6. Texas
We crossed the line in the late afternoon and stopped for water and toilets at the comfortable reststop on I-40 with state-shaped bbq grills and vistas. We woke to the eroding red dirt and deer hoof trodden Palo Duro Canyon, The 2nd largest canyon in north America I was told. Spiders, inching worms, and monumental painted canyons.



Highway 27 carried us south from Amarillo out of the panhandle into the vast flat of the central plains. No road kill to speak of, only an occasional alfalfa field.

We headed toward New Mexico from Lubbock (the home of texas tech U.). Highway 27 carried through little beaten towns of pecan groves, cotton fields, and peanut groves. They looked as worried as Gary, IN. Rust, empty weed lots and abandonment.

As we neared the border of New Mex. and the town of Hobbs, oil companies and refineries assumed control of the land. A monstrous Excel energy plant stood to the north and hundred of pendulating pumps to the south.