Seeing Green Again

Day 19 – June 28, 2009
We left Albuquerque under cloudy skies and the ever present wind. Within 30 minutes we pulled off to put on jackets and 30 more minutes we stopped to put on the rain suits. The ground and the mountains in New Mexico are all a deep red. Quickly the mountains slip into the far distance and the wide open range is covered with brown grass and cactus. In this semi-desert environment there are no trees and one of the locals at a rest stop said ‘it never rains here’ well I guess we brought it because it was raining; not hard and not for long but enough to make it cold. By 1 PM the sun was out and the temp was climbing fast so another stop to remove the rain suits and jackets. As we crossed into Texas the range changed from red to white sand with more cactus and small trees; some dead and some trying to survive then suddenly the range was green around Vega Texas. There were cattle in the fields and corn growing. We passed the first feed lot since the ones we saw in Kansas. It was as if a line had been drawn in the sand – west dry, desert – east green, growing. My brother-in-law moved to Texas over 15 years ago and sold his motorcycle because the wind was such a problem. He just purchased another one this past year. Had the wind stopped or had he gotten use to it? I can tell you the wind has not stopped. It is always blowing but usually it picks up strength around 2 in the afternoon. The sun is hot and you can get a real nice tan in about an hour out here in the wide open spaces. We have arrived in Amarillo for the night.