We Walk into Mexico

Day 4: Van Horn, Texas to Tucson, Arizona

State Facts of the Day:
New Mexico- Known as "The Land of Enchantment." Why? Beats me.

Arizona- We lived there for 6 years. If that's not cool enough, Pluto was discovered in an observatory here in 1930.

Don't you wish when you have cool ideas when you're falling asleep or showering, you can save them in a little envelope in your mind that you can open later when you can act on those ideas? Meaning, there were a few things I wanted to mention today, but then I forgot them overnight.

Once again, we're in the middle of nowhere. Except this time, the town isn't on the map (Chipotle, TX?), we can see Mexico, and there is utterly no signal whatsoever.

I'll back up. We spent the night in the Kabin, and in the morning, got all ready and started packing up. I'd forgotten 4th of July was in our trip, so I'm just wearing a plain blue shirt. Bella has a little flag on hers. While packing up, Alex and I found a little "Original IQ Test" game from like 1976 that belonged to the KOA which we played dozen times. Needless to say, we failed for most of the times we played it. But it was fun!

When we were finally on our way, we drew little pictures on our phones and everything was average until we got gas a mile from Mexico. We decided we wanted to get pictures at the border and drove through the tiny town of Chipotle.

The border patrol let us walk in to take pictures with only our ID, so that's what we did. The Rio Grande is very dry right now. I think we put the Mexican border patrol on edge, however. They were a little nervous about us. Also, a truck stopped by with some Mexicans wondering if we lost our way to Rocky Point. Considering that's on the other side of Mexico, that would be very ignorant tourists indeed. Not long after we walked back after getting some pictures and they took a while to let us back in but then we were good and we left. Heading back to I-10, we passed a "cowboy" as Bella said. Basically, a Mexican on a horse with a cowboy hat and shotgun... He looked like a cowboy.

I really hate saying "Mexican" even though it's correct because of how much Americans will generalize Hispanics as Mexicans. Which is rather offensive. Not being Mexican, but to assume that Hispanic and Mexican are interchangeable. I am Hispanic, but I am not Mexican. (Same with Chinese and Asian except I'm not Asian) Anyways, whenever I'm actually talking about something Mexican, I feel like I'm saying the wrong word.

We stopped in El Paso for gas and lunch and discovered that Costco was closed for the holiday. So we looked around and ended up finding a place called Burritos Costocomos. Authentic. They were making tortillas as we watched. I got a bean burrito and a Mexican chicken burrito. And that just proved I could never be a Mexican. Their 'one flame' for the chicken was more than I could handle. I'm a heat wimp. After that we got Krispy Kreme doughnuts and we all got free one. I'm guessing for the holiday, but you never know with KK.

Eventually, we got out of both El Paso and Texas. We breezed through New Mexico and landed in Tucson. I know I sound like a broken record by now, but these hosts were really amazing people. We watched the fireworks from the street and then just talked with them from 9ish to 12:30. She has traveled around the world, wrote a book, and is friends with one of the founders of couch surfing. And he is a fighter jet trainer. To put them in the most simplistic terms ever. They just had the most incredible stories and things to say and it was just a great time.

Pic at the border.

See ya someday!