You said that right. My first duty station in the Army was at Ft. Ord ('86 - '88) in california where I spent about 2 1/2 years. Then I came down on orders to go to Korea. I had about 90 days of leave accumulated so I decided to take it prior to reporting to Camp Casey, Korea. My wife and I had family in Florida so that's where we went before I had to leave for my overseas assignment. We left Ft Ord and made it down the coast of cali, through Arizona and New Mexico and stopped for the night in El Paso Texas. I was stoked because we had cleared 3 states in one day. I thought that we should probably make it through Texas and Louisiana the next day. O how young and foolish I was! We got up, had breakfast in the morning and struck out at about 6:00 or 7:00 AM. We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and still hadn't made out of Texas. I was half expecting to hear Rod Serling welcome me to the Twilight Zone. It was about 23:00 when my wife pleaded to pull over..........anywhere, and stop for the night. I declined, I was determined to get out of Texas and clear one state. We finally made it to Louisiana and stopped at the first opportunity. I can attest that, at least along the Hwy 10 corridor, Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas looks like a lunar landscape. Nothing, nada, zilch, except rock and scrubby whatever that sort of grows there. It was arid and mostly barren. Once we made it to the more central part of Texas it started to green up, and by the time we found ourselves more in the eastern part of Texas it became lush and rich with greenery. And yes, the air was much more laden with moisture. Take care Fren.

You said that right. My first duty station in the Army was at Ft. Ord ('86 - '88) in california where I spent about 2 1/2 years. Then I came down on orders to go to Korea. I had about 90 days of leave accumulated so I decided to take it prior to reporting to Camp Casey, Korea. My wife and I had family in Florida so that's where we went before I had to leave for my overseas assignment. We left Ft Ord and made it down the coast of cali, through Arizona and New Mexico and stopped for the night in El Paso Texas. I was stoked because we had cleared 3 states in one day. I thought that we should probably make it through Texas and Louisiana the next day. O how young and foolish I was! We got up, had breakfast in the morning and struck out at about 6:00 or 7:00 AM. We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and still hadn't made out of Texas. I was half expecting to hear Rod Serling welcome me to the Twilight Zone. It was about 23:00 when my wife pleaded to pull over..........anywhere, and stop for the night. I declined, I was determined to get out of Texas and clear one state. We finally made it to Louisiana and stopped at the first opportunity. I can attest that, at least along the Hwy 10 corridor, Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas looks like a lunar landscape. Nothing, nada, zilch, except rock and scrubby whatever that sort of grows there. It was arid and mostly barren. Once we made it the more central part of Texas it started to green up, and by the time we found ourselves more in the eastern part of Texas it became lush and rich with greenery. And yes, the air was much more laden with moisture. Take care Fren.