Saturday May 4th

Wow, how wonderful it was to get a good night's sleep last night, following a great Mexican food dinner.  I brought the Road Atlas into our hotel room and looked for a different way to go home instead of the usual way (which would be to go south to pick up I-40 east to Amarillo and then Hwy 287 south to the DFW area).  We decided this morning to go south to Albuquerque, N.M., than go east for only a short ways to Clines Corners, where we will take U.S.285 south to Roswell, N.M., where we will find U.S.380 east which we can follow almost all the way home.  This will be a new route to us, so we will see places we have never seen before, and that's what vacations/adventures are all about!

You probably remember me talking about all the many, many giant billboards for Clines Corners we saw on I-40 last Sunday as were going to Grand Canyon.  Well, we could not pass this place up a second time without stopping to see what all the "hooplah" is about!  I can tell you that I have never in my entire life seen that many souvenirs under one roof!  Aisle after aisle of thousands and thousands of any type of trinket you can possibly imagine.  Plus they had the largest and cleanest restrooms of anywhere (I think it was around 30 stalls in the women's!).   AND, the large wooden Indian in front!  Oh my goodness, what a tourist trap!!

We only passed thru two small towns, Encino and Vaughn, between Clines Corners and Roswell.  We stopped for an ice cream cone in Roswell and continued on our way.  Nothing much to see other than beautiful sky and flat barren brown landscape.

Oh boy, was it ever good to see Texas again!  After all the brown, desolate land we have been seeing yesterday and today, then as soon as we crossed the state line into Texas, it was like entering the "land of plenty"!

No matter where I go, there is absolutely no place like Texas!!!

I think Texas may be the only state that has beaches, mountains, high plains, desert, thickly wooded hills, many State Parks, also National Parks, and so much more.  I guess there is just no place like home!

Taking U.S. 380 from Roswell was a very pleasant and scenic drive once we crossed the state line into Texas.  I had no idea there were such huge farms in the high plains of Texas.  Wheat, cotton, and other crops as far as the eye can see!  Also acres and acres of grape vinyards!

This route was definitely more scenic, less traffic, less stressful; interesting to read about all the towns (in our Texas Travel Book) that we were going thru for the first time; however it took a little longer than it would have if we had traveled on the interstate.  I think the trade-off was worth it, although by the time we got to Graham, Texas we were beat.  When we saw a brand new Holiday Express Inn, we zipped in and got a room for the night.  We will travel the final leg of this trip in the morning.