Leaving New Mexico and Entering Texas

Good Afternoon from Big Spring, Texas, ZigZags! Left our beautiful hotel in Roswell and headed East out of town past Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge. Barb asked if I wanted to take one more spin through to see the birds but decided the road was long and we weren't sure what awaited us in Texas. There have been torrential rains there and a great deal of flooding--fortunately, though we saw much standing water in the fields and along the roads, we didn't encounter any flooded roads or precipitation. East New Mexico is not what most people envision when they think of New Mexico. It is flat prairie for a long way and then it is very smelly from the petroleum taken from the depths of the Permian Basin that extends into West Texas and is a source of a great deal of oil etc. There is even a stretch of dunes called the Mescalero Sands. I love the juxtaposition of steer gathered around an oil rig. I also love the entrance gates to many ranches--they are really works of art. It is also quite nice that the power company places platforms at intervals along the lines so that raptors can make their nests--there are no trees for birds' nests. A favorite town of mine is Tatum, New Mexico about 8 miles from the Texas border. All the street signs, most of the business signs and the government building signs are made of decorative metal. There are two metal works in town--Poor Boy's Metal Art and Westcraft Metals--but neither is ever open and when checking the internet they appear to be construction companies--beyond me. https://www.bing.com/search?q=metal+art+in+tatum+new+mexico&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IETR02&conversationid=&pc=EUPP_ As we approached Bronco and the State line we enjoyed watching the acrobatics of a spraying aircraft. And then we were in Texas and on our way to Big Spring, through LaMesa which stretches out along a large mesa ( we'd also gone through Plains, the origins of its name I leave to your imagination, since not much was used in the choice.) Lots of fields of unharvested and very wet cotton, sorghum, sunflowers, maybe peanuts. Around Brownfield there was a cloud that looked, to me, like a huge flying angel with her arms outstretched above us. My imagination may have been stimulated by the huge cross and replica of Christ's grave with the rolled back stone that was at the entrance to town. We passed a large thoroughbred horse ranch that had a row of Burma Shave-like blue signs, ipo red, with the names of all their famous horses--didn't recognize any names. As we reached the outskirts of Big Spring we passed through a huge oil field. Talk about candles in the wind--flames as far as the eye can see burning off the gases from oil drilling. It must be beautiful at night. Now, we are in our lovely room getting ready to eat. BTW, Amy, I did stick with The House at the Edge of Night. Though not reading as much as usual I am making headway and like the book very much. The little girl has just found the man with the gun washed ashore. Oh, oh, is Maria-Grazia going to meet her future??? lol On a final note, the emails to the family taking care of Damian are bouncing back in the last two days as an email account that does not exist. The FB page is down and they aren't answering the phone or texts. A bit worrisome. Will have to talk to Bill about the situation. They have cashed all of Barb's checks and had Bill get them more food for Damian awhile back. Strange. Oh, well, can't do much from here. Hope all is well. Talk to you all from Wacky Waco tomorrow--did 222.8 miles today and hope to do 296.6 tomorrow. Hope the weather holds --we are in the Central Time Zone now--having entered Texas --so only one hour difference from home!! Signing off , Barbzig and KatZag