Day Two - off to New Mexico

After a morning of playing just a little bit more with our cousins, we headed south to Tucson. We were blessed with the opportunity to see some friends that had relocated from the OC to Tucson a little over a year ago. They were part of our home group with a daughter only 2 weeks older than Beth, very special people, and we hated to say goodbye when they moved away. Funny how a year later we did the same thing. Anyway, we were glad to see them and their growing girls. They fed us, talked with us, and sent us on our way after too short a visit, but 9 hours of driving to Carlsbad, NM lay ahead. The drive was long but as I did the evening drive while Andrew slept (to prepare for the late night shift) I actually found myself enjoying the quiet. There were almost no cars on the road. It was seriously desolate except for the rare truck that would come my way. The only sign of civilization I saw for hours after leaving the El Paso area were the men at border patrol (we passed the questioning and were allowed to continue on :) But rather than being disturbing being in the middle of nowhere, or so it seemed, it was peaceful, and I felt like I could drive for hours (actually I did :) I've always enjoyed driving like that in the quiet open road. It helps that I have great night vision and lots of experience driving alone at night back and forth from college. We drove though Guadalupe National Park. It would have been nice to see it during the daylight but the full moon gave me a good sense of the sight - Texas' highest elevation point. I would have taken pictures to share but they'd just be all black so you'll have to use your imagination or do some googling. Road trips can be really fun if you have the right attitude. We made it at 3am (new time zone so really it was only 2!) and quickly crashed into our beautiful little KOA kabin.