Day Seventeen

Odessa, TX to Las Cruces, NM

338 Miles

We left the oil wells behind, and I couldn’t be more thankful. The smell of oil pumps, wells, and refineries is quite strong.

Today, we drove through a rural part of western Texas. It is primarily desert with low lying bushes. I was surprised that there are mountains in Texas. Not green as we have in the east, but mountains nonetheless. We saw quite a few ghost towns and a some stray cattle along the way.

A portion of our drive was along the Mexican border. We intentionally didn’t stop anywhere along the border, but it was absolutely fine. El Paso, TX was much larger than either of us imagined. The houses are packed so close together.

We pulled into New Mexico around 1:30pm MST. I am glad I saw Texas, but I don’t have any desire to go back to the Northern part at least. Tomorrow, we drive to Gallup, NM. It is a shorter drive. From there we will explore the Hubbell Trading Post, White Sands, and Petrified Forest.

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