As we got up early to hit the road, we all felt that this was going to be different than any of the days s far. Not because it was the shortest distance-wise, not because we would cross the greatest number of state lines since the first day, but because we would finally reach our destination, and we could finally say we drove cross-country 2200 miles in a camper.
The last few miles of Oklahoma passed pretty quickly, so the main event of the morning was crossing over into Texas:
The scenery soon underwent its own dramatic shift, becoming significantly more 'Western-y', with lots of ravines and craggy outcroppings, and not so much flatland:
Soon, just to shake things up, we decided to get off I-40 for a bit and give the old Route 66 a quick runthrough in a small town called Adrian. The signs got a lot more interesting too:
And finally, a shot of us passing through the city center of Adrian (I kid you not):
Almost immediately after getting back on the highway, everything seemed to happen at once. The last I-40 exit in Texas...
...entering Mountain Time...
...entering New Mexico...
...and coming up on the New Mexico information center!
Their sign made me even more eager to try the legendary red and green chiles as soon as possible:
After stopping and hungrily grabbing up many a tourist brochure (and chatting with a trucker from Southington, perhaps the only other New Englander for miles around), we soon ran into our first major landmark, which I later learned was Tucumari Mountain:
Technically it's a mesa, but you still would never see anything like that back east!
The land only got more 'Western-y' from then on out, outdoing Texas by a longshot. There were two brands of it though, a very mesa-laden part (very butte-ful, you might say)...
...as well as a greener part speckled with scrub brush:
That was soon over though, and then, the mountains started to come into view:
And even sooner, we were driving through said mountains (excuse the glare, I was too preoccupied with them in front of me to adjust my shot/settings):
Sadly, I was also too excited about getting to Albuquerque to snap any shots of the exit signs, the city signs, the view from I-40, or anything else. However, we did make it, which was enough of an accomplishment for the day. Neat trip, great memories, definitely a unique experience and of course lots and lots of photos (I've only used here maybe a third of what I took overall)!
Of course, the end of the road trip isn't the end of the blog! The next few posts will detail what UNM looks like and what things are like living out here, for those of you reading this who aren't out here with me (which should be most of you). So make sure to keep checking back to get a feel for what it's like living in the High Desert, with giant mountains following you everywhere on campus!
