Tuesday dawned sunny but smoggy in El Paso. The local geography causes air pressure inversions that trap pollution from cars, trucks, trains, etc. along with emissions from local industries.
As we pointed ourselves northeast, we noticed a drastic improvement in Mike’s performance. We spent the day driving through west Texas, dominated by oil and gas fields. Sarah read that the Texas Department of Highway spreads 30,000 pounds (!) of wildflower seeds each year along the ditches. The Texas state flower, bluebonnet, is a regional species of spring-flowering lupin. There are a few different legends about how this blue-purple wildflower got to Texas. One 18th century story claims a Spanish nun appeared to indigenous people to teach them about Jesus. She was wearing a blue cloak over her brown habit and appeared several times to two different groups. On the morning after her last appearance, the fields were covered in a new flower the same color as the nun’s cloak. Even more miraculous is that the nun in this story never actually left her convent in Spain. It is said that she projected herself to North America through deep contemplation and prayer.
We spent the night in Seymour, Texas at the HH Creek Inn. We split a delicious 16 oz ribeye dinner at the Rusty Spur Saloon and thoroughly enjoyed watching the Breakaway Roping competition from the Lazy E Arena on the newly launched Cowgirl channel.
Where in the world are the Gills? 