We decided after 1 night in El Paso that it was time to move on. We did a bit of sight seeing there but they have just completed a number of highway improvements that are really great. However, our old Tom Tom GPS does not have these changes loaded in so we ended up doing a few circles to try and find our way to the RV park. (Not such an easy thing to do when you're pulling 34' behind you!!)

We caught the Border Patrol museum, which was really interesting. Considering how close we are to the border and the Rio Grande, this is a BIG deal here. We have already been through 2 checkpoints just confirming we weren't ferrying illegal aliens, drugs, guns, and whatever else crosses the border in this "pre-Trump Wall" era. I really gotta see how he plans on pulling this off!

As we we're driving along the highway to El Paso there was a dirt road which ran directly beside for miles and miles. The hwy in the case is only a mile or so from the Rio Grande and therefore Mexico. At 1 point we saw a Border Patrol vehicle towing some tires behind on the gravel. I wondered what that was for so I asked at the museum. Apparently, this is done on a daily basis to smooth out the gravel so they can see tracks of anyone crossing the road. The thinking being that any Mexicans trying to enter the country would leave tracks and the guards would see them and be able to track the culprits. Seriously???! Apparently when they see footprints they activate sensors in the area that pick up movement, deploy officers, helicopters etc.
Read more about this at:
http://www.judymorgan-parenthesis.com/articles/putting-a-face-on-us-custom.html

The landscape also changed immensely as we left Texas and entered into New Mexico. The land levelled out quite a bit, there were a lot less sharp vegetation species and more grass. We also saw a huge dairy cattle farm with literally hundreds of cows in yards with tractors serving up hay to them all. Apparently there are more than 30,000 cattle on 11 farms along a 46 mile stretch of hwy 10 in New Mexico. This was a dramatic contrast to the odd cow we draw trying to survive in the cactus infested hills of Texas!
Cowbell Details:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/more-cowbell-with-will-ferrell-on-snl--video--saturday-night-live--nbc/n41046?snl=1

We also crossed the continental divide in New Mexico at an elevation of 4585'. It seemed kind of a strange place to delineate this as there were mountains ahead of us but I later read that the divide is not necessarily at the highest point on the continent but is linked to the drainage of the landscape. It still looked like water would have to run up hill to get to the west coast but I guess it's taking a course north or south somewhere along the way to get around the mountains.

We did arrive in Benson Arizona late in the afternoon and checked into a very nice resort. It has full services including pool, hot tub, rec centre, wifi and cable. The grounds are well cared for and the people here very friendly with a lot of full time winter residents.

We're officially in Arizona now!

PS. Today's shot is of our security team looking after the rig while we got some info from the travel centre. Don't mess with a Whippet...especially when his parents aren't around!