Austin to Phoenix
We got up at 5:00 in the morning to leave for a 14 hour drive to Phoenix Arizona - the longest leg of the trip. Not only was it the longest section of road we’d cover so far but it was also the least amount of variation in landscape, making it a pretty tedious drive. Not much happened on the road other than seeing a lot of clusters of cacti, steer, low lying shrubs and the occasional rancher on the side of the road.
We stopped to get gas in a little town in far west Texas and met a rancher who was born and raised in that same town. He told us he’s been herding sheep on horseback his whole life and when told we came from New York City his reply was “I’m sorry”. He was very nice and took our photo in front of the local landmark, Squaw Teat Mountain, and wished us luck on our trip.
The other interesting part of this trip was seeing the difference from Juarez Mexico, which was just on the left hand side of Rt 10 and El Paso Texas, which was on the right side of the highway. There was a significant difference in wealth and living conditions. The houses weren’t as picturesque, the cars were older, and a few of the roads weren’t even paved. It was sad to see such a drastic difference just on the other side of the border and the the amount of excess that populated the US side.
We got to our friend Jay’s house in Tempe Arizona at about 9pm. We hung out, drank a few beers, picked an orange off the tree in his back yard and relaxed for a few before going to sleep. Everybody was worn out from the long drive - it was a long day.
— Dave
