Text 24158, 104 rader
Skriven 2009-05-18 13:17:33 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
     Kommentar till en text av Dale Shipp
Ärende: Trip Report 3
=====================
Hi Dale,


 DS> We arrived at the Phoenix airport about noon, picked up a rental car
 DS> and headed straight to our motel in Tucson, AZ.  This began the second

Between here....................

 DS> phase of our vacation -- driving to El Paso Texas to visit with our

and here, you passed Exit 90 on I-10.  That's the one we'd get off on to
head 30 miles south to Fort Huachuca.

Did you stop at the rest area in Texas Canyon to get any pictures of the
rocks? We'd usually stop there, just so we could look at the rocks. (For
those that don't know, it's all kind of rock formations, some balanced
in seemingly impossible positions. It's one of those places that
"totally awesome" doesn't even begin to describe.)


 DS> son who is stationed at Fort Bliss.  We took several side trips

I know place, especially Beaumont Hospital.

 DS> Along the way, we stopped at San Xavier Mission, just south of Tucson.
 DS> Then to the south east to stop at Bisbee, AZ -- a very old mining town
 DS> that was once the third largest city west of the Mississippi.  Next we

 Also home of the "Killer Bee Honey Store", as featured on Food Network
 as well as a big copper mining (the Lavender) pit.


 DS> drove to the north to Tombstone, AZ.  This is a town that everyone has
 DS> heard of, and seems to be one of those "must-see" places.  In reality,
 DS> it is very touristy with shops, enactments and stuff.  We did not

You got that right.  All sorts of "wannabes", gunslingers, dance hall
girls, etc.  That's where the town council, some years ago (while we
were stationed at Fort Huachuca) decided that the stage coach horses
needed diapering so as not to offend tourists.  The idea was implimented
but didn't last but a few months.  You can get a good buffalo burger in
one of the side street eateries; also Don Teodoro's has good Mexican
food.  Some good friends of ours live in Tombstone.  After seeing the
general area, do you see why we would like to settle out there?

 DS> spend much time there.  North of Las Cruces, NM we were on an
 DS> interstate that went paralell to the Rio Grande.  For much of our
 DS> trip, the scenery was cactus and brown vegetation.  Along the Rio
 DS> Grande there were many farms with green fields and orchards of what we
 DS> were told were pecan tree s.

Yes, it's needed to make pecan-te sauce. (GD&R)

 DS> When we got to El Paso, our son took us to dinner at a Vietnamese
 DS> restaurant.  It was the first time we had been to one.  It will not be
 DS> the last!  The food was quite fresh.  The next morning, he had

We enjoyed the ones we went to in HI--one on Kauai & one run by the
brother on Oahu.

 DS> from the photos, it was quite a view.  For dinner that night, I said
 DS> that I would like to have some good Texas BBQ.  Since that is not in
 DS> his area of expertese, he called a friend.  The friend recommended a
 DS> place
 DS> called State-Line BBQ.  The parking lot is in Texas, and the
 DS> restaurant is in New Mexico.  Bryan had a mixed vegetable grill which
 DS> came with
 DS> sides of cole slaw and Texas beans.  I inherited the beans since they
 DS> had meat in them, and the waitress brought him a dish of potato salad
 DS> in replacement.  Gail had a lean brisket sandwich.  They also offered
 DS> original fatty brisket for those who like that version.  I got a mixed
 DS> platter with five meats.  It included a large beef rib -- good;  a
 DS> quarter rack of baby back ribs -- excellent;  a few slices of lean
 DS> brisket -- very good;  a smoked sausage -- very good; and a moderate
 DS> portion of turkey breast -- ok.  The turkey breast was supposed to be
 DS> smoked, but very little smoke flavor penetrated the sauce that was put

Sounds better than the Sonny's chain we saw a lot ofa bit further south.
One ofour favorite places (but outside El Paso, in Anthony, NM) isThe
Great American Land and Cattle Company.  Great beef, decent prices.
They've got some smaller places in & around El Paso but none of them
have as a full a menu--they're more oriented toward young families on
a budget.  BTW, did you pass the cattle feed lots west of El Paso?
Almost enough to make you want to give up beef--but not quite.

 DS> All along the trip from Phoenix to El Paso, there were many varieties
 DS> of cactus that were blooming.  I made a special section of the photos
 DS> just for pictures of cactus blooms.  On the entire coach tour north of
 DS> Phoenix, we rarely saw any blooms.  This was just another example of
 DS> the effect of elevation and local climate on the plant life in
 DS> Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

That's so true.  We had no saguaros in Fort Huachuca, saw one in Sierra
Vista.  There are several places between Tucson & Phoenix that are
filled with them.  OTOH, prickly pear seem to be able to adapt to a lot
of areas. I spotted some in Wake Forest the other day. Some parts of HI
also had a lot of it.



... Some are so educated they can bore you on almost any subject

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)