Day 4

Well today was by far our longest driving day - our itinerary had us going from Dallas to El Paso which is about 630 miles. We woke up and hit the road around 9 AM driving straight until we stopped for lunch at 12:30 at Subway. As we pulled out of the hotel we saw the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

Texas was a pretty easy drive as the speed limit was 80 mph ... but man was it boring. Not much to look at and by the time we got to lunch it was in the 70s. Yesterday we were leaving the cold of Memphis ... it's crazy!

We stopped about 3:30 at Monahans Sandhill State Park - which sounds relatively easy but here is the best part. We had let the gas get fairly low in the car, and by low I mean about 10 miles until empty ... we were about 9 miles to the park. So naturally we think that there is a gas station near this park ... as we pull into the lot the car hits 0 - no gas station in sight. Uh oh! I ask the Park Ranger the closest station and he said about 5 miles. So we get back on the highway and hope that we can make it. Which of course (well obviously) we did.

The state park was a blast! Recon had such a great time running up and down the dunes. We bought a frisbee for Recon which he chased over and over.

And Texas Recon ....

Just for you Dad ... Check out the speed :)

We pulled out of there abouut 5 PM and headed straight for El Paso. Arriving in El Paso around 8 PM ... we decided the hotel that was booked was NOT in the best neighborhood. As we got closer to El Paso there was a mile of light in the distance... i googled what was near and it was "Juarez, Mexico". I think a mixture of the hotel being bad and the fact we were 1 mile from the "gateway to juarez" (we saw a sign I swear ...) - so we decided not to stay in El Paso.

About 300 extra miles, two states later and arriving about 1 AM Mountain Time ... we found ourselves staying the night in Tucson, Arizona. I guess it wouldn't be a real roadtrip without some random fun! So we did close to 1,000 miles in one day.

And now ... time for sleep!