Friday 23rd November- Alpine to Deming New Mexico

A quick breakfast at the Hotel and then down the road for 30 miles to a place called Marfa which turned out to be closed as it was still rather early in the day at about 0900. We had planned to have a coffee and walk around but it was very windy and at 7 degrees Centigrade was a little on the chilly side.
We purchased some petrol at the extortionate price of US 3.49 per gallon, it was US 3.09 earlier in the week, the price must have gone up due to the Thanksgiving Holidays when everybody travels, 45 million people were expected to travel on the couple of days leading up to Thanksgiving day.
The road was quiet and flat and straight for mile after mile and we nearly knocked over a dear and her fawn, we also saw several coyote's and then an airship, so quite an interesting drive really.
We eventually had to leave the slower roads and head for the Interstate 10 which goes through El Paso and it was a short while before we reached here that we remembered that we would cross to a new time zone and gain one hour.
By one pm, or 12 really, we reached El Paso and was a little peck'ish and did not fancy the usual sandwich and then we saw a sign for a Texas BBQ and so in we went. The girl explained their process and what you can have which is largley brisket of beef, pork loin or ribs and turkey and variants on that. We chose the Turkey and Pork Ribs and both were delicious together with new potatoes, coleslaw and Jennifer had the Corn on the cob.

El Paso is a huge place and at times the interstate runs 300 yards from the Mexican Border and we did encounter two Border Patrol road blocks en route today. After leaving El Paso on the Interstate we decided to leave it after about ten miles and took the country roads which was much nicer. We also passed through a small town called Hatch which names them selves the Chile capital of the world. We also passed mile after mile and Pecan Nut trees until final we arrived in a place called Deming where we plan to break the journey for the day before heading off to Toombstone and Tucson tomorrow.
Having had a good lunch we will have only a light snack tonight and although we did think of going to the cinema we decided we were too tired after the 380 mile drive.