el paso, texas

for my last morning in albuquerque, i visited a church that meets in what's esteemed as the last great movie theater of the city, the lobo.  it's located on center ave which is a main street through town that has a history of its own as route 66.  i also went to another flying star cafe located a couple blocks away for a light lunch and some camera research.

wall in the cafe.

hotel fire hose connector.

the drive through new mexico was pretty.  not necessarily enchanting, but nice.  the southern half of the state had really cool cloud formations.

after three hours driving south on interstate 25, it connected me to interstate 10 which pulled me another hour south across the border of texas and into el paso.  the roadway skims the border with mexico and i could see the lights and buildings of juarez.

a friend of my family, rob met me near the el paso international airport so i could follow his van into the briggs army airfield area.  he helped me get a security pass to drive into the base where he lives with his family.  unfortunately, i didn't get to see his wife and kids because they just had left for a trip to the east coast.  so it was just the two of us and lucy, the dog.  we chilled and chatted until it was late.

the next day we drove to the wyler aerial tramway state park.  me, rob, and lucy hiked the to the summit along the ridge trail.  the weather was perfect for a hike.  we climbed about 1000 feet over two miles.  then we took the gondola down.  it felt so good to get more exercise.

the trail.

view of el paso.

the summit to the left.

view of juarez mexico with el paso, texas in the foreground.

bridges across us/mexico border.

border fence.

lucy.

i decided to stay another night with rob and then leave the next morning.