Our plans for our road trip were intended to carry us through the end of the week, but only two nights had been booked at our motel in Alpine. This had been done to allow some flexibility in planning later on, in case we decided to go elsewhere later on or encountered any problem with the accommodations upon our arrival. As it happened, the motel looked to be the best in the area, and Alpine was a convenient departure point for multiple potential day trip destinations. I therefore asked for and was given the same room for a further two days. These were interesting times for road tripping, and we were essentially in our small, private bubble of two at nearly all times. Any time there was any interaction with outsiders, or we left the motel room or car and there were other people around, we were masked up. We would go one at a time to the breakfast area of the motel, though foot traffic was already light due to the lack of travelers staying there. We had a nearly 3 1/2 hour drive out to El Paso on the itinerary, and we got an early start, leaving at about 8 AM.

I had last driven through El Paso in 2016, on the way back home from Tucson. At that time there had been a large Mexican flag flying just across the southern border, clearly visible from the Interstate, and I wanted Allison to see it. We drove almost to the New Mexico state line, where I found to my disappointment that the flag had been taken down. But even though we didn't manage that one experience, it was still early, and there were plenty of other things on the itinerary that we wanted to do while in town. Following a quick detour to Walmart, where I picked up a light jacket for the chilly weather outside, we made our way to our first planned stop, H&H. It was a small coffee shop and diner that Allison had seen reviewed on a foodie program.

Continuing onward, we ended up at another coffee shop downtown and did some exploration around San Jacinto Plaza. The Mexican border was very close by.

We stopped nearby for a bite to eat and sat in a big outdoor area. There were a fair number of people about, and the weather wasn't hot. I enjoyed being out and having the company. After a while, we started out again, looking for a couple of other scenic spots around the city before ultimately heading out to the Casa de Azúcar, or the Sugar House.

El Paso did not feel especially unsafe while we were there, despite the negative propaganda one often hears about border towns and cities. Both culturally and aesthetically, El Paso has very little in common with the big cities of north central and southern Texas, feeling much more like a city in New Mexico with its very southwestern, more indigenously inspired vibe. It was still mid-afternoon as we drove through town toward Scenic Drive. The skies were finally beginning to clear up a bit, with the dour gray at last being replaced by a bit of blue just in time for a visit to the scenic overlook. At the top of the ascent were what appeared to be the "moneyed" villas, the area where the more affluent denizens of the city resided. We drove through the area, noting how different the houses were compared to the "moneyed" areas back home in our respective cities before making the descent back down for the overlook.

We headed out of El Paso at around 4 PM. It was still very early in the day to be winding things down, but we had a 3 1/2 hour drive back to Alpine. We also had to give back the hour we'd gained on the way in, as El Paso is so far to the west of Dallas and Houston that it's in a different time zone.

For our last full day in West Texas, we went down to Big Bend. The park was open, though some areas were still closed off due to Covid-19 concerns. Neither of us had ever been there before, and the remote location and wide open spaces were seemingly ideal for a pandemic era. The drive from Alpine to the park entrance was about an hour, and we arrived there a bit after twelve noon.

The Fossil Discovery Exhibit:

Inside the exhibit:

Continuing along:

We started back for Alpine at about 5:30, passing through Terlingua, the "ghost town" just outside the park.

From Terlingua, it was over eighty miles back to Alpine. At one point along the way, we were stopped by the Border Patrol as part of routine monitoring and surveillance. Arriving back in town, we went shopping for food at the local Porter's grocery store, due to Allison's insistence that I have something other than french fries and coffee from the local McDonald's. I was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of TV dinners on offer, circumstance that I assumed to be due to the presence of the state university a mile away. My diet has always been the thing that suffers the most when I'm on the road, and this is due partly to a habit of cost cutting in this area as a way to offset fuel and lodging expenses, and partly to a lack of suitable dining establishments between big cities. We adjourned to the motel for the night, sitting and talking over microwaved food at our room's small dining table.

After three full days in West Texas (and four since beginning the road trip), we packed up and set out for home.

The drive back to Houston would be long, but we had planned a couple of stops in and around Austin along the way. The first was a favorite local restaurant of mine, Mr. Natural. Due to the realities of 2020, our visit there was not a dining room experience but more of a take out affair, consuming our food at an outside table. Following the meal, we paid a personal visit to some people at their house in Pflugerville. The four of us met in the backyard, sitting apart in two groups of two, an unfortunate but necessary fact of life during pandemic times. We departed for the final stretch toward Houston as it was getting dark. I knew I was going to miss being in close quarters with another person once this trip was over. It would be a while before a vaccine was ready and things could start getting back to normal.

Come morning, we went through photos from the trip and took care of some loose ends. After sharing a take out pizza, I bade my friend goodbye and left for home at about three o'clock in the afternoon, making a stop for gas before arriving back in Dallas to end the trip.