Start Location: Tucson, AZ
Ending Location: Van Horn, TX
Miles Today: 439
Trip Miles: 2361
States Visited: 7
National Parks: 2
National Monuments: 1
Low Temp: 85.4° F
High Temp: 103° F
Min Elevation: 2583'
Max Elevation: 4964'
Route Map:
National Parks 2012 - Day 07
Today will probably be a short write-up since we didn't see too
much interesting - but we did see a few things. Leaving Tucson
this morning we went by a military base that had more planes than we
had ever seen in one place. This must be where the military
brings airplanes when they are taken out of service, there were
literally hundreds if not thousands of planes all lined and looking
like they were not going to fly again in the near future. We saw
a similar storage site a few days ago for commercial airplanes.
I'm guessing that it is easier to preserve these planes in a
desert environment.
We also crossed the Continental Divide
sometime this morning. We knew it was coming because we saw 50 or
more billboards for a place called The Continental Divide. The
amount of advertising reminded us of Wall Drug and were expecting
something a little more impressive than we finally saw.
It
was also interesting to find that the speed limit in Texas - at least
on open roads - was 80 miles per hour. Years ago there were
sections in Montana where there was no speed limit but I don't think we
have ever seen 80.
Today was our longest day at 439 miles
and it feels that way - especially with the heat. It was right
around 100 degrees all day. Even at 439 miles we thought we were
going to get in early tonight but we crossed over into the Central Time
Zone shortly before arriving in Van Horn. Since Arizona is not on
DST, we were essentially on Pacific Daylight Time up to that point - so
we immediately lost 2 hours and so got in about 6:30 instead of 4:30.
We should have known better since we have ridden around the
country so much, we just forgot.
We head for Big Bend National park tomorrow morning.
