection in town, all four gas stations were closed. We looked for a 'mom & pop' cafe, but we could only find one Pizza Hut and the Flying J truck stop. All of the other restaurants and cafes were closed and gone. We found a nice museum in Pecos, but we did not have time to stop. I wanted to see something related to Judge Roy Bean, but I found out that his museum is way South in Del Rio and Langtry, TX on the Mexico border.

I really wanted to make a stop in Odessa, TX to see Permian high school, home of the famed "Friday Night Lights" story, movie and TV show. I found the school and spoke with a teacher there, who directed me to the football field. The field is about a mile away in farm fields. It is a huge stadium, bigger than many college fields, with enormous parking lots. I could hear the football team practicing, but I could not enter the lots.

We are now in Midland, TX, which is oil country. This is a large town (as was Odessa, which was also thriving). From my limited perspective, Odessa, Midland and all around here is about the oil business.

Tomorrow, I plan to meet an old Army buddy who is a cattle baron in South Texas. He is delivering cattle near Fort Worth. We have not seen each other in about 25 years. We'll see who is fatter and balder.....

Mike