Today We Drive

Cochise Stronghold, AZ - Somewhere in Texas (Ozona, TX)

Mileage; 3255

We finally got on the road and headed East on Highway 10. It is overcast, but there is a bright haze that makes you squint if you're not wearing sun glasses and there are funky puffs of clouds blanketing the sky. This particular leg of the trip was flat, dry and desolate. It consisted of the flattest brown desert with mountains in the distance, but pretty much nothing, barring the occasional dust devils, abandoned cement houses and billboards for as far as your eye can see. There was beauty to be found for those looking for it, the sky was big and layers of mountains reminded us of western paintings. There were also pairs of warning signs along the side of the road "Zero Visibility Possible" followed closely by"Do NOT Stop in Travel Lanes" the dust here must be bad! Just about all of the rest stop signs have CLOSED nailed on them, great. We got off at an exit that the CLOSED sign must have fallen off of and Ben joked, "We've just pulled into Hell" it was bad.

Some of our billboard favorites consisted of: "FIREWORKS-EXIT NOW! VOLUME DISCOUNTS", "Jesus Christ is Lord (not a swearword)", "Agate Bookends" (had about 50 billboards just for the bookends), "Snake Stuff -Snake Eggs, Buckles and Bolos", "Lotsa T-shirts", the billboards give this landscape some depth.

Oh but we did see the Javalinas (spanish pronunciation) (the wild pigs) along the side of the road, that was exciting! We didn't make it to Austin which was a lofty goal so it is Ozona for the night and a hot shower and comfortable bed.