Off to a busy start, I left my house at about 0600 to drive through the dark and the rain to my brother's house, 70 miles away. The rain eased in the middle of the trip but it was wet at both ends. After a simple breakfast of bagels and coffee, we packed his car and departed. I-5 south to San Diego was reasonably fast, for people in the carpool lane, and I-8 over the mountains to the desert was a pretty ride. At the summit, just above 4000 feet, snow dusted the chaparral on the slopes next to the road. 

The drive to Yuma was easy, complicated a bit by a strong wind coming from mostly behind us. That wind is still blowing tonight as I write this in Benson, AZ. It'll continue tomorrow morning, then mellow. The sand dunes west of Yuma were whipping drifts of sand across the road. Cattle Egrets patrolled the agricultural fields. Nearly every soaring bird was a Turkey Vulture, and the others were to distant to ID.

After we lunched in Yuma we set out to get as far east as we could on I-10. First were the 50 or 60 miles of I-8 to reach I-10.We bought fuel at Arizona prices, more than a buck cheaper than California. We went through afternoon rush hour in Tucson, a mere shadow of what we would experience in L.A. We saw an awful lot of desert terrain..I like the desert.

We had a (tough) steak dinner and now we're back in the room. Tomorrow our goal is Marfa, TX, a quirky town in the vast expanse of West Texas. After we "do" Marfa, we'll bunk down for the night in Presidio, a border town that is the gateway to Big Bend State Park and National Park.  We're tired and we plan to sleep pretty well.