Westward into the Desert

Friday, January 15, was the final day of our three-month stay in Austin TX. It was a day filled with packing the car and unloading what wouldn't fit at Goodwill. On our last evening with the Watsons we celebrated by introducing the boys to "Sundees" - ice-cream sundaes adapted with plant-based ice "cream", chocolate sauce, fresh berries, whipped "cream" made from coconut, and "magic sprinkles". "More whipped cream please?" kept the sundaes going for quite a while. After long tearful hugs, we walked back to our AirBnB and were in bed early enough that we were on the road by 4:00 AM. The downtown Austin lights slipped away and we were well past the Texas hill country as the sun rose behind us, Soon, dry brown scrub brush and cactus dotted the landscape and mesas rose up in the distance. Four hours in, we spotted small oil rigs bobbing in the fields and beyond them acres of mesa-top wind turbines spinning in the breeze. After more than nine hours on the road we finally reached Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the late afternoon.

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