After gassing up, we left San Angelo TX expecting an easy drive, through almost empty West Texas, to  Carlsbad NM. It turned out that this part of Texas – near New Mexico – is far from empty. Still, the road from San Angelo to Big Springs, on US 87 – The 87? – was through increasingly flat and dry country.   
At some point, we started running into giant windmills, some interlaced with interactive rocking horse oil pumps, which seemed to suggest a hopeful future. As an aside, the new windmill turbines are huge with each blade being about  80 to 100 feet and as an additional aside, according to Wikipedia, Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. Wind power accounted for 12.63% of the electricity generated in Texas in the 12 months ending Oct 2016. End both asides.
Every day we try to see something and go for a walk. Today, it was a walk in the Big Spring City Park, where we see our first desert plants – an Opuntia of some sort – which is on a bluff, one of the few around here, outside Big Spring TX. After our walk, we had lunch in what was the highest rated Mexican restaurant in Big Spring. The restaurant turned out to be in a Christian Shopping Center. Everybody we talk to asks where we are from and when we say California, they want to know what brought us here, and we explain the Cousin’s Trip and our accompanying drive across the country. We always get a friendly reception. My worries that prompted my putting an American flag on the back of the Hyundai to counteract our California license plate seem completely unwarranted. On the other hand, every symbol here seems to be either Christian or pro-military.

To be continued…