Did I know what long haul was before I drove from Houston to El Paso?

There is so much nothing in between San Antonio and El Paso, Texas that Erin and I began wondering how the one house we saw would possibly even get toilet paper. I bet Amazon.com, but we didn't stop to ask.

We trucked today. We drove around 750

miles and never left the great state of Texas. Pretty soon after Houston the landscape really began to change. Somewhere between San Antonio and El Paso we crossed some invisible, yet very apparent line between landscape that I felt I knew and the rugged mountainous ranges I associate with the likes of Val Kilmer in Tombstone and Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma.

I took a nap and woke up in a western. One of my favorite parts of the day had to be when we stopped for gas (one of the only places for miles) and Erin in artistic fashion began taking pictures. As we were gassing up, a man approached us who

looked like he had come directly from an oil rig. His only question: What are you taking a picture of? Erin was crouched in front of my car holding her camera up it's grill.

"There's a butterfly that's dead, but looks like it's still flying," she responded, pointing to just that.

To which the man looked mildly amused and moved on smirking.

We did finally make it to El Paso and in good time. The Padillas, who I only knew from missionary prayer cards at church, are a wonderful, warm family who immediately welcomed us into their home. Thanks, Padillas.

Also, thanks to everyone who asked around for places for us to stay in Arizona, we totally have it covered now. Turns out Dave Dorst is quite the travel agent and has hooked us up with his former neighbor's family recently moved to Phoenix.

And so. Moving on tomorrow to Phoenix. Then on to San Diego in time for church and Sunday dinner with Jules.

Random Fact: If Erin's sandals are still in my car, we don't know where...