The Road to El Paso

We had the opportunity to go to El Paso for a job interview for Ben this weekend. While Cody and Macey stayed with a friend this was still a trip, not a vacation, since driving with a baby for 12 hours is not fun. I would rather sit in solitary confinement for 12 hours. That actually sounds nice.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the time I had with Ben which is the most one on one time I've had with him since......maybe a few years?

I started documenting our drive. Maybe because I had time. We passed through Shamrock, TX which was fitting since it was St. Patrick's day this weekend.

This is some of the scenery along the way:)

More of that

It's pretty flat! It actually does not look like this in Oklahoma City area; there are a lot more rolling hills, trees, civilization and people.

I had to take a picture of Pullman road, just because, but I also loved the sign behind it - the " Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center". We are still definitely in the bible belt.

About the time we reached Amarillo we were ready to make a stop. I immediately started looking for a McDonald's sign with a playplace, then realized we didn't have to go there!!!! I asked Ben where one would go one a road trip without little kids when we passed this by:

And that's where we went! First horse registered with AQHA:

Roping

Entrance to the museum:

the foyer, which was beautiful:

Ben was in heaven. This was the perfect stop.

I got bored of taking pictures and Mackayla got bored in general so that's all in terms of road pics, but this is what greeted us as we entered El Paso...a huge star on the hill lit up.

The next day Ben worked with the surgeon all day and I got a tour of the city. It's Huge. We also stopped in to see what the doctors were doing. I have never actually seen a surgery in progress so this was cool to see. The horse is under general anesthesia and is getting his leg scoped (the computer screen showing what's going on is just cut off above them).

Right outside of where that was going on is a breeding facility. Tons and tons of moms and babies were out enjoying the sun.

After I had a tour of the town I went exploring on my own. I love the architecture of the buildings down there:

This is downtown El Paso, which connects straight into Juarez in Mexico. I wasn't too worried about getting lost or ending up in Mexico since I had a pretty good idea of where the freeway was. However, after I came back, I learned that you can just drive into Mexico, but you can't just drive right out! I was fine though.

About this time my camera died. I was so sad, because there were so many other things I wanted to take pictures of. This town, while I don't imagine is a huge vacation destination, was so fun to see. I'm SOOOO glad we went - - which is a whole other post that will be coming in a little bit.