Day Ten - yay, more people I know!

Waking up in El Paso today was nothing special. I found a cute place on yelp for breakfast that was on my way so, as usual, I was very excited for my breakfast food!

After about a half hour drive towards Phoenix, I arrived for breakfast - I couldn't decide between the challah french toast and an egg/protein option, so I got both! Clearly I am excited to have made it this far, and am rewarding myself with crazy things like also ordering fresh squeezed OJ.

The restaurant was so cute, its also an event space, a garden, and it has a gift shop! It was so hot outside, I also was tanning while I brunched on the patio. Even once I was done eating, I decided to stay on the patio a little longer to get some extra vitamins from the sun!





Soon after I left for New Mexico, adding yet another state to my "photos with the welcome sign" collection.

Boy, was I happy to finally have finished my very long drive across Texas. It was at least 15-18 hours of driving to get across that one state!

I cannot report on the rest stops here, but I can say that in additional to becoming a connoisseur of rest stops, I have also gotten very good at taste testing the local tap water. The tap water in El Paso was very chemicaly, so I am hoping for something better at my next stop. 






Once I left I was headed to a gypsum park north of El Paso - this is also definitely one of my top 5 of the trip. Admission was free that day, so after a big ascent into the mountains, I arrived at the former missile site, ready to see something amazing. Its supposed to be a big reservation of what looks like stark white sand dunes where you can walk around/explore and also even sled around the dunes.

 The views did not disappoint, I would love to come back here. It was a perfect/gorgeous day, the sky and clouds were so pretty, I just felt like I couldn't take enough photos! Not that the photos can do it justice...

After visiting White Sands, I continued on the last long leg of my journey - to Phoenix where my friends were hosting me for the night. I saw another awesome sunset on my drive, followed by all those stars you can't see in cities like Baltimore.

Again I was so happy to see a familiar face, and spend time catching up. It has been so lucky that I had friends along the way to stop and visit. That has really been one of my favorite parts, because its rare that I would have had an opportunity to see them otherwise.