We spent last night November 8 at Deming, NM at the Wal-Mart parking lot with about 15 other RV's and 10 tractor-trailers. As we were pulling up to the edge of the lot to park, a young man came racing up with lights flashing in a security truck. He hopped out smiling and asked us if we were planning to spend the night. I thought, "Oh, crap. Now Wal-Mart is charging to stay in the lot." I knew it was allowed because there were already too many rigs there. He just told us we needed to move to the other side of the lot where the RV's were. That kept us away from the diesel engines on the trucks which I have learned in an earlier, not pleasant, experience are loud. So here was Wal-Mart, offering free overnight parking and helping us have a quiet night. That was damned decent. I will have to cut back on bad-mouthing them.

Now we are driving on the straightest, flattest road you can imagine. Along the side are a few scrubby green bushes, brown grass, and a few cows. I cannot imagine how they stay alive.

We have been warned about high winds and dust storms today on our Weatherbug app (a great little app, btw) and we are getting a little spit of rain. We have seen a couple of rainbows. So here we are going through the desert and getting rained on. Don't know if that is good or bad. Just hope the winds don't get too bad.

 

We are seeing what I assume are gas wells, some bigger than others, but quite a few. Haven’t seen any oil wells.

 

We have seen at least a dozen trains, and I heard them all night in Deming. Most of them are quite long and have mostly double-decked containers. I was talking to Doug this morning. He said that he sees a lot of trains through Knoxville but never with double decks. I figure these are trains from Southern California that have been unloaded from China and Japan. By the time they get past Bentonville, Arkansas they don’t need to stack the containers. Right, Kelly? I have seen the same names on containers, Hanjin and Cosco, on containers in Wilmington. I know lumber used to go back to China, (when the Bernhardts and Broyhills decided they could make more money if they closed down furniture plants in Lenoir, greedy b-----ds), although I doubt that was in containers, but maybe. I’m curious if most of these containers go back empty. Just a commentary on life in the world.

 

It continues to rain as we travel I-10. We are probably 90 miles from Tucson. When we first crossed in to Arizona, the road got really rough, but it has smoothed out considerably, thank goodness. The temperature is dropping. I don’t know if that is because of the rain or increasing elevation. I think it’s the rain.

 

We have seen some really poor places. I thought Appalachia was poor, but it’s nothing like some of the things I saw in El Paso and now in Arizona. In El Paso I could have sworn I was looking at Mexico. If people are willing to risk death to come here and live like that, I can’t imagine what life must have been like for them there.   Yes, I am a bleeding heart, always have been, and most likely always will be. I know we are blessed to live in this country. What I don’t understand is the curse of being born in another.

 

Too much time to think today. I wish I had more to tell. It’s just flat and brown with amazing peaks in the background. I will have more pictures when I get my big camera downloaded.