Racing the 3:10 to Yuma

We hit the America of dust storms, trains, and cacti today. We also debated the plural of cactus. Cacti? Cactuses? Just plain cactus, the same way moose is both singular and plural?

We had an amazing morning with the Padillas. What a wonderful, witty family. We said goodbye then headed out to Phoenix.

I joked yesterday about Tombstone and 3:10 to Yuma but today we actually passed Tombstone, Arizona! (I'm your huckleberry). We saw what had to be 5 0r 6 different trains going different directions, but one in particular ran right along the highway and I swear I saw a prison car. With Russell Crowe in it.

We were repeatedly warned by road signs that visibility could possibly be zero and that we should drive with EXTREME caution! We did see dust swirls off in the distance and felt the intense wind on that wide open highway, but didn't come close to zero visibility, thanks signs.

Erin also gave me a mild heart attack when, through a series of last second turn offs and near instant deceleration to make it to an exit where we could more closely see these crazy rock formations, she made me think that we were literally about to implode. I yelled something about the stick shift, put it in neutral maybe, simultaneously looking for the space invaders or flaming wreckage we had to be trying to avoid.

That said, they were cool rock formations. They looked like they were teetering on the brink of falling and rolling down the highway.

Oh, and we got stopped by U.S. Border Patrol in New Mexico. We thought we had taken a wrong turn and headed toward actual Mexico (which we had promised numerous people we wouldn't do), but it turns out this station had been there for a while. After a quick "Are you citizens?" chat we were free to go. He also wanted to know where we were going but didn't really seem to care.

Now we're sitting in the Haymons bright Arizona home, welcomed yet again by a wonderful family. Erin and I are sitting alongside Andrea and Trish, all of us on laptops doing a variety of tasks including facebooking, blogging, creating a globe from beach ball and construction paper, researching Yuma prison, and the ever important, eating of ice cream sundays. Thanks, Haymons!!

One last long leg tomorrow to get to Julia and San Diego! With a promising stop-over at Yuma prison...

Random Fact: We will be very far from actual prisoners as Yuma prison operations was moved to Florence, Arizona in 1909.

I also discovered it is possible for truck stop yogurt to taste like truck stop.