Arizona Adventures

Road trip!  El Paso, Texas, my home town, is a great jumping off place for a weekend getaway. We can go go east to Texas, north to New Mexico, or west to Arizona.  And all within a two to six hour driving time, which may seem a lot to others, but not in the Desert Southwest.  A cup of coffee, some good conversation, and the wide open spaces are covered in no time.

Wide open spaces with snow on mountains

My husband Wayne and I recently celebrated his birthday in Alpine, Arizona.   We were also looking for a calm, peaceful atmosphere to encourage us to continue writing on a book we had started,  Forts, Farbs and Phantoms:  A New Mexico Adventure.  

Alpine, Arizona, a town on the border with New Mexico, in the Apache National Forest, seemed like a good candidate for a writing getaway.  I checked with Google and discovered to my amazement that Alpine was only between three and four hours driving time from home  Piece of cake, we thought.  We might even be in Alpine for a late breakfast!

We left El Paso around 7:00 am and finally arrived in Alpine tired and hungry six and a half hours later.  How could Google have been so wrong?  Google wasn't.  I had failed to specify Alpine, Arizona on Google instead of Alpine, Texas.  But that error wasn't the only cause of our late arrival.

Wayne had been very busy the day before we left, going through a list of errands and checking them off when completed.  One of the errands was to fill up the tank of our Honda Crosstour.  We had just left Silver City, New Mexico, and were about ten minutes into the forest when Wayne looked down at the dashboard and got a puzzled look on his face.  "We are almost out of gas," he announced.

Our drive back to Silver City was nerve-racking.  We had no idea how much gas was left in the tank or how long the refuel indicator had been on.  Obviously gassing up the Crosstour did not get crossed off his list yesterday! Fortunately, very soon we came to the Continental Divide, so he put the car in neutral and coasted down most of the way to Silver City. Less than a quart of gas was left in the tank when we arrived at the gas station.

After this inauspicious trip beginning, the rest of the trip was great.

 Smokey on duty in Alpine AZ

Snack stop

Best cafe in Alpine!

And quiet too!

Lunch in nearby Springerville, AZ

It may appear that eating was our main entertainment during the weekend!  I must admit that beautiful scenery and good food were highlights of the trip.  And we actually got the plot of Farbs moving again.  All in all, a great weekend.

 Now, to plan the next weekend getaway (a little more carefully, this time!)