Crying over Spilt Milk - Day 3

If you ever find yourself in a car holding a bowl of cereal and milk, do not, I repeat, DO NOT attempt to throw the uneaten cereal and milk out the window while doing 80 on the freeway.

This is the very situation we happened to find ourselves in, only no one had ever warned us against doing such a thing. So toss the milk out the window we did. Well, Shayla did. Or at least she tried to!

We left our hotel in El Paso before Max had time to wake up and eat breakfast. So, we did what all good parents would do. We brought breakfast into the car with us! Here we were, happily on our way, mom and dad in the front seats, Isla happy in her car seat and Max eating a yummy bowl of Lucky Charms in back. I was being very careful to not make any sudden moves or hit any bumps in the road while I was driving so as to avoid spilling the milk.

After a while, Max was finished eating his cereal. There was still a bit of cereal left in the bowl along with most of the milk. Shayla was now trying to figure out what to do with this unfinished breakfast. She grabbed the empty pint-sized milk carton and was carefully trying to pour the cereal and milk into it without spilling any on herself or on the seat. Being the wise person I am, I suggested just pouring the milk and cereal out the window.

Really? Shayla asked. Sure! I said. It's just cereal and milk, so it's not really littering. The milk will dry up and the cereal will just crumble to small bits or be eaten by birds anyway. I did a quick check in the mirror, there were no cars behind us so nobody would get milk splattered across their windshield either. It was a perfect plan!

The window was rolled down, Shayla picked up the bowl, and held it out the window to empty it of its contents. Let's just say, this is a very effective way to empty a bowl. Very Effective! The milk was instantly blown from the bowl and into the truck! There was milk all over the inside of the door, the seats, Shayla, the rear window, outside on the door, on the outside of Shayla's and Isla's windows, and just about everywhere else!

Shayla looked over at me, stunned at what had just happened. I burst out laughing, unable to control myself at the scene that was unravelling before me. Let's just say, it's not very smart to laugh at your wife when she's covered in milk and Lucky Charms because you (or in this case, I) had a brilliant plan that backfired! I don't think she thought it was quite as humorous as I did!

The rest of the trip was much less eventful. We did 570 miles (that's almost 9 hours!) from El Paso to New Braunfels, Texas and only stopped once! We passed through dry desert, flat grasslands, barren mountains (small mountains), and on through rolling hills covered with small shrubs and cactus 'till we finally reached the green tree-covered hills around San Antonio.

We passed through the Border Patrol station just outside of El Paso where we were stopped and asked if we were U.S. citizens, and we stopped at the town of Fort Stockton where we had lunch at Dairy Queen.

Considering the long drive and the amount of time we had our kids cooped up in the back seat, they both did amazingly well! I don't think Max has ever sat in one place for that long in his entire life!

Tonight we are staying at what will undoubtedly be the nicest place we will stay in on our entire trip! Courtesy of my parents, we are crashing for the night at their timeshare resort in New Braunfels, just north of San Antonio. We are in a two bedroom condo, complete with 2.5 bathrooms, a full kitchen, a porch, a large, king size bed, laundry room, a front lawn, a swimming pool at the clubhouse, and the list goes on. I think we might just unpack our bags and stay a week or two!

The humidity and heat might be the only thing that will actually keep me from following through with that last statement though. As soon as we stepped out of the truck, I felt like I was sucking in a gallon of water with each breath! Shayla's first comment to me as she stepped out into the sticky air was, "If Virginia is going to be like this, turn around and take me back!"

One sidenote: There are lots of bugs in Texas. LOTS of bugs! Our windshield is covered with them and the radiator grille looks like it could be hanging on the wall of an insect museum!

This is our hotel in El Paso. Ciudad Juarez, "The Most Murderous City in the World", is just across the freeway in the background.

This is also our hotel. I took comfort knowing that as my family slept, people were being killed across the street, drug cartels were waging a territory war, and Foxy All Nude was right next door! If anyone out there is trying to book a one-way ticket to hell, this is your place!

People in Mexico like to write little stories on their mountains. This one says, "CD Juarez La Biblia Es La Verdad Leela" which means, "Cuidad Juarez, The Bible is the Truth. Read It." I think some of the murdering, drug-smuggling, and otherwise fine upstanding citizens of this great city have yet to follow this little suggestion!

We saw lots and lots of wind farms between El Paso and San Antonio. Lots of them. We only saw maybe ten oil rigs though. I thought this was oil country, not wind country!


And finally, a few pics of our place tonight.